My chronicle

This BBC digital channel is improving all the time. It is dealing with a wide range of artistic subjects, including architecture which is usually disgracefully neglected. BBC Four News is not parochial, sharply worded, and radical: enough to result in Lord Hutton further castigating the BBC.

If you have digital, give it a try; it is a necessary antidote to the banalities of commercial TV.

Can the term "architecture" only be used when architecture is defined as a Fine Art? The case can be argued; but does that mean that vernacular buildings are not really architecture. Are Lavenham (Suffolk) and Culross (Fife) not architectural masterpieces? That assertion is difficult to sustain. Does architecture require architects? If it does, the mediaeval period has to be ignored. Or is it a case of the architects being unknown or referring to themselves as masons or builders? This is a blog, not an essay; so I simply state that I prefer the broadest definition of architecture. May I also add that even a small and inexpensive building can be excellent architecturally; whereas much built commercially certainly has named architects (although who did what in a big firm has been a problem since the 18th century), but does not really count as Fine Art.

Today the temperature in Scotland reached 14 degrees Celsius. When I was a lad that certainly did not happen: winter seemed to last for months; and it certainly was bitterly cold. I have said before that the Scottish climate is milder than people in other lands seem to believe; but it also seems to be indisputable that Global Warming is playing at part.

A couple of weeks ago the temperature in Athens was hovering around freezing; this is not what most people expect in Greece, although the reality has always been more complicated.

So will people come to Scotland during the winter to bask in high temperatures? It could be so; and it also must be added that a Hebridean beach bears an uncanny resemblance to the beaches of Dalmatia. The difference has always been relative temperatures. Or has it? The coal mined in Scotland owed its creation to tropical temperatures as does the oil in the North Sea. I cannot really blame George W. Bush for that primeval Global Warming! The climatic effects of what the US is doing today is quite another matter, I fear!

I watched Prime Minister Tony Blair on TV yesterday. He was explaining why he has now decided to establish a Committee of Enquiry concerning the intelligence which he received prior to the military operation against Iraq. After months of denial he now concludes that the "spooks" fed him inaccurate information re the arsenal of WMDs. Most people in Britain have believed this to be so for many months; but Blair denied the validity of such a viewpoint. Why has he changed his mind? Bush has called for an investigation? No/ pure coincidence! And of course he was not referring to WMDs only programmes.

So Tony remains sinless; and is about to impugn the Secret Service. Blessed are the self-righteous!