I've been away for about 10 days enjoying a late summer break near Cardigan. Although I stayed just 15 miles away from our base this time, it was new country for me. The place was called Mwnt (Mount) after its easily identified conical hill right on the coast. Next to the hill there's a neat square beach with cliff walls on three sides. The coast here is pretty 'cliffy' altogether but where you can get down to the shore the beaches - Tresaith, Penbryn, Llangrannog - are all great; lots of dogs though. My favourite was Penbryn; we saw dolphins there the first day we visited. We also spent an hour or so on the harbour wall at Newquay in the hope of seeing some more but no luck that day. The best view was the clifftop walk from Llangrannog north eastwards. We also had excellent fish and chips at the water's edge in Llangrannog. The plan had been to watch the sun go down over the water but it actually set just behind the cliff. Llangrannog featured in my partners childhood holidays, circa 1969, so it was a visit to old haunts as far as she was concerned.

We stopped off on the Welsh border for a couple of nights on the way home. The Black Mounains around Hay on Wye were a favourite destination of mine for walking back in the 80s - great scenery and fairly accessble if you don't have a car. On Sunday, the views were better than I remembered.

Talking of cars, I think I may have been sitting in mine for too long as I arrived home on Monday with a pulled muscle. This has made sitting up to use the PC uncomfortable so further delay in posting.

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Before going away I took a couple of good walks. The latest was a circuit covering Puttenham Common and Puttenham village, including stopping off for a beer at the Good Intent (inn sign, a Roundhead soldier praying). prior to that I had a great walk starting at Thursley and then crossing a corner of Thursley Common, crossing over into Hankley Common and walking along its eastern edge. The hill in the common's SE corner goes up to 135m and gives a good view up to the Devil's Punchbowl. The common is used by the Army but there didn't seem to be any firing that day - just a helicopter overhead.

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Now that the main parties have all said that there are going to have to be government spending cuts, the tenor of the pre-election debate seems to have changed markedly. Although this seems like welcome frankness, there is always the danger that the winners of the next general election could start cutting too soon (as Anatole Kaletsky pointed out a few weeks ago).

I guess that frankness about cuts in spending could mean that they threaten recovery more - rather like the nurse telling the nervous patient that the hyperdermic will be excrutiatingly painful. However, if there's too little talk about cuts, holders of sterling will start ditching it rapidly.

There's also the possibility of a backlash against cuts like the Winter of Discontent back in 1979. I don't suppose that any of the parties believe that is their worst danger but some form of coalition after the election would be able to face down union unrest more easily.

The problem for the public sector is that although it's a massive interest group, it doesn't have compelling champions. So 12 years of New Labour is beginning to look like a breathing space for advocates of big government rather than a true revival. The idea that clever people can engineer balance and harmony in society looks less convincing than ever. You don't have to go as far as Lady Thatcher and abolish society altogether to suspect that most societies most of the time are seriously flawed. If there are good apolgists for a more hopeful view of social and economic planning, they don't seem to be getting a hearing.

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I watched BBC2's excellent 'Wounded', a programme about the recovery and rehab of two soldiers who suffered horrific injuries in Afghanistan. I would really like to have known how they came to give permission for the film to be made. On the whole, it was excellent and very moving and, of course, raises all sorts of questions about whether the sacrifice is worthwhile.

As of now it looks as if those in favour of continuing the campaign in Afghanistan are losing the debate. And if you look to some members of NATO, it looks as if it's already lost.

And yet, it's almost as if there were too many reasons for staying but none of them are sufficient on their own. Personally, I would say that the destabilising effect of NATO failure on Pakistan and the fact that the Afghans have been pushed around for too long are the strongest arguments for remaining while the war on drugs is less convincing. The war on terror seems unquantifiable in as much as although the threat is real, the importance of Afghanistan to the terrorists - as opposed to nearby parts of Pakistan - seems less certain. As for President Karzai, his government seems to make more sense to the allies than the Afghans themselves.

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I've enjoyed reading Barbara Nadel's 'River of the Dead', mainly set in the far South East of Turkey. This is the best of the Inspector ikmen stories that I've read so far. There's a lot about islamic- christian - ancient pagan syncretism in that part of the world which was interesting to read about.