Easter Day Musings & Rants

It is heartening to see that the Church is united in condemning the government's welfare reforms. Church organisations and support groups such as my own see first hand on a daily basis the appalling impact that cuts to welfare are having for people with long term illness, disability and those unable to find work. Frankly, it is these organisations that see the real effects and it is they to whom so many people turn to for help. I see the hardship caused to the vulnerable in our society all the time. Many of those we support through Blue Skies are fearful of every letter in case it threatens further reductions in their benefit or yet another flawed medical assessment. For them each day is a struggle and a helping hand or sympathetic ear goes a long way to easing their stress. New members to our group tell the same story. They are afflicted with sometimes crippling mental illness yet deemed well enough for work. Only last week, a member of our group living with his poorly mum in a two bedroom bungalow received a letter telling him he has one room too many and will therefore have his benefit cut to pay the ill thought out 'bedroom tax'.  Is it any wonder our disabled and vulnerable feel victimised? Personally, I would like to see other organisations joining forces with the Church to create a united front against a government out of touch with the genuine needs of its people. Perhaps then, we can call a halt to what some are branding a 'war on the poor'.

Turning to road safety as I occasionally do in this blog, I am once again witness to another case of the most appalling driving I have seen. In total disregard for the 30 mph limit through the village of Lutton this morning, a driver saw fit to drive inches from my rear bumper and overtake at ridiculous speed just to get to a house a few hundred yards further down the road. The driver of this monster of a vehicle (gold Volkswagen 4x4) was left in no doubt of my dismay when I passed him further down the road exiting it.
It really does make me more sure than ever that dash cams should be a mandatory requirement in cars. They are exceptionally cheap and very easy to use. Just knowing that they are being recorded would be enough to make idiots such as this think twice. There should also be a means by which footage could be uploaded to a road safety body whose job it would then be to investigate the most serious of cases and to publish the footage online for all to see. Perhaps naming and shaming would act as an effective deterrent to those who clearly believe they are above the law.

The clocks went forward an hour last night. Most won't give it a second thought and can adjust to the change in time quite easily. For me, it is something I hate. I rely very much on my routine - it helps me to function and plays a vital role in my fight against depression. Any change to my routine is very disruptive and the change to British Summer Time is something I really don't cope very well with. I know it is just a fact of life, but waking this morning to find that I had missed 'Broadcasting House' completely was really too much to bare. Instead I had to take my shower listening to 'Steve Wright's Love Songs', something I never normally do. Yes I know it's all very trivial but for someone like me whose routine is their defence, it can be quite a major thing.
As I look at the clock, it is approaching 1pm. This to me feels wrong, it shouldn't be this late and I feel as if I am behind and running late. In a few days, I'm sure everything will feel normal once more, but I do wonder if all this time changing is really necessary...

I did hear on the radio recently that Easter is considered the largest and most important event in the Christian calendar.  It is a shame that for a great many people, Easter just means chocolate eggs and hot cross buns. I suspect commercialisation (that's a long word!) has resulted in Easter taking second place to Christmas but it was nice last week to see that our local schools place huge importance in this holiest of events. A church service attended by the local schools was held at Holbeach St. Mark's, a very fine church built to the designs of Ewan Christian in 1868-69.

It has wonderful stained glass windows, each telling a story and depicting the major events in its history. I am fortunate that my circumstances allow for me to attend these services - had I been working, my son wouldn't have been able to look out to see his dad's beaming grin amongst the congregation. As it was, my wife was, for the first time, able to attend as she had been able to finish work early. I place huge importance on being there - above all else in fact - I think it's so important.

I am hopeful that the coming couple of weeks will see the first part of the grant transferred to our Blue Skies Group bank account. I have managed to negotiate for us to receive two-thirds of the full amount in the first payment. This will enable us to launch all our arts & craft projects and buy all the equipment we need for the computer skills sessions I will be running. We have also benefited from the donation of a digital camera which will enable our members to take photos and edit or print them. I am hopeful that we will be able to put together an exhibition of our photography later in the year.
We were joined by a new group member on Thursday. I had met him on the previous Tuesday and he was keen to help out with the group. His timing is perfect and I am sure there will be a lot he can become involved with. It's not often you come across people who fit in straight away, but Paul clearly has and brings with him many skills useful to the group. It also transpires that he has the skills to administer our new Blue Skies website which will help me tremendously. A real win-win for all concerned.

 Warmest Easter greetings to you all.

A Bad Day for Our NHS

I will start this post by saying that I am proud of our National Health Service. I suppose it could be argued that I am biased in my view as I 'work' for the NHS providing support for mental health services here in Lincolnshire. Whilst there is much good done each day, the report published today into Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust highlights an unacceptable failing in basic care, respect and duty. The report will bring no comfort whatsoever to the families of those who's lives were lost as a result of these failings, but good must come from it. The Prime minster has announced the creation of an Inspector of Hospitals. Frankly this shouldn't be needed if hospital management did their jobs properly, checking the work of their staff and consulting patients on the quality of the care and treatment they have received.
It is a bad day for the NHS. People oversees will read about massive failings within one Trust, but their perception of the entire NHS will be influenced by this. This is of course wrong. Our NHS, although one organisation, is split into regional units which themselves are broken down by county. Each one of these, for the most part, operates independently and management policy can vary from Trust to Trust. I know myself that Lincolnshire operates differently to other county Trusts. There is huge emphasis on ensuring the views of patients are gained and this process is run by an independent body. There is also a programme of hospital inspections across the county, something I have volunteered to become involved with.
The wrongs which were allowed to take place in Staffordshire cannot be allowed to happen anywhere else and those in charge at the time should be held responsible. What would be equally wrong is to assume the entire NHS is riddled with bad practise and poor care.

ATOS... This has to STOP

The people I support have had experience of ATOS. I have had experience of ATOS. We are all agreed that the treatment we received has been humiliating and demeaning, failing to take into consideration our mental condition or the professional opinions of doctors and psychiatrists.

I do find myself worrying for them. I am out of it thankfully. I was assessed a couple of years ago following my breakdown and I was deemed by ATOS to have nothing wrong with me and fit for work. I currently do not work. I also do not claim any benefits as I am not entitled to any as my wife works part time. I have had no money for the last 3 years, but I manage.

I fear that the policies of this government and the actions of ATOS will drive many already ill and disabled people to the brink of despair and beyond. I am already beginning to research the number of deaths that can be directly attributed to ATOS assessments and I am deeply concerned by what I am finding. 

Something has to give and this situation simply cannot be allowed to continue. 

A couple of images published today on Facebook, though extreme do describe the current situation very well...

A Little Job & Olympic Worries

I've had a couple of small jobs come my way this week. A work colleague of my mum-in-law has a laptop with a faulty keyboard. It's a strange one this, as all the keys work except for J,K and L. I've taken the keyboard out and taken a closer look but unlike laptops of old, there is literally nothing that's serviceable. They keys do come off, but that's it apart from the contact sheet underneath. So I've recommended a replacement which to my surprise will cost just £25 to procure. Computer spares must be the only things that have actually decreased in price over the years. The same customer has a tower unit which 'blue screens' on starting which could frankly be a number of different things so I'll be taking a look at it once the laptop is repaired.
So that's all very good. I do love fixing things especially computers and if I can earn a little by doing it, then happy days.

Weather, oh weather. It has been nothing short of horrible for the last two weeks. It all came to a peak last night when we had very heavy rain and strong winds, which persisted well into today and have only really eased in the last hour or so. There are flood warnings almost everywhere at the moment and there are rivers where their banks have already burst, such as in York. Yet we are told we still have a drought. So why not try to collect some of this water, the same way I am in my garden, but on an industrial scale?

In the news we've had the Leveson Inquiry and the furore surrounding the Culture, Media and Sport Minister Jeremy Hunt. I've certainly been glued to the coverage surrounding this and I firmly believe that there remain many questions to be answered and I believe there are rough times ahead for the current government. I could spend an hour or more writing about my thoughts on this subject, but I won't. Suffice to say that I believe not one word of what we are told by our government or Mr Murdoch, regardless of how plausible their explanations and excuses may seem. They may think we were all born yesterday but I for one am not going to be taken in by it, not a single word of it.

Twitter. I've written on numerous occasions regarding the power of Twitter and its influence on our society is clear given the media coverage it has received lately. Admittedly, the coverage has been for the wrong reasons and unfortunately, it is all too often used as a weapon to offend or humiliate.
But I do see it very much as a tool for making comment and observation, and on many occasions over the last week, I have received replies and even had my tweets read out on radio. I already have over 100 followers, to my surprise and how many of these read my tweets, I do not know. But the fact that my tweets regarding electricity providers were picked up by Eon and NPower and my tweet regarding the mis-treatment of Christopher Tappin was read out on-air by LBC, it does make me feel good about using this relatively new medium. What started out just a couple of years ago as an Internet SMS service has grown into perhaps the most powerful tool of communication and opinion in the World today.

No week would be complete without a crisis and this time it was a flat tyre. I had spotted it just before my wife was due to leave for work. Of course it was all too much for her but we managed to get someone to come and collect her. I managed to get some air into the tyre and drove gingerly to the local garage. Within half an hour they had located the puncture and repaired it. Wonderful, and all for just £20. A huge relief given the fact I was expecting to pay £40 for a new tyre. So a major crisis was averted thank goodness.

There is concern at the moment regarding the ability of our immigration control services to cope come the Olympics and the predicted hundreds of thousands of extra visitors. This has arisen after complaints by entering passengers who had to queue for up to 3 hours at Heathrow. Mobile phone footage showed long queues of disgruntled passengers and I can't help but imagine the scene in three months from now when Olympic devotees begin descending on the capital.
We are being assured that the airports are prepared for the influx, buy haven't we heard all thins before? Do they really know how many people are expected? I doubt it. I fully expect to see huge queues at our airports, caused in part by delays in processing passports and in the inability of our transport system to transfer the masses to the Olympic site.
Somewhat amazingly, there is discussion at the moment regarding the siting of ground to air missiles and the surreal suggestion to place missile batteries on top of apartment blocks and other tall buildings. We are being assured a complete no fly zone will be enforced over London during the Games, but mistakes do happen and I could easily see a situation where a plane or other airborne object could stray and a missile be launched in response. The results of this would be catastrophic for anyone below.
And of course there's the hoaxer and the chaos that would ensue following any warning deemed credible.
Of course, there's every possibility the whole thing will pass without incident, and I hope it does. But I do have serious doubts as to whether the current infrastructure will cope under the additional strain and I seriously doubt our preparedness. Time will of course tell.

A Mad, Mad Week

An extraordinary week and one that will be remembered for all the wrong reasons.

Firstly we had an utter fiasco over fuel supply and comments made by the government that led us all to rush to the pumps to fill our cars. This sudden surge in demand soon caused filling station supplies to deplete and we now have many standing empty awaiting their next delivery.
It is true in my view that the government have handled the situation very badly. Long before now, we have been aware of a likely dispute involving tanker drivers though this in itself hadn't caused the widespread panic we have witnessed over the last few days. The comments made by Francis Maude and others suggesting that we top-up and keep a reserve 'just in case' inevitably led many to rush to the pumps and cause an unsustainable peak in demand.
The government don't need me to criticise their handling of the situation, there are enough already doing so. But a little thought before public statements are made would go a long way in preventing this type of thing from happening.
The situation now is that demand is now decreasing and we should return to a normal level of 'supply and demand'. There are though areas such as mine here in South Holland that will suffer for a few more days to come as filling stations await much needed deliveries of fuel. Locally, all filling stations are without fuel and there is little or no information concerning others in neighbouring towns. This leads me to my main bugbear of the whole fiasco and this of either mis-information or zero information. We have on the one hand the advice spouted by government and on the other hand, a complete lack of information as to the status of filling stations across the country. A website displaying the status of fuel availability at stations across the country would be an ideal way of keeping motorists informed. It could also show prices and perhaps give details of queues or shortages. Well I think it's a good idea. Most of my frustration is born from not knowing.

This week has shown that there is a very fine line separating us from stability and chaos. Any level of disruption to the supply of fuel has a catastrophic effect. Wrongly chosen words by those who should be in control can and will cause panic. Being told not to panic will have the opposite effect. There is no extra capacity or any level of resilience or contingency built into our supply systems to cope with any abnormality. This week has shown that we are unprepared for any level of disruption. I dread to think what would happen if we were faced with a real emergency. I think the country would be brought to its knees.

Whatever comes out of this past week, the message should be that we must find an alternative to fossil fuels. The days of plentiful supply have gone. We cannot continue to be dependent on something we struggle to supply. There has to be an alternative. How we do this, I don't know but the science is out there and the technology exists. But of course it's all about money. I know that. Greed is what keeps us dependent on fossil fuels. Electric and hydrogen cell doesn't make money. The oil giants and governments will lose out. But alternative has to be found and made available if we're going to avoid another more major crippling and devastating repeat of the last few days.

A new entry for the Darwin Awards has to be the case of Diane Hall who thought it would be a good idea to decant petrol in her kitchen with a lit oven just feet away. There can only be one outcome of any such action and the woman concerned is now in hospital suffering 40% burns. Of course this tragic accident is being blamed on Francis Maude and some are even calling for his resignation. I say this was caused by a simple lack of common sense. We shouldn't need to be told not to play with highly flammable liquids.

A shock for British politics this week is the Bradford local election and the landslide win of George Galloway's Respect Party. There has of course been much speculation as to why the mainstream candidates were shunned, but many suggest that Bradford's large ethnic base and support for Galloway's anti-war  policies contributed greatly to the result. Personally, I am not a supporter of George Galloway but I do believe his return to parliament will be a lively addition to the usual debate.

So this week will be remembered by many though some will wish they could forget. We can only hope that those in charge take a serious look at what went wrong and why. But unless there is serious change, it will happen again.

I was going to write about Cornish pasties but I won't. It is too farcical. I'll leave you to look it up and make up your own minds.

Dark Mornings, Dark Evenings

Winter is well and truly on its way. The mornings are darker and the sun disappears beneath the horizon earlier by the day. There's a chill in the air. I wore my winter coat today. It made me look huge, well bigger than I already am.
It won't be long before we begin buying wood for the fire. We need to have the chimney swept first. We use a local chap, Peter Warrick who is well known in the area. He kindly attended our wedding with his son, dressed in classic Victorian chimney sweeps' attire. They looked great. I'll never forget them.

My son sang a song this evening. As he sang, it felt familiar to me and I realised it was a song I used to sing at primary school many years ago. I remembered the chorus and sang with him 'So we musn't forget, no we mustn't forget to say a great big thank you, we mustn't forget'. How marvellous that my son was able to jog my memory this way.

It was Mum's Birthday today. She is 69. We visited this afternoon after we'd collected our son from school. She had prepared a small buffet which was nice and the lounge was warm and cosy. The log burner was lit and glowed in the hearth. Mum never makes a fuss of her Birthdays but she always makes sure everyone is looked after and has plenty to eat and drink. My Nan was very much like that, always giving. We stayed for a couple of hours.

We have some new curtains. I know this isn't front page news, but it's significant as the previous set had been up for 9 years. It's strange how you get used to things and never give them a second thought. But when they are gone, you really notice it. The new curtains are very nice. My wife has impecable taste when it somes to home furnishings. They match the furniture perfectly and I actually find myself admiring them.

In the news today there is criticism of the government who have met today with energy industry leaders to discuss ways of helping consumers in the current economic climate who are struggling to afford crippling bills. Apparently they have managed to achieve absolutely nothing except to remind us (as if we're idiots) to make sure we compare prices and switch suppliers(!) Are these people really in charge of the country?
I fear for us all...

Happy Birthday Mum, love from us all xxx