pumpkinstrokemarrow

The last meal from the chicken of recent report was most successful so I feel the urge to share the recipe.

Take three ounces of red lentils, add two pints of water and bring to the boil. Take off the heat and leave to stand for a couple of hours. Then add two ounces of diced smoked gammon (low fat), two diced yellow peppers, three diced onions (small), two diced tomatoes (large) and a finely chopped clove of garlic. Bring back to the boil and simmer for an hour and a half. One needs to keep an eye on it and stir from time to time as, at the desired consistency, it has a tendency to catch and the flavour of burn is not good at all. About a quarter of an hour before the off, add eight ounces of coarsely chopped cooked chicken and three carrots, washed but not peeled and sliced very finely crosswise. The carrots should not be quite cooked through when served. The finished product has a nicely orange themed colour scheme and it all went down very well with white rice and pointy green cabbage.

Thoughts then turned to matters Bullingdon, prompted by an article in the Guardian. First thought was that, the fad having died away, my efforts to reach the four poles (see, for example, December 30th) have now been trashed by extensions. When the fad revives the work will all need to be done again. Will the south pole - bottom right of the illustration - survive? Will the new map including the extensions be as convenient to use as the one I have got presently?

Second thought was that the article in the Guardian was very weak. A full page article, one headline, two pictures (one large, one small), one advertisement and maybe twenty column inches of copy. There were some facts and figures about the scheme, but little proper discussion of whether the scheme was a good thing. One complaint that it was pretty feeble compared with the Paris version (without saying why) and another that Barclay's Bank were making a jolly good thing out of it and were not paying nearly enough for the privilege. But no real clues as to whether the taxpayer, be that the London taxpayer or taxpayers generally, were getting good value for their £100m plus, this appearing to be the bill for the first five years, net of sponsorship money.

Google suggests that the TFL budget, from where I presume this £100m comes, runs at around £8b a year. So the £100m over five years is quite a small proportion of the total. But what about all those subsidised bus rides which have been squeezed out in consequence? Fare cuts foregone? Worthy community project foregone? What about all those motorists irritated by the flocks of cyclists now swooping around the roads, particularly at junctions, often with little regard for other road users? Will there be a real debate between Ken and Boris about the whole thing as part of their election campaigns? If there was such a debate, would Ken claim that Boris has just screwed up what was his, Ken's, original good idea?

I wonder also how sophisticated the Mayor's budget making process is. Does it come anywhere near the budget process run by central government, with several hundred highly trained people fighting it out for three months or so every three years? Or however many years it is these days.

I personally have no idea whether the scheme is a good thing. I do know that I found it fun to use - but that is hardly a sufficient reason to stump up £100m.