MPs from across the country will shortly begin a debate about the future of congenital cardiac services for children.

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It comes as a review draws to a close after proposals to cut the 11 hospitals performing children's heart surgery to six or seven were revealed earlier this year.

The Commons debate could well be highly charged with units getting strong local backing, sparking claims of politiking and not medicine.

The NHS says it wants fewer, but better, centres as it feels children's heart specialists are spread too thinly at present.

In the North East, there are fears that the world-famous children's heart unit at Newcastle Freeman Hospital could close.

Under one option, children would be transferred to the nearest unit at Leeds. And that is despite the Freeman's pioneering unit performing more than 200 child heart transplants and the only one in the UK able to offer all forms of heart treatment - regardless of age - under one roof.

"There is a serious problem of governance in this country. It is in the hands of people who have very little experience of running anything.

"And it is why you have seen the balls-up on the NHS by all Government and then bad decisions such as selling good at the bottom of the market and scrapping an aircraft carrier just when it is needed for Libya."

That's what Tory peer Nigel Vinson told me when I interviewed him for a piece about House of Lords reform and why the second chamber played a vital role.

He didn't mince his words, by declaring that from the Prime Minister down many of the country's rulers did not have any experience of life outside politics.

No wonder the prospect of Greece going down is worrying Europe.

The figures are simply staggering and should worry all of us. This is meltdown, edge of the precipe type stuff.

And remember how many banks have had to be partially or fully nationalised since the credit crunch? Doesn't that mean taxpayers' cash are at risk?

Here is what Treasury Minister Mark Hoban had to say after the Government was forced to send a minister to the Commons to ask an urgent question on contigency plans for the Eurozone. He spoke of a $4bn exposure for UK banks - that's around £2.47bn.

Well, we always knew there was a fair chance we'd hit another leaf of the Whin Sill, and so it has proved. Drilling became very difficult again, and by early afternoon on Saturday 18th June, it was obvious that the drill bit was really struggling.

Laura identified Whin Sill cuttings coming back up the borehole at 1060m depth, so it was time to pull back and get a fresh bit on the job. Now we are down at more than a kilometre, it is a long job pulling all the rods out and inserting them all again with a fresh drill bit on the end. However, drilling was underway again before dawn, and steady progress of about 2.5 m per hour has since been made through this new, lower leaf of the Whin Sill.

It's a mixed blessing for us. On the one hand, the Whin Sill has a very low ability to conduct heat, so it can serve as a "duvet", trapping useful heat deeper below ground. In the long run, that's great; in the short run, it's a right pain to drill!

Having won free of the Whin Sill and made brisk progress to 914m, the drill bit encountered very hard rock again and progress slowed to a crawl. At first, the drillers wondered if we'd hit a second leaf of the Whin Sill. Looking at my earlier predictions, this would have been a real surprise as, if we hit a second leaf at all, it shouldn't be until about 1200m.

Laura Armstrong quickly inspected the cuttings (pictured below) and found that it wasn't whinstone at all, but gray recrystallised limestone. When drops of acid were placed on it, it fizzed like crazy. We interpret this to be the Scar Limestone - a bed which forms prominent cliffs up in the Pennines.

When we've drilled into it in Weardale it hasn't been particularly hard - so what explains the slow progress? Well, it's possible that the recrystallisation process in the Newcastle area toughened it up more than usual. Also, in some places around Alston the Scar Limestone is rich in nodules of chert - essentially the same hard material as flint.

Well, that was a much better day than the Wednesday. A nice 20/1 nap landed, a 5/1 winner in the first, Fame and Glory at 2s and Banimpire at 3's. Not a bad days work.And in all honesty, I didnt watch one race as I was down London all bloody day. Royal Ascot Review at 9:30 on ATR is in hand me thinks, ill try and give my inane mutterings on it at some point though.

Being in Sydney on the biggest date in the global rugby league calendar, I just had to go to see what it was all about. As we know, rugby league is only really played along the M62 motorway across England, it's also played down-under. What probably isn't well known, is that only two states in Australia play the game (yes, Melbourne in Victoria has a team but it's owned by Fox Sports in an attempt to spread the game nationwide). The other states play Aussie rules during the winter, then cricket and soccer are national summer sports.

Something of a disappointing day today as Kevin Nolan headed down to East London to join Sam Allerdyce and his unit of rugby players.

Worst days gambling ever. Only thing that went right was Lolly For Dolly winning - but I didnt back it myself. Great. My form read 2 (Codemaster instead of Fury) - 4-2-2-2-3. If only I had the placepot on or even EW in some cases, but no. All on the nose. Idiot. And as for So You Think.....complete superstar that looked. On the matter of So You Think, how is nothing being said about the fact Aidan O'Brien has held his hands up and took the blame, and not for getting the tactics wrong or anything like that, no no, he just decided not to train it properly. Brilliant Aidan. Im sure the chap who had £95k on the horse would liked to have had that information before popping the bet on. Staggering arrogance to think a horse can just tip up and beat some top horses.

Disquiet over Southern Cross is growing exponentially in Westminster. I am picking serious concerns and even anger over the situation, with the future of thousands of elderly residents at stake.

I have just seen Wansbeck MP Ian Lavery and he has told me that an independent inquiry is now needed.

"I have written to [Health Secretary] Andrew Lansley asking for a public inquiry into Southern Cross," said the Labour MP.

"It is an absolute disgrace how elderly and vulnerable people have been used to make individuals multi-millionaires," claimed Mr Lavery.