life in austerity London

Unsung heroes

2015-12-02T05:03:00.001-08:00

Unsung heroes

Anybody travelling in London early in the morning will see a sight that has a lot to do with London life. The buses are full of people on their way to work. The armies of Office cleaners are now off to work where they will spend the early hours of the morning cleaning the offices and getting them ready for the workers to come in later

This army will definitely be hard at work soon doing their allotted slot. Mostly thee jobs are fairly low paid and low status with many migrants filling that oriole. The trouble is that as a group they are taken for granted. Who knows but nobody wants to work in a dirty office or sit in a dirty establishment.

And yet we really owe our cleaners something in terms of the work they do. So clearly the message is out of sight, out of mind yet if it was not for this army of early morning workers we would not have the clean work places that we take for granted.

Yet many of them are on the minimum wage with the prospects for advancement in the industry rather limited. For many people it is a way round their limited knowledge of English. The sector remains quite busy though competitive as cleaning is a necessity and subject to less cutbacks.

However one thing is certain. Cleaners do not get the recognition they deserve.

Urban Foxes

2015-11-03T07:29:00.001-08:00

Urban foxes

Of the various wild creatures which share our space the fox is a common species which has successfully invaded our towns. In one of the developments that has changed the face of a lot of the cities the fox has moved into London becoming a fairly commonly recognized animal. Other cities in England have also of course been colonized by the fox as well. Foxes are seen almost everywhere, in streets and in parks walking about going about their normal business.

They have certainly had an easier time of entering the city than other wild animals such as the badger and the hedgehog. Though hedgehogs are found in central London their poor eyesight tends to make them disproportionately victims of the motor car. The badger is not found in the centre for similar reasons. The fox however has freely exploited the opportunities available and has come to live in a large measure as a natural inhabitant. I have personally seen foxes cross the roads at pedestrian crossings. The fox has adapted well to the urban environment and can even climb in buildings. One was recently discovered at the top of a skyscraper under construction!

The opportunities provided by our throwaway society have provided multiple opportunities to the fox to penetrate inner city areas,

They tend to see rubbish bins as an opportunity to forage and live off take away food and diverse scraps. One aspect of course where they could provide a control of the rat population is not happening as food is so easily available in the takeaway restaurants so scavenging is much safer option for them. Sometimes they can be quite bold walking among shoppers in broad daylight is not unknown

The reaction of Londoners is a mixed one. Most people particularly in the inner city love them and even feed them. They are seen as a particularly wonderful wild creature and a wonderful addition to the tapestry of life. In general they cause little damage although in gardens they occasionally pull up plants particularly with the activities of the young ones.

The breeding season for them is in spring and then many people are woken up with their mating cries which can be quite ear splitting.

Further out into the suburbs there is a bit less tolerance of them. Occasionally lurid stories surface in the tabloid papers about foxes entering homes and attacking babies. This is however hard to credit as the average fox is scared of people and it is difficult to approach close enough to get a good picture, let alone conceive of them entering a house. In general they are timid creatures that tend to try and stay away from people. As congeners of our cities they have a natural reserve for human beings.

Sometimes they get fed by various well wishers and can become reasonably tame although they are not particularly dog like. They are better at climbing than most dogs so high fencing panels do not create much of an obstacle for them.

For most people however they form a really special addition to our urban wildlife and the sight of a truly wild creature walking among buildings in central London is not one that anybody can forget in a hurry!

Daylight Saving

2015-10-25T11:29:00.000-07:00

Daylight Saving

In a week’s time the time will change and we will be in British winter time. Of course the steadily reducing days will seem worse now as all around the sun will set earlier and rise a bit earlier. The game of cat and mouse will continue as an innovation of the time of the First World War will again take its toll. The idea would really come down to what an innovation this is because those who argue for the system always say that it prevents accidents in the early mornings.

However there is another fact that as night comes down earlier people are leaving work in the dark. That is quite difficult as for most this can be a problem as people are leaving work in the dark. Many firms for instance allow woman employees to leave earlier due to a fear of crime. This has been a problem in the UK as the government always trumpets figures that say that crime is falling. However this is only part of the story as of course cyber crime is on the rise. Still the problem remains of muggings and sex crimes. Generally one piece of evidence would be that if it was lighter in the evenings there would be a further fall in crime. In some ways people who commit these types of crimes do not tend to be early birds!

The debate of course rages and the greatest benefit of the current regime is in Scotland. Yet in Scotland’s autonomy statute that power has been reserved to Westminster. So of course the idea of Scotland and England being on a different time zone is anathema but somehow the South of England particularly London would probably benefit.

In the past attempts were made to abandon daylight saving but they always seemed to founder on the fact that people in the far north did not like the dark winter mornings. A similar attempt was made in Russia fairly recently and also swiftly became unpopular primarily because of the dark mornings. However the idea is now for the country to permanently go on to Summer time.

Another result of the change is that people now have to reset everything. The usual spectacles is of people turning up late for Sunday engagements when the clocks go forward and early when they go back. Despite all the publicity some still manage to forget. The idea of a permanent switch in time definitely has some attractions and will be around for some time to come.

After the election

2015-07-19T05:37:00.003-07:00

After the election

Now that the election has come and gone the result nobody expected came. Now here will be a new enquiry as to how the pollsters got it so wrong, With polls showing the main parties neck and neck up to the final days all predictions have gone awry and nobody expected the conservative party to get an overall majority. For most opposition parties the results were stark and disappointing apart from the Scottish national party that is. Calls are starting again for there to be a proportional representation system as the results particularly for smaller parties were considered unfair.

For the Scottish national party the phenomenon was great. They managed to raise their total by a massive amount from six seats at dissolution to Fifty six. This meant their winning all but three constituencies in Scotland. This result will probably ensure that another referendum on independence will happen before too long and probably could lead eventually to the break up of the Union.

For the main opposition Labour party the result was disappointing. In London they benefitted from a swing to them but this was not replicated in the rest of the country. In Scotland they saw their tally of MPs reduced from forty one to one. Scotland traditionally has been a Labour stronghold and this loss was particularly keenly felt although nobody could have predicted the SNP phenomenon when it arose.

The junior coalition partners of the outgoing coalition government were decimated. Their tally of seats slumped to single figures and several high profile members lost their seats. Generally the Lib Dem brand was considered toxic. Traditionally they have been made up of disaffected conservative voters who cannot bring themselves to vote Labour or in some cases disaffected Labour voters. However they were left reeling as the results came in and it became obvious how toxic their brand was.

A feature of this election has been the rose of five party politics and this of course leads people to forget that in Wales and Scotland they already have a four party system with the Nationalist parties there. It is only new in England.

Two minor parties have now entered the scene, the Green party and the United Kingdom Independence Party(UKIP). For the Green Party they held on to the seat they currently hold but did not increase. Nationally they won over 1 million votes so the cry of foul was still ringing out.

For UKIP the votes were starker they also managed only one seat despite winning 3.8 Million votes. One of the mistakes made was to assume that Britain would always return a three party system. However it does look as if the five party system is here to stay despite the squeeze on the votes of the minority parties from the major parties

Saint George's Day

2015-04-23T06:05:00.002-07:00

Saint George’s day

Saint George’s day is one day which has not tended to be celebrated much in England which leads to comparisons with the saint days of others in the United Kingdom. Of course every saint’s day when it comes to patron saints has two aspects, the religious and the national. In most of these cases the national is the most important.

For instance the great comparison in celebrations is that of Saint Patrick’s Day. Even in London it is celebrated more than Saint George’s day. Many Irish pubs are undertaking special promotions. Before that there are several evenings with Irish dancers in many of the pubs. The Guinness flows, many of them offer free food usually Irish stew or Boiled Bacon, Cabbage and Potatoes. Irish bands play and there is a procession in London. For many it is an excuse for good old knees up! Many of the people attending are not Irish and it can be seen as a part of the cultural diversity of the country. Celebrations are also held in cities like Manchester and Birmingham. There is a large commercial presence as well and many firms are looking on it as a way to make vast profits. Of course the celebration does not necessarily have a lot to do with religion although many catholic churches will give out free shamrocks and have services on that day. Saint Patrick as the person who brought Christianity to Ireland is not mentioned much. Incidentally Saint Patrick is also the patron Saint of Nigeria and a large Nigerian community exists in London as well.

Saint George’s day is however far less celebrated and has often in the past been associated with politics of the extreme right-wing variety. This has however begun to change and for a good reason. While it is a source of grievance for many English people that in this Kingdom of four nations England is the one where it is least acceptable to show pride in the country is due to this fact. Of course England by sheer force of numbers tends to dominate the country and this has led to celebrations of Englishness being seen as less acceptable. In the last ten years however, the celebration of Saint George’s day has become more and more acceptable. Increasingly it is being seen as an inclusive day for all. That is something to be welcomed and festivals are now officially held on the day celebrating the best of England.

Of course on a religious level Saint George became identified with England later mainly because his legendary fight with the dragon was thought to epitomize the medieval virtues of chivalry. He was a martyr from what is now Turkey and never set foot in England. He became the patron saint of England in the fourteenth century replacing Saint Edward the confessor and the previous Saint Edmund the martyr. He is also the patron saint of Georgia, Portugal and Malta among others and his patronage is quite common..

Still it is at least now permissible to show the symbols of England in way it was not twenty years ago and Saint George fills one of those roles, along with the English flag. This can only be a welcome change.

Third Party Jitters

2015-03-01T12:59:00.002-08:00

Third Party Jitters

With the state of the coming general election very difficult to predict as neither of the two major parties being able to build up a convincing lead in the opinion polls the attention of the media has switched to the third parties that are waiting in the wings

Certainly it does seem that! Their problems are only just beginning with the media chipping away at them

At stake is the prize of who becomes the third political force in the country.

While the proportion of people who vote for one of the two major parties has consistently declined since the fifties there has always been one third party the Liberal Democrats who mopped up the protest vote. They were able to be the nice guys of British politics and though they ended up running several local authorities they managed to avoid in general mud attached to the major parties. Their members were either disaffected Tories who could not bring themselves to vote Labour and disaffected Labour voters who could not bring themselves to vote Tory..

With the present coalition that as all ended. Since going into coalition with the Tories in 2010 they have been held responsible for all the failures of the coalition and there is little doubt that their support is in steep decline. Their vote is likely to fall by more than half.

Where then will that leave the new protest parties. Two new parties have sprung up to take votes, one is the United Kingdom Independence party or UKIP and the other is the Greens. Issues her are of course who will take votes away from the main parties.

The Tory Party led by David Cameron is likely to suffer disproportionately as a result of UKIP. Here is a party which espouses as its main objective withdrawal from the European Union and measures against immigration. There has been a surge of immigrants from Eastern Europe particularly Poland since they joined the European Union.

The problem for UKIP is that the evidence is showing that people are wanting more detail on what else they would do. While polls point to the fact that the majority of the British public with to remain in the EU suddenly it becomes glaringly obvious that they do not have policies geared to peoples main concerns as to what happens to the economy and also what happens to the National Health Service, Our socialized system of medicine. The National Health Service is indeed a sacred cow to most British people and how a new government would deal with it will be an important issue in people deciding who to vote or.

The problem now is that the media are focusing relentlessly on the defects of UKIP’s policies.

Some of their politicians have been pillories extensively in the media. Seen as a threat by both major parties they are finding no shortage of material. The BBC conducted a straw poll about Nigel Farage in London. One of their constituency representatives described the place as a well known local mosque. The place in question is Westminster cathedral, the main cathedral of the catholic church in the country. This spawned a hashtag on twitter #Things that are not mosques. Other scandals have involved UKIP members who hold racist views. Mostly to be fair they have been promptly expelled by the party. Obviously they have to take action but the mud tends to stick and the papers gleefully report the scandals.

However the other third party the Greens are also picking up flak now. Their leader made a mess of an interview about the costings for their policies. They wanted to build more social housing but were unable to provide costings. Now they are trying to justify their position.

The trouble for both these parties is that as the current polls seem to predict a parliament in which no party will have an overall majority the policies of possible coalition partners become more important. Hence their policies are under a lot more scrutiny now and that looks set to continue to the election and possibly beyond.

Protest Vote

2015-02-17T02:08:00.002-08:00

Protest Vote

The coming general election in the UK has two aspects to it. Obviously the most important one is who will form the government and the result is such that it will be one of the two main parties.

The other sub text is what will happen to the parties of protest or the third party. Historically this role was filled by the Liberal Democratic Party. However the Libdems as they are usually referred to here are for the most part thoroughly discredited by being part of the governing coalition so their role in this election is likely to be a large amount of contraction with large numbers of their MPs being defeated.

This has opened up a vacuum in the electoral process and the most likely result will b e the opening up of spaces for new parties. Two parties are likely to be the beneficiaries though with the first past the post electoral system they will struggle to win a greatly increased number of seats.

The two parties most set to benefit will be UKIP and the Greens.

UKIP have performed impressively in some of the recent by-elections. This is not likely to happen too the same extent in general election as by-elections are very commonly used for protest votes with many of these “protesters” going back to their normal allegiance at election time. Many papers are suggesting that UKIP’s bubble has finally burst. This is unlikely. It does retain a significant groundswell of support which is not likely to dissipate at a general election though they are likely to perform less well at the general election.

However they are likely to become a significant force. One factor in their rise was the main parties trying to talk tough on immigration which was a bad strategy for them as it enhanced UKIP’s importance by reminding people of the problem. The Conservatives particularly fell for this line and now they focus on other policies. At the next election UKIP is likely to remain a significant force though it is difficult to see them winning a large number of seats

The Green Party has also made inroads and has been particularly successful at picking up disillusioned Liberal Democrat voters. They already have one MP but for similar reasons to UKIP will find it difficult to increase their tally of seats.

One aspect that has not really been mentioned though is that the next parliament is likely to have a different flavour as previously the main competitor for votes with the main parties was the Liberal Democrats who define themselves as equidistant for both main parties. What will happen now is that both main parties are going to have to look over their shoulders at the competition. The Conservatives will be nervously look over their shoulders at UKIP as they have competition on the right and Labour will look over their shoulders at the Green Party on their left. This is likely to pull politics in a much more radical direction and will send a message to the main parties that they cannot take their core vote for granted.

Added to this will be the fact that Scotland is likely to vote differently from the rest of the UK and its third party the Scottish National Party is likely to do very well. Historically a Labour stronghold Scotland is likely to elect a large contingent of SNP MPs and it is Scotland which is likely to be the place where the third party does particularly well having built on and expanded its support during the 2014 referendum on Independence. One thing is certain politics will not be the same again!

The silent killer

2015-02-14T11:04:00.002-08:00

The Silent Killer

One of the truisms of the modern age is that everybody is responsible for their own destiny. However one field where things have to move on is the field of metal health. Mental health is one of the great problems of the age. It is one of the leading causes of disability worldwide

For a society that generally stigmatizes people with mental health problems they are surprisingly common. According to MIND the national mental health charity one in four people will experience a mental health problem each year. This is a fairly staggering statistic!

Yet in charity collections MIND and mental health charities lag further behind others. Our culture sees mental illness often as a threat.

While the numbers of People with mental health problems who engage in unprovoked attacks on people is small the stigma remains. Mental health is associated with individuals being dangerous and unpredictable.

This makes it very difficult to successfully reintegrate mental health users into the society. Most programs of education do not cater for this and there is vey little maneuver room in most employment contracts to allow or people being ill for part of the ear. In this respect many mental health users have great problems with the system and successfully integrating themselves within society.

For a large part of the British population mental illness is a fact of life. One in four of the population will experience a mental health problem in the course of a year. Mental illness has a major effect on the quality of life of the individual concerned. Although only a killer if it leads to suicide or self harm and despite the Brits looking down on Scandinavian countries Britain has a much higher suicide rate than they do and its rates of self harming are among the highest in the world.

What can be done to sort out this problem? In most respects the question comes down to better support for sufferers in what is increasingly an overlooked epidemic. The consequences for society are quite great as a lot of talent is overlooked. For some people the experience of mental health problems can be positive spurring them to do things with their lives. In this respect excluding about a quarter of our population from meaningful activity is not an option.

How does a society deal with this epidemic? In Britain mental health services do exist but one of the problems thrown up was the fact that in the eighties all the institutions closed to be replaced by care in the community. This however meant that a lot of people who had become institutionalized ended up on the streets. Mostly community based care does work with some significant exceptions. The perception of users is quite mixed with many having significant complaints about the way they have been dealt with by the system.

The problem of mental health is an epidemic that will not go away and in this the United Kingdom is not significantly different from most Western countries. How we deal with it will be one of the significant challenges of this century!

Fitness in Middle Age

2015-02-03T06:36:00.001-08:00

Fitness in Middle age

One of the problems of generational thinking is that twenty years ago for instance sport was considered something that young people did. In your twenties you played sport such as cricket or football. In your thirties you still played a little but the interest was fading and by our forties you gave it up.

The problem with this approach was that exercise as a way of fighting many of the problems associated with aging was never considered. People in their forties lived entirely sedentary lives, developed their beer bellies and forgot about sport completely. However nothing could be further from the truth as modern research is indicating that fitness is a goal that has to be pursued to middle age and beyond.

For one thing Exercise is now recommended by doctors to fight some of the modern conditions such as high blood pressure and obesity. These already take a toll on the society and make or a very different outlook as health services are stretched to breaking point dealing with the consequences of our unhealthy lifestyles.

The problem now is about spreading the message and there is an increasing amount of evidence that it is taking time to get through. For instance two thirds of the adult male population over 20 is considered to be overweight or obese. The incidence in the female population is a bit lower but not much. The fact that exercise also has an effect on other problems as well such as the control of depression in many cases makes it imperative that these ideas are changed.

One of the problems is actually going to be to make it easier for people to access gyms and swimming pools and to promote the idea of regular exercise. In this the educators still have a long way to go in terms of changing attitudes for the general population of the country.

The incidence of obesity in children is also rising which is also going to make a ticking time bomb of the society with the risk that these children will go on two develop obesity related conditions such as obesity and diabetes.

In avoiding these conditions diet plays a part but exercise has to some extent been the Cinderella and attitudes will have to change. A lot of preventative health will have to focus on changing entrenched attitudes and making physical exercise more acceptable.

Among certain groups of people usually on the higher end of the socioeconomic scale there is evidence that this is happening. However there is still a long way to go!

Christmas in britain

2014-12-18T17:46:00.002-08:00

Christmas in Britain

In a country that is becoming ever more secular the traditional British obsession with Christmas becomes more and more difficult to understand. Along with the commercial fest it provides more and more justification for a celebration in the midst of the dismal world that beckons outside with its wintry weather.

Christmas is signaled by a spate of office parties and most firms will often have a Christmas party for their employees. This usually brings the refrain that more is needed in January but of course by this time other forces are at work and it is forgotten. Drunken and disgraceful behavior is usually laughed off which is quite fortunate for the many who do over indulge.

At the same time commercialism is rampant with the average person not really being able to describe the reason for the celebration in an increasingly secular country. In fact it often appears more like a folk festival.

At the beginning of December Christmas lights go up in all the main centres. Most towns have them ad many individuals plan their own lights as well. Often you will see displays that are privately made on the theme of merry Christmas.

However there is a down side as well as the whole country effectively shuts down for this period and in many places you will get the refrain, ”Oh we will sort it out in the new year” In many cases Christmas presents are being bought in August and there is little doubt that the running will be made for a Christmas season soon after the commercial fests of Halloween and Guy Fawkes night are over.

Christmas is very much a family time and often there are times when for those without close family it can be very lonely. A surge of charities try to help but their resources are limited. There was one initiative called Crisis at Christmas which tried to bring homeless people in over the Christmas period. That included mainly people who were sleeping rough. It begs the question however of what happens to these people the rest of the time.

Another concomitant is that many family fight start around this time. The family get together often turns sour and the fights continue into the new year and beyond.

In London itself the entire public transport system shuts down so all there is is some taxis charging ruinous prices for the business. The moral of the story is of course that you have to be where you aim to be the day before. After the great fest the world wakes up to the fact that new year is dawning. After the initial heady element of New Year ’s Eve the country generally settles into a mood of depression. Most people are broke financially having maxed out on the credit cards to pay for the Christmas splurge. Even the lengthening days bring little cheer and or many people January and February are the most depressing months of the ear. Spirits only seem to lift a bit in March with the arrival of the spring.

Beer and Swimming

2014-12-13T10:38:00.002-08:00

Beer and swimming

As I travel quite a lot I often encounter things to do and being passionately fond of swimming I often try swimming in pools in towns I travel to. Forget about the gym as in England particularly most gyms will charge you a large fee for an induction before they let you use their equipment.

At the moment there is a lot of focus on healthy living and I thought it interesting to try a comparison of the price ratio of having a swim to having a beer in three countries I have been to. It all started when I had a conversation with a Czech friend who bemoaned the fact that the price of a swim if you are not a member of a particular scheme was exactly the same in the Czech Republic as in The UK but people there earn less.

However I thought it instructive to compare the prices of having a swim in four countries with the price of having a beer. At the moment the government belabors us nonstop about the nation drinking too much s so this would be instructive.

Of course having taught maths before I realize tables can be difficult to take in so I have tried to keep them to a minimum. Obviously prices can vary according to the establishment and my recent experience in Poland is just based on one town Katowice. I do not make any pretense to scientific scholarship in this but it is quite interesting and bears out the contention that healthy living can be more expensive. Figures have been rounded.

Country	Average price of a beer	Average price of a swim	Ratio of cost swim:beer
United Kingdom	£3	£5	1.7 : 1
Czech Republic	29 Kc	99 Kc	3.4 : 1
Serbia	90 din	250 din	2.8 : 1
Poland	5 zl	50 zl	10 : 1

On this basis Poland clearly comes out the worst and the UK not to badly with Serbia being slightly better than the Czech Republic.

Breastfeeding Scandal

2014-12-08T11:49:00.002-08:00

Breast feeding scandal

A recent ruckus has erupted in London over quite a strange issue. One of London’s most opulent hotels Claridges apparently asked a breastfeeding mother to cover up. This has united a whole series of disparate elements into the campaign. Outraged mothers are holding demonstrations outside the hotel. To cap it all other politicians have tended so far to stay silent but the leader of the UK Independence party has appeared to back the staff.

The cries of outrage have been swirling round the internet and the hotel has been forced to say that they do in fact allow breastfeeding.

It has emerged as one of the small issues of the day and the papers are full of the legal niceties saying that a ban is apparently discriminatory.

Of course this is a minefield as some people claim to be offended by the sight. Personally I find it a beautiful sight and cannot imagine anybody really objecting. It symbolizes to me a mother’s love and I am not offended by the sight myself. However it has certainly started a small storm and the hotel is really being forced to clarify its position under the weight of protests and publicity

Third party Issues

2014-11-27T07:09:00.002-08:00

Third party issues

Now with a second by election victory for UKIP the inquest continues and all the papers and media are looking at and studying the results as well as the political class. In many ways the appeal of UKIP is due to several factors, Immigration being one of the most commonly cited ones. This tends to ignore the question of what is the real issue.

Many politicians of the mainstream parties are now trying to emulate UKIP in their foreign policy including the Prime Minister. This of course ensures that the issue of immigration remains in the news benefitting UKIP all the more.

In the case of UKIP its rise cannot simply be explained by the number of immigrants but something broader which is a mounting anger at the political class. This is a current which runs deep in our society. The mainstream parties namely the Conservatives and Labour both have the disadvantages of power, the Conservatives being in power now and Labour having fairly recently been in power. The traditional third party, the Liberal Democrats is tainted by association with being in government now and can no longer act as a lightning rod for dissent.

In this way UKIP is taking votes from major parties with a steady stream of cynicism about their behaviour in office. One of the first key setters of disillusionment with the current political class was the expenses scandal in which MPs were found to have stolen from the system in quite large ways. The result was a few MPs from both major parties have been sent to prison. However all of them were at it from all major parties! The minor parties of course remain untainted by this scandal. UKIP however as far as expenses claims are concerned have not shown themselves to be behind on this as far as the European parliament is concerned where they have representation with one of their members also being convicted of abusing the system.

The general feeling at this time of recession has been a lot of anger at the ruling parties. They are seen to be under the control of a metropolitan elite that is far removed from the people they represent. The idea of MPs telling people to tighten their belts while voting themselves above inflation pay rises has not been lost on the British Voter. In general cynicism about the major parties rules! Add to this the fact that the major parties are seen as not being every different from each other there is even more cynicism about them.

On both counts the major parties are seen ever more as two sides of the same coin and there is a drift of voters to UKIP and now on the other side to the Green Party which is also enjoying a surge in the polls. The result of this of course will be at the next general election probably be an increase in the vote of these two parties at the expense of the mainstream parties

Rats in London

2014-11-24T11:24:00.003-08:00

Rats in London

The topic of rats in London is one that yields many myths. At one time there was a common myth that nobody was ever more than six foot away from a rat. This has now come under some scrutiny and seems to be a bit hard to justify. However the fact remains that London still has a sizeable rat population and their presence is evident in quite a few places.

All over the city it is quite common sight to see rat tarps and in many parks they are increasingly bold and can be seen scuttling about the undergrowth in broad daylight..

One of the features of London life is the amount of takeaway food places that now sit on London streets. There are the traditional fish and chip shops and also chicken and chips shops as well as doer kebab places along with some of the American chains such as MacDonalds, Subway and Burger King. Most of these places boast a lot of discarded food as it is very common for people just to throw it on the pavements without regard to the wider implications. While this supports a larger population of scavenging animals with the foxes, crows and starlings particularly benefitting from this it is also clear that this habit is providing a food source for rats

Another problem is that there are large populations of rats in the sewers. In times of austerity when cuts are made often rat control programmes bear the brunt as they cannot be seen. Local politicians would rather make cuts there rather than places such as old age homes and schools which would obviously court some unpopularity. As a result rat populations often become very large with some overspill on to London streets.

The tabloid press is also full of lurid stories of giant rats that are invading our towns. Most of these stories should however be taken with more than a pinch of salt

One fact is undeniable. The population of London’s rats is very large and is expanding. Rats are animals that are adept at exploiting the opportunities provided by human activity and a city like London provides plenty of opportunities. The recession has helped as well as vacant buildings provide plenty of opportunities for them to roost. Rat control is probably the best than can be achieved as eradication would be unlikely. The rat is here to stay.

Repairs and livelihoods

2014-11-09T12:16:00.002-08:00

Repairs and livelihoods

A good example of the way repairs and livelihoods work is what happens at Archway station on the London underground. Apparently the block above needs substantial renovations and the scaffolding is going up everywhere. However this time I was witness to an argument that ensued as scaffolding was put up and the entrance to a shop was closed up.

The owner was remonstrating with the contractors. He had a business to run and that was his livelihood. All the workers were waiting round like vultures on the every word spoken

“Look if you put scaffolding up here I will take it down myself”

“Yes sir I understand but you have to observe the safety of your customers"

At that stage I took my camera out.

“So you are going to take pictures of us” one of the workers called to me

“I will take picture wherever I like” I replied. No reply was forthcoming and I continued to my engagement

The next day I spoke to the owner. There was scaffolding above but his place was secure. In this there was the conflict. I spoke to him about it and he just told me that the scaffolding was not for the station but for a block of flats nearby.

This encapsulates one of the problems for small business in this country. Decisions are taken for big projects without any regard who is affected by this. The people who enforce these are faceless bureaucrats. And people are affected by their decisions. In the end justice prevailed and the small café owner was able to keep his places but at no time was he offered any compensation for the effect it would have on his business

Cycling in London

2014-10-31T00:25:00.003-07:00

Cycling in London

The third user of the streets apart from the pedestrians and cars are the cyclists. This is one of the most problematic groups as they are blamed for accidents on the roads and for not observing the highway code yet London is a death trap for cyclists. Many people are put off cycling in the city because in many ways it is a death trap,

It is a common sight to see bundles of flowers marking the spot where a cyclist was killed usually at a busy road junction. Lorry drivers claim not to see them and the death toll on the roads is very high.

At the moment the talk is of ensuring lorries are fitted with special safety equipment as well as a new network of cycle lanes in order to segregate cyclists and pedestrians.

It has been reported that cyclist themselves are becoming more worried about the roads. The number of accidents is fairly staggering. What should be an easy way to keep fit is increasingly being seen as a death trap.

London does not for instance have the history of a bicycle friendly culture that you have in many Dutch and Belgian cities and an unfortunate consequence of the way cyclists are treated on the roads is that they spill out onto paths in parks and on to pavements where they come into conflict with pedestrians.

One thing is certain. Changing the culture of the roads in London will be a lot more complicated that appears and any change will necessitate a lot of foresight in order to bring motorists, cyclists and pedestrians into relative harmony

London Property Prices

2014-10-19T06:26:00.002-07:00

London Property prices

One of the problems of London is its appearance as a world city

For so many years it has appeared as a safe haven against any crises in the word which has led to the phenomenon now occurring of the indigenous population moving out.

Cranes stand in many places with new housing developments holding sway. In fact there seems to be a rather frenetic pace of building. However this is not likely to benefit any ordinary people as the world comes to London’s doorsteps. Houses are seen as investments. Stories abound in the press of streets in parts of London where here are no light at night as the houses lie unoccupied.

Meanwhile the crisis for ordinary Londoners is fairly acute. The sight of people sleeping in doorways in this town is not unusual. The price of private housing is now so high that it is beyond the reach of most working people. Initially there has been a flow of people towards the so called commuter belt villages as they can no longer afford London prices.

The pressure on rented housing has also been substantial and for many people who have lived here all their lives the word is “how long can we stay?”Many people consider relocating to other parts of the country as they can no longer see themselves affording the prices that flats and houses in London command or raiding deposits of about £30 000 which is more than the average annual wage. In many ways the recession as exaggerated this tendency as banks play safe and demand higher deposits before they giver mortgages

Many of the regeneration policies followed by local authorities have tended to exacerbate this problem as flats are snapped up be rich overseas buyers leaving substantial housing shortage. The only local buyers able to afford the prices are those who already have properties or young people able to borrow from the bank of Mum and Dad. This is leading to big changes in the demographic of Central London. With the average price of a one bedroom flat in London approaching £400 000 owning one’s own home in London is a pipe dream for most people.

Other ramifications exist! The poor seem to be in the process of being exiled to the outer suburbs as in many other European cities but increasingly what are known as key workers are as well. Key workers include such people as teachers, police, emergency services, cleaners. This of course leads to the spectre of Central London existing without key workers to service the place

One thing is certain. The crisis of housing in London is going to take more of a centre stage in local politics sooner rather than later

Clacton and UKIP

2014-10-15T06:52:00.002-07:00

Clacton and UKIP

Now that the by-election has occurred the papers are full of analysis of what the result will mean. Will it be a new political force establishing itself or will it be a flash in the pan? Many columnists predicted UKIP was finished after the last European elections arguably their high water mark. However the fact that they have won a safe Tory seat and managed to push Labour to within 700 votes of losing in the other by-election speaks of a lot more than just that.

One of the problems for a third force in a country which historically has been the preserve of two main parties who alternate in government is that it is very hard for a third party to make an impression and to break the mould. Historically the British are divided into two major tribes Labour and Conservative and usually people will sport the trappings of which particular tribe they belong to. Of course politics is not a subject necessarily discussed.. These allegiances are however becoming more fluid

Normally the floating voters tend to determine which major arty winds power and the constituency first past the post does not tend to favour challengers. They usually have to concentrate their votes enough in a constituency to win a majority or plurality of the vote enabling their candidate to get elected. The systems in use for European elections, Scottish ad Welsh parliament elections and the London assembly elections are much kinder to smaller parties.

Several factors point however to a change in this view. One is percentage of the vote. If you look back at previous elections a different pattern emerges. In 1950 the two major parties gained 86 % of the vote between them. In 2010 they only managed 65%. This points to an increasing share of the vote being taken by third parties. In addition four way marginals are becoming increasingly common. A case in point is that in 1992 ,the constituency of Inverness, Nairn and Lochaber elected its Liberal Democrat winner with only 26% of the vote over his SNP, Labour and Conservative challengers.. A third party can be successful in winning a constituency with 25% of the vote!

Another fact is that or the first time since the second world war the country has a coalition government as none of the major parties got enough to govern outright. The trend would seem to show that this is becoming the norm. Probably at the next election if the polls are anything to go by the major parties will struggle to win enough seats to govern on their own

What form the new challengers will take is difficult to assess. Historically the third party was the Liberal democrats who were mostly disaffected Tories who couldn’t bring themselves to vote labor and Disaffected Labour who couldn’t bring themselves to vote Tory. A lot of their supporters have left in disgust after their coalition with the Tories and their vote now struggles to reach double figures

Against ths can be se the rise of UKIP a party which capitalizes on fear of immigration, always a problem when people struggle to find jobs in a recession and also on the overbearing European Bureaucracy. However it also capitalizes on one thing which is the general disenchantment with the political class which runs very deep at this time. The Coalition government is very unpopular and Labour was in government recently.

this can be set the fact that another minority party the Green is rising in the polls and outpolling the Liberal Democrats’ in many constituencies which means the rise of another party. How this will translate into a general election is anybody’s guess. However the normal scare tactic used by the Prime minister of Vote UKIP and get Labour” does not seem to be working. Most UKIP voters are determined to have their say come what may and are no longer vulnerable to fears of getting the other.

One thing is certain : Four of five party politics is here to stay!

Railway travelling

2014-08-05T06:25:00.002-07:00

Railway travelling

One of the most incomprehensible aspects of living in Britain is the price of rail travel. As more and more people are forced out of London by exorbitant property prices the demand for commuter trains increases. More and more people forced to travel on these overpriced amenities means that fares rose even further. At the moment an inflation busting 5.6% increase in fares is being forecast for next year. The inflation rate at the adjusted total is currently 1.9%.

All of this spells more misery for commuters and the other question is why is rail travel generally so expensive in the UK. Conventional wisdom is that it is the way the tendering system is set up and the rail companies will argue that tickets booked in advance are cheaper.

However the fact remains that it is cheaper to buy an air ticket to Greece than to travel to the North of England by train!

Faith in a workaday world

2014-07-31T03:29:00.003-07:00

Faith in a workaday world

One of the questions to be asked in a big city like this one is how easy it is to continue with a religious belief among the tumult of modern life.

In a country where most people profess a secular orientation and churches tend to empty more and more the issue of people of faith living as a minority comes to the fore more and more. In most churches the picture is the same. Declining attendances tell the story with empty pews in most churches. Differences can be seen in areas and in churches.

The Church of England has been the victim of a very steep decline in membership over the years with the Methodist church taking an even bigger hit.

It is as if Religion has been expunged from the national consciousness with even the Prime Minister speaking about having issues with faith. In terms of most moral issues that are affected in any cases there is a strong puritanical streak in secular Britain which damns all who do not see eye to eye on the issues of the day. Recent issues affecting Christians are usually spoken about as if the Christian position is wrong. On abortion the consensus is that it is a good thing and that only Catholics are against it. To be against abortion is to be against the rights of women over their bodies. It is a decidedly non party political issue but most politicians who raise their heads above the parapets endure strong derision from their party colleagues

A few years ago at the time of the Olympics, a faith outreach was set up linking all the main Christian churches. People were invited in for tea and coffee and a chat about faith. Various volunteers many from the US provided outreach services. I could only imagine the response that they got most of the time as people do not even want to talk about faith and in this case I ended up talking to a southern Baptist Lady from the US who almost fell off her chair with shock when I was able to produce a Bible from my rucksack. In England this would be a very unusual response.

Many churches have progressively ageing congregations with the membership dwindling. The Methodist Church was predicted to go extinct a little while ago. As far as other churches are concerned immigration has been a boom. It has halted the trend of declining catholic congregations and the catholic church seems to be holding its own in the battle of numbers. The same effect works for the orthodox churches which show a modest increase in membership. Apart from that the Pentecostal churches show some sort of increase in membership being increasing linked to arioso initiatives from the US.

Aside from this the picture is a bleak one. Increasingly the church has been all but expunged from national life. The new place of worship is the shopping mall driven by an increasingly money orientated consumer society.

The picture is similar for most of the British Isles with the exception of the Republic of Ireland ,though there the church has taken a knock due to child abuse allegations. However it remains fundamentally strong as still plays a part in national life unlike the other countries of these islands

Underemployment

2014-07-30T03:08:00.001-07:00

Underemployment

During the recent downturn a lot has been made of the fact that people are unemployed. Little has been made of the fact that many of the newly created jobs are part time. This has resulted in a phenomenon known as underemployment.

Of course this is great for the politicians as they can say that employment is on the rise. It does not however disguise the fact that there is a human tragedy behind all these things and that underemployment is actually quite a curse. Many people gain part time hours that still however ensure that they are not counted as unemployed yet they fail to make enough money to live a decent life and struggle to pay their bills.

Large numbers of people are reduced to working at a part time job when they would prefer to work more hours. This is very much a hidden statistic and its toll on the people involved cannot be underestimated. Not only do they have little money but they have the whole day to think about their problem!

Of course another aspect of this is the zero hour’s contract which is becoming increasingly common. Many forms are doing this and it becomes quite difficult as the person is only hired as and when required! This can also play havoc if a person is getting their income topped up by benefits as the hours can be variable and the bureaucracy of the benefit offices in this regard is something else!

However the politicians find this a very handy in painting their picture of an economy that is recovering!

Commuting to work

2014-07-27T10:27:00.002-07:00

Commuting to work

One of the great bugbears of London is the time it takes to get to work. Most Londoners are accustomed to spending long periods of the day just getting to their workplaces

As more and more people are forced into outlying suburbs and commuter towns so the daily commute grows. Trains coming from towns in the Home Counties are usually packed at weekdays with many of them providing standing room only. One of the annual miseries is the rise in rail travel tickets with all the fallout that it entails.

Even for those who live in London there is the misery of the commute. Many times I have had to spend about two hours actually getting to my place of work and that in London is not uncommon. Once I had an evening class to deliver in one location and I recall getting home at midnight which was in general quite a tiring commute.

Often it is said that everybody in London has two jobs, their own job and the other is getting to and from their workplace. In many ways it is fairly much of a truism that the daily commute can play a big role in your life and you can actually spend quite a few hours of the day getting to and from your workplace.

In the mornings the metro or tube system is packed. Most of the carriages are standing room only

And it is quite common to see tempers flaring as people all over themselves to get on trains and stay on the trains through all the stops. Busses can usually be packed as well and many buses will speed by as these are already so full of passengers that not is not safe or them to take any more.

Even private modes of transport are hardly an option as using a car in central London is a fruitless exercise. Not only do you have to pay to drive in this zone which is indicated by road signs bur you also have to find parking which is not easy and the few parking garages are quite expensive. Some people take to the roads and cycle but this also has its problems as London has an appalling record on road safety for cyclists. Many cyclists are killed every year by cars and lorries. The sight of bundles of flowers marking the death of a cyclist at a particular road junction is commonplace.

Every method of commuting has its problems. For most Londoners the idea is trying to find something to do in the long hours we spend commuting

Heat wave

2014-07-22T07:47:00.002-07:00

Heat wave

At the moment London is suffering a heat wave. It seems as if people are never satisfied. Now all the complaints are

“It is too hot!”

However those who work outdoors are enjoying the heat. Since air conditioning is nor so common here most people are sweltering in the heat. On the metro you constantly hear advice about taking a bottle of water with you. And it will probably come to a point soon when trains will slow down as usually happens. The transport system never seems to be adapted to cope with extremes of weather.

For the moment a lot of people are enjoying it. The parks come alive with people sitting in groups taking in the sun.

In a country where this does not happen so often many people are grateful for the short interlude because next week we could have rain. That is the ever present threat!

The recovery

2014-07-10T12:03:00.003-07:00

The recovery

In a time when the last recession has been decimating the high streets of the UK and led to a massive drop in the living standards of most people in the UK talk of a recovery seems a bit rich. For the past five years at least people in work that is have seen bills rose exponentially while wage rises have been small or nonexistent.

The truth is that now the government and press is trumpeting recovery. However people are still losing their jobs and for the average Briton life does not seem to have improved much

“The new conditions are rubbish” My one friend told me after going for a teaching job.

“What they expect from you is impossible!”

This sentiment would actually be mirrored in the exchanges various people have ad generally new jobs created seem to have worse conditions than the last.

In general people are accepting lower wages and worse conditions of employment just to get jobs which seem to still be very hard to come by.

One f the problems is that in education the paperwork that needs to be done is about ten times what is was When Labour left office so the government is increasing the load of paperwork all the time.

And the recovery seems ever so distant for most people as there seems to be very little work out there. In addition costs are rising all the time. Housing costs and fuel costs particularly. For the average person very little seems to be working at the moment.

Wirth the relentless increases in costs with wages staying stagnant there is likely to be large political fallout.

Cheap shops

2014-07-05T13:41:00.002-07:00

Cheap Shops

A good indicator of the health of the economy for most people is what is going on in the high streets of towns. This tends to reflect what is happening in the world at large and at the moment many high streets in the UK look pretty grim despite all this talk of recovery. The sight of boarded up shop is still common. It is as if the enterprise has gone out of the economy. One aspect of the recession has been an explosion of cheap shops and for most people still in work this is one thing that has reduced the cost of living. We have the pound shop, the 99p store and poundland along with many other independent 99p or one pound chains. A huge range of goods are displayed there and of course nobody now asks their provenance. In fact few care about why the goods are so cheap but only the price. One of the signs of this recession is that even the Middle classes now go to poundland. Before the crisis that would have been unthinkable.

However these sops offer a range of goods from kitchen utensils to toys and garden accessories. All are offered at the standard rates of one pound. People are going there to stock up on all the essentials. Now the range even included such staples as cooked food ad it is possible to buy pizza salads and cooked chicken wings in some of these outlets. In fact there is a never ending streams of traffic in these places and this industry is one that has certainly not been suffering from the recession. So difficult has it become that even the major British supermarkets such as Tescos, Sainsburys and Morrisons have started price wars among themselves.

Certainly one effect of the recession has been an explosion of these shops and despite the so called recovery which for most people does not feel like a recovery with jobs still being very insecure, it looks as if for the moment these shops are here to stay.