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| Studham, this weekend |
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| At Church End, Kensworth on Saturday |
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| Caddington |
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| Remains of caravan after fire on 31/10/2013. Photo: A D Winter |
Nicholas Witchell you really are a waste of space . We've got the detail (the time and weight). You really have nothing to do. Get off the tv. #bbcnews #witchell
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| Iain Duncan Smith: photo: Wikipedia On April Fools' Day 2013, Iain Duncan Smith claimed he could live on £53 per week as Work and Pensions Secretary after a benefits claimant told the BBC he had £53 per week after housing costs. Subsequently, a petition was started on change.org for him to do so for a year; it reached 300,000 supporters by 7:30 P.M. the next day, with further names added that evening at a rate of 12,000 per hour. The petition had over 477,000 supporters. |
Thatcherism or Scargilism? No choice there as, frankly, I found them both mad, and both very divisive leaders. So I joined the Liberals in alliance with the newly formed SDP, two parties working together.
During the miners strike I provoked Barnsley folk to write to me, passed their letters round the pub and we had a little vote. Six one to the miners. And that from people living in Hertfordshire, well away from coal mines. But there again you had Scargill speeding up the motorway back to Barnsley to park in his driveway to try to outwit the police for speeding. That, and stirring up moderate thinking miners with his Trotskyite rants.
Produced a Focus leaflet back in those days, running an article on mad cow disease. Surprising how many people told me that they had read the headline and thought it was going to be an item about Maggie Thatcher.
For all that, people somehow wanted to believe in her and show their appreciation of her stand on the Falkland Islands, so when the Dacorum Borough Council elections came along, and I was defending my seat with a bad back, some people pathetically told me they were voting for Mrs Thatcher. I told them she wasn't standing for DBC, and even though I increased my vote that year, the nearest Tory winning candidate just pipped me.
Of course, we now know that the Argentine's General Belgrano was sailing away from the Islands, and Maggie ordered it to be sunk against better advisers, causing the loss of over 300 lives. Had people known she was responsible for the loss of so many before that election, my political life might have been very different.
She's died today. I'm neither happy or sad.
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| A Brethren Meeting Room, Bedford Rd, Houghton Regis |
On the Marr show today the question was put to Harriet Harman that 67% of people say the Welfare system isn't working and by way of response she launched into unemployed and people not having a work programme to go on. "You don't have a work programme, so that if people are offered a job and they don't take it, their benefits can be cut." And yet unemployed is just a fraction of the welfare state.
Says it all for me; she doesn't want to talk about other welfare issues. Why didn't she just say, that at the time Britain was engaging in an illegal nationally expensive war with Iraq, the Labour government was actively bribing the working poor to get their votes by increasing the size of the welfare state?
Harriet Harman wants a work programme and says after 2 years of being unemployed they will be provided one and they will have to take it or have their benefit cut. So, she wants the government to create public sector jobs and push up the national debt even more? What else could a work programme entail? I'm trying to have visions of a private sector company starting up to get unemployed people to pick litter from the countryside and sell it onto waste companies to turn into something new. But on the face of it it would not appear to make any sense unless she has those images of Indian folk doing just that in down town India,? But then they''re hardly making what we recognise as the minimum wage. Follow this through logically and you'll have politicians clamouring to scrap the minimum wage.
Governments don't create jobs; government is there to manage and govern. If the private sector can't find a way to make a job pay, then neither can government without it costing tax payers even more.
What is a "proper work programme" and how much would that add to the National Debt, now standing at over 18k per person?
The Luton Dunstable busway has a £5.2 million funding gap. Councillors will discuss figures on Tuesday this week. Luton and Central Bedfordshire Councils are supposed to be paying £9.83m towards the overall cost of the project which is predominantly being paid for by Central Government. But they still have to find more than £5m.
Liberal Democrat Leader at Luton Borough Council, David Franks, is quoted in today's Luton on Sunday, as saying "It is no surprise to me that the busway looks like leaving a £9.3m headache. The scandal is that none of the senior Labour councillors seems to have seen it coming and they are still denying it's a problem. What they will not say is where the money is going to come from, my guess is that they will end up borrowing it which will lead to more problems with interest charges and repayments."
The busway is due to open later than planned in the middle of 2013.
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| From the free car park near the roundabout, there is a gate through to a meadow. A littler bin and dog poo bin are available close by. Immediately ahead is a tarmacadamed path leading to a picnic table. The meadow is ideal for dogs to run around on. The meadow has a picnic table. Dirt paths run off at several points from the meadow. The paths are uneven and not suitable for people with walking difficulties. Great for a ramble and for exploring. |
