Many thanks to 'wrinkly rambler' for updating me on life Leicestershire.

Recently the Lord Mayor abolished prayers in council meetings (these were led, in some sort of rotation, by people of the various faiths present in the city) seeing them as outmoded.  On Tuesday of this week it seems he was on an official engagement, and when he stood up his trousers fell down... my contact asks whether this is the work of Ronnie Barker in his new role as Court Jester to the Almighty?

Poor mayor, terribly embarrassing... but in the words scribed on the Scottish £1 coin, wha daur meddle wi me (nemo me impune laccessit).

The shape of this week means I didn't post anything about last Sunday's excellent event with Brian Taylor talking about politics, the general election, public opinion, the role of the media and a host of other stuff.  The thing that stuck with me, which I already knew but it was refereshing to hear, was how complex politics really is and how different it is making pre-election statments and implementing government actions.

Among his examples was the tension between providing centralised, expert hospitals and local, small, friendly hospitals.  If you ask people what they want then i'st the big centre of excellence at the end of their road... an impossible solution.  It got me thinking a bit about so-called post-code lotteries and the further complexity of parts of the UK operating semi-autonomously which further complicates the whole picture.  There are some medical procedures that are available, say, in England but not Scotland (or vice versa no doubt) because juggling the books (along with population sizes, per capita spend and localised health anomalies) mean the expenditure cannot be jusitified.  This then raises ethical dilemmmas for health boards/authorities over access and so it goes on.  Complicated.  No easy answers.  No obvious solutions.  We all want the 'best' (whatever that means) on our doorstep and are quick to assert what we think are our 'rights' to access whatever it is we perceive is in our own interest.

If you then multiply this complexity by education and transport and arts & lesiure and all the other myraid topics it is a wonder the politicians mange to do anything at all.

On balance though, with all its flaws and foibles, I am glad to live in Britain and in a part of it where some level of local autonomy seems to work well.  For all we love to grumble about them, it seems to me that both Westminster and Holyrood do a pretty good job on the whole.  (I still think it's high time England had its own governance or at least its people asked if they'd like it, but that's another story)

This week I've spent three days in and around Northampton and Oxford.  Nipping into Northampton's Grosvenor shopping centre, I spotted an unusual sight - a pride of multi-coloured lion cubs decorated by children from local primary schools as well as some full sized lions sponsoered by businesses and/or decorated by community groups or professional artists.  They were/are wonderful and some great humour.  There was an Elvis lion - 'Are You Lionsome Tonight?' - there were 'Three Lions' with team England football tops... oh well, never mind, I'm sure the sponsor is pleased with this team who really are winners.  I loved the 'people's lion' covered in a patchwork of knitted and crocheted shapes by a community craft group.  The school's lions had diverse names - there were Roary and Rory and Lionel and then Llewys, not a Welsh lion but a local village name (Sywell) reversed and one apparently named after a Hebrew lion goddess (I didn't know there was one but hey...).  From montages of local photos to handprints to school mottos to the names of children the variety was lovely.

Made me proud of the old place!  And hopefully will be a source of pleasure for the 200k or so people who live there.  More info here if you are interested (for photos follow the 'media' signpost)

Today is the final day of the Glasgow West End festival, and this afternoon we are offering one of the final events, a chance to hear and interact with the BBC Scotland political editor Brian Taylor.

Before that of course is the morning service - which may be a bit thin on the ground as Scottish schools are now on holiday until mid-August.  This may explain why the weather here is grey and overcast with a forecast of rain: hottest day of the the year, probably not so here.  Our theme will be 'life in all its fullness' and, as I never did get anywhere trying to track down anything on Johannine dualism in this respect, it will be more of a 'via negativa' approach - what it is not - and will use some poetry, prose and prayers from places where the questions are asked (disability, hospices, bereavement).  Hopefully it'll work... I may post some of the resources later.

Then in the evening the second of a pair of services on themes in Matthew's gospel led by some of our C of S friends.

All in all, then, a good day in prospect... and a completely football free zone, hurray!

Scots Wikipaedia (can't do an ae dipthong thingy in this editor, sorry) has existed for about five years is well worth a quick look see, whether or not you understand it.  I found it by googling the origin of 'watter' a word used widely in northern England as well as Scotland, though the latter claim it as their word.  It is quite a fun site, not taking itself overly seriously and I suspect making up a few words as it goes along to confound the sassenachs (and why not?).

Check out the Scots entry on Baptists here and compare with the English one here.  Do have a play on the Scots' site, it's fun.