LEYBURN'S wonderful food festival last weekend had everyone smiling- well almost.

The weather, despite the depressing forecast leading up to the weekend, was as just about as good as it could be for early May and the visitors poured into the market town throughout the three days.

Spectator's visit on the Saturday was faultless. The park and ride system was quick and efficient, the bigger main marquee allowed slightly easier access to the exhibitors and a thoroughly good meal was had in the Black Swan - last year Spectator had given up and driven to Richmond to get fed.

But apparently some traders in the town are still not happy with some aspects of the way the event is organised. It seems churlish in the extreme that an event which generates almost 20,000 visitors in an orderly fashion at the beginning of the tourism season should be greeted with anything other than outright enthusiasm and gratitude.

A good edit

A brief encounter with William Hague at the weekend inevitably dwelt upon the Richmond MP's chairing of the TV satirical quiz show Have I Got News For You. The consensus in this office was that Mr Hague came out of it rather well, even managing a swift put-down of the usually irrespressible Paul Merton.

The programme is recorded 24 hours before broadcast and involves substantial editing. The half-hour screened is cut down from about one hour of recorded footage. Mr Hague assured Spectator no embarrassing bits ended up on the cutting room floor - or the digital dump bin to be technologically appropriate.