Life On The O.K.R.

Thursday 9 December 2021

Artists against Artwashing

With as usual due acknowledgment given to the likes of Southwark Notes's posts on the matter, a smaller personal note about how artists are great - and would be even better if allowed to get on with their work - but artwashing is not. Rather it's another nasty little side effect and hustle.

It is used mainly to get people on side with the council and their plans and to help get planning permission, to pretend that the council and developers are making plans to benefit the locals in the area they see as just another exciting and lucrative project, and as a distraction while homes are destroyed, promises broken, deals made, communities dispersed and land grabbed, it's unclear how many of the people invited to art clubs and the like truly benefit in any way that compensates for how they are treated, or really want such things suddenly available at all. When councils, councillors, mayors and local recycling businesses support such new schemes, how many truly benefit - especially when people working in the arts (or trying to, while also fighting to be treated fairly by a council showing an eagerness and impatience for demolitions and threats of bills they never do when dealing with repairs, compensation etc.) who are benefitting area organically and from within while supporting estates and neighbours they have formed good relationships with, are being priced or pushed out, or feel they want to move just to get away from the council, its behaviour, its attitude and its plans? How many who do/can stay will remain when the next predictable stage of regeneration, the inevitable super-rich influx, takes place?

As with claims of caring for the environment while chopping down trees and building on green space, claims to care for art, artists and culture, and the ways it can and does improve an area - if people are left to get on with it rather than being bought up and used by authorities - claims to be supporting estates, local lives and mental health while destroying all those are so much, well... artwashing. It remains to be seen how much support art clubs and enterprises will really get once the plans the council truly care about get through. Hopefully all this sudden rise for the support of creativity is genuine, I would love that and for it all to truly benefit and succeed and enrich the area. Support art, artists, those enabling in their communities, culture and its help to the economy, cultural life, mental health. See through, mistrust, artwashing.

Above a photo of the Elephant and Castle, taken recently.

Monday 15 November 2021

bump

http://lifeontheokr.blogspot.com/2017/05/when-i-grow-rich.html

More than ever.

Artists are great. Artwashing is not.

Sunday 31 October 2021

The one-stop council-refuting Twitter posts

It's hard to know where to start with the many assaults local people are facing from Southwark Council as hey attempt to cover their plans and deeds. Perhaps by saying why, if it elicited any groans, it needs to be from Tweets - as will be shown, and if you didn't know already, Southwark councillors themselves have taken to Twitter to among other things troll locals who highlight the at least highly questionable behaviour of the council. It is a good place to start - many self-congratulatory, back-scratching tweets fade away as the platform allows for refutation of the claims, more immediately and directly than a puff-piece on a paper, or in a ridiculous Channel4 PR campaign. Michael Scorer was recorded walking around on one estate no doubt wanting to show how local communities should be engaged with and how Southwark's regeneration plans were so delightful; him being told that the council had run the estate down and were to blame for the problems now being faced by tenants and residents made only the cutting room floor, along with the rest of that particular segment. So here we have more direct rebuttals, ready for the inevitable propaganda campaigns as they attempt another Heygate while pretending it isn't going to happen and they've learnt all the lessons from that debacle, shifting blame shamefully and shamelessly onto their victims - or, trying to...

Thanks to the many campaigns who are linked to in the tweets. Hopefully this will help bring together the answers in a helpful way - that is the intention. This will focus mainly on the Southwark cesspit but also show how it is an even wider, seemingly deliberate, attack on homes. A land grab. Something that will ultimately affect us all.

Headings will help, but there will of course be crossovers - should the behaviour of Peter John be under 'Dodgy' or 'Numbers' - as it is he gets his own as he merits. I'll start with what is for many innocent leaseholders, blamed on top of everything else when they've done nothing, a particularly painful situation:

R.T.B. - not the problem

The rest will be more to the point but I have to say something about this, mainly for the many lives I'm seeing sadly ruined by people believing the council lives and thinking this is to blame. Again, as we shall see, the council likes to blame the victims of its actions for the those actions and the distressing outcomes. Nowhere is this more apparent and has it been so evident over many years than with right-to-buy. RTB is not to blame - the council's planning and behaviour is. Nobody has suffered more from this than leaseholders. Labour, the current Mayor, like to go on marches and call out the catastrophic consequences on people's lives when millionaire leaseholders are landed with bankrupting bills for cladding, but the way local Labour councils - especially Southwark - have treated less well-off locals just trying to buy a home as others not from the working class neighbourhoods have the opportunity to do, they are not only never defended but actively demonised. A convenient red-herring and scapegoat for the council's actions. The council, through managed decline and lack of proper consultation and scrutiny of how they arrive at their figures, treat these non-millionaire leaseholders as (in the words of Harriet Harman many years ago) 'cash machines'.

Not RTB – a handy thread. Refutes seemingly quite effectively (given the way the arguments change course) that RTB is to blame and lays out why many leaseholders now are simply trying to make a home, and maybe this was always the case, rather than being some cruel landlord investor (and though not my concern or focus here, of those that are buy-to-let, many of their tenants seem to have better conditions than if they were, um, 'cared for' by the council's management, as they cannot get away with what council landlords do). Many people who don't 'get' RTB perhaps need to realise many leaseholders were not even born when their apparently still unrequited fixation with Maggie bloody Thatcher started. If Labour provided truly affordable homes - a phrase that we will come back to - in the area, rather than the unaffordable they claimed for a while to have built, perhaps the gap between haves and have-nots would not be increased with the attacks on RTB, which is the only outcome of the council's cruel behaviour towards those sacrificing and saving to try and make a home:

Not RTB and leaseholders to blame – a thread

https://twitter.com/NasCostomano/status/1418966970897256451?s=20

London Tenants – again, not RTB

https://twitter.com/LondonTenants/status/1423592587072528384?s=20

Help To Buy okay, RTB (and live in) not The real, only difference? About £300k

https://twitter.com/ShouT_Southwark/status/1432268551323373568?s=20

A lot RTB, as is affordable to them, being blamed

https://twitter.com/ExplorerDale/status/1428293724375748614?s=20

RTB figure claims refuted and not answered by RL

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1435556445802618881?s=20

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1431298328558510083?s=20

not RTB – again

https://twitter.com/Sparkyxxx/status/1437489762336747525?s=20

Service Charges are very high and need outside scrutiny. Where's the money going?

https://twitter.com/SaveBells/status/1437513433902092290?s=20

where should leaseholders go? Somewhere that doesn't stop councillors grabbing land? Figures massaged again?

https://twitter.com/Swtra5/status/1445207014410530818?s=20

no reply to LHs

https://twitter.com/Hamburgerluette/status/1448675864728715269?s=20

leases should be different – for all

https://twitter.com/leasehold_abuse/status/1438937180915834891?s=20

shared ownership worse (but still offered on regenerated estates)

https://twitter.com/STimea3/status/1439274537082834946?s=20

sale okay, especially now?

https://twitter.com/ana_captures/status/1451843241444352010?s=20

RBKC LH cash machines (?)

https://twitter.com/RBKCLF/status/1453108782146461702?s=20

Cladding

https://twitter.com/suejbright/status/1439520346730860553?s=20

LHs lumbered

https://twitter.com/suejbright/status/1430444480415641600?s=20

LH cash machines

https://twitter.com/ShouT_Southwark/status/1442079378901405705?s=20

truly affordable

https://twitter.com/DemolitionsLdn/status/1449507880726667267?s=20

PETER JOHN

Deserving of his own group, and probably of more investigating.

PJ signing Heygate to LendLease, now works for lobbying firm with LL as long term client

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1425493702269706248?s=20

As above - Terrapin

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1425761943843913736?s=20

https://twitter.com/SouthwarkNotes/status/1425895359923068932?s=20

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1425781767575851014?s=20

4 Sitting Labour cllrs as lobbyists

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1426185588470947840?s=20

PJ celebratng

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1431904683879194624?s=20

PJ confirming his priority

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1428114301697527821?s=20

PJ unclear again

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1441327006457548803?s=20

bloody cheek. I believe this is gaslighting

https://twitter.com/peterjohn6/status/1436388262155857923?s=20

PJ investigated

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1451473901159075842?s=20

NUMBERS

Prices

https://twitter.com/DemolitionsLdn/status/1430411569901486081?s=20

How many houses really?

https://twitter.com/peckham_green/status/1431571348007043079?s=20

https://twitter.com/peckham_green/status/1431741968250511363?s=20

How many losing?

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1450024597819166723?s=20

Fewer homes

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1431149694110011392?s=20

More lost homes

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1439514757158117381?s=20

Do they do what they say?

https://twitter.com/sarahklymkiw/status/1446088717702156288?s=20

Could go with 'rubbish planning'?

https://twitter.com/DemolitionsLdn/status/1449286873550045185?s=20

Could go below...?

https://twitter.com/ffssouthwark/status/1442769105258487816?s=20

DODGY

IMPORTANT! OKR land sales

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1438455241582723073?s=20

& cont'd

https://twitter.com/london_pacific/status/1438501147610738689?s=20

OKR Skyscrapers promised – but now (+ value) land for sale

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1416381403281960962?s=20

Heygate

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1446400654432428036?s=20

Council hiding original plans

https://twitter.com/peckham_green/status/1426160850612666369?s=20

https://twitter.com/peckham_green/status/1425936778649821186?s=20

https://twitter.com/peckham_green/status/1427243107767230465?s=20

RBKC CONsultation even post Grenfell

https://twitter.com/gillkernick/status/1426818488887283714?s=20

Deletes Twitter account

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1426636978854969346?s=20

Rigged, re-run ballots

https://twitter.com/DemolitionsLdn/status/1427376024497569796?s=20

https://twitter.com/SayNoSlippers/status/1428493622039785473?s=20

Pollak basically excused

https://twitter.com/CourtCampaign/status/1428668429033254916?s=20

Maybe because -

https://twitter.com/CourtCampaign/status/1436282181857521665?s=20

Broken promises

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1429005577204682752?s=20

A say

https://twitter.com/PhinHarper/status/1450216428922195968?s=20

UK local government corruption

https://twitter.com/TransparencyUK/status/1429348865443078146?s=20

Pretty sure JMB were involved in the leaseholder centre which was going to be so wonderful. What happened to that?

JMB CBS

https://twitter.com/BallcourtGarden/status/1452964784702468106?s=20

https://twitter.com/BallcourtGarden/status/1453667552907907072?s=20

Vids. No consultation.

https://twitter.com/AmigoDodson/status/1453864625875869702?s=20

Investigate Southwark Council

https://twitter.com/AlbionSalter/status/1451543643278483463?s=20

Delancey

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1451835903056482310?s=20

Guardian - Aylesbury sold at a loss

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1429730399027146755?s=20

Councillor meeting developers?

https://twitter.com/DanicaPriest/status/1451863798420283396?s=20

Anything to ease through their plans?

https://twitter.com/CourtCampaign/status/1452672317037977611?s=20

More Pandora Papers

https://twitter.com/ShouT_Southwark/status/1434205336223748098?s=20

Seaton

https://twitter.com/AmigoDodson/status/1449642776921059330?s=20

Kim Humphreys

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1450558221337440261?s=20

Right

https://twitter.com/leaftoleaf/status/1435898157532172289?s=20

Managed Decline

https://twitter.com/nehagohil24/status/1448725029911474178?s=20

Aylesbury

https://twitter.com/nehagohil24/status/1448725024316313605?s=20

Ah. Pandora Papers

https://twitter.com/daviduw92/status/1445395103019847690?s=20

Will they say – draw – and promise anything?

https://twitter.com/Sparkyxxx/status/1445599570633773058?s=20

https://twitter.com/Sparkyxxx/status/1445724796277465088?s=20

Ballots

https://twitter.com/soul_bouy/status/1432996059945525252?s=20

https://twitter.com/daviduw92/status/1445771934206074893?s=20

No large meetings / tenants friend

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1431536616976306180?s=20

Monitoring Officer report

https://twitter.com/AlbionSalter/status/1431961915970961417?s=20

Contracts?

https://twitter.com/AmigoDodson/status/1447136370078756865?s=20

No mice

https://twitter.com/AmigoDodson/status/1446188769737121793?s=20

Heygate - broken promises

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1443501398843396096?s=20

chasing repairs

https://twitter.com/LedburyAction/status/1444363739571105793?s=20

appear corrupt

https://twitter.com/savecentralhill/status/1441214695839436801?s=20

we have to chase up repairs too

https://twitter.com/ConcernedResie/status/1441118473153703936?s=20

where is money going (underground)?

https://twitter.com/AydinDikerdem/status/1439869611906895872?s=20

https://twitter.com/TsiresyDomingos/status/1439894914804895747?s=20

Oops...

https://twitter.com/AmigoDodson/status/1446782819787812865?s=20

EMPTIES

Maydew House promise...

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1423950491587862529?s=20

Empty Homes on Aylesbury

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1424327507797581824?s=20

Aylesbury empties – to demolish, for...?

https://twitter.com/Jason_S_deSouza/status/1438553715519234054?s=20

Empty flats

https://twitter.com/mossysue/status/1430805629086715909?s=20

Still empty

https://twitter.com/mossysue/status/1448547637855141893?s=20

Empty Maydew again

https://twitter.com/35percent_EAN/status/1441720321090936832?s=20

More empty

https://twitter.com/StaffordshireST/status/1440749369519525891?s=20

BLAMING VICTIMS

Thursday 25 February 2021

Monopole

A 20m Phase 8 Monoploe it says. Of course, again we must say that the prior (in?)famous status of the Old Kent Road on the Monopoly board is up for review in any new editions. Obviously I shall let, and perhaps more so in future, the wording speak for itself. Just a photo blog - this (quite pleasing to look at) speaking as an image and with just the title, something like 'Monopole'?

Not too far from the Tustin, so I'm probably putting it down as one of that, or the estate as part of the whole OKR project.

Sunday 31 January 2021

photo organisation memo 31/1/2021

Note / diary entry kind of to self, and whomever it may concern:

Because organising things is sometimes helpful, not procrastinating.

As is buying some new, affordable stuff. Like the keyboard.

Why does blogger force portrait mode, even on a tablet?

Google phootos is storage. Will use up some of the drive allowance, but lower quality for blog may be enough so 14-ish gb may be enough, too. Not for self or solely sale though - need 1TB SSD at some point. Sorted by companies and personal. Also videos.

Google Albums sorted by:

Postcode. Kind of less of a thing now?

'Better Grammer': deliberately misspelled. For better quality instagram snals. Will get round to making sure they are eventually - or does worrying too much kind of defeat the purpose?

'For Blog': put on LotOKR, not necessarily OKR. Film photos, photos, other areas/subjects (maybe).

'Pilgrim's Way': All Old Kent Road for blog, still kind of like the title (also tried 'Knocked 'Em Down' (sic: because they're knocking things down...) but probably will stick to -

Life on the Old Kent Road: For blog of the same name. From about later 2019.

Now project concentrated on T. and surrounds? See what's what and possible. Rejected title: 'Once Upon a Time in... ' but long-standing shoot it like a musical still possibly a nice idea if, um, tricky...

Other - whatever.

Blog posts bit easier to produce, more possible, regular?

Write that thing. By...April!? Summer? Christmas? Probably the priority. Title okay, I think.

Also important - Get his story - video? Via Il Prof? Title is sorted.

Maybe draw a bit.

Clear mind for a while.

Earn lots and lots of money, very quickly.

Tuesday 19 January 2021

The Pilgrim's Way, again.

On Ilderton Road, SE15 (this part is anyway), near the Tustin Estate and Manor Grove, looking towards Hornshay Street. The headlining estate in the photo is the Canterbury Industrial Estate. Just out of shot to the right, under the passing train, is a vintage ambulance station which I think was apparently protected, now will if not pulled down definitely be affected by the many new builds that are going to line that side of the road soon. The Tustin is facing demolition, apart from Manor Grove, saved for many reasons but the main one, despite what the council may say according to at least some of those living there, is because the council could not afford to buy out the freeholders. Manor Grove voted to save their part of the estate in the ballot, but although they got what they wanted others have not been quite so lucky. When unwanted demolition of homes is the preferred option, either to avoid the massive bills those in the three tower blocks face or because some homes have been allowed to fall into disrepair by the council, then obviously something is not right.

For good reasons the Tustin warranted some photo project anyway, as others seem to have noted. Now we shall see if photos speak for themselves about what is happening. Tustin is a place of memories and character, home to many proud of where they are and come from, though looking after things as they should be is apparently a bit like holding back the tide in the face of 'managed decline'. Many homes, looked after as they should be, are strong, spacious, warm and dry, close to green space, shops, transport and a welcoming school. It is an amzing location, the Old Kent Road a key point in London, and about to become more so. The Monopoly board will probably need updating. Change is coming, whether it will be for better or worse remains to be seen. There have been positive noises about the most recent plans, the architects apparently listening to ideas and concerns of tenants and residents we been guaranteed a new place on the rebuilt estate, but Southwark Council are always able to row things back and ruin things until the last moment.

We shall see.

Pilgrim's Way

Monday 11 May 2020

The rather strange case(book) of Dr. Vernon Coleman

I was going to write about G.P. turned writer Vernon Coleman, now something of a (currently at least) low-key YouTube personality, regarding his views on Brexit and the Tories, before all our attention turned to Covid. Dr. Coleman had a media presence, and used to write columns for Sunday newspapers and they look a bit humorous, but I took what he said more seriously when I was losing a close relative to cancer and looking for something hopeful. In that helpless state a nurse at he time rightly pointed out you get in during such moments, I was searching around for anything that might help. I came across the Vernon Coleman website and, as he now lists in the things he was first to point out (number 31 on the main page) he indeed was saying that the immune system is a key to fighting cancer. By triggering it, the system can be activated to fight other things such as cancer cells. Over-exercising and so overworking the immune system, he says, may be why these otherwise fit and healthy athletes are susceptible to illnesses. There is research now, possibly not entirely disconnected, also suggesting 'priming' the immune system, ones not overly stimulated particularly in affluent countries, is an important step in fighting childhood leukemia (this is obviously important stuff I don't want to get wrong so - https://www.theguardian.com/science/2018/dec/30/children-leukaemia-mel-greaves-microbes-protection-against-disease). So I wondered if Coleman was onto something.

I was intrigued when his name came up again recently, while reading about Brexit. I went down a bit of an internet rabbit-hole and was directed to a book called 'The Shocking History of the EU' by Zina Cohen. A review asked if the author was the same person who had written Dr.Coleman's books on the subject. A search brought up the result of Coleman admitting it was his pen-name, which is common enough, but also that used as he didn't think anything bearing his real name would get mentioned by mainstream reviewers. The following is from the text accompanying the paperback version of the book on Amazon:

Anti semitic Remainers will attack this book which provides provides proof that the EU was designed and created by the men who built and ran the Auschwitz concentration camp...the Nazis who had made millons our of the concentration camps used their money to build the European Union - with Germany in control...the Bank of International Settlements, the Bank of England and a group of Americans aided and abbetted the Nazi bankers and industrialists who created the European Coal and Steel community - which eventually became the EU.

(https://www.amazon.co.uk/Shocking-History-EU-Zina-Cohen/dp/179796691X)

To be clear, Coleman is strongly anti-EU. He is anti many things. He was anti-Corbyn, and pretty much anti-Johnson too but at least Boris was the Englishman who would take us out of the EU and would not drag us into recession... until recently. Now as well as asking on his website if Boris Johnson is a psychopath, Coleman wonders if the coronavirus is being used as a cover by this government to steal democratic rights. Some posts are anti-vaccination, or deny climate-change science. Others are against animal testing, or champion transvestism. The latest 'politics' post claims the EU has broken up the UK, using the separate routes taken by Scotland and Wales in dealing with the coronavirus as part of this plan.

Coleman probably would find being able to annoy people on both the Left and Right - as well as find supporters there - a good thing. Maybe it is, but maybe not when they're likely from either extreme.

Incidentally, Jack King has a similarly themed book promoted on the Vernon Coleman website. This author has a side apparently more robust than Cohen or Coleman. Text on Amazon accompanying King's 'Indisputable Evidence Proving the EU was created by Nazis' says:

Remainers who dispute the accuracy of this well documented book will be identified and sued for libel.

(https://www.amazon.co.uk/Indisputable-Evidence-Proving-Created-Nazis/dp/1793981027)

And so to his (Coleman's) YouTube videos. He recently uploaded a video which caused him on his website to swear off social media and maybe the whole internet forever ('I shall never record anything for YouTube again'). The video attracted such vitriol it reduced his wife Antoinette to tears. He clearly adores Antoinette and as she is undergoing treatment for cancer at the moment (of course a cause of distress for the couple, and something Coleman asked for prayers for) and he was seemingly sorry more for her than himself. This self-imposed silence did not last long however. 'I was right about the coronavirus!' is the title of the post really letting us know for sure the doctor's not letting this one go, though there were clues in articles, dated 21, 22, 23, 24 and 25 March, written after the one announcing his retirement from public announcements. He now has five videos up on YouTube. The first was a fairly sober affair, albeit questioning the official coronavirus narrative and titled 'The Hoax of the Century?'. There were two first videos - the original deleted and replaced to change in line with amendments made to details in government policies. Coleman sits in a quiet room, reading from a clipboard of paper notes which he peels off. Cupboard with books, seated in a large (leather? - though not sure he'd approve of that so maybe not) chair, so you get the feeling you would not mind having had him as your GP. In the idyllic little part of England he inhabited, seemingly at least in his mind the one he believes in, a gentle and conscientious - if his his memories of practice are anything to go by - doctor and friend would be a reassuring presence. Some of what he says in this video is seductive too, as we struggle with the anxieties the virus brings along with it. Conspiracies can provide a story it's comforting to believe - the biggest relief in these videos being the idea that the virus is not as bad as 'they' tell you.

Again, as I already mentioned in previously, I mentioned conspiracies quite a while back, in an earlier post. It was obvious they were brewing, alongside the rise of the Right. Now we have those who were seemingly championing the right's causes on immigration, Brexit, the climate etc. railing against the restrictions of freedoms the government is imposing - surely a right-wing tactic. And Coleman is no fan of the NHS. I guess he and those who agree with him in these regards would take the side of the argument it's a Communist, Socialist far Left set of ideals - but isn't it fascism to impose house arrest, surveillance etc.? This is a debate that has of course been had elsewhere, but it is related to the confusion conspiracies always cause. Coleman seems concerned about the economy, but why would a doctor so against big pharma, governments and dictatorships and who proudly claims to not be in a anyone's pocket when giving his views ('without bias and without any professional or commercial commitments or allegiances'), who refuses to monetize his videos, who is wary of a cashless society, apparently be putting economic concerns before public health? I suppose it's because he's a freedom fighter, that the lockdown, with ensuing economic collapse, lack of economic freedom, and restriction of rights, will cause more harm and take more lives than the virus. Why not rail against the 1%, a system that places so much emphasis on money and judges an individual primarily by their economic worth, at least when it comes to judging those with the least?

I do think Coleman is one of those we'd call a 'good doctor'. I disagree with a lot if what he's said but I'm fairly sure he is a well-intentioned person, but he's obviously a bit of a contradiction. And he's fond of a conspiracy, and pointing out the stupidity of leaders. There is such a thing as corruption in power, and Neil Ferguson done something really stupid, but the virus is clearly very real too. This make it hard for people to get at the truth. In the videos there's a noticeable shift in tone as Coleman gets more comfortable back in front of the camera. He brings in the EU, there's a smile. At the end of the latest videos he asks for subscriptions to his YouTube channel; this will encourage him to keep going 'as long as I'm allowed'. Playing into his new audience he also says governments are the real danger. He promotes his website where he promotes his books (and those of others). As usual the truth probably lies somewhere in the middle. Coleman steers clear of 5G conspiracies and says there should be more testing (some in the comments don't like that, because the results are of course untrustworthy too). But he does say this ' damned mangy virus' is basically just a flu. He points to the downgrading of its status on the government website, but new hero of the Left Piers Morgan (perhaps quoting from Private Eye) put it to a minister this was because it meant the government did not have as much pressure on them to produce PPE. Coleman thinks it was done because it's not as serious as originally claimed. He also mentions the many patients who have had treatment postponed while we deal with the virus. This is a concern addressed in the mainstream. His wife is one of these patients, needing follow-up care after her operation. Is this the real motivation behind wanting the lockdown to end? It would be unfair to suggest he's only started campaigning recently but his enthusiasm for all the recent proclamations, taking to YouTube, is a step up. I've not trusted Johnson and began to distance before official advice (I saw the reports from Italy) and will probably continue for longer than they say to. On mistrusting the PM this Coleman would probably agree with me, if not for the same reasons - he actually goes further and suggests paranoia is a 'sensible, healthy, sane condition'. (That's great for mental health...). Maybe it is good to always feel the victim, to have an externalised fault. Or maybe he's right, or a bit, somewhere in the middle. As with wondering why sunbathing is a risk (because it makes distancing hard) and the numbers he is fixated on that he claims are dodgy (for all the covid deaths that are registered killed 'with' not 'by' that he says are proof numbers are inflated, how many deaths from the virus are not yet registered?) maybe I need to steer clear of the rabbit holes? He also says at the end of his latest video we should 'take care of each other'. Yes, but I'd say staying distanced is a good start. We'd also agree that Johnson is untrustworthy - but, even as far back as when Coleman was promoting Boris to get Brexit done, I could have told him that.

The government were looking for a simple slogan. Maybe we can agree on this - here's what Coleman says at the end of one video that could be a part of it... Take care of each other.

(Update 1/9/2020: I was possible too kind. Seems quite an ego trip down the YouTube 'alternative' rabbit hole. Wouldn't mind so much but as what he says is potentially dangerous you have to. Probably shouldn't have given the benefit of the doubt to someone who recently was so in favour of Boris Johnson.)

Wednesday 1 April 2020

The Old Kent Road in the time of a pandemic

Taking an essential walk, for medication, down the Old Kent Road today and you would not know anything was wrong. This is not a good thing. As Nicola Sturgeon said, "life should not feel normal" at the moment. For many it seems, apart from there being more free time, things carry on very much as though we are not in the middle of a global health crisis. Those walking in the middle of the pavement, or jogging there, just carry on when you try to move away from them; they may give you a 'look', but graciously accept that people are trying to stay safe at the moment. The thought it actually doesn't make much difference when others try to move away if they themselves don't keep their distance too, making it impossible to stay two metres from them, doesn't seem to occur. A bus stop is crowded with people, so many it would be a great surprise if they were all from the same household, so to stay two meters away from them too you need to dodge traffic. The road is filled - how much is really necessary is debatable. As is how much pollutants contribute to the virus spread. Refuse trucks and towel delivery, presumably for hospitals, seems understandable. Large scale building materials (for sites where workers are still called in) car washes, so many private vehicles, coughing cyclists - really? The cyclists have no helmet as is usually the case either; it's just apparently a time of less, not more, restrictions.

In Tesco supermarket, the queue outside is marked by 2 metre spacing and the security manage one in one out (though paths cross as this happens). But inside is different. Already coming into the place, past the groups scattered outside, it is necessary to go all the way round to the side entrance to keep contact to a minimum. But inside is the worst. The floor is again marked with 2 metre distance markers, but the aisles themselves are not wide enough, people are not kept to a single file, they turn corners and back round so so walk past anyone coming the other way, people wander about or stand in the middle including staff who must re-stock shelves and you have to squeeze past, so the so-called 'distancing measures' are useless, a bad joke this April Fools'.

The PM's 'advice' is not getting through. The economy won't be up to much, if this is all about protecting it, if there's no-one left to buy anything. At this rate, after today, it feels like we're heading for a massacre. God I hope I'm wrong, but somebody needs to get a grip. A priority should be to close all stores, and concentrate all resources on home deliveries - good luck booking one of those. Perhaps smaller stores could stay open. At least there must be stronger controls over what is happening in shops - Aldi seem to have it sorted, only a few in at a time, so it can be done (UPDATE 3/4/2020: no they do not. Iceland seem the only place to have it sorted now - we'll see if this lasts UPDATE 27/4: Aldi much better now). Also we unfortunately need people to get the message that everything is not just 'alright'. This isn't about a police state, though that will come if things don't change, it's a heath emergency, and the things that need doing - helping others, being considerate, being aware - are still the preserve of the minority. The message has to be clearer and stronger. Is Johnson surreptitiously going ahead with the 'herd immunity' nonsense - because most scientists say this should happen when you have a vaccine, not before - trying to cull those who he'd claim didn't follow the rules so it's their own fault (even though those following the advice/rules may be at risk because of those flouting them)? Or is the advice the best, and we'll be grateful in the end? Nobody is sure it seems. Personal responsibility cannot be blamed if the message is weak but, at the same time, more people need to do what is clearly right, rather than putting others at risk as they do treating this as a long holiday. We need some sort of grass-roots campaign (don't we always at the moment, whatever that tells you) - #BeAware, #WakeUp, #Don'tBeSoBloodyStupid, or something. In the meantime...

Wednesday 29 January 2020

Another note (2020)

The image in the first post this year is probably right for this, too. Not changing, kind of starting over, doing the same but, hopefully, better.
I still miss being able to arrange things as you are able to in Flickr, but Google photos it is, until I can justify the (understandable) fees since SmugMug took over.

Arranging photos.
If to sell, Then, on hard drive, as is. Else...
4 above - part of the Flickr 'archive' From the album 'Better Grammer'.
Other Google albums for me to note from now on:
Life On The Old Kent Road. As it says.
For Blog. Photos taken really only for this blog.

The postcodes. Staying, and photos from there/from Flickr could be reproduced here too.

Pilgrim's Way. Was Life On... (as was Knock Em Down, New Old Kent Road and a previous LotOKR which I don't recall creating).

Churches. This and any other projects TBC.

All could be used here.

Flickr albums... yes, the archive.

Getting things Done.

Thursday 23 January 2020

Upon the (probable) retirement of the EOS 3000n

It's not only a little difficult; it's probably just not worth shouldering you around any more. It's not you - you can still do so much - but I have to move on. We can still be friends but just, probably, not like we used to be...

The relief.

Here are 7 photos taken with my old friend the Canon EOS 3000n. Kodak Gold 200. 28-80 mm lens. Maybe the last. At least for a while.