"Mike Mitchell" | Baloney. We are a dead loss, and if we only recognised it, we would be | able to start taking steps to improve. We have crap railways, low | quality, NHS waiting lists, unfair pensions, poor education, dwindling | research, jerry-built housing because we cannot ever make planning | decisions for the long-term and stick to them. We are a nation of | dreamers who have their place in the world, but in terms of | organisation, efficiency, and planning, we have totally lost the plot.
Well, in sharp contrast to the Huf House, this week's (Wed 4 Feb 9pm Channel
4) Grand Designs revisits:
a house with a wing-shaped roof that went dreadfully wrong. Kevin McCloud couldn't resist returning to the scene of the accident. Viewers may be appalled and delighted (or wholly unsurprised) to find that life with Tom Perry and his wife Judy has not changed much. The insurance company wants nothing more to do with him. His glass won't fit. He breaks more bones in his body and the house remains resolutely unfinished. Apparently, this is the last we shall see of Tom and his building. Pity, it could have run for years. (David Chater, The Times.)
Owain