Well the judges have passed their verdict and we've all learned our lesson. If you agree to take someone else's driving points, then don't ten years down the line admit that you were lying or you'll got to prison. Remember to keep your crimes secret. That is the clear message.

Much as this pair of idiots deserve some kind of punishment I am not convinced that imprisoning idiots is the best way to go. It costs lots of money and they just waste eight (or more likely two) months of their lives. Because it's always been this way we all seem to accept that locking people away is the best way for them to pay for what they've done. Even though we end up paying for it. Surely in cases where people aren't any kind go danger to anyone then we should punish them by making them do stuff for us. Eight months of cleaning toilets or wiping arses (ones that need wiping preferably) would be a much better punishment. If you don't do the job to a high enough standard you have to repeat the day until you get it right. It's the Groundhog Day punishment.

I wonder if prison is a deterrent anyway. If we just reserved those for people who have done stuff that's really terrible we could save ourselves an awful lot of money. I'd rather see a situation where good citizens got rewarded for not doing crimes. Or bad citizens lose some of their privileges. Or give up some of their time to do things for the benefit of the people who try to keep things running smoothly.

It wouldn't work of course, so let's stick to the current system which works so brilliantly.

I am not even a third of the way through my tour and am already feeling my age. I am ill, exhausted and my joints are hurting and my right ankle seems to randomly hurt so much that I can barely walk and then suddenly recover itself. But I overdosed on Lemsip Max, throat spray, vocalzone and liquorice tea and managed to get through the Harrogate gig largely pain free (apart from when I nearly twisted my knee when essentially standing still). Dr Theatre did his job. It was a good show. I can't remember a more consistent tour.

But all this comes without me lugging boxes around or doing the driving. Thank God for Giles (Godsend Giles? No that makes him sound too much like Jesus). I probably wouldn't have attempted to drive south into what looked like a blizzard had he not been here, but I was glad that he was. The news reports on the radio told us of drivers trapped on motorways and to begin with it looked like conditions were only going to get worse the further south we went. But after the first forty-five minutes the roads were clear and we were home by 2am. And I had even slept a little, which might have had repercussions if I'd been driving. I felt pretty rough and I am having the day off tomorrow, but awesome to be home.

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