Blessed Talks Sense Shocker...

Here's one we missed last month. Sorry about that, we missed a lot of things last month, including the two for one large mango special deal in Tesco.

Anyway... actor and turquoise mountaineer Brian Blessed is putting his considerable weight behind a scheme to welcome ethnic minorities to the Lake District. Blessed, sometimes considered the loudest voice in acting, has been working with the Lake District National Park Authority to look at ways of attracting more ethnic minorities to the area.

Last year the authority arranged a series of ethnic minority group visits, including a party of Asian Elders from Bolton and members of the El Shaddai Church Group of Afro-Caribbean families from South London. The visits were supplemented with focus groups before and after the visits aimed at revealing perceptions of the park and helping people to plan visits independently.

This year the authority, in conjunction with the YHA, is providing free accommodation to groups associated with the Mosaic Project, a nationwide intitiative aimed at opening up National Parks to ethnic minorites.

And Brian B? He's the president of the Council for National Parks and comments:

"We campaign to ensure that everyone can enjoy our National Parks and I am delighted that the Lake District is giving full backing and support to the Mosaic Project, aimed at encouraging more ethnic minorities to visit.

"After all, we can't ask people to help to conserve what they have never had the opportunity to enjoy."

Nice to see him actually talking some sense for once...