Just a notion

There do seem to have been more people round and about in wheelchairs during the Paralympics and more people around with learning disabilities.

The amputee high jumpers will remain a very good memory, especially as the crowd got really into it.

For people seriously injured in accidents or wars, hopefully the Paralympics will provide a boost when progress is slow or non-existent or some nasty setback occurs.

For people in wheelchairs because they have been struck down with one of the seemingly endless number of nasty illnesses from which you don't get better, maybe it might be made a bit easier to get out and about. Maybe the guardians of the Blue Badges will be slightly less fascist in the way they administer the scheme and maybe local authorities will provide wheelchairs that slightly elderly 24/7 full-time carers won't have to blink back the tears when they find they can't actually lift the thing into the boot of a car, necessitating them spending about £300 for one which is safe for the pushee and light enough to lift for the pusher. A friend of the family was told shewould have to wait several months for a wheelchair when her husband, who was suffering from Motor Neurone Disease, needed one. Not terribly good when you will be dead in about a year. That's why the MND Soc have them available immediately. All problems can be sorted, but does it have to be made so bloody awful on top of everything else?

And George aka Gideon Osborne wondered why 80 000 people booed him.

And yes, on the subject of Down's Syndrome, if that character in The Archers does the typical British thing and does the wrong thing having agonised for a long time, which seems to be how British pragmatism works, I shall be writing one of my stiff emails.

Still having listened to the Bishop of A&B on The Sunday Prog this am- cos some of us have roasted and carved a chicken, done a whole pile of gardening and delivered said lunch to another member of the family before doing the music for a Missa Cantata and then doing a choir practice and that's just the start of the day - apparently, the 'body language' of the Church is a bit iffy and Cardinal Martini's final interview should be pondered. 'I think he had a point.' Presumably that's the closest you can get to dissent on Radio 4 if you are a Catholic Bishop.

What sort of vestments should Priests be wearing? Hard to tell on Radio 4. Perhaps they could illustrate in their website.

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Location:Up London