Moon Rock and Terrestrial Happenings

Some of the normally astute good folk in Holland seem to have somewhat lost their marbles lately, if press reports are to be believed. We were informed a couple of weeks ago about the fake moon rock, when it was revealed that a treasured piece at the Dutch National Museum, supposedly moon rock from the first lunar landing, was nothing more than petrified wood. It was given to former Prime Minister Willem Drees during a goodwill tour by the three Apollo 11 astronauts shortly after their moon mission in 1969, and went on display at the Amsterdam museum when Mr Drees died. At one stage, it was insured for around £308,000. The organic materials in the organic wood have been replaced by minerals, although the original structure of the wood will have been retained. The Rijksmuseum is to hold on to it, they say, as a curiosity attraction. I thought it could have been inserted into a pair of very high class clogs.

Another incident has come to light recently, when an elderly Dutchman and his grandson flew from Holland to have a chinwag with relatives in New South Wales, Australia. The plane touched down safely in Sydney okay, but unfortunately it was in Sydney, Nova Scotia, a few miles away, I would reckon. I would hope that the travel agency involved in the blunder would go dutch for the return fare. Let us also hope that their talented international football players will suffer the same lack of concentration next Wednesday night, when they take on the might of Scotland at Hampden Park.

I suppose that we should also spare a thought for the chap who went along to the Antiques Roadshow with a glass container for which he had splashed out £1000. It turned out to be a bottle of olive oil, circa 2008, from the local Tesco’s supermarket. There is some consolation for the poor fellow in the fact that the TV station has decided not to show the footage, presumably because they’re not allowed to display advertisements.

Gordon Brown, Tories, and Climate

Gordon Brown denied "double dealing" over the Lockerbie row after it emerged that he had privately backed the bomber's release. Prime Minister insisted the final decision to free Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi had been taken by the Scottish Government, and UK ministers had not sought to influence it.

"There was no conspiracy, no cover-up, no double dealing, no deal on oil, no attempt to instruct Scottish ministers, no private assurances by me to Colonel Gaddafi," Mr Brown told an audience in Birmingham.

But Mr Brown stopped short of confirming explicitly that he had favoured releasing Al Megrahi from prison before his death. The decision to free Al Megrahi, eight years into a life sentence, was made by Kenny macAskill, the Scottish Justice Minister, on compassionate grounds because he has terminal cancer. Mr Brown defended his refusal to voice his opinion publicly saying he had "minimised" the pain for Lockerbie families and he was quick to describe the scenes accompanying the bomber's return to Libya as "despicable".

It has taken Mr Brown 13 days to issue this statement, which is still ambiguous after all that time. Of course, we must remember that he gave up a few minutes of his precious holiday time to send congratulations to the England cricket team on their momentous achievement in regaining the Ashes.

Talking of ashes, that might be very well what is left of his Party at the next general Election, if the latest YouGov survey is anything to go by. It shows the Tories on 42%, with Labour trailing at 28%. Translated into seats, this would give the Conservatives a 96 seats majority.

While the UK ponders over those matters, it’s nice to know that scientists at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Sydney, Australia, are concerned about serious global topics as well. They have proposed that we should have six seasons instead of the current four to better describe the climate. They have suggested adding “sprinter” for an early spring, and “sprummer” for the period between spring and summer. Methinks that “springer” might be better for the first one, and “scunner”, that good old Scots word, for the second, given the amount of rain and wind that we’ve had in the past few months. It all sounds like a complete bummer to me.