First chance to post for a while. We have been up into the mountains near the border with China for three days and were staying in these incredible eco-lodges with solar power... but with no internet connection.

Now we are down in Hoi An which has about 40K of golden beaches and as China Beach was used to be R & R for US soldiers during the American war.

Hardly had time to think about our great leader's decision to leave the stage. His legacy for the Party will be of having led us to three general election victories, helping to bring about both peace and reconciliation in the north of Ireland, and despite the whinges of those that use neither service, massive improvements in health and education. Sadly, in generations to come it will be as a man who went to war far too readily, and in particular the war in Iraq which will stain his memory. No advances in civil rights by Lyndon Johnson ever disguised the disaster of Vietnam, no rapprochement with China will replace Watergate when people think of Nixon. Enoch Powell said, all political careers ultimately end in failure, which is not strictly true, but the failures do live in the memory, and I suppose if you go into the game knowing that, you have to learn to live with it.

Oh well, back to the beach.