View across the Outer Harbour of Stornoway

Thursday 26 April 2012

Thursday 26 April

The noteable feature of today was a strong and bitingly cold northeasterly wind, which was blowing at 30-35 mph, force 7 on the Beaufort scale. That is normally not enough to prevent the ferry from sailing, but the direction churns up a strong swell. The freight ferry has been off for several nights now, and even the passenger ferry Isle of Lewis remained tied up all day. Its traffic was diverted the 40 miles south to Tarbert to take the ferry to Skye. The Hebrides was delayed by 40 minutes this morning on account of the volume of traffic. Otherwise it was a bright day with only the odd rogue shower (and rainbow) and the mercury at 8C / 46F.

Murdoch was grilled by the Leveson Inquiry, giving rise to more political controversy. Rupert Murdoch used the excuse that the Nazis used in 1946 at Nuremberg. To quote them in German: Ich habe es nicht gewusst. [I didn't know about it]. And former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor was found guilty of complicity in the mass murder of a million people in neighbouring state of Sierra Leone.