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WHILE controversy surrounds the appointment of the first foreign governor of the Bank of England, the new boss has a very English wife.
Diana Fox, who is married to Mark Carney, was brought up in Cheltenham.
She first caught the new Governor of the Bank of England's eye on the hockey fields of Oxford when she scored a hat-trick for the ladies team.
It was apparently love at first sight for Mark Carney who was also a hockey player at the university in 1991. He had moved there for a masters in economics after studying at Harvard.
The couple's love of sports brought them together from very different backgrounds.
Mr Carney, 47, was raised in a Roman Catholic family in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, where his mother made fur-lined parkas to keep her three sons warm in the freezing temperatures while his father was principal of the local high school.
Miss Fox, as she continues to call herself, was a first-class graduate in politics, philosophy and economics and won a scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania to study international relations. She gained a science degree in agricultural economics when she returned to Oxford.
She married Mr Carney in Bullingdon, Oxfordshire, in July 1994.
Her husband took a job with Goldman Sachs and the young couple set up home in fashionable Hampstead, North London.
They moved to Ottawa in 2003, where they now have an £800,000 home and four daughters, all under the age of ten. Miss Fox, 46, refers to them endearingly as the 'young Foxes'.
Before following her rising star husband Mark back to Canada, she worked for the Department for International Development, the Overseas Development Institute and as a consultant for aid charities. Once in Canada, she continued to explore her long held interest in green issues.
She recently wrote on an ecologist website: 'About 15 years ago, I made a conscience decision to switch to eco products whenever possible.
'Since then I have actively sought out organic, natural and resource-saving products (and tried to limit my overall consumption).
'I do not claim to be an eco-purist and my journey towards natural products has not always been smooth. But I do think I have made progress.' Last year she took on a senior role, as vice president of research, in the think-tank Canada 2020 – whose mission statement is create 'the Canada we want in 2020' by 'informing and influencing debate'.
Giving an insight into her life in the Canadian capital, Miss Fox said: 'I am originally from the UK but am now based in Ottawa, Canada. I am a multi-tasking mother-of-four: I combine working on federal government policy issues with raising my children and running a busy household.'
And in an acute observation of the realities of everyday life for a busy mother she wrote on her Twitter feed: '57 per cent of Canadian companies are "lifestyle": they make decisions based on getting the kids to hockey.'
Her hobbies include modern dance, cross-country skiing, cycling and flowers.
Despite his role as Governor of the Bank of Canada, Mr Carney has still found time to coach his daughter's football team.
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The Royal Agricultural College could soon become a university.
David Willett, the minister for Universities and Science, has approved plans for 10 higher education institutions, including the Cirencester college, to apply to become universities.
Principal Professor Chris Gaskell said: "We welcome the announcement from the Minister that 10 institutions have been granted the opportunity to apply for university status and title, and that the Government has taken this step to recognise quality over quantity in higher education.
"We are very pleased to confirm that the Royal Agricultural College will indeed be taking up this opportunity."
He added that agriculture, food and land management, subjects taaught at the college, were some of the most important industries in the world.
A WAITING game was in progress last night in flood-affected parts of the Tewkesbury area, where river levels were due to peak.
Anxious residents and businesses were waiting for flood levels to begin to drop so they could begin properly assessing damage caused to their homes and businesses.
The Environment Agency said the flooding levels at the Mythe, in Tewkesbury, were due to peak at 4.5m or 4.6m – only half a metre below that of 2007.
Sixteen touring caravans were inundated at The Willows site at Lower Lode, Forthampton.
A spokesman said: "It is bad. It's damage to people's property, rather than to the caravan park itself.
"Eight times this year we've had to clear our site of caravans but unfortunately this time we were unable to.
"We've got 16 touring caravans in four or five feet of water. The static ones are perfectly safe on flotation devices."
He said the business had been unable to get the touring caravans to dry land on this occasion because nearby roads had been flooded.
Describing the situation as "a total nightmare", he said it was particularly tough for the owners of the flooded caravans.
"There are a lot of people who are very upset about losing prized possessions. It's a situation we never thought we would be in," he said.
He declined to go into how much the damage would cost and how it would be paid for but added that nobody had been at risk at the site.
People were asked to leave the caravans long before the site flooded, he stressed.
Meanwhile, worshippers are having to wait to assess the damage caused by floodwater having engulfed St Michael and All Angels' Church at Tirley as it remained inaccessible due to the high levels around it.
IN 2007, we remember Gloucestershire water was cut off, electricity only just saved and over a thousand residents forced to abandon their homes. Are we seeing a repeat?
Today, river water levels are 0.5m below those of 2007 and the flash rainfall is less intense.
Nonetheless, our flooding defences have been severely tested, and without the investment of the past five years by government, local government and business, the Environment Agency estimates that 500 more houses than the 30 odd so far affected would have flooded.
Likewise, to date the defences put around the Walham power station and the Castlemeads substation have succeeded in keeping out the water, and the 3million gallon reservoir for the Horsbere Brook has prevented Manor Park and Cypress Gardens in Elmbridge/Longlevens from flooding.
The extra height of the Bund on Alney Island has kept the river out, and the new drains, sewers and pumps installed by Severn Trent in Westgate and Kingsholm have also worked well so far. Lastly residents have told me that the councils and Environment Agency have been out in force, helping pump away flood water from homes.
The Prime Minister visited our Tri Service Centre this week. He was reassured that the local emergency services, with partners, have things under control at the moment and that investment in anti flooding is working; and that no further help from government is yet needed.
CRITICS of building near floodplains say current flooding close to Tewkesbury Hospital is alarming.
Huge lakes have formed at the back of the hospital in the town centre, leaving most of its car park, off Howells Road, underwater.
And the flooding is lapping right up against the site next door where a new £10 million hospital is being built to replace the existing one.
Tewkesbury businessman and Twyning resident Mike Warner said building such a large new structure in an area known to flood did not make sense.
He said it was bound to cause run-off problems elsewhere and limit access to the rear of the new hospital once it had been built.
He said: "This is the new Tewkesbury Hospital site, but where will people park?
"What a place to spend £10 million of taxpayers' money. The people behind this are incompetent."
But health bosses said they were confident flooding fears at the site could be allayed. They said the new hospital's main access would be via part of Barton Road that was not liable to flooding.
Sarah Hughes, deputy director of nursing for NHS Gloucestershire, said: "We have taken expert advice and agreed all the plans with the local planning authority and the Environment Agency to ensure that the new hospital is built outside the floodplain.
"We are confident that additional design solutions, such as remedial ground work, new drains and raised foundations will also mitigate known flood risks.
"Whenever the lower car park is at risk of flooding, appropriate operational measures will be taken and visitors, patients and staff will be given as much advance warning as possible.
"Access to the new hospital will remain a priority at all times in order to maintain hospital services, with the main entrances and essential parking provided outside the flood plain."
Meanwhile, Gloucestershire Fire and Rescue Service said it had crews patrolling flood-hit villages near Tewkesbury on foot and in boats to make sure residents were safe and able to return to some kind of normality.
Firefighters offered advice to home owners, carried out surveys of properties and prepared to rescue livestock that might be at risk.
