Geoff Holt has just become the first quadriplegic to sail across the Atlantic Ocean, effectively single handed, in a yacht.

 

I doff my metaphorical cap to Mr Holt - an amazing and inspirational feat.

Over the years Judi & myself have had an interest in horse racing.

 

For a while we held a share in a couple of fillies trained at Peter Harris's stables at Aldbury. (Neither actually ran - one broke a sesamoid bone & the other wasn't good enough!)

 

Although we don't manage to get to the course as often as we would like it is a sport that we still try to follow ,

 

I was therefore pleased to see that "Racing for Change" group has published a 10 point plan to boost interest in the "Sport of Kings" - much of which seems quite sensible.

 

However one aspect of the report I don't really like is the proposal to introduce "decimal odds" when you place your bet rather than the traditional "fractional odds".

 

The reason put forward for this change is that younger followers of the sport are "put off" by the fractional odds & find it difficult to calculate the returns if they win.

 

I'm not sure if this washes - especially as on a modern betting slip, produced by a computer, the stakes, odds and returns are printed out.

 

Assuming you can read it shouldn't really be that much of a problem to know what you may win.

 

To me, this is also another poor reflection on our education system.

 

If younger people have difficulties with fractions then why for heavens sake aren't fractions (as well as decimals) taught properly at schools?

 

I accept it is a good few years since I was at school but the SMP syllabus (Schools Mathematics Project) used at my school back in the 70's & 80's taught both fractional and decimal systems which gave the students a rounded general knowledge.

 

As we live in a country that uses a mish mash of decimal and Imperial measurements of weights, distances etc it is a bit of a concern that something as simple as fractions are alledgedly misunderstood by younger people.

 

Still, I guess it will please the Eurocrats if fractions "die out" - another nail in the coffin of British traditions.

 

I wonder how long before the prospect of replacing miles and yards with kilometers and meters crops up again?

 

I always enjoy reading the "Getting To Know You" column in the Cheshunt & Waltham Mercury.

 

This weeks profile was on former Broxbourne Labour Councillor  Alan McCole who represented the Waltham Cross Ward before he "retired" a couple of years ago.

 

Mr McCole makes a point of complaining about the state of town centre shopping in Waltham Cross, saying

 

 

Further on in the article when asked where he shops the reply was

 

 

Quite!

 

Isn't Mr McCole illustrating precisely why many of our town centre shops are finding life increasingly difficult?

 

We all have a wider choice of shopping channels and many of us use the internet because it fits with our lifestyle, is convenient etc.

 

It is an unavoidable fact of life that secondary shopping centres like Waltham Cross, Cheshunt and Hoddesdon are seriously challenged by internet shopping.

 

When compounded with the current recession isn't it inevitable that many businesses will fail and that fewer people will open new retail outlets?

A few weeks ago compelling reports alledging that former union leader Jack Jones (who died in April 2009) was a spy for the USSR appeared in the media.

 

Jones, as leader of ther TGWU, was one of the union barons who effectively governed (and nearly ruined) Britain in the 1970's owing to the weakness of successive Labour & Tory governments.

 

Journalist Peter Oborne, who has been at the forefront of highlighting Jones' alledged treachery, has been asking Gordon Brown to retract the exaggerated praise that Brown previously lavished on Jones but apparently without success.

 

Oborne now promises to investigate further into the "old" Labour Partys links to the USSR.

 

This could be very interesting & perhaps quite embarressing for certain socialists in the run up to the General Election.

 

Is this an opening shot in a dirty tricks campaign?

A few days ago I highlighted the new campaign against the retention of DNA from people innocent of any crime.

 

Damian Green MP, the campaigns sponsor, has a column in todays Sunday Mail which is well worth a read.