'Blackpool or Birmingham or somewhere godawful'

Riverwalk I couldn’t resist looking that up:

Financial Times 30 July 2013

www.ft.com/content/8faf3c78-f910-11e2-86e1-00144feabdc0

Lord Howell [of Guildford], a former minister, angered a large portion of the country, MPs and peers, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, by saying fracking should be concentrated in the northeast. The former energy secretary, and the father-in-law of chancellor George Osborne, said parts of the area were “uninhabited and desolate”.

The statement has puzzled industry analysts, who point out that the bulk of Britain’s shale gas reserves are not in the northeast, but in the northwest of England, in the Bowland shale basin.

Lord Howell later apologised for “any offence caused” by his comments about fracking, and insisted that he did not believe the northeast was “desolate”.

Same article …

Lord Howell was [also] recorded saying: “Now Qatar’s a great place, but it’s also near a lot of jihadists. [It is] the size of Guildford. If it was to go into chaos we would be up shit creek, we really would.”

Guildford is 270 km square
Qatar is 11,571 km square

Maybe imperial would have been been easier for him? I think he should practice his measuring skills - starting with a shit creek.