Wombles To The Rescue
This method was used in Vancouver to clean up after their riots. Here’s some details.
Are Our Riots Just The English Way of Protest?
Over the weekend, there were massive protests against the cost of living in Israel.
So they weren’t violent, but that may be the Israeli way.
There is no doubt there is a lot of disaffection in this country. So are the young just doing what they’ve always done and protest violently? In my lifetime we’ve had Teddy boys, Mods and Rockers and football holligans, all of whom came from the very violent tendency.
So now the poor are struggling with job losses, benefit cuts and pay day loan sharks, they might feel that the only way to get what they want is to loot it.
An Eloquent and Moving Letter Against the Death Penalty
This letter was published in the Times yesterday.
Sir, As a young police officer in 1953 I had to attend the Chester Assize Court when an 18-year-old was tried for the murder of his mother. He had quarrelled with her about a girlfriend and strangled her with his tie as she sat at the breakfast table. I watched in horrified fascination as a minister of religion placed a black cap on the judge’s head and the death sentence was passed. I recall reading later that it had been carried out.
Nothing will ever convince me that this boy’s death prevented anyone else being murdered. Since that moment I have been opposed to the death penalty. Even when the Moors murderers were convicted, I did not change my convictions. I am in my eighties now but it is an abiding memory. Perhaps if those wanting to bring back the death penalty had been there they would not be so keen.
As an aside here, C used to visit Holloway Prison in the 1970, where she met Myra Hindley amongst others. One of the warders she met, was one of those, who had taken Ruth Ellis to the gallows. That warden’s views had been totally changed by that horrific experience.
Is The Media Egging The Rioters On?
You’ve got wall-to-wall coverage of the riots on the television, reporting it in detail.
So when kids see the action, do they think they’d like a piece of that and get involved.
And then come back and watch the damage they’ve done on the box.
It’s a violent video game come to life and you’re part of it!
People though have always liked a good fire. I can remember my mother telling me how she watched the flames as Crystal Palace burned downed from Enfield.
And Now I’ve Got No Hot Water
This is only a small thing in the major scheme of things. But my hot water failed last week!
It appeared that my clothes washer had failed and had somehow buggered the main fuse box or at least the part of it that controlled the gas water heater.
It didn’t matter too much, as I only use hot water for showers and I could have them at my physio or as I did at the weekend at the hotel I stayed in at Plymouth.
The electrician came yesterday and found that Jerry had struck again, in that he’d not connected the electrics properly.
Once that had been sorted, it now appeared that that the cause of the failure wasn’t the washing machine, but the control system of the boiler had shorted. Obviously, at the moment, it was only set to provide hot water, but it does explain how sometimes in the winter, the house could never seem to get the temperature right.
And then guess what! The stand-by immersion heater doesn’t work. It must have failed some years ago, and the tenant and/or the landlord never got round to replacing it.
So never buy a house that has been rented without a full survey on all the electrics too!
The Story of George
In the 1960s, I use to serve behind the bar in a pub called The Merryhills in Oakwood. It was one of the vacation jobs I did to fund my way through University.
Although it was a leafy suburb and still is, the pub was only half-genteel. The Saloon Bar was comfortable and had a nice class of client. But the Public Bar was a different story and there was sometimes an edginess. I remember one night, sorting out a fight, by breaking a bottle of Guinness on the bar and jumping over the counter. They didn’t want to take me on, but then we all knew that Mick the large Irish barman was coming round by the easy route with the landlord’s Alsatian.
But it is the story of George I remember.
On a quiet Monday, I found myself talking for most of the evening to a guy called George, who had been in my year at primary school. I said to him, that at school, I thought he might have been a bit rough and that now he seemed to have calmed down. He said that he had. But it hadn’t always been so and a couple of years before he’d been up in court on a charge of vandalism. The magistrate had said that he deserved Borstall, but also said that he had a mate who owned a demolition firm, who was in need of men, who liked to smash things up. If he’d take the job, the magistrate said he’d forget the Borstal.
George had worked in demolition for some months and hadn’t been in trouble since.
Perhaps there is a moral here, in that we’ve now made employment so safe, it just doesn’t appeal to a certain class of youth!
I suspect too, that magistrates can’t recruit workers for their friends!
The Aftermath At Tottenham Hale
I took these pictures at Tottenham Hale today.
The interesting thing was that the fast food outlets were left undamaged. So perhaps they weren’t such mindless morons after all? You have to eat don’t you!
I actually went to the area to go to Maplins. It was open and fully-functioning and I was able to buy what I wanted.
I was Sixteen Once
I’m 64 next week, but all of the mindless violence of the last few days rings a bell in my mind.
I have a feeling that life has now become so constrained for the average male youth, that we are now getting the problems we are seeing on the streets.
In some ways it was a bit like that in the early sixties. We didn’t get the violence, but then of course we had Mods and Rockers. I didn’t get involved one way or other, as I had other things to do and I didn’t have a motorcyle licence.
But just as then, the Police and politicians didn’t have a clue. They don’t now!
In the seventies and eighties, it was all about football violence.
So is the cause of the last three days, just an outlet for testosterone. I bet one of these rioters goes on to in twenty years or so, to be a leader of a main political party or to run a large company like Tesco.
The problem is to channel this testosterone and the anger that goes with it!
Gluten Freedom For Coeliac Travellers in the UK
When I went to Plymouth, I bought a gluten-free ham salad from Marks and Spencer in Paddington station, to sustain me on the journey.
It was excellent.
Today, I had an egg salad sandwich from their shop in Moorgate. It was equally good.
They’ve even got a list on their web site of all their stores that stock the gluten-free sandwiches.
Travelling just got a whole lot easier for coeliacs in the UK.
Is First Class Worth It?
Charlotte Gainsburg was quoted in The Times on Saturday as saying “I always travel first class. I feel I’m being cheap if I don’t!”
I travelled back from Bristol in First Class, but I think it’s the last time, I will on First Great Western. This is not a criticism of the company or even the well-refurbished IC125 trains, but more a criticism of my neck, which finds the soft seats uncomfortable. It’s also a compliment to the Standard Class seats, I found so good on the way down to Plymouth.
So when I go to Cardiff on the 15th of October, it’ll be Standard Class both ways.
The Anonymous Widower 