News of the world

The Disasters Emergency Committee reports that over 10 million people are just now at risk in East Africa, due largely to some areas being affected by the worst drought in 60 years. In our church this evening, an emergency retiring collection was taken up for this latest DEC appeal.

Before mass, our friendly Parish Priest enquired of me: "Did you watch the Silverstone Grand Prix? I was gripped." He was one of - it seems - about 600 million people around the world in a similar "grip". TV coverage of all the Grand Prix events is universal.

So, when are we going to grasp (grip) the correlation between burning a zillion gallons of petrol by racing round in circles at vast speed, and the global warming which contributes to our African neighbours' water shortage?