Director of Public Prosecutions ...................... The Elephant in the Bedroom

The Director of Public Prosecutions Alison Saunders has issued fresh guidelines to police, on how they should regard cases of rape, shifting the onus of proof of innocence onto the accused.

As always, the jury still has to be satisfied that a rape was committed, but the modified lines of enquiry have been suggested in order to encourage more victims to come forward. Usually anonymously, sometimes maliciously, generally quite correctly.

The accused is named and shamed but the accuser remains anonymous, or so I understand.

Taken to its logical conclusion, the D.P.P. intrudes into the marital home. Bringing as she does, a set of requirements for tacit consent to the continuation of an  intimate relationship.
Even the married man may fall foul of the law for want of proof of his innocence, should his wife contest his version of events in the bedroom.

A notepad or tape recorder in every bedroom to prove each and every encounter, is not an idea that appeals to me. But doubtless there will soon be the gadget to do just that, overtly or covertly watching, within the recesses of the bedchamber. Every whisper, every squeak and squeal of delight or pain laid bare, for the jury to decide, innocence or guilt.

The Crown Prosecution Service has been criticised for staging a misguided FGM “show trial” – after a young doctor was cleared by a jury in the first such case brought before the UK courts.

Dr Dhanuson Dharmasena, whose medical career was devastated by a 1.5cm stitch he performed on the bleeding mother of a newborn baby, was acquitted by jurors in less than 30 minutes.

Pre-election Political footballs seem to be kicking around here which could so very easily result in miscarriages of justice.

Gilbert and Sullivan  where are you now !  -  This scenario is ripe for the Stage Of  Theatrical Nonsense .

Exmoor lightly dusted in snow

Leaving the North Devon link road at the Tiverton junction, Helen and I take the scenic road  north beside the River Exe and make for Simonsbath and Brendon for a lunch at the 17th century Rockford Inn.

Log fire and a friendly welcome are there waiting for us. But before settling down we stretched our legs down beside the swift flowing river across  the wooden bridge opposite.

Rapid thaw in bright sun sending water across the road

Now in need of a good hose down

The Rockford Inn

This super little Devonshire pub is tucked out of the way down some of Devon's quieter lanes sandwiched between the hills and the sea. Today the East Lyn river was gushing with plenty of snow melt-water under a clear blue sky. Mid winter and no leaves on the trees allows more light into this steep sided valley. 

Very wet and windswept all across the moor and even on this Sunday weekend the Exmoor ponies are scarcely seen.  

The East Lyn River

From here the footpath leads on down to Watersmeet and Lynmouth

Dartmoor at a distance / Fishing at Coombe Cellars

Snow dusting Dartmoor

Beside the Teign Estuary

From the Teign Estuary, Dartmoor is seen with a light dusting of snow today, but the roads are all salted and the Morgan just washed and polished. So rather than explore the moors, I spent an hour or so at the Yacht Club.  Wednesdays happens to be a social interlude for those of us with spare time on our hands to natter about not very much.

A group of fishing companions have gathered, each with twin sets of rods and foul weather gear.
There are reputed to be flounder about here, though only rarely do we see any being caught. I have stepped on one and liken it to stepping on a cold, slippery, hot water bottle.

Now, fishing is a serious business and I have to say I have enjoyed many a session in a small boat offshore, to bring back a bucket full for the freezer.

Freedom is no laughing matter.

We've been turning a blind eye to preachers of hate that have been coming here from the Middle East and saying things for which the rest of us would be arrested.
Nigel Farage

 "Enoch Powell, once MP for Wolverhampton South-West, was sacked from the Conservative front bench and marginalised politically for his 1968 'rivers of blood' speech, warning that uncontrolled immigration would change Britain irrevocably. He was right and immigration has changed the face of Britain dramatically".

In November 2007, Nigel Hastilow resigned as Conservative candidate for Halesowen and Rowley Regis after he wrote an article in the Wolverhampton Express & Star that dared to repeat those words. Toxic words no longer acceptable to the politically correct brigade.

Herein lies the clue to why the majority of Britain's voting public chose to turn against the EU.

Time - Distance - Speed

Time equals distance over speed. Without distance time ceases to exist.

Liken the cosmos to half an hourglass. Set within one sphere and opposite another sphere, spinning about the axis of a black hole through which nothing may pass intact. Everything has emerged from such a hole and will doubtless re-pass through another at some future distant juncture.
The black hole; an invisible heavy object, not actually a hole at all. More voracious predator of matter.
Familiar only with finite quantities, the prospect of the infinite is almost beyond our comprehension.

The midge flaps wings a thousand times a second. To land it must adjust each beat in milliseconds.
The hump back whale, lifespan near 200 years. He sings a song an hour long to attract a mate from over the horizon.  He waits for a reply in a month or two, not long to wait. No clocks or dials in his ocean.Whale calls from beneath Arctic ice

Time the artificial construct without equal. Take away speed and distance and time becomes a single moment, where the present is never present, the beginning a mere idea, and the end just hope.
If the cosmos is expanding outwards something strange occurs at the size of infinity which is what I imagine has already happened.

At initial size of one light year, the cosmos would increase in size by 100% the second light year.  At 100 light years in size it would increase in size by around 1%. because the speed of light is not exceeded.
At infinite size the rate of increase is zero because light speed is finite. Likewise if the cosmos of infinite size were to decrease in size at the speed of light no apparent shrinking would be seen.
Could such a preposterous idea be true ?