From Whitby to Saudi Arabia . .

I spent a pleasant day in Whitby on Friday. Sometimes the town is best seen at this time of the year, when rain and sleet and cold winds blow around the semi deserted streets. And that's the point: Whitby now doesn't seem to have an 'out of season' period. The place can be so jam packed it's hard to move. Hardly anybody was struggling through the weather to visit the excellent Pannett Art Gallery, which has a rich collection of marine art, much of it produced by the Weatherill family. In the Whitby Independent Bookshop I bought a book on the artist Eric Ravilious, which had a (very) slightly damaged cover. Without asking for a discount I was offered one. All hail the independent bookshop!

It occurred to me today, listening to the news that the five star hotel used to house corrupt Saudi royals, etc. has now been emptied after the inmates had fessed up to £100 billion of corruptly gotten gains, that we in the UK should adopt the same approach. Let's round up those against whom similar charges could be laid, and lock them up in one of those failing Trump golf resorts in Scotland. After a while, they too might admit the error of their ways.