0 ou don't know who you can trust these days
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do you? Security guards employed by Wtmpey to build a motorway in Scotland swapped sides when faced by an angry band of protesters.
Wimpey had employed 150 guards to smooth the path of tree fellers along the route of the M77 at Pollok Estate, Glasgow. However, when protesters chained themselves to trees and were dragged along by bulldozers, many guards decided this was too much to stomach. Nearly 20 crossed the lines to the cheers of the protesters, who promptly put the kettle on and made cuppas for their new friends. The times they are a changing, indeed.
Meanwhile, no security guards were necessary to supervise a more modest road building project down south when a 46,000 tunnel for toads was built under the A283 to protect them during migration to their mating grounds in Petworth Park, Sussex. I he Scania Transport Trust awards have been presented with not a truck in sight at the finishing post.
First prize of .1:3,000 went to a boat—the Chatham Castle—said to be the UK's last coal-fired paddle steamer still earning a crust. From 1971 to 1985 the vessel was carefully restored by volunteers at its base on the River Medway. Back in active service it can carry up to 235 passPngers at any one time, handy for taking turns at poking the fire. Pipped to first place were the National Tramway Museum, Crich, Derbyshire, which came second, receiving £2,000 and the Vintage Carriages Trust based at the lngrow Railway Centre, West Yorkshire which collected £1,000.
ADclose confidant in the top secret, everso hush-hush, snowswept PR department of truck maker Scania has "leaked" a confidential memo to the Hawk regarding the activities of the Swedish Navy.
In the past the Swedes have robustly defended their neutrality, not least when former Soviet submarines have come snooping around their coasts when they have actually dropped the odd depthcharge on the underwater interloper.
So it was with some surprise that 1 read that the Swedish Navy now openly admits that since 1992 all submarine observations in Swedish Waters have been of er swimming minks.
Call Nato! Summon the Security Council! Send a gun boat! Attack of the hunter killer minks! Still mistakes are Weassely made (ouch) .
Its probably worth chucking a depthcharge over the side, though. After all what better way to get a decent winter coat for the wife? ahose of you who manage to get home at a civilised hour in the evenings have no doubt been enjoying Channel 4's Classic Trucks series, which took the term loosely enough to include a whole programme about buses.
Those who missed the programme and do not have a video recorder, need not despair entirely. A book, curiously enough called Classic "Isrucks, has been published by Boxtree to coincide with the series. It's a handsomely illustrated hardback, although at £16.99 by no means cheap. But you can win one because the Hawk has blagged three copies to give away. All you have to do is answer the
following question: which top disc jockey narrated the series? Answers on a postcard by 17 March marked "Classic Trucks Competition".
The book is available (for those not lucky enough to win) from 0171-9289696.