Christopher John Myers

At last there’s a Brit at the top of the world motorcycle grands prix.   Cal Crutchlow finished fourth in Spain on Sunday to retain his fourth place in the points standings. It’s his second season in the grands prix and that fourth place is his second in a row - it equals his career best. He was tantalisingly close to a place on the top-three podium at the Jerez track – something that has eluded a Brit for a barren 12 years. Crutchlow, 26, finished just 2.4 secs on his Monster Tech 3 Yamaha behind Honda-mounted race winner Australia ’s Casey Stoner. He again comfortably beat his team-mate Andrea Dovizioso who was third in the championship last year. Scandalously the national media, apart from the Sun ignored Cal ’s triumph. The BBC did cover the race – as they do all the MotoGP – and you can still catch up the event here: MotoGP_2012_Jerez Photo credit: Coventry Observer

At last – the police have confirmed that they are investigating electoral fraud in Tower Hamlets, after the London Evening Standard reported today, “Worried councillors have seen evidence that votes belonging to a prisoner in jail and a dead person were hijacked,” in a recent by-election. The cynic in me says that this is because the so-called Electoral Commission has been attacked by a minister for “for doing too little to tackle voting fraud ahead of this week’s mayoral and assembly battles,” as the Standard puts it. And no wonder, the Commission’s annual review declared that they were “not aware” of any fraud, at least any fraud that had affected a poll result.   Oh well, that’s alright then! No wonder local government minister, Grant Shapps is furious. Concerned Tower Hamlets councillors fear that the electoral fraudsters invented false identities and intimidated local people into handing over their postal ballot papers. The allegations centre on the local

Others talk about high-tech recycling … but Honda’s actually doing it.   They’ve set up the world’s first plant to extract ‘rare earth’ metals from various used parts in Honda products, including the nickel-metal hydride batteries. Let’s be clear, this is a in an actual mass-production process at a recycling plant, not an experimental process.   They are starting extracting rare earth metals from used nickel-metal hydride batteries collected from Honda hybrid vehicles at Honda dealers inside and outside of Japan . Honda don’t say which of the 17 ‘rare earth’ earth metals, which include the exotically-named scandium, promethium, yttrium and cerium, but it’s likely to include lanthanum . Lanthanum helps make ‘ nickel-metal hydride’ much more energy efficient, compared to a lead acid battery. Today, every Toyota Prius hybrid contains about 10 pounds of this precious metal. Read more: 4 Rare Earth Elements That Will Only Get More Important - Popular Mechanics http://world.hond

As a keen biker and motor cycle journalist, I knew and admired Peter Agg as the one-off who introduced the innovative Lambretta scooters to Britain in the ‘fifties – and then went on to own Suzuki GB.   It was Suzuki, remember, that backed Britain ’s last Grand Prix world champion – Barry Sheene. Now Agg, this business genius, is dead at 82. You had to admire his chutzpah, style and business daring … but reading his obit; I was struck how much more there was to this moustachioed old buffer (as he appeared to me).   Turns out he built F1 cars too.   Read this great obit in Classic and Performance Car classicandperformancecar

Dog owners' disgusting habits never cease to amaze me, but their latest trick – hanging plastic bags of their pet's excrement in the trees of Selsdon Woods sets a new low. When my wife and I went walking through the woods on Sunday we spotted the bags swinging in the trees and went to investigate … can you imagine our horror? They do say money doesn’t grow on trees, but in Selsdon Woods it appears that dog sh*t does. What are we to do about these disgusting people?

* Cheese grater toilet roll, courtesty of DavesDose.com Now the scaffolding’s coming down, the full horror of what Croydon Council has done to the Hayes Primary School is revealed. What had appeared to be part of the scaffolding is shown to be a permanent structure – the shiny cheese grater supported by a makeshift frame gives the school a warehouse appearance.   It is the most visible effect of the other building work that increases capacity at the school in Hayes Lane, Kenley by 105 places. Hilariously, it is designed to ‘re-brand’ the school.   But it’s hard to image parents and pupils voting for a ‘rebranding’ … you’d have thought they wanted somewhere pleasant to learn. Passers-by stare in amazement.   While I was taking pictures, people stopped to tell me what they thought – “what an ab**tion”, said one. “what HAVE they done?” asked another. It’s hard to believe that this shabby excrescence was designed by an architect – it looks like a realisation of a

Who will be the next Archbishop the 105th) of Canterbury ?   The latest odds, below, show my favourite Dr John Sentamu is still well up there.   Sadly, the disastrous Richard Chartres, Bishop of London who made such as hash of the St Paul ’s tent invasion is still up there. Predictably, the candidates are all white (apart from Dr John), middle class and in their ‘fifties or ‘sixties. For research purposes I have linked all the bishops to their Wikipedia entries, so you can check them out - just click on the names. I shall be investigating their claims to have any idea what life is like for most of us, as well as their academic tendencies, but for the moment, this is all you’ve got to go on. (I do have to declare an interest – I went to school with Bishop Inge (No. 10), though he was a couple of years below me.   Think – was I cruel to him, at all?) 1.                   Christopher_Cocksworth 5/6 2.                   Graham James 5/2 3.                   Joh

If you think it’s rude to buy stuff while chattering on a mobile phone then, like me, you’ll back Norwich coffee shop proprietor Darren Groom.   He's refusing to serve these oiks because he’s ‘fed up’ with people expecting him to ‘lip read’ their order at his city centre shop and market stall. You’ve got to admire the man.   But it’s not just coffee shops – I’ve seen mobile oiks keep rabbiting while buying clothes, food or even returning goods.   They barely draw breath, don’t make eye contact … it’s appalling behaviour. Mr Groom, who runs his Little Red Roaster business, told the BBC, “Also, when people come in we like to say 'hello'. It's nice if people respond to that." bbc.co.uk

St. Mary's Stoke Newington in south London has a new parish priest – the St Paul ’s ‘deserter’ Rev Giles Frazer. It’s impossible to make up.   First he resigns as Canon of St Paul’s because he is worried that the police might use violence to remove the Occupy protestors that he'd encouraged … then he gets a job blogging for the Guardian.   And now that this! I am sure that the right on Rev is a deeply religious man, but would you want a parish priest who might suddenly up sticks on some weird point of principal?   I wouldn’t.   He’s clearly unreliable. Lucky Guardian readers will be able to follow Rev’s thoughts in a blog. Well, atr least the Church of England didn't make him a bishop, as the Guardian alleges. Rev Fraser, 47, told the Guardian that he was looking forward to starting work after a difficult few months. "After I resigned there was no plan B whatsoever," he said. "It was just a total principled decision. It has been a very dark period thin