ANOTHER week, another fudge from the East and North Herts PCT on Royston Hospital. I think the attendees of the meeting which took place last week between a group of Roystonians and the PCT were remarkably restrained in their responses. Because for the

ANOTHER week, another fudge from the East and North Herts PCT on Royston Hospital.

I think the attendees of the meeting which took place last week between a group of Roystonians and the PCT were remarkably restrained in their responses.

Because for the PCT to merely say "we're not closing it for now" does little for my peace of mind. I realise that if there are no concrete plans for the site then they can't just make some up on the spot, but if closure wasn't one of the long term options they would have surely ruled it out altogether by now.

From the PCT's comments so far, I get the feeling that they are hoping the fuss about the hospital will now just die down for a bit, and we must not let them off the hook. This is an important issue and we must not allow it to be buried under a heap of bureaucratic spiel.

In recent months we have seen the people of Crow country come together and take a stand about issues which have deeply moved them. Bassingbourn residents turned out in force to oppose potential gipsy sites in their village, while over 120 people attended the North Royston Action Group's meeting against the potential housing developments adjacent to Burns Road and Coombelands last week.

The time may come in the near future where the good folk of Royston need to stick up for their hospital, and if that day comes we will need as many people as possible to stand up and be counted.

There has been a lot of hypocritical nonsense spouted by people in football about the now infamous "hand of Henry" incident in last week's World Cup play off between France and Ireland.

If you've been on another planet for the last few days, French skipper Thierry Henry was guilty of a blatant hand ball in the build to the goal which gave France a 2-1 aggregate win in the tie.

I can understand that the Irish feel a bit aggrieved about this, but the way some people have been going on you would think that Henry has committed some kind of heinous crime against humanity.

Most of the players, managers, and fans who have been condemning Henry will have benefited from cheating or a refereeing error at some point, it's all part of football. Did any of them own up to it? Very few I would imagine.

And I'm not au fait with the nuances of Ireland's World Cup Qualifying campaign, but it seems unlikely they went through the entire group stage without getting the benefit of any dodgy decisions. Unfortunately this is one miscarriage of justice that the Irish will just have to take on the chin.