Councils in a right old pickle

12 noon tomorrow - local councils hope to learn how much cash they'll get from central government to continue providing/privatising services.  My estimate is that across Devon and Cornwall, town halls will take a hit of nearly £50m.  The next budget round will be a belter.

Something wicked this way comes

Those pesky midges keep biting - and now our cows are getting sick.  The increase in Schmallenberg virus in Devon and Cornwall herds looks worrying.  And expensive.

Not the first time, not the last

It's not often that I find myself on the same side of an argument as Piers Morgan, but he's spot on about the need for a Dunblane-style US government response to the Sandy Hill school massacre. And just in case we Europeans feel slightly too smug about our intellectual superiority on the gun-law issue, here's one I wrote earlier, with a link to the official Devon and Cornwall police stats.

Were you abused in council care?

I'm working on a story about looked-after children who were abused or neglected while in foster care or a council residential home. If you were one of those children, and would be happy to talk to me about it, please get in touch.

Good to be back

Six months on, I return to the blogosphere. If you're a new reader, welcome. If you followed "Graham Smith's Cornwall" on its BBC platform, you might be pleased to know that The Ragged Trouser Press not only contains most of that content, it also has several posts which for some reason Beeb bosses deemed unsuitable for "Graham Smith's Cornwall" together with material which pre-dates my time with the BBC. In particular there are some archive videos I made during my time at ITV (I look so young!) posted to this blog in 2009, which unfortunately probably wouldn't get made today. Anyway I'm now free to write what I like. Whether my creditors like it is another matter. Gandhi once said that freedom and slavery were mental states. That's what I'll tell the bank manager.

Gun for hire

Self-shooting, editing, video producer and journalist, offering media training and corporate to the highest broadcast standards. Look at the photo. Once upon a time the chap on the right was a humble Opposition leader (OK maybe not that humble…) Twenty years ago I used to joke that if I had a proper job I wouldn't know what to do with it. My imminent departure from the ranks of BBC staffers, and return to the rough and tumble of the freelance world, is probably evidence of a mid-life crisis. All I can say is - my rates are very reasonable. Get in touch if you'd like to know more.

What would Yoda do?

Nearly one in ten - 9.9% - of people in Cornwall described their national identity as Cornish, rather than British, according to census data published this week. That's 52,793 people out of a total population of 532,273. This compares with 34,000 Cornish in the 2001 census, an increase of nearly 19,000 in ten years. When it comes to religion, nationally, 176,632 continued to describe themselves as Jedi. So there are still more Jedi than Cornish, although Cornish is on the up, while the number of Jedi has seen a steep decline on the 2001 data. Both "Cornish" and "Jedi" required write-in answers, rather than the easier tick-box. I'll ask Cornwall councillor Chris Pascoe if he still bats for both.