Cold

As you know I am often angry with BBC Scotland because of its fucked up scheduling - giving us the Mod, curling, darts, and Scottish politics/football instead of the lovely advertised programmes - but I do sometimes enjoy Eorpa, a gentle current affairs programme in Gaelic (though I would have this evening preferred the documentary on secular Turkey that London got). I don't understand a word of Gaelic so rely on the sub-titles, and often there are interesting slots about Europe. It's really quite soothing, no babbling narrator denting your head, and tonight I learned that because of rising fuel costs, and crap insulation in older housing, people in the Western Isles fear winter more than people in Sweden. I tried not to laugh at such an odd-sounding statistic - it must be hell for those on low income trying to keep warm in these exposed, far-flung landscapes. (I had a brief desire last month to move to the Hebrides and travel in the post van, but this has woken me up.) There are currently various Executive intiatives to help the vulnerable with heating costs, but, of course, it will never be enough, people will still be cold in winter - people all over the UK. And then the focus shifted to Holland, and we saw Ali, a Sudanese man whose entire family had been granted asylum - except for him and his eldest son. It was just too sad seeing him in his sparse room with his guitar, in limbo while he waited to hear his fate.