内容摘要：Sir Ed said he was "open-minded" and would listen to the debate, but added he was "very minded" to vote against.

Sir Ed said he was "open-minded" and would listen to the debate, but added he was "very minded" to vote against.

At around midday, Northumbria Police announced it was being treated as "a deliberate act of vandalism".Local journalists were already carrying out interviews at the scene, before reporters from around the world turned the grassy mound opposite the stump into a "sea of camera tripods".

"It is the largest press story that the National Trust has ever dealt with," Andrew said."It was one of the things that surprised us. The sheer scale of the global reach of the interest really took us back a bit."The usual calming sound of the vast countryside was drowned out by the clicks of cameras and the engines of broadcast trucks.

"We knew it was popular, but we didn't know how popular," Andrew said.The international interest also surprised Gary.

"My sister lives in France, my brother is in America, and by dinner time they'd both rung me, so it was global news at such a fast rate."

Senior management from the National Park and the National Trust spent the afternoon at the fallen tree, speaking to the crowds of emotional walkers and journalists.Members of the St Ives team, who completed the 35-mile challenge, said they were looking forward to a good night's rest and seeing their families over getting their phones back.

Sgt Tosh Hodgkins, from the Army's HQ South West cadet training team, said the challenge enabled the participants to be away from distractions and do nothing but talk to each other for 48 hours.He said: "They make their decisions without referring to anything electronic and it just opens up their worlds to what they can achieve without having to rely on technology and Google.

"It strips everything away and puts them back to the people they are and they rebuild themselves."A group of visually impaired rowers say a piece of simple technology is empowering more people to take up the sport.