Wednesday 13 February

The sun is just in the process of burning away the dense fog that has plagued us this morning. Visibility was down to about 50 yards or less - could hardly see the seawall across the road at one point. However, the familiar view of Goat Island and the Coastguard Station is back. The fog is expected to reform overnight, with temperatures once again down to freezing or below.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has issued a formal apology to the indigenous people of Australia. It does not take away the hurt still felt by the stolen generation, like the man of 70 who spoke to BBC Radio Scotland early this morning. He had been snatched from his mother 60 years ago, and she died before he found her again. She had spent the rest of her days looking for him. I shall copy the apology in a separate entry.

I have to say that Australia is a young nation, in existence for only a little over 200 years. It has a high rate of influx, and those who came there after 1969 may not feel that they have anything to apologise for. However, they are Australians, and as such carry the communal guilt. It was a policy of outright racism, along the lines of Ian Smith's Rhodesia and Henrik Verwoert's South Africa of the apartheid years. The objective was to breed the black skin out of the aboriginals. I hope all Australians have the courage to stand up and be counted for this. I hope that the lives of all indigenous Australians will be improved, with facilities on a par with those available or offered to immigrated Australians. Compensation is a meaningless gesture.