Reporters and presenters from Channel 4 News have launched their Newsroom Blog.

My favourite TV news… (BBC Newsnight comes a close second).

View the winners in the competition to ‘Doodle 4 Google – My Britain’.

The competition was open to the UK’s 10 million school children. They were asked to design a Google doodle representing what it means to be British today. See the thirty regional winners here.

There are some wonderful ones.

In Britain, 5th November is Bonfire Night. When it’s traditional to let off fireworks and burn a dummy of Guy Fawkes who tried to blow up Parliament in 1605.

It’s supposed to be fun. A colourful spectacle. But for many people in inner-city areas this has become a time of year that they dread.

The other night, on some spare ground close to where I live, youths and children lit a large bonfire. It was close to houses. They used fireworks like guns, pointing them at head height and shooting them across the neighbourhood. Some of the kids were very young indeed and, though fascinated, were obviously afraid that they would be targeted and ‘shot’ by others.

The fire brigade arrived to put out the blaze but they seemed to be intimidated by the abusive youths. The fire crew didn’t leave the fire engine. In other areas there have been incidents where fire fighters were attacked.

They left and, soon after, returned accompanied by the Police.

The BritishPathe website has some vintage newsreel footage of children celebrating Bonfire Night in 1957 and 1959 at a cinema that is just a few hundred yards from this location. How things have changed.

I’ve been making a few simple recipes that my mum used to do. Comfort food you could call it I suppose.

This one is really quick but tasty. Into a casserole dish put: a tin of corned-beef cut into cubes, two onions sliced (I used red ones here), some stock, black pepper and herbs (dried parsley here) and add sliced potatoes on top. Sprinkle with some grated cheese.

Cover and put into the oven at 180c/350f for about 20 minutes.

Now watch the video to see how it turned out:

Download: Windows media (wmv) | Quicktime (mov/iPod).

Do you like my old-fashioned cooker? I love them. This is a ‘Creda Carefree’ which I always think sounds like a drag-queen.

Cookers were very camp in the 1960′s and 1970′s. Tricity had a range that included the Contessa, Marquis and Tiara.