LONDON -- Al Gore has been visiting Hay-on Wye. Who is Al Gore and where is Hay-on-Wye?
The first question is easier to answer than the second. Al Gore is, of course, the politician who just failed to beat George W. Bush in the 2000 election after feverish re-counting of the votes in Florida. Although defeated he now seems on the way to resurrection as a mighty advocate of measures to check global warming and climate change. He may even displace the somewhat mechanical New York Sen. Hillary Clinton as the Democrats' candidate, although he has yet to declare.
Hay-on-Wye is a tiny town on the borders of England and Wales and nestling on the banks of the beautiful River Wye, which forms the frontier in these parts. A thousand years ago it was a Norman stronghold for keeping the rebellious Welsh in, or out, and long before that it may have been a Roman fortress when the extremities of the vast Roman empire reached the remote Welsh region.