A rather excellent new book on a familiar theme landed on my desk this week.

Written by local aviation historian Mike Phipp, it is entitled Bournemouth Airport Through Time.

It's a wonderful chronicle of this institution which has such a central role in the social and economic life of the area we live.

And its publication comes at a time when there are questions about the future of Bournemouth Airport.

It was first opened as RAF Hurn on August 1 1941.

As Mike notes, when the Germans overran the Low Countries and Northern France, to counter the threat of a probable seaborne invasion across the Channel, the RAF urgently needed new bases along the south coast.

One of them was on the piece of land near Christchurch, identified by aviation pioneer Sir Alan Cobham in the previous decade.

Incredibly, just three years after it was opened, in November 1944, RAF Hurn was turned over to the Ministry of Civil Aviation and became the UK's only intercontinental airport until Heathrow opened in 1946.

In that interim, all the major airlines operated from Hurn including BOAC, KLM, American, Qantas, Sabena, Pan Am and South African.

From Bournemouth, they covered the globe, from Cairo to Sydney, Washington and New York to Accra and Calcutta. A flight to Johannesburg could take up to five days.

There is of course much more to the history of Hurn, not least its industrial heritage, the legacy of which is a wealth of world leading companies now residing on the business parks.

Rumours surface every now and then that the owners of the airport, Manchester Airport Group want to sell Bournemouth.

They have invested heavily but for many reasons this part of the business is still not where they want it to be.

There's nothing inevitable about the operational part of the airport remaining open. But plenty of people would lament its loss.

Bournemouth Airport Through Time by Mike Phipp is published by Amberley and is £14.99

Caught on camera

A new survey published today suggests there are seven kinds of driver. The boy racer, the Sunday driver, mum in a hurry (they’ll think nothing of mounting a kerb or leaving the engine running on double yellows while the collect their offspring), the amber gambler, the just passed, the know it all and the short fuse.

To that list we might add the complete and utter lunatic who puts their own life at risk and more importantly, other lives. You see them every day and they seem to be multiplying.

Not that I feel strongly about it or anything.

We should all worry about Brexit

IT'S official. The government's position on Brexit is a shambles. We should all worry.

CBI director general Carolyn Fairbairn said: "With negotiations at such a vital juncture, talk of a deadlock will be deeply concerning to many businesses in the UK and the rest of Europe.

"Both sides must show the leadership and determination to get the talks moving more quickly because jobs and investment across Europe depend upon it."

Indeed they do.

On Monday, the Echo will be publishing research on how the exodus of foreign workers from the NHS is affecting and will affect local hospitals.

It makes interesting reading.

Meanwhile, the basket case that was the Greek economy is now performing better than the UK which currently has the second lowest growth in the G20.

Still, there remains time for more and more people who voted for Brexit to understand what a disaster they have inflicted on themselves and the rest of us.

And for politicians to get us out of this mess.

Churchill once said the greatest argument against democracy was five minutes spent with the average voter.

Never was this more true than over Brexit.