Wednesday, 11 November 2020

A letter to my 14 year old self

 Dear Rog (1976),

It's your birthday today. You are fourteen. You don't realise it, but in the next year, your life will change beyond your wildest imagination. The feelings you have of being lost and insecure will not completely subside for many a year and it will take you a very long time to realise that your issues with education are down to dyslexia and not stupiditity. At the moment, you feel alienated from everything. This will have started to subside by this time next year, the catalyst will be when you see a band called the Ramones. 

You won't have a clue who they are and you'll only go because your sister Caroline has a spare ticket. You are not into music right now, but by this time next year this will be your life. You are not into very much at all right now, save for Football which you are rubbish at. Don't worry, you won't be the shortest in the class for very long. Your August birthday has not served you well physically up to now, but you will soon catch up and be taller than most of your mates. Your skills won't particularly improve on the football field, but you will learn to put a crunching tackle in and make yourself useful to the team. You will have a lot of fun playing football over the next few years.

At the moment you feel really insecure about girls, don't worry about this either. It will take you a while to realise that your mates boasts are mostly lies. As you get into music and start your band, you'll find your self confidence improves. The next year or so at Finchley Catholic High School will be a difficult time. It will take you a long time to appreciate the positives that the school has given you,but when you find yourself at Orange Hill Senior High School, you will find that you are far happier. Leaving a boys school for a mixed environment will be a big turning point. 

When you eventually leave school, you may find yourself disappointed with your grades, but your decision to spend time in Sweden will define you far more than you could ever realise. The time away, out of your comfort zone and away from negative influences will be the moment when you find your adult self. You will never be a boring, straight laced person. Life will throw up many shocks, some of which you won't be prepared for. Some of these will take a very long time to come to terms with, but you will gain strength. 

As for your music. It will not come easily, the band will always be a struggle to keep going and will cost you friendships, but eventually it will reap reawards. You will play around the UK, in Sweden, Finland and Belgium with the band. You will also build a world class studio in Mill Hill, although this will take decades to see. 

At the moment you are struggling with issues of faith. You are particularly struggling to see how the Roman Catholic Church has any relevance on your life. This is causing friction with Mum and Dad. You are conflicted by this. It will take a long time for you to come to terms with your own spiritual nature. You will only truly find this when you stop trying to say things to impress or conform to what you think are other peoples expectations. You will learn who you are and what you are spiritually and you will also realise that everyone has a different path, that only they can walk. You will realise that those who try and change you are those who don't respect you. Sadly and again this will take decades, you will see that it is the Catholic Church and not you that needs healing. Your feelings of being let down will become a constant struggle, growing as you get older, but when you learn to see the good and the bad this will not be unsurmountable for you. 

You will be lucky. You will have some great friends, but be warned, some of your friends won't make it you will find that some people will not repay the faith and trust you have in them. But don't worry, once you deal with the disappointment of this you will appreciate those that stand by you. You will also find that some people come into your life and depart from it just as quickly, leaving a huge mark, that is hard to rationalise. You will realise that they were there when they were needed and they went when they had to go. Tears will be be shed, but once you can see why, you will be grateful for what they brought. 

Your greatest gift is that you are prepared to take chances. You won't be looking back saying "what if" too many times. Some of the turnings will be wrong ones, but even these detiurs will simply make the journey more interesting. When you look back on all this in years to come, you will find that many things don't make much sense, but you'll come to realise that the world is a very chaotic system and just because a path seems sensible and obvious, doesn't mean it is the right one. 

You will spend your life scratching your head at the events in the wider world. The world as you see it now will have changed beyond recognition by the time you become the man who writes this letter. You will see times where it seems that sanity has descended and you feel secure and you will find that these times are just as trasitionary as times when it seems madness is engulfing the world. You will come to realise that you can't spill tears over what you can't control. 

But mostly take heart. There will be far more good times than bad and the worries and concerns that engulf you at the moment will work themselves out.

All the best,

Rog (2018)


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Tuesday, 10 November 2020

COVID Vaccine - Seems like everyone is now an expert in the manufacture of vaccines

 What do I know about vaccines? Well I got an A level in biology and I worked as a Lab Porter at the National Institute for Medical Research for three weeks over Xmas in 1979 to get some money. As I was doing a project on Immunology as part of my A Level it was quite a handy holiday job, I got to speak to some of the worlds leading experts on the subject. There are quite a few ways I could present that, if I chose to be economical with the truth. However I'd best describe it as that I have a fairly well informed view for someone with a forty year old A level in biology. 

However it seems the world is full of people who have a far better education, gained mostly on Youtube, Facebook and Twitter. I know enough about science and facts to know that there is absolutely no merit in anything that claims to be scientific and doesn't quote, sources, studies and test results. The vaccine news that Boris released yesterday had none of this. It was a limited statement for PR purposes.Given the fact that many of us are feeling rather down about the current situation and the lockdown, I can see why Boris felt that it was a sensible move to give us a glimpse of the light at the end of the tunnel. The data set that is needed to bring the vaccine to general usage is incomplete and sharing it is not wise. I am not a Boris fan, but I don't disagree with his strategy at this time.  Given these circumstances it is ridiculous to make any sort of statements at all about the vaccine, it's safety or the protocols it was developed under.

The Deputy Chief Medical Officer, Jonathan Van Tam gave what I thought was an extremely patronising briefing, drawing analogies between trains arriving, goals being scored in a penalty shoot out and the state of the approval process. Whilst Boris is a politician, Van Tam isn't. He should do his job and stick to the facts and cut the anecdotes.  I think he did us no favours at all by talking to us like idiots. I'd far prefer him to  put any data that he may have up on a government website somewhere and tells us where to look.

There are only two questions worth asking. The first is whether it can be demonstrated to work (ie stop you getting Covid, or at least stop you suffering the worst effects). The second is whether it is safe. With regards to the first question, it has been quoted as being '90% effective'. Mr Van Tam didn't say what it was 90% effective at doing. Does he mean at giving you antibodies, stopping you having symptoms, stopping you getting the virus, stopping you from passing it on? These are very different things. I wasn't sure which of these it did. As to the safety concerns, this data hasn't been released. We can fairly safely say it doesn't cause you to drop down dead on the spot, as it wouldn't have got this far. What we don't know is whether for elderly and frail people its side effects will be as deadly as the disease. If it is safe for healthy and young care workers, but not safe for the very old, then that is still worth persuing as it will at least make them less likely to pass it on (if indeed it stops transmission). 

No vaccine is ever 100% safe. We've eliminated Polio using vaccines. This is a major achievement for humanity. My brother had polio in the 1950's and still has mild limp, so I understand why these things are necessary. Vaccines are good things and I'd have no qualms taking one. If it wasn't as safe as a Polio vaccine, then it would not be widely used. The devil is in the data. It is also fair to say that sometimes side effects are not immediately apparent and sometimes it takes time for this to become clear. Many have a degree of fear that as the vaccine has been rushed through, these problems will not have been fully explored. This is a valid concern and it is one that scientists should be able to mitigate. If you are an early receiver of the vaccine, you will be at a greater risk, however you have to weigh that against the risk of not having a vaccine. If the rate of harm from adverse reaction is miniscule compared to the risk of the virus running rampant, then an sane rational person should take it without qualms. If it is 90% effective in stopping transmission, this is a short cut to herd immunity. Without new hosts, the virus will quickly decline and disappear. That seems to me to be a risk well worth taking.

I must say a few words about some of the wilder theories doing the rounds. If you are worried about Bill Gates 'controlling you', then you'd be far better ditching your mobile phone than refusing a vaccine. These devices track your every move and listen to your every conversation. If such things bother you, this should be what you worry about. Of course, once in a while a wild and wacky theory has some substance but how a virus that started in China, has decimated the worlds stock markets and has randomly killed all manner of wonderful people could be part of a cunning plan by a tech billionaire is just a tad to far fetched for me. I'll stick to the facts and when they are released I will read them for myself. I won't wait for Fred in Kentucky's Youtube Channel to give me his view, entertaining as it may be. 

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Monday, 9 November 2020

Why I find Trump's behaviour unforgiveable

 I've refrained thus far from making any comment about the result of the US election. Most people in the UK don't really understand US politics and I believe that there are deep structural issues in the USA that neither candidate seem to have a program to address. I have no enthusiasm for Biden, although for me he ticks the box "lesser of two evils" politically. I have yet to meet anyone who can quote a single Biden initiative or keynote policy that is in any way inspiring. There has been lots of talk about things he might do, that I might agree with, but apart from saying a few nice words about healing America and being a President for everyone, I am yet to see any meaty policies in his manifesto that will do that. In the UK we tend to see The Democrats as Labour and The Republicans as The Tories. This is complete nonsense. The Democrats are far nearer politically to the Ken Clarke/Ted Heath school of Conservatism. Under Trump, the Republicans are pretty much and American UKIP. Just imagine if that was the only choice in the UK, would you vote for Ken Clarke or would you vote for Nigel Farage? I actually think Ken Clarke would probably be a better leader than Biden, as at least you have some idea where he stands. 

As to how Biden will treat the UK, last week, before a vote was cast, I wrote that Biden will be bad for a Boris led Great Britain. I've seen nothing to contradict this point of view. As I am not a fan of Boris and this may hasten his demise, I am not entirely sure I see that as a bad thing, but we will have to live with the consequences of his well documented antipathy towards Boris. It is highly likely to materially affect us, especially if we have a hard #Brexit with no US trade deal. For me, firms closing and people losing their jobs will be no 'silver lining'. 

Having said all of that, when we turn to Donald Trump, I detest the man. It has nothing to do with his politics, although these are not to my taste. It is the man. There are certain behaviours that I find absolutely beyond the pale. On Sunday, I wrote about my feelings about Remembrance Sunday and my Father's war career. He flew a tour of active service for the RAF during WW2. He risked life and limb for his country and freedom. On his last mission, he was shot down. His rear gunner and best friend was killed. He was taken prisoner of war and held in a camp in Bucharest, Rumania. He escaped and made it back to the UK after 68 days. Any respetc I may have had for Donald Trump, any thought of "lets give him a chance" departed on the day Mr Trump insulted my Father and every other serviceman who was held POW during the various conflicts of the 20th Century. 

Mr Trump stated during an interview in 2015, when asked about the war record of Senator John McCain "I like people who weren't captured". 


Now I accept that many people don't have relatives that had the experience my father had, weren't brought up with tales of the privations of POW's, didn't see the psychological damage caused by the PTSD associated with the experiences. I fully understand that some people may feel that Trumps policies are more important than the failures as a human being of the man. But for me, I cannot forgive a draft dodging loudmouth for an insult like this directed at people who's boots he isn't fit to clean. For me, some things will always be more important than politics. I just hope that at the next US election, the American people, our greatest friends and allies, get a more inspiring choice. I celebrated Bidens win, because Donald Trump was not, is not and never will be fit for public office.

.

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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


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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. 

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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.

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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. 

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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. 


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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.

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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

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