I hear on the radio this morning that a group of protesters have managed to get onto the runway at Stansted Airport and delay all the flights. I find it beyond belief that in these troubled times where you can't even smuggle a tube of tooth paste onto an aircraft, that somehow 54 protesters can get onto the main runway and erect a steel barrier across the runway. Does that simply confirm that airport security is, and always has been nothing more than a complete joke?

I also note that a bunch of psychologists have worked out that the best way to control weekend revellers, is to issue the police with a carton of bubbles. Apparently, blowing bubbles in their faces produces a calming effect on them. It seems this half baked idea is now being trialled in Lancashire. I just can't imagine a 6ft 4" Bobby standing outside a dingy night club in down town Blackburn, in front of a noisy rebellious yob, and blowing bubbles at them. I should think it would be more likely, that they will collapse in a fit of laughter.

Also folks I hear that another bunch of lunatics calling themselves psychologists have informed the education authorities that history and geography should be taken out of the school curriculum and replaced with lessons in how to teach happiness and health.

Well, if that's true I think all miserable people should be forced to attend night classes.

Now then people, I have decided to drastically reduce the blogging next year. I want to concentrate on writing another book and will only be able to blog very occasionally. I intend to keep the Manx Tails articles going and Barbara is going to begin a blog of her own so you will be still kept up to date with everything, and have a blog with a different slant on it. I will keep going until I have completed one year blogging regularly and as I started on the 21^st February, so that will be the date I will regularly blog up too.

Until tomorrow then, this is Tom Glassey on the banks of the Silverburn River.