As I write this at 18:20, I am listening to BBC London talking to parents of Dollis Infants School regarding the abolition of their lollypop men/ladies. Parents are pointing out that Pursley Road is a dangerous road to cross and that you cannot put a value on a childs life.
Sadly a woman from the Taxpayers Alliance seemed to think having a few pence extra in your wallet for a Starbucks is more important. As the issue is being discussed, they suggested that roadhumps may be an alternative. I doubt Councillor Brian Coleman will agree to that.
I can think of nothing more precious than a childs life. A petition was mentioned, I can't seem to find an online version, if anyone starts one, let me know.
Showing posts with label BBC London. Show all posts
Showing posts with label BBC London. Show all posts
Wednesday, 12 January 2011
Saturday, 26 June 2010
Why we must keep the free bus pass for pensioners
There is much talk that the Conservative Party are planning to abolish the free bus pass for pensioners. The argument is this "Why subsidise people who can afford to pay for it?".This to me is the type of logic which completely alienates me from the Tory party. Firstly, well off pensioners have paid for it. They've spent a whole lifetime contributing to the tax system, putting in far more than they take out. They are not "getting something for nothing" as some Tory commentators like to say, they are getting something back for a lifetime of work and contribution. Secondly it is good for motorists. The buses will run anyway. Some pensioners who now take the bus because of the pass, will drive, causing more pollution and congestion. Thirdly, the London economy will suffer. Many pensioners use their bus pass for days out, which stimulate and support the London economy. Tory commentators claim that if they want to go out, they will anyway. This is completely untrue. My dearly deceased mother got a free bus pass on her 60th birthday. Until ill health prevented her, she'd have a day out on the bus every Tuesday (when the weather was fine). Trips to museums, shopping centres, parks, down to see the river Thames, trips to visit friends, family and former places of work. She'd also regularly get the bus to Burnt Oak, because "the mushrooms were better there" or to Golders Green because there was a shop where she liked the smoked salmon. She'd go down to auctions, visit special events and sometimes just take a particular bus, because she liked the view from the top deck.
All of these journeys would inevitably involve a beer or cup of tea and a sandwich along route. She'd often inform me she'd found a new pub which did an "amazing roast beef sandwich for £1" or the like in the strangest of places. She'd buy the Evening Standard on the way back and tell us all about her day out. Sometimes she'd just take a sketch pad and draw wome sight she'd seen the previous week, which would later adorn the wall of her flat.
Was she unique in finding this pass to be life enhancing? I doubt it. I know many elderly people who see it as a ticket to a new lease of life. By my maths, approx 30% of the population must be of "bus pass age" and they must make a significant contribution to the economy. It is in all of our interests for them to be active and to spend money in shops. If anyone thinks passing "costcutting" measures which restricts this activity is a good idea, then they are unfit for public office. Mind you, given what the Tory politicians in Barnet are trying to do to the residents of sheltered housing, if there was any group lobbying for such an obnoxioux policy, I'm sure our beloved Barnet mob would be somewhere near the front of the queue.
All of these journeys would inevitably involve a beer or cup of tea and a sandwich along route. She'd often inform me she'd found a new pub which did an "amazing roast beef sandwich for £1" or the like in the strangest of places. She'd buy the Evening Standard on the way back and tell us all about her day out. Sometimes she'd just take a sketch pad and draw wome sight she'd seen the previous week, which would later adorn the wall of her flat.
Was she unique in finding this pass to be life enhancing? I doubt it. I know many elderly people who see it as a ticket to a new lease of life. By my maths, approx 30% of the population must be of "bus pass age" and they must make a significant contribution to the economy. It is in all of our interests for them to be active and to spend money in shops. If anyone thinks passing "costcutting" measures which restricts this activity is a good idea, then they are unfit for public office. Mind you, given what the Tory politicians in Barnet are trying to do to the residents of sheltered housing, if there was any group lobbying for such an obnoxioux policy, I'm sure our beloved Barnet mob would be somewhere near the front of the queue.
Tuesday, 2 March 2010
Lynne Hillan on Vanessa Feltz show - 1st March 2010
Here is what Leader of the Council Lynne Hillan had to say on BBC London radio yesterday.
She talks how larger developers will get a better service in planning, through having their own "relationship manager". Clearly Lynne Hillan forgets that the contribution of the ordinary taxpayers dwarfs the pittance these rich developers are paying. Whilst a developer pays a one off fee for a development, a Council tax payer such as me pays the sum year on year every year. In my council tax band I pay over £2000 per year. If I pay this for 60 years, thats £120,000 I'll pay in my lifetime to Barnet Council. Any special treatment? No chance
Tuesday, 12 January 2010
Show me your tits !!!!!
I am angry, really angry today. I feel like smashing my head as hard as I possibly can against the concrete wall in our kitchen. Why, you may ask? What has riled the normally placid and cheerful Rog T to such an extent?
Let me tell you what - The Vanessa Feltz show on BBC London this morning, thats what. Not the excellent Ms Feltz who is a superb radio talk show presenter, but the subject matter. You see they were discussing breast cancer and reconstructive surgery. I'm 47 years old and I doubt there's anyone my age who hasn't lost friends or family to this horrible disease.
Breast Cancer is always viewed as a "womens issue". Listening to the Feltz show, it did strike me that men are a big part of the problem. I doubt that any man would rather have a dead wife than a wife with a mastectomy. As such men should leave their loved ones in no doubt about this at all times. I think that this is one issue where women really don't understand how men think.
What really upsets me is the way we live in a society where women die because they are worried about their body image and so refuse to have surgery. I first became aware of this problem by accident. In 1981 as an 18 year old, I bowled into the culture centre in Stockholm. The entire length of a wall was covered in pictures of breasts. Some were perfectly formed, some were rather strange (to an 18 year old who's chief source of information about breasts was page 3 of the Sun). Some were horribly mutilated. This was my first day in Stockholm, and I naively thought that this was indicative of a Swedish obsession with all things sexual.
As I pondered this rather (to me) shocking display at Stockholms premier art venue, a rather attractive blond sidled up to me and said something completely unintelligable (in Swedish). I responded that I was English and couldn't understand. She replied "Oh, then you probably don't understand what this is all about then?". As I didn't I replied in the negative. My new found friend told me that it was part of a massive drive to raise awareness in women about breast cancer. She said that the pictures were all before and after shots of women who'd had reconstructive surgery following a mastectomy. The message was that there is no reason why women should fear the effects of the operation. As I was the first English teenager to see the installation, she was interested to canvass my views. I was shocked that women should refuse life saving surgery purely because they thought society may perceive them in any way as inferior. My own mother had a massive operation for cancer in 1970 and was very sensitive for a while about her scar. My Dad had told her that she looked better in a swimsuit than a bikini anyway and she should get on with her life.
Having spent a very interesting 45 minutes in conversation and being guided around the display, I realised that health education has huge importance. 28 Years later, in Great Britain, women are still more scared of being viewed as "odd" by society, than they are of dying a horrible and preventable death. As I contemplated the issue, I thought back to the Swedish display. I think the time has come to go on the offensive against this atrocious disease and get the message over that a mastectomy is not the end of anything for the vast majority of women that have one. It is just a ticket to a healthy life and the cosmetic issues can normally be addressed successfully.
What I'd like to do is recreate the exhibition I saw in Stockholm, but in a way that everyone would have to take notice. I'd like to plaster the 4th Plinth with pictures of successful cosmetic surgery following Mastectomies. I am completely serious in this suggestion. the British have been too prudish about too many things for too long and it has cost thousands of lives. Putting a display on the 4th Plinth would get huge publicity and might actually change a few peoples perception of the issue and save a few lives.If anyone knows Boris and how I get my display onto the plinth, please let me know.
It enrages me that we live in a society where page three is fine and dandy, but the results of life saving surgery are seen as grotesque and fearsome. This is a battle we really must win.
I think quite enough people have suffered, don't you?
Let me tell you what - The Vanessa Feltz show on BBC London this morning, thats what. Not the excellent Ms Feltz who is a superb radio talk show presenter, but the subject matter. You see they were discussing breast cancer and reconstructive surgery. I'm 47 years old and I doubt there's anyone my age who hasn't lost friends or family to this horrible disease.
Breast Cancer is always viewed as a "womens issue". Listening to the Feltz show, it did strike me that men are a big part of the problem. I doubt that any man would rather have a dead wife than a wife with a mastectomy. As such men should leave their loved ones in no doubt about this at all times. I think that this is one issue where women really don't understand how men think.
What really upsets me is the way we live in a society where women die because they are worried about their body image and so refuse to have surgery. I first became aware of this problem by accident. In 1981 as an 18 year old, I bowled into the culture centre in Stockholm. The entire length of a wall was covered in pictures of breasts. Some were perfectly formed, some were rather strange (to an 18 year old who's chief source of information about breasts was page 3 of the Sun). Some were horribly mutilated. This was my first day in Stockholm, and I naively thought that this was indicative of a Swedish obsession with all things sexual.
As I pondered this rather (to me) shocking display at Stockholms premier art venue, a rather attractive blond sidled up to me and said something completely unintelligable (in Swedish). I responded that I was English and couldn't understand. She replied "Oh, then you probably don't understand what this is all about then?". As I didn't I replied in the negative. My new found friend told me that it was part of a massive drive to raise awareness in women about breast cancer. She said that the pictures were all before and after shots of women who'd had reconstructive surgery following a mastectomy. The message was that there is no reason why women should fear the effects of the operation. As I was the first English teenager to see the installation, she was interested to canvass my views. I was shocked that women should refuse life saving surgery purely because they thought society may perceive them in any way as inferior. My own mother had a massive operation for cancer in 1970 and was very sensitive for a while about her scar. My Dad had told her that she looked better in a swimsuit than a bikini anyway and she should get on with her life.
Having spent a very interesting 45 minutes in conversation and being guided around the display, I realised that health education has huge importance. 28 Years later, in Great Britain, women are still more scared of being viewed as "odd" by society, than they are of dying a horrible and preventable death. As I contemplated the issue, I thought back to the Swedish display. I think the time has come to go on the offensive against this atrocious disease and get the message over that a mastectomy is not the end of anything for the vast majority of women that have one. It is just a ticket to a healthy life and the cosmetic issues can normally be addressed successfully.
What I'd like to do is recreate the exhibition I saw in Stockholm, but in a way that everyone would have to take notice. I'd like to plaster the 4th Plinth with pictures of successful cosmetic surgery following Mastectomies. I am completely serious in this suggestion. the British have been too prudish about too many things for too long and it has cost thousands of lives. Putting a display on the 4th Plinth would get huge publicity and might actually change a few peoples perception of the issue and save a few lives.If anyone knows Boris and how I get my display onto the plinth, please let me know.
It enrages me that we live in a society where page three is fine and dandy, but the results of life saving surgery are seen as grotesque and fearsome. This is a battle we really must win.
I think quite enough people have suffered, don't you?
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