Edinbugh soft-fruit farmer John Sinclair is worried. "I could have tons upon tons of rotten fruit lying unpicked", the BBC reports him saying.

Why? Changes in immigration rules, brought in at the behest of hysterical newspaper editors and panicky culture-warriors, have banned non-EU nationals from taking part in Seasonal Agricultural Workers Scheme, meaning that the Ukrainians who have provided the backbone of seasonal agricultural work in Scotland are no longer legally entitled to enter the UK to take up these jobs. The BBC says:

Across Scotland fruit farmers are reporting a worrying low-level of interest from Eastern European migrant workers, the backbone of the Scottish fruit picking industry.

And the Romanians and Bulgarians who are eligible to take part in the scheme largely aren't interested; better paid and easier work like bar work is readily available. Fruit-picking is is so badly paid that the only people interested in it are people who can repatriate their earnings to a low-wage economy and live most of the year there. And the pounds weakness against the Euro means that equation stacks up only for those living in non-Eurozone countries and, more importantly, countries with non-Euro pegged currencies.

So, it looks like those evil immigrants are stealing all our jobs again... Remember that when the price of your jar of raspberry jam goes through the roof.

If Gordon Brown wants to have a general election in 2007, he really needs to go and see the Queen tomorrow. Why? Tomorrow is the last day he can call an election for October 25th. The clocks go back in the early hours of October 28th, and the days drop fast at this time of year anyway. If he leaves the general election until November, he's going to be asking activists, and Labour voters, to come out on some very dark evenings, as the following table of sunset times indicates:

	Cardiff	London	Birmingham	Newcastle	Glasgow	Aberdeen	Belfast
25th October	6.00 pm	5.47 pm	5.52 pm	5.45 pm	5.54 pm	5.41 pm	6.04 pm
1st November	4.47 pm	4.34 pm	4.39 pm	4.30 pm	4.38 pm	4.25 pm	4.49 pm
8th November	4.35 pm	4.22 pm	4.26 pm	4.16 pm	4.23 pm	4.10 pm	4.35 pm
15th November	4.24 pm	4.12 pm	4.15 pm	4.04 pm	4.10 pm	3.56 pm	4.23 pm
22nd November	4.15 pm	4.03 pm	4.06 pm	3.53 pm	3.59 pm	3.44 pm	4.13 pm

For all sorts of personal and political reasons, a 25th October elections is the last thing I need. But if Gordon wants to have a triumphal coronation, that's the date he needs to call the election for. I'm not Moses the Lawgiver, nor do I have a crystal ball but there are all sorts of good reasons for not having a general election any later in the year.

Sir Ian Richardson has died at the age of 72. Richardson, perhaps best known for his spellbinding role as evil Chief Whip turned Prime Minister Francis Urquhardt in the House of Cards trilogy was, as far as anyone knew, in good health and about to start recording for a new series of Midsomer Murders. He was a wonderful actor and extremely dishy in his own way.

I had the chance to see him on stage when he appeared in a play called The Creeper last year in London, never quite got around to it, and now I never shall. Which gives me a second reason to be sad about the matter.

"You might very well say that Matty. I couldn't possibly comment.