Okay, okay, I know it’s a strange heading, but let me explain. It’s relating to two news stories that I have read over the past 24 hours that I felt were important enough to write about and share my feelings on them.

The first news item was relating to two year honours degrees that will be offered at five universities in England. Students at Staffordshire University, Derby University, Leeds Metropolitan University, University College Northampton and The Medway Partnership in Kent will pilot the fast-track courses from September with the aim to save time and money so that students can begin work sooner and with less debt. What really confuses me about this is that if these degrees are basically three year degrees ‘compressed’ into two years, then that would surely mean less holiday time, which would mean less time to be able to work to make money to be able to pay for their living costs whilst at university.

The second is about the imminent flooding that is occuring in Serbia. I have to admit that the headline for that article was my favourite headline of the day, it definately made me giggle:

Danube reaches peak in Balkans, dykes in danger

I know, it’s silly, but I actually saw the headline on my google homepage and only noticed the last two words out of the corner of my eye and thought it would be an article addressing lgbt issues. When I did read the article though, it got me pondering. I was in London for three days last week and was speaking with some family about the hosepipe ban. What made me think was that, for me up in Manchester, it’s been bloody soaking since I can remember, we cannot have a day of sunshine without there being two days of rain to follow. I cannot see how the south-east of the country can be suffering from a drought, when there are some people in the north starting to evolve webbed feet. What should be put in place around Europe is a system where, if a river is going to burst its banks and flood the surrounding area, then the excess water is pumped and piped to wherever in Europe it is needed. Whether that be to combat forest fires in Spain or France or to reduce a drought in England.