Last Friday I took part in a seminar on Business Growth in Rural Areas and, as a lifelong townie, I found it particularly fascinating.

The event was hosted by Darlington College at their Catterick base and was led by keynote speaker William Hague MP who was on fine form.

Looking at the current state of British farming, he gave a no-nonsense summary of the current situation which is worrying. Even before the foot and mouth crisis, I remember talking to many local farmers who were deeply concerned about the way things were going. Mr Hague pulled no punches, particularly with his evaluation of the future situation after European Commission reforms. It would certainly seem that the new set-ups favour smaller farms, of which there are many on mainland Europe, compared to the larger farms more common here.

When you look at a British farming industry which is at the bottom of a deep recession, with many farmers working long hours for effectively less than the minimum wage, it's no wonder that the future looks so gloomy.

It's not just a rural problem, of course, because every one of us has a direct interest in the price and quality of food, and, increasingly, where it comes from.

The tourism side was also well covered on Friday, and some of the odd figures produced by Mr Hague brought some of the best smiles of the day.

As the local MP pointed out, tourism in the area really peaks in the summer which is partly understandable, except that the beauty of the area can often be even better appreciated at non-peak times. There was a smidge of confusion about long queues in a certain Dales village, which I mistakenly quoted as "Mr Hague queuing for Hawes in August".

It depends on how you hear it, but he capped that with his famous tale of dialling a wrong number one evening. He apologised to the lady and said "I'm trying to dial a Hawes number". Great language, English.

The final figure which lightened the mood concerned an interesting table of the origins of UK visitors to Yorkshire. Strangely, only 2% of the total comes from Wales.

As William pointed out, that only covers the traffic from Mrs Hague's family!

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I spent Sunday reading a 320 page book in one session because it was so gripping. When you bear in mind this was a detailed account by an investigative journalist, rather than a work of fiction, that's quite a compliment.

Broken Dreams by Tom Bower is about the money-mad world of top British football, and I'd recommend it to you even if football leaves you cold. The book is sub-titled "Vanity, Greed, and the souring of British Football" and that grabs the theme in a nutshell.

Even though figures as powerful as Tony Blair have tried to clean up the game, there are huge obstacles from a largely closed world which insists on self-regulation. We have a local link, of course, in the shape of Professor Derek Fraser of the University of Teesside who was appointed last year as the Chairman of the Independent Football Commission. Having read Tom Bower's book, I don't envy Derek's task of understanding, never mind influencing, the money flows in football.

The detail and inside knowledge in Broken Dreams is absorbing, and gives dozens of examples of the weirdness of the situation. My favourite was the scenario which saw Norwegian and Israeli agents (as in football, not secret) organising the transfer of a player between two English clubs.

York City supporters worrying about the future existence of their club, might goggle at the fact that the commission "earned" by one agent for a transfer deal would be more than enough to ensure its long-term security.

Broken Dreams by Tom Bower is published by Simon & Schuster in hardback at £17.99. More on www.simonsays.co.uk

Published: 04/03/2003