Loz

You are really making yourself look a bit short changed in the mental department here, Huguenot. My post however, wasn't completely clear in that the 'you' meant Southwark Council as a whole, rather than James personally. It's not unusual for councils to have ever-changing speed limits unnecessarily. And a camera waiting in the lower zone. If you need a lower limit, stick with it. Really, I doubt even you could come up with a good conspiracy theory about how a councillor could personally profit from speed limits. And I see, Huguenot, that you have failed to show me calling James a liar in any post. Care to try and regain some semblance of decency and withdraw that little crap-flinging nonsense?

Which planet do you reside on Huguenot? In which posts did I call him a 'profiteer and a liar'? I'm a big fan of James, as I've made clear in other posts. I'm not going to put up with his sort of crap from the likes of you.

Prey tell, to which posts does this refer to? And have you been reading the scripts to 'Yes, Minister"? I'm sure Sir Humphrey must have used that sentence at some stage.

James, If you are going to make part of a road 20 MPH, make the whole thing 20 MPH, unless there is good reasons not to. Otherwise it makes it look like a revenue-raising trap.

Where are the otherwise over-exuberant Southwark Parking ticket-writing hoard? Are they too scared to take on the mothers of East Dulwich??

SteveT Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > MM wrote :- arguably more harm is wrought by > irresponsible parents Victori Climbie, Baby P, > > Often the people who beat the children are not the > parent but a local rent-a-thug boyfriend, and > given how many children are around very few end up > in this situation. (Wandering off-topic) Actually Steve, according to the NSPCC, the person responsible for physical violence during childhood was 'most often the mother (49%) or father (40%)'. Violence was reported as being carried out by some stepfathers (5%) or stepmothers (3%), grandparents (3%), and other relatives (1%). Don't believe everything The Guardian prints... And, sadly, the NSPCC also reports that 7% of children experienced serious physical abuse at the hands of their parents or carers during childhood.

I was happy to believe the story, right up to "As I walked through the door, xxxxxx gave my son a gerberer." At that point I spelt a rat.

Was his spiel something like "I've just finished another job and I have a half-empty lorry, so I can do you a good price to clear up your garden"? If so, he was around near us over summer. I sent him away as I intended to do it myself. Never did, though...

Part of the recent blip has been cause by people rushing to buy as the stamp duty holiday came to an end. Mortgage approvals in the last month or so have dropped markedly, so expect demand (and therefore price pressure) to settle back a bit.

Rather than refuse to put in a sealed bid, put one in for 99p!

James, Having just driven down Melbourne Grove - is there any thought to making it one-way? I can see gridlock occurring now.

It was me who did the back of a fag packet math - but I did it over in James Barber's thread (sorry admin...). Cutting and pasting (sorry admin again), it was: Now Sean, can you not say that that 2 million quid could be better spent?

But I bet most people don't read Southwark Life. Mine goes straight into the recycling bin. I don't disagree with the council communicating with the residents. But is a colour magazine, with reasonably high production values and distributed monthly, the most cost effective way to advertise council services? Why not a four pager every four months? A pamphlet delivered with the council tax bill every year? The website, on the other hand, is pretty good. A little cluttered, but I've always found the information I need on there.

Who's getting righteous? I just don't like being lied to. Besides, with the number of people being so sanctimonious about cars...

Tell you what Vikki, why don't you put both ideas together? That'll be ?6.29 million saved by not introducing your new profligate spending ideas, which mostly looks like council cuts that you are trying to reverse, plus the stupid, expensive "free food for all kids" idea. Plus ?4.05 million in the savings you've identified in consultants, Southwark Life and needless library costs. (I've not included the ?4 million contingency fund idea, as that - at first glance - seems sensible... well, until I find out what it's truly for, then I might change my mind.) That gives over ?10 million pounds in savings! Knocking (extrapolating from your figure) over 10% off the council tax! Perfect. Sensible. And therefore not going to happen. Propose that and you'll probably get my vote. Just stop wasting money.

I think the commentators reckoned she skied over her own ski-pole. Even I can do that. I especially liked the way she went down afterwards and stayed down for so long. Doctors suspected she had a severely bruised ego.

So, Gavin, putting yours and Vikki's figures together, we get: Current number of free school meals: 7000 Number of free school meals proposed: 20000 Number of "too embarrassed" to take up school meals children: 1800. cost per meal: 94p So you are proposing to feed for free - needlessly - 11,200 children just because 1800 aren't taking them up, with no guarantee this will get them to take them up anyway (having seen the "burgers through the fence" scene on Jamie's School Dinners). This at a back-of-a-fagpacket cost of 94p x 11200 x 195 days = $2.05 million in utterly needless spending. Bravo. Didn't anyone tell you there was a recession on and we're supposed to be reigning in spending, not wasting it profligately? So, stick your petition. Is there a petition to protest against stupid ideas to waste money just to buy votes? (And before you ask - I have no affiliation nor membership to any political party.)

Yep, and that should be means tested as well. David and Posh Beckham really need that extra cash.

Whilst I don't deny that 20mph in suburban areas is safer, the real conspiracy theory should be around why statistics move around so much. I am assuming here that Huguenot got his/her stats from somewhere official. A few years ago there was this road safety ad. It said, in an effort to bring traffic speeds from 40mph down to 30mph, that at 30mpg there was a 20% fatality rate. Now 20mph is on the agenda, this has magically leapt up to 50%. Never trust statistics. Especially government ones.

VikkiM, As I stated in another thread, I think this is a poor idea and a waste of money. Giving out freebies to those who can afford it is a stupid use of my money. If this is what Labour (or any other party) is proposing it is a vote loser for me. Stop chucking money around.

Having read your instructions, LM, I'm confused...! Agree with Sean, though, they are a thing of joy. I laughed out loud!

Ladymuck, When you post, you type everything into a box at the bottom of the page, OK? When you are doing that, yype the text you want as the alternative (e.g. google how to bake a cake), highlight it and then press the little button (just under where it says 'attach a file' that looks like this: That will ask for the url (or web address: e.g. "http://www.google.com/cakes/baking.html". Type that in, click OK and Robert is your mother's brother.

Re: school meals. Handing out freebies to those who can afford them is a waste of money. Seems you are saving one waste of money and spending it on another. Also, government getting rid of consultants is a popular cry, but what do these people do? Properly managed, some consultants are actually useful in bringing in outside knowledge and skills. Does Labour-led Lambeth do without consultants? If not, why not and/or what make you think you can? And have you figured in the cost of replacing these people with permanent staff? Recycling. Good to hear, though the current system isn't too bad. TetraPaks and organic matter would be good additions. Synchronising with bin delivery days would be really good. Antisocial behaviour. Always cynical about this, especially as it can't be defined very well and is used in ways like this in the Guardian today. Would like to hear concrete plans and proposals on this before I decide if it is a good thing. Council Spin - all well and good, but this from the party that shoves the unwanted 'Southwark Rose' through my letterbox which, like the council's Southwark Life, goes directly to the recycle bin unread. And Labour don't have a good track record on this - remember Ken Livingstone's huge spending on spin and advertising? So, apart from improving recycling, what is there for the people with no interest in schools?

Didn't think the ski cross was quite as good as the boarder cross - less passing and less carnage. Once they'd negotiated the third corner the order was pretty well set. Mind you, I bet that Canadian bloke who lost it in the final is sporting a fairly impressive bruise. Oh, and if you missed the French woman in the downhill, it is here on the BBC site. I laughed a lot at the time. Still do every time I see it. :))

What did you expect, iamhere. A counsellor comes onto the forum, puts up with an initial barrage of cynicism and does a lot of good work. You come on here and make an unspecified complaint, smelling entirely of a party political plant, and expect us to... well, I'm not entirely sure what you expect us to do, actually. Frankly, if I was James Barber I'd be pretty pleased at this thread: lots of people sticking up for their local counsellor. Whoever thought they'd see that? So, whatever you were up to, iamhere, I suspect you failed.