At last the news is out.  Chris Evans is taking the Top Gear job.  Never one to shy away from new ideas, Evans will go for broke in the new role.  But May and Hammond have given it a swerve, however big the payday offering.  So the scene is set for JC and the boys to switch channels.  It delivers a mouthwatering thought.  How long before we see Top Gear and Top Gear Original going head to head. Then we’ll know if the A Team were replaceable.  Bring it on. 

    When trained as a negotiator in the dim past, we were told that if you shafted someone without their knowledge you must never let a word of it pass your lips.  Speaking about it to anyone at all risks it getting back to the opponent.  If it gets back, the person concerned will never forget and any opportunity for revenge will be grabbed with both hands.  An election for the Labour leadership meant Ed Miliband had no option but to shaft his brother in public, crocodile tears and hugs for the cameras post election, fooling no-one.  Will David forget and forgive because it’s his brother – no chance.  Big brother put the boot in post election but that wasn’t enough. He returned to the attack in an interview with CNN saying that under his brother Labour had been “insufficiently credible on the economy or on reforming the state.”  We have a feeling David’s knife is still sharp and the memory of his defeat like a boil that won’t burst. We doubt they’re planning summer holidays together, unless it culminates in a fishing trip a la Godfather! 

    We’ve not seen many details of the world’s first successful penis transplant, carried out last December in Cape Town, South Africa.  It appears to have worked well since the man’s partner is now four months pregnant.  It raised a couple of questions in our minds. One, from where did the transplanted organ come? Three of us have signed up to have our organs used after death, but had never considered that that this most personal item might be harvested.  Contemplating it made our eyes run even though we’d have shaken off this mortal coil. In war, in sport, men take great care of that part of their body. The thought of your heart, lungs, kidneys and eyes offering new lives to others has a positive feel.  The thought of a third party enjoying your manhood – we weren’t as sure. And how about if the bloke’s partner wasn’t impressed, size matters and all that.  Fortunately, the second question came from Jez as we talked about the operation.  His query about the surgery, “was it a big job’ reduced us to hysterics, killed any further discussion.

    Greece is really taking it to the edge this time as talks about their debt rumble on.  Hard words are coming from Germany and the IMF but we’re betting a compromise will be cobbled together yet again.  The euro has never worked for Greece and never will.  How long before EU bite the bullet?  The alternative will be treating Greece as a charity case and they deserve better than that.  An exit from the euro would bring severe times to Greece but they would recover.  Staying in will simply guarantee the hard times roll on into the foreseeable future.

    Rachel Dolezal, a white woman, has caused controversy in the USA by posing as a black person.  She appears to have gone to extremes to build her black persona and become a leading light in the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People.  It’s hard to make sense of what she has done and the revelations are more likely to damage than further the NAACP cause.  We’re assuming that both black and white will pillory her as the case progresses, leaving little opportunity for a fresh start in the States.  Maybe she could change her name to Huang, a common surname in China, meaning yellow, and start a new life.

    More breast-beating again this week about the two British men who have died fighting on behalf of a terrorist group.  We understand the feelings of their families.  Losing a child is devastating.  But their actions caused the barely mentioned deaths of others, who also had families.  Once radicalized, these lads will seek opportunities to fight for their cause.  If it’s not in Kenya or Iraq, it’s likely to be on home soil.  If they have left the UK, the focus of our security services should be to stop them returning, not trying to get them back home.