Sunday, 8 November 2020

The Tweets of the week in the London Borough of Barnet - 8th November 2020

 I daresay the London Borough of Barnet has not been at the top of most people's news agenda's this week, what with lockdowns and Presidential Elections. But that does not mean we've not had some great tweeting! Here is our pick.

1.The changing face of Burnt Oak


2. Possibly the best ever photo of East Finchley Station. I thought it was a painting when I first saw it


3. The Borough has lost one of it's finest. Condolences to the family and friends of a wise and fine man


4. Would you fancy having to climb up this. We are lucky that our brave fire crews do


5. Some great footage from one of our favourite tweeters


6. What a time to start a new business! We wish them every success. When the time is right, we'll deffo nip on a train down and check this out.


7. Looking for some interesting local history to check out during lockdown? (*** Ed Note *** We have been contacted by several readers who have pointed out that the article is riddled with errors. Handley Page were active in Cricklewood until 1970 and Cricklewood studios is now a Matalan. We should really expect better from a site put together for Barnet Council)


8. If you are out and about near the Welsh Harp and you see this doggie, please let the owner know


9. Did you know thta former PM Harold Wilson was a member of Hendon golf club? We didn't


10. Was that Cinderella on Bunns Lane?



That's all folks


No comments:
Click on Labels for related posts:

We will remember them 2020

 

Since this blog started, back in 2008, Remembrance Sunday has held a special place in this blog. My father was a world war two bomber pilot, was shot down over Ploesti in Rumania, his best friend and rear gunner F/O John Charles Murphy was killed. He was held POW, escaped and made his way back to the UK, to marry my mother on 28th November 1944. My admiration for the man and his generation is unbounded. As a teenager and a young man, I struggled with the fact that I didn't think I'd ever be a tenth of the man he was. At the age he was doing his military service, I was playing guitar in a punk rock band. I was 24 when my father died suddenly. The shock of thios devastated me. I realised that I would never have the chance to build a proper adult relationship with my father. He would never see my children, that he sacrificed so much to build a safe world for. He would never see the amazing business that I built. Had him and his generation not made the sacrifices, I doubt a world ruled by the Nazi's would have a popular music scene in the way we have. The music I love blues, rock and reggae all has it's roots in the black music of the USA and the Carribean. To the Nazi's such music was degenerate. The Jewish friends who I've grown up with would have been wiped from the face of the earth, with their families. My friends with disabilities, my cousin with Downs syndrome would have been murdered in a festival of Eugenics. There would be no London Paralympians. Sir Stephen Hawking would not have written "A brief history of time", he'd have been summarily euthenised.Our high streets would not have Indian restaurants, we wouldn't have bought smoked salmon bagels from Jewish owned deli's on Sunday mornings. The high camp of Strictly would have been far too decadent,  and members of the LGBT community would be sumamrily bumped off.

I have often wondered what the world would be like in our modern era if the Nazi's had won. Would the regime have imploded when it ran out of enemies to murder? Who would have been the next targets after the Jews, the Gypsies, the LGBT community, etc. We will never know the answer to that question, thank God. The sacrifices of my Father, his friends, his comrades, and like minded people ensured that such tyranny was defeated. It used to upset me that I couldn't ever really properly repay my debt to him. It took a long time to realise that the way to do this was to do everything I could to ensure that the legacy of his generations sacrifice is protected. I suppose that on this day, when we wake up to a new era in US politics, we see that this is possible. In the US, people declaring support for President Trump often blatently paraded symbols of Nazism, racism and hatred. This has been banished. It is a good day. 

No comments:
Click on Labels for related posts:

Saturday, 7 November 2020

The Saturday List #285 - Ten things I'd ban if I was Prime Minister

So we are now in lockdown. I've refrained from saying too much about it. It is an uninspiring topic. We are banned from doing most of the things I like. Going to the pub, restaurants, football, gigs and even from nipping round to see the rellies. I understand why they are doing this, but it is not much fun. It got me thinking, what would I ban if I got the chance? Here is my (not entirely) serious list. 


Pic London.Football

1. Teams wearing their away kit when there is no clash of colours. Not only is it highly annoying, it is a sign of blatant commercialism in professional sport. Perhaps the worst aspect is most of the second kits these days are disgusting. How can I enjoy watching Man City when they look like peach melba's?

2. Private firework displays after 10pm (except on New Years Eve). Having had small children and dogs, there is nothing more selfish or annoying than neighbours randomly letting off fireworks in the middle of the night. There's no reason that you can't do the fireworks by 10pm, when no one gets disturbed. 

3. The Champions League Anthem. Is there a worse or more pretentious piece of music. I'm with the City fans who always boo it. It is horrible. What right do UEFA have to inflict it on us? We pay them to run football, not to celebrate themselves. 

4. Piped music in pubs. I love pub jukeboxes. One of the pleasures of going to the pub is to get to 'see whats on the Jukebox'. What I hate is the bland music that is played  at many pubs, designed to not upset anyone and inspire nothing. At least with a paid jukebox, you know one person in the pub likes it. Back in the days when I used to court, there was nothing I loved more than putting on a track for someone  I fancied. Pubs seem determined to eliminate all such fun.

5. Putting your feet up on seats of trains. This is a pet bugbear. People sit there. It is inconsiderate and bad mannered. I'd pass a law that anyone caught doing it would have to go to work with no shoes on for a week. 

6. Bad mannered airport security staff. I understand the need for security at airports. I understand that the job can be a right pain in the bum. But I cannot understand what right the people do it seem to think they have to be rude to people. I am always extremely polite to people doing such jobs, even when they are rude to me. But if I was PM, I'd compel them to be polite and well mannered. When people forget to take their belt off etc, it is not because they are stupid or trying to blow people up. It is because they forgot. I find it the height of ignorance when the security staff are rude about such things. 

7. Dog walkers who leave their dogpoo behind. As I mentioned, I have dogs. I always clean up their mess. I get very annoyed at people who don't. I'd ban such people from owning dogs if I was PM. 

8.  Playing car stereo's loudly with the windows open. Why is it that the people who do this always have such appalling taste in music? Why to they think it is clever to intrude on our lughole space? The worst ones are the ones who do it at 3am outside my house. Personally I'd like to see their cars confiscated and sent to the car cruncher.

9. Facebook spying on you. Last week I was talking to my studio manager, who was nipping out to Tesco's to buy some lunch. I asked him if he could pick me up a pie or a pasty whilst he was there. After he left, I checked my mobile phone as I had a Facebook notification. My timeline was jammed full of adverts for pies and pasties. I found it most intrusive and offensive that they are clearly using my mobile phone to spy on me and get me to eat pies! 

10. Littering. I am of the opinion that if you buy a takeaway meal or drink, the company you buy it from should be legally compelled to put your name on the package. If you don't put it in the bin, you should get a £100 fine. If you remove the label with your name, the fine should rise to £500. This would instantly stop the appalling practice of throwing litter everywhere. It's not hard.

No comments:
Click on Labels for related posts:

Friday, 6 November 2020

The Friday Joke - 6th November 2020 - The five worst things about Lockdown

What are the worst things about lockdown for you? Here's my five

1. When Mr Boring McB'stard is on the phone and you want to get rid of him, you can't say "Must shoot got to go out".

2. When the washing up needs doing, the excuse "I didn't realise that was the time, I've arranged to meet Bruce at the pub in five minutes"

3. When your partner wants to watch a Rom Com on Netflix and you want to watch the football at the pub......

4. When the football is on, but you have to have a Zoom call with your partners mate who live next door and is obsessed with talking about her cat...

5. When you wake up and you've had a marvellous dream where you were on holiday having a blast and you realise that all of the above four items are what awaits you during the day. 

Stay safe.

(Out of fairness here is my partners list)

1. Putting up with me moaning about having to listen to Mr Boring McB'stard droning on for hours on end.

2. Having to explain to me for the 37th time how the dishwasher works.

3. Having to watch a Rom Com on Netflix, while the fat buffoon next to her fidgets, farts and checks his phone incessently to find out what is happening in the football, wishing he was down the pub. 

4. Having to put up with a gurning buffoon sitting next to you during a good old chit chat with Doris on Zoom about her cat, knowing that if the Twat wasn't sat there we could discuss something interesting instead.

5. When you wake up and you've had a marvellous dream where you were on holiday having a blast and you realise that all of the above four items are what awaits you during the day. 

Have a Great day and Stay Safe. 

No comments:
Click on Labels for related posts:

Wednesday, 4 November 2020

A motivational talk

 How are you? You're fine? No you're not really, are you? I don't think any of us really are at the moment. It doesn't matter what your position on anything, however you look at everything at the moment, there has never been more uncertainty. It would be so easy to despair. 



But hold on, hold on. Step back for a second. Think of where we really are in all of this. There is plenty that could be far, far better. In many ways, young people are having a worse time than any for a couple of generations. Being a teenager, going to Uni, at a time when you can't socialise with our friends, can't enjoy the social side or University, whilst racking up debts is, by any stretch of the imagination, obscene. This must be addressed and a degree of fairness in the issue applied. The generation of myself and Boris had no debt and a whale of a time (I didn't go to Uni, but that was very much down to my own decisions). We've ended up with homes worth ever more, whilst leaving ever less of the cake for the generations that follow. We need to stop and think and do the right thing. For those of you that are not of my generation reading this, it isn't all gloom and doom, even though it may seem like it. These times pass. There are lessons to be learned. The world is in many ways a kinder, more gentle and more civilised place than the one I grew up in. Things such as casual racism and homophobia have ceased to be socially acceptable. This is progress. Medical science has come on in leaps and bounds. The plague of my teens and twenties was AIDS, there is still no effective vaccine, but we have treatments and we've learned to live with it. Whilst we didn't have student loans, only around five percent of us went to University. For most of us, we expected dead end jobs and unemployment under Margaret Thatcher. But things got better. We look across the pond. For many Donald Trump is someone who is almost like an alien. Whilst the rest of the world has gone PC, he grabs pussy and praises racists. But hang on, he's the only US President since I became an adult who hasn't started a war and casually sent young men off to their death. He has put America first and to us Brits, there is a degree of concern about the US backing away from their role of global leadership. As America's staunchest ally, that leaves us in a rather difficult place. What do you do when your best friend no longer wants to play with you? As I write this, no one really knows whether Trump or Biden will be declared winner. Both will present a completely set of different problems for Boris and his merry men. Biden is not a fan of Brexit and is likely to see other European leaders as far more important to his plans than Boris. The UK, out of Europe and without a best mate over the pond may find itself in a rather difficult place. However you view it, this is not going to be an easy period for UK PLC.

When I awoke this morning, I found it hard to motivate myself to get up and get myself ready for work. We go into lockdown tomorrow. My friends and family mean the world to me and the thought of not seeing them for a month at least is horrible. The lockdown will have a catastrophic effect on my business. We are forever cutting the pie into thinner slices, when it comes to our finances. We will get through this, but it is not easy. Not at all. 

After work, my head was spinning. I went and sat in Mill Hill park and watched the sun go down. I have to confess that as I sat down, my thoughts were negative and I was struggling. But you cannot help but look with awe at a beautiful sunset. We have some great green spaces in Mill Hill that have stunning westerly views. These afford us the time and space to get things in perspective. It gives us time to look at the ancient oak trees and realise that they've stood through wars, a hurricane, plagues and recessions. The sun we watch set is the same one that set on Julius Ceasar, Alfred the Great and King Tut. They would have all watched the sun set with the same sense of wonder that I felt this evening. It humbles you and makes you realise just how small we are and how transient these times are. 

This got me to thinking. What really matters? What in my life is important? My wife, my children, my family, my friends. I'm lucky, I am blessed with all of these. But how often do I stop and appreciate this? How often do I count my blessings and give thanks for all the good things in life. As someone who's life has revolved around music for the last 40 years, I am blessed to live in a time when I can listen to recordings of the best musicians of the last 100 years. I've been lucky to watch amazing musicians from across the planet playing in my home town. If I'd been born 200 years before, or at any time before that, none of this would be possible. Perhaps the greatest musician in history is Mozart. He never heard a recording of his music. How priviliged am I, a very average guitarist, who can record his own music and play it to the world. Back in 2010, I composed a piece of music that 11 million people have listened to (It was used on the goal of the month show on the Manchester City FC website). It probably took 200 years before as many people had listened to a Mozart composition. We are in heady times. As for football, I've seen all of the greats play over the last 50 years. How much of an honour is that? I've not gone hungry or thirsty and when I was diagnosed with cancer in 2011, my expectation was that I would still be alive ten years later. How lucky is that? Whatever happened though, the world would keep turning. People will still be able to watch the sun set on Mill Hill park. 

So what I am trying to say, in a rather round about way is this. With lockdown many of us will have the opportunity to take some time out. Please put it to good use. Make sure you appreciate the good things you have, because there will always be problems in the world. Don't let them overwhelm you. 


No comments:

Tuesday, 3 November 2020

Why a Biden win would be bad news for the UK

 Don't get me wrong. I am not a fan of Donald Trump. I am not writing this to praise him. What I am highlighting is how the government of Boris Johnson has put Great Britain in a position where a Biden victory would put us in a very difficult position. Biden has publicly stated that he would not support a trade deal for the UK given the likely impact of Brexit on the Republic of Ireland, a key US ally. Without a deal with the USA, many of the benefits of Brexit that Boris has been trumpeting go up in smoke and he knows it. The EU will have a far stronger hand. It is now so late in the day, that it is hard to see any way for the UK to leverage a good deal with either the EU or the USA in a post Trump era. Having nailed his flag to the Brexit mast and having purged the Tory party of people who support anything other than a hard Brexit, he will have few options. An extension would be unpalatable to his own supporters and a WTO deal would add tarrifs to all sorts of trade. Once we leave the block, all EU negotiated deals go out of the window and we'll have to start again. That is not a good place to be in a world facing a covid fuelled depression on a scale unimaginable a year ago when Boris called the election. The EU are not stupid and they have shown themselves to be canny negotiators. Much as I dislike Trump, the one crumb of comfort I will take if he gets in is that we will be spared a hammering from a pincer movement of Biden and the EU. These are very worrying times and I think many people are rather deluded about the mess that Boris may have landed us in.

No comments:

Sunday, 1 November 2020

The Tweets of the week in the London Borough of Barnet - 1st November 2020

I just wanted to say a few words about this feature. Over the years, doing this has introduced me to some amazing local people and also enabled me to do my job as a community blogger far better. I believe that if you do social media properly it is a two way process and brings great benefits to everyone. No one 'owns' the Internet, it is a resource that we can use use to make our society a better one. We are in a very trying time. I hope that this feature brings some joy into your life and makes you aware of great things and great people locally. This blog is here for the communuity and part of the community. If you have something you want to share, which makes our community better, please do. We need it more than ever. Tag us on Twitter or ping us a DM.

***

So by the time we do this next week, we may well have a new President in the USA and we will all be in lockdown. So this will be the last Tweets of the week ofthe current Epoch! What have the tweeters of the Borough been getting hot under the collar about? Here is our pick.

1. This is the sort of thing we love to give a shout out to


2. A statement from Edgware Town FC


3. We love a good map!


4. A very special shout out to Samuel Levy, a good friend of this blog for his amazing campaign to save the Totteridge Valley, which went viral and got an amazing response. I hope that the Council does the right thing


5. We had to have a Halloween picture, didn't we? This was our favourite


6. This has to be the historical tweet of the week!


7. This sounds thoroughly intriguing! Catch it before lockdown


8. Want something to do during Lockdown? I recommend getting hold of this rather good book by the rather excellent Mark Amies


9. Want to be a good neighbour during lockdown?/p>


10.Looking for some great music by new artists during lockdown. This is what we recommend



(Just in case you don't have Spotify, here's a Youtube link)

That's all folks, stay safe

No comments:
Click on Labels for related posts:

Friday, 30 October 2020

Funky Friday - Top Ska and Reggae tunes to get you dancing - My Playlist from the Robert Elms show


 Today I had the honour of being asked to do the Funky Friday slot on The Robert Elms show. As I am more of a Punk and Reggae man than a Funker, I chose some rather old school Ska and Reggae tracks. I was a tad overwhelmed with the response. One listener emailed Robert to say that she'd been having an awful time and it had made her smile and made her realise she could get through her problems. There was a great response on Facebook and Twitter, so I put together a playlist of Ska and Reggae songs, starting with mine and Roberts choices. I am not entirely surprised that Roberts choices would have appeared on my list had he picked them or not, they were top choices. To me Ska music is part of the core DNA of London.  Here is my skanking playlist to get you dancing


If you want to listen again to the show, forward to 03:04:10 for my selections. I can recommend the slot on Style Council and Bananarama as well. 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p08tqck2


.

2 comments:
Click on Labels for related posts: , , ,

Wednesday, 28 October 2020

Two days to save the Totteridge Valley - Please watch this video and make an objection

There is a planning proposal to destroy huge swathes of Green Belt land in Mill Hill. Please watch this video by Samuel Levy and if you feel that this is important, click here and lodge an objection to this proposal.

Objections have to be in by the 30th October

 

 You can follow Samuel on Twitter at - https://twitter.com/FinchleyBirder - If you want to learn more about why we are supporting Samuel, please read this blog https://barneteye.blogspot.com/2020/10/why-we-must-oppose-this-eyesore-battery.html

3 comments:
Click on Labels for related posts: ,

Tuesday, 27 October 2020

Time for Twitter to be legally accountable for harrassment and libel by anonymous trolls

 I had a very disturbing conversation with one of my friends yesterday. They stood in the council elections in 2018 and have been the victim of a malicious campaign of trolling by an individual with multiple anonymous Twitter accounts ever since. The sad individual who is conducting the campaign of harrassment continually sets up new accounts to make wild accusations. They also continually post insults then lock down accounts after posting abuse. My friend has identified over 25 accounts associated with the individual and has hundreds of screen shots of the abuse. Often posts are made in the middle of the night, with the spelling indicating misuse of drugs or alcohol. Amongst the various things that the Troll has done, has been posting my friends address and inviting people to harrass them.

The Police have investigated and have confirmed that there is definite harrassment and that the individual would be prosecuted if identified. The problem is that, whilst it is clear who the individual is, the anonymous nature of the accounts make it relatively difficult to pin them down, with the police informing my friend that there is 'currently insufficient evidence to support a prosecution'.

If my friend was the only person in the country to suffer from such deranged individuals, then this would perhaps not be worthy of a blog, but this pattern is repeated up and down the country. Anonymous keyboard warriors mount long and rather unhinged campaigns of hatred. BAME people and females such as Diane Abbot have been particluarly targeted by such people. I am all for free speech, but people have to be accountable. Twitter makes a fortune from its services, but takes no responsibility. My friend has reported over a hundred tweets and many friends have done the same, disgusted by the behaviour, but Twitter does nothing, other than report that the post has been received. 

It is clear that such a platform should not be there for hateful individuals to post bile anonymously with no legal comeback at all. It is time that Twitter should bear the legal responsibilty for such tweets, if the person posting them cannot be identified. We need a social media ombudsman that such behaviour can be reported to, and organisations such as Twitter should be forced to compensate victims of such campaigns. We are not talking about reasonable, legal and fair comments. We are talking about persistent targetted harrasment and abuse, dishonest claims about individuals and threats. No one should have to suffer months or years of anonymous abuse from Trolls. If social media firms are happy to have such people on their platforms and not do anything about it, then there should be a simple and free source of remedy, run by independent and objective authorities. We believe that if the social media giants were hit in the pocket, they would not be quite so lax in their policing of the platforms they run.



No comments:
Click on Labels for related posts:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)