Things are getting ...... better?

Just as the sun is having a neat and much needed pick-me-up effect, I get the Friday Report into my mail box.

This gathers in one place all that is risible about UK today - saves grumpy old men cruising the web looking for things to grump about. It really is doom and gloom time. Not all the two minute silences in the world can raise spirits despite the way this government throws them about. Our calendar of two minute silences is as long a public holidays in Italy.

Flavour of the day is, of course, the 7 July 2005 bombings on public transport in London. Yes - a year ago. Cue two minutes silence. So, what has been done in that two years?

Not a lot it seems. We - the public that the government and police are supposed to protect - know little more now than we did on 8 July 2005. The victims are trying to help by getting a public inquiry going as the police do not seem to know what questions need answering. Tony is fighting against this - doubtless he will cave in as he did with Bloody Sunday but he needs to know where the skeletons are buried before he can draft the terms of reference needed to get a good result.

The flavour of the way things are going is encapsulated in the story of one man's fight for compensation. With the experience gained in wandering the legalistic limitations, he should take up spread betting.

Three hundred of those injured in the bombings are still waiting for their much needed (and let's face it, paltry) compensation to be agreed.

"Danny Biddle who sustained many injuries, had to decide whichwere the three most severe as that's all the compensation systemwill consider. 'It's like going through an Argos catalogue, picking the most expensive things,' he said. Both of his legs, an eye and his spleen added up to just £118,332. According to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority system, the loss of an eye is worth £27,000. They then take 70 per cent off that if it's your second worst injury. Danny put the loss of his legs first. So that was £110,000 for his legs, £8,000 for his eye and £332 for his spleen. He's still waiting for the money for his spleen. Dewhursts the butchers would have shown more sensitivity"

Don't rely on Dewhursts Danny. They went broke a long way back.

Of course, the report is more than the bombing. Nothing there to make one believe we are really living in paradise.