22nd September 2011

Munro’s are mountains over 3000 feet.

People collect them.

Not that they take them home and keep them in a cupboard in the best room, they climb them and tick them off in a book.

Some quite well known people collect Munro’s so it entirely possible to set off along some muddy track in the Scottish Highlands and bump into a Cabinet Minister or a Lord of the Realm, a DJ from Radio 1 or a pop singer.

I am currently staring at a Munro, watching the weather close in as another gale lashes the hill side.

This is a famous Munro because it played host to a remarkable scientific experiment when the Astronomer Royal, a Clergyman the Revd Maskelyne set up camp in 1774 and performed an experiment whereby, using principles described by Sir Isaac Newton, he set about weighing the Earth.

Schiehallion is a Gaelic word meaning ‘constant storm’ and its name is well earned as, during our stay here, it has either been lashed with rain, obscured by mist or wreathed in cloud.

Which makes Maskelyne’s achievement even more remarkable.

Maskelyne was a bon vivant, on a previous expedition his hospitality account was questioned because of the high cost of the wine he consumed.

Apparently, whilst he was in the area, Schiehallion acquired a reputation, not for constant storms but for constant partying.

Different kinds of parties are gathering at the moment and doubtless the wine bills will also be great.

The liberal party conference continues a pace as Clegg, Cable, Huhne and Alexander promote themselves as being at the top of Government.

But their condemnation of the last Labour Government simply doesn’t stand up to scrutiny because it is now clear that the global economy is struggling, the Euro is struggling, America is struggling and the era of free money resulting from increase property values is well and truly over.

Soon Mr Cameron will be repeating Mrs Thatcher’s phrase about not being for turning as he continues to argue that he has no choice but to continue with his policies and try to persuade us that, ‘we are all in this together’, no doubt he will blame the liberals for his not being right wing enough and there will be speeches demanding that we leave the EEC and renegotiate the Lisbon Treaty and bring back hanging, repeal taxes for the wealthy and benefits for the feckless.

The Labour Party have an opportunity to restate the simple proposition that the Earth is round not flat and that people matter.

Bagging Munro’s is a strange hobby and it is especially popular with the over sixties.

But it is a dance.

Like the army of the Grand Old Duke of York they march up the hills and they march down again.

When they are up they are up and when they are down they are down.

Their footsteps will wash away in the constant storms but the mountain remains.

In the end we all come and go, this Government has come and will go, to be replaced by another that will be fairer or not but it is occasionally worth reminding yourself of the constancy of the earth, its ability to renew and reshape itself and its capacity, despite all the abuse we load onto the ecosystem, to survive.