HAS Suffolk County Council's executive taken leave of its collective senses?Doesn't the county want to improve its international links? Does it think that expanding Stansted airport further will bring in more undesireables to this part of the world.

HAS Suffolk County Council's executive taken leave of its collective senses?

Doesn't the county want to improve its international links? Does it think that expanding Stansted airport further will bring in more undesireables to this part of the world.

It is unbelieveable that our county council is to be asked next week to vote against improving our links with the rest of the world and against investing in the region's transport infrastructure.

I can understand why people who live in the immediate vicinity of Stansted don't want to see it expanded and swallowing up more land.

I can understand why they don't want more noise to disturb them.

And I can understand why they don't want their roads clogged up with more traffic.

But why these concerns should affect the people of Suffolk totally beats me. Stansted is far enough away that this county's residents won't be inconvenienced by these considerations.

I know there are more planes in the sky, but when did they last disturb you? When was the last time a jet heading for Stansted made enough noise to make you look up, let alone wake you up at night?

Expanding Stansted can only be good for Suffolk. It will bring in more business to the county. It will make it easier for local people to travel.

One of the most often repeated criticisms we hear about this part of the world is that communications with other parts of the world are not very good.

And yet here we have our county council telling everyone that it doesn't want to see an expansion of an important resource to help the area do more business with the outside world.

I can't think why. Is it because some of those living in the south of the county have been nobbled by their mates in Saffron Walden and Bishop's Stortford?

It really is difficult to understand the logic of the county council cabinet's decision. I only hope that the council as a whole comes to its senses and votes in the interests of Suffolk and not some obscure pressure group.

SOMETIMES the government says something or does something that seems very strange. Sometimes it is difficult to understand their logic.

At the weekend I thought that government ministers had gone completely bonkers when they started talking about banning all alcohol from all public transport.

I can certainly see that you don't want someone drinking Carlsberg Special Brew on the Number nine bus to Whitton.

But to ban the wine list from InterCity trains' restaurant cars - and to ban the sale of can of lager with a sandwich and packet of crisps on a lunchtime train from Norwich to London seems totally ridiculous.

It would kill off the Orient Express. And what would Eurostar do - make sure your glass was empty half-way through the channel tunnel?

When I've come across drunkenness on trains it's been as a result of what the person has drunk before he (and it's always been a he) has drunk before he got on board.

Fortunately the government seemed to have an outbreak of sanity within 24 hours of the suggestion being made - but if this is the kind of thinking we can expect during the dying days of the Blair administration, then heaven help us!

FELIXSTOWE and Suffolk Coastal seem to be on collision course - again - over the south seafront.

Surely it's time to bury the hatchet and for these authorities to work together for the good of the town - or at least that part of the seafront.

Frankly if anyone thinks wrangling about details at the edge of what is currently little more than ugly wasteland is serving any purpose then they must be living in dreamland.

Now that the Herman de Stern has been destroyed by fire, surely the logical thing for everyone concerned is to just send in the bulldozers, clear the site and redevelop it as something that will benefit the area, not just exist as an abrupt end of the seafront.

Arguing about what people would like to see in a perfect world seems to be merely putting off the day when it could be made more attractive.

And while some may like to have a decaying lump of land on their seafront, believe me it does nothing for the town's claims to be an attractive resort.