PMQs

I watched most of this yesterday because I wondered how our beleaguered PM would get on. To my surprise he looked better than he had for a long time. I gave him the result over Cameron, but if you can’t win on a day like that you’re never going to. I wish him well with his new measures because failure is too hard to contemplate. I like to follow the body language of the front bench. Yesterday they reminded me of a bunch of naughty school kids waiting outside the headmasters’ office for a reprimand. I never gave this much thought until I read Bob Pipers blog this morning. It appears two of our local MPs are responsible. What is the world coming to? What really pisses me off with our Prime Minister is his almost allergic reaction to even thinking about how this current crisis is likely to affect pensioners. An Age Concern report today claims that inflation for over sixty fives is running at 7% which is twice what his figures show. He keeps mentioning hard working families and jobs and mortgages but never pensions.

Neighbourhood watch

It was our regular monthly meeting last night and although I am vice chair I found it difficult. The usual round of crime reports which still show crime falling in our area so we must be doing something right. Our beat Sgt. is leaving which is particularly annoying. It takes about six months for them to learn the patch, get to know first the NHW (THE GOOD GUYS) and then the bad guys. Once the Sgt. is “trained” as it were, the police move him/her on and we start again. With neighbourhood policing it is not as bad as it used to be because the team is already in place and they have a commitment to the community but it is still disruptive and it does not take the villains long to catch on and I suspect our crime figures will increase later this year and early next, I wish Richard well in his new posting.
We submitted a petition to West Brom town committee on road safety in our area. This is the subject of a meeting later this week with councillors. I like to see how some people try to manipulate groups at meetings. One guy who is very vocal in writing to local papers sent a letter to the police objecting to our proposals. This was about six months ago. The letter was duly read to the group and included fully in the minutes. I was extremely miffed about this because a couple of meetings earlier the police civilian officer had read a statement to the group but this was never included in the minutes and they have persistently ignored efforts to have it published since. The guy who objected to our proposals last night claimed that the introduction of traffic lights at one of the junctions would impede emergency vehicles and thus endanger life. I never heard such tosh. This is typical NIMBY behaviour and I was having none of it. I don’t think he likes me much but then with an attitude like that he can get in the queue. The majority in our group want these traffic lights PDQ.

Is it just me?

I hear that hostilities have ceased within the upper ranks of the Labour party. I know we have a crisis at the moment and all families pull together at these times but to end hostilities seems a bit premature to me. Getting Mandy back was a master stroke (I think) and what a man. Yesterday he attended a meeting of the National Economic Committee and then went to hospital to have kidney stone removed. I feel for the bloke having had one myself how he managed to concentrate on such heavy affairs of state in that condition is amazing. I digress! hostilities are not over as far as pensioners are concerned. My pensioners against Brown campaign continues. There is a mass lobby of parliament later this month but unfortunately I will not be able to make it due to treatment obligations so I will have to rely on my peers.
I watched Alistair and Gordon yesterday trying to calm nerves in the city by talking reassuringly to the commons. Well it never reassured me or the city and after last nights meeting with the banks it never reassured them either. I’m afraid it looks like Gordon’s dithering again. I would be a lot happier if he went on TV and addressed the nation giving us some real news on what he is going to do with a time scale and then actually do it and at the same time come clean on his part in the build up to this crisis (oh silly me that would mean admitting to ignoring credit controls for last ten years and owning up to the bust situation we now see ourselves). I like his ideas for the NEC but again it’s a bit late. Ah well we better resign ourselves to watching him bumble along from one crisis to the next over the next couple of years. He will go down in history as the plague and pestilence prime minister.

I remember

This is one of my favourite poems although it brings back some moving images it was how many kids grew up in the forties.

Cultural services

I have not been happy with what I have seen of the performance of this department of Sandwell Council recently and I have in a previous post suggested a couple of officers should be considering their positions. I need to do some more research to find out what exactly they do. They had a stand at the Full of life festival which was quite lavish compared to ours and although we are a voluntary sector organisation ours is pretty professional. They must have had six pull up display boards at £200 each =£1200 we had one which did the trick. Can’t help feeling that the overkill was a bit much. Interest on the stand which was just across the way, so, could be easily observer was poor all day. Although they should have officer with some interest in older people I wonder if this relates just to Sons of Rest because no interest was shown in what we were doing. I have said before we would not want it if it manifests itself anything like their approach to SoR and we would not want any interference. I think this might be one of those areas were a merge with another better managed group would get better results. I wonder if they are fully behind THE PUBLIC?

THE PUBLIC’S first successful event

Yesterday was the United Nations International Day for Older People. We celebrated in Sandwell by holding an event called Full of Life Festival at our new arts centre THE PUBLIC. This was a very successful even. Sponsored by Sandwell Council and our Primary Care Trust. Two levels of the building were used and it was packed all day. The organisation I am heavily engaged with U3A had a stall there which was overwhelmed with enquiries all day. We gave out more info and talked to more potential members than any other event we have ever attended. We also had the theatre for an hour to do a virtual antiques auction and to run some short films our interest groups had put together. We were second act on. I had rehearsed with the technician before hand how this was going to work with timings. We should have had a ten min break following the first act to hand out all that was needed and be ready to start on time. I had been asked by the organisers to stick strictly to time. The first act was a dozy gospel quire who arrived 15mins late. They were totally engrossed with there singing and blissfully unaware that their actions were in fact messing up a carefully choreographed following act. I hate being late and this failure of the organisers stressed me out. Eventually they got them off but our preparations then seemed confused and rushed we started about 20mins late. The quire then stayed for our act, they talked amongst themselves had sandwiches etc. I did manage to get them involved with the program but a major failure on behalf of the organisers and very bad manners on quires part.
It’s a well done to Sandwell for having the foresight to do this and a well done to the PCT for organising it and to THE PUBLIC for the venue but a big thumbs down to the theatre organisers on the day, these sorts of cock ups should not be allowed to happen. If we had been consulted before the first act started or they were made to keep to time then our performance would not have been affected.

Sons of Rest saved

You heard it on my blog first.
In a surprise turn around Sandwell Council announced at the full council meeting this evening that the three Sons of Rest buildings scheduled for closure on 1st November will not now be closed and the other four groups who were going to have to be self funded will continue to be free. The reason given was that Cllr. Horton had listened to the lobby of the Sons of Rest and she did not want to burden our older citizens any more. This on the one hand is good news about the closures but I do not support the groups being funded totally by the council. There are lots of other groups just as deserving who have to be self funded. One of the areas concerned is our ward Newton. Although this is good news the underlying situation remains the same, underused buildings and an organisation with falling numbers. These issues need to be addressed urgently. But first let me turn my attention to the council officers who have been involved with the initial decision. They of course should be considering their positions. I am not convinced the consultations with the groups were done well and I certainly would not want these officers anywhere near anything I was involved with. This also raises some issues with the bigger picture as to who is monitoring the report on the older people’s select committee and also some issues on how many of the older peoples groups are funded. For further information and advice on this consult Bob the Black Country Brummie. We are in need of a comprehensive review. Other groups do get concessions at some of the smaller leisure facilities but the rules and usage of larger leisure centres seem somewhat vague and variable.
Other recent decisions that now need to be looked at: -

Charges during week days for entrance to Sandwell Park Farm,

car parking charges during the week at this farm and finally:-

the massive increase in charges for meals on wheels.

Sandwell Council, you know it makes sense. Let’s see the spirit and letter of the report being addressed properly.