Paul,
Judging by the number of posts awaiting me when I got home tonight, it seems
there are some members who are inclined to think this is all jest - or that
I've been drinking gin which I may have thought was water.
Simply, this is no laughing matter, in fact it's bloody serious. For the
record, I rang your brother Charles in Harrogate today to book a room for a
few days in September and he's got the same problems too in that part of the
world. He told me another friend has just arrived for the weekend from
Windermere and all the lakes in the Lake district are reporting higher water
levels on their western shores than on any other. On top of that, a cousin
who lives on the banks of Derwentwater in the Derbyshire Peak district says
the same. The Ladybower dams where the Dambusters practised their precision
bombing in WW2 have the same problem. Pete Cahill's post about the south
coast tidal issue gives further grounds for concern - and credibility.
Finally, and so there is NO DOUBT WHATSOEVER, a very old friend who is a
senior Captain with British Airways tells me there is a new landing
procedure at Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted. All other UK airports are now
being instructed to use east/west runways (where they exist) except for very
light aircraft. In Heathrow's case, the main runways (24 Left and 24 Right)
do run east west. This man, whose word I trust implicitly, tells me that the
UK press are aware of the situation but that Downing Street has slapped a
'D' notice on all newspapers, radio and TV broadcasts. He couldn't tell me
ANY detail but it seems there has been some subterranean incident to the
west of Ireland and in St Georges Channel too. To add further credibility to
whatever is going on, Tony Blair has returned from his vacation under some
pretext to do with Northern Ireland and I don't know if you saw his face on
TV tonight, but he looks a worried man. Hopefully, we'll find out soon.
John
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