Charles Clarke likes the idea of citizenship ceremonies when young people turn 18. And why not? Well…

1. Although 18 is the mimimum voting age, you can leave home and school at 16.
2. Most British nationals are citizens from birth.
3. Except we’re still subjects rather than citizens.
4. Young people travelling abroad require their own passport from 16 and the new ID cards are intended for those 16 and over.
5. It’s a news-catching gimmick that doesn’t tackle the root cause of the social problems it is attempting to solve.
6. The ceremonies are voluntary and therefore won’t attract those un-civic youths the Home Secretary thinks will be transformed into model citizens.
7. It reinforces to under-18s the idea that because they can’t vote they aren’t citizens and that politicians can happily ignore them.

Went to see Team America – World Police last night. Very funny, and not just because it’s as rude and vulgar as it’s creators’ TV series South Park. It satires equally American military action and pacificist actors, and spoofs the action movie genre, with a few nods to Star Wars en route.

Funny songs, faantastic puppetry, and vile humour. But don’t go and see it if you found Jerry Springer – The Opera offensive.

Very pleasant time in the country last weekend. A big group of us had a Youth Hostel (now on the market and very suitable for a secret evil lair for any budding Blofeld) to ourselves. Went for a couple of walks through the countryside (admittedly both ended at pubs); drank beer, cider and wine; had a cream tea (my heart screamed no but my tastebuds insisted); and ate some excellent food, including a magnificent feast on Saturday night for which all credit to the chef who had spent all day preparing it.

We also played various silly games, including the box game which, despite my not insignificant stature, I jointly won.

Met lots of new people, including Rob, and got to know better others I’d met before, including Anders.

The only down site was that despite travelling hundreds of miles by car, I didn’t see the 91 I was looking for until I got back to work on Tuesday.

Sick of being given the wrong information by National Rail Enquiries’ phone line? Don’t have WAP on your mobile?

National Rail have launched a new text service, the TextMe TrainTracker(TM) for departures/arrivals information. It costs 25p per text received, plus the standard cost of sending a text to the service.

The short code is 48 49 50. To find trains departing from Edinburgh, you would text:

dep Edinburgh

For trains from Edinburgh to Linlithgow:

dep Edinburgh to Linlithgow

For trains from Lewes to Brighton after 1500hrs:

dep Lewes to Brighton 1500

I tend to trust the automated information more than the call centre, but given some dubious information I’ve seen on the WAP and online departure boards recently, I wouldn’t risk too much on this information being 100% accurate.