bawdy-nan

Totally agree with this Blah Blah Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Admin, there are many issues affecting local > people that are nothing to do with Southwark > Council. If the candidate was a coucillor > candidate then fair enough. But a candidate for MP > is a different proposition. The candidate should > be forthcoming on how ANY issue affecting local > people can be addressed, and that I'm afraid > includes issues determined by government policy > (policy which is set by the way our MPs vote). > Politicians, prospective or not, do not get to > choose which questions and issues we can press > them on, and you should not be protecting them > from that either. > > It is quite clear the candidate is attempting to > ingratiate with a prosective electorate (fair > enough), but the terms of that ingratiation should > not bet set by either the candidate or you. Move > the thread to a more appropriate place if > necessary. From what I can see, there is a thread > for an already serving councillor for dealing with > local issues, which seems to work fine, and makes > perfect sense. The candidate isn't even elected to > any position yet to grant the same platform.

I notice on your twitter feed that you say that you and the Dulwich conservatives are "fighting for the best interests of local residents". What would you say that you and the DCs consider they are? 1. For example, my daughter attends a LOCAL school and some of her friends are unable to eat a meal at lunchtime because they live in poverty what do you intend to do about that? Do you support extending the criteria for access to free school meals to families on low incomes? 2. Your constituency already has a majority of renters over property owners and this proportion is predicted to grow to 59% of the constituency population by 2021 can you outline here how you intend to support the rights of renters over landlords please. 3. I notice on your twitter feed that you appear to have the ear of Nicky Morgan and that she "supports" what you do in Dulwich re school places. Can you make it clear here what your position on new secondary school vs primary school is please.

It is utterly ridiculous to restrict questions to a prospective MP (national representative) who has presented themselves on a forum as such to "local ED issues and the local council". Maybe this belongs in the lounge, admin? Otherwise it is just a weird politically restricted platform.

Greenwich is fab - have been for the past 7 years or so. Not sure there's any Xmas eve tickets left, however ... I know some people swear by Catford ....

Hello I took part in the last order and attended the first meeting - so it does exist and has worked well so far. Odd that you didn't get a reply to your PM - maybe try again? RE "co-op" we're not yet formally constituted - we wanted to gauge interest and work out along the way how we want to be constituted etc. So, what we are at the moment is a community group run on cooperative lines. It could develop into a bigger operation at which point we will probably have to look at it differently and could develop other community benefits.

saw the brilliant Simon Stephens / Katie Mitchell cherry orchard tonight - just wonderful

LI, I think it is always worth raising issues like this and you can usually do it via the inclusion officer or the Head (send an email or drop in a note asking for a chat? If you don't get anywhere you could make an approach to the governors whose contact info is usualy available online). Government guidance is really very clear about uniforms being affordable and not "specialist" supplied only but the guidance isn't always followed. Whenever I have raised anything with school I've usually been listened to and I absolutely feel that my children haven't been singled out. Often there is financial help available that might not be obvious and more than that I think that schools are (perhaps obviously) genuinely and passionately concerned for the well being of their pupils, so they want to do as much as they can towards that: ie they want to hear about these kinds of things. I do agree wholeheartedly, however, that striking out on your own is really tough, especially when the reason you are raising the issue is because of your own financial circumstances: it's embarrassing and can feel like special pleading when, in fact, it is often about asking the school to follow good practice that would help the entire parent and student body. This is why I think that PTAs should be interested in these kinds of areas. As has been pointed out, PTAs do more than fundraise - they can really help the school community to cohere and celebrate in all kinds of ways that are much, much more valuable than rattling tins for donations from the parent body.

Being a private tenant is pretty ghastly. I've been one for more than 20 years. I would heartily recommend trying to avoid letting agents and find somewhere you can deal directly with the landlord. In the main, I have found private landlords, who let directly, much better than letting agencies whose determination to extract as much cash from both landlord and tenant at every opportunity is wearying. Ultimately, as a tenant, you have very few rights and, can be evicted easily and for no reason other than the landlord wishes to end the tenancy. Complain at your peril and try to develop a good relationship with your landlord. It makes for a much easier and cheaper way of living That said, we have been without door handles in our home for 6 months, the windows are about to fall out and there's damp in our bedroom because our property has been neglected and we daren't complain too loudly.

Yes, I understand that PTAs are not all bored housewives flogging tea towels but the endless requests for money (often directed via children) is part of the problem. The work that PTAs do in enabling the school community to strengthen and grow can be wonderful: creating events and celebrations that everyone can participate in - exactly like the kind of event you describe, Coach Beth but sometimes I think they can get too over-excited by the fund raising aspect. I have been at events where no free tap water was provided because it was felt that would be a missed fund raising opportunity. This is pretty extreme, I realise but I have to say that attitude (which I tried, gently, to address) put me off and left a very bad taste in the mouth. PTA s aren't and shouldn't just be about extracting cash from the parents, at least that's not the case in the constitutions I've read, but are also supposed to be about fostering communication and participation. For outsiders (for whatever reason) the PTA can seem like a closed club. Not always, of course, and I know that PTAs can provide all kinds of help and support in all kinds of ways. But there is a flipside. Actively campaigning for their schools to implement government guidance on, for example, ensuring that school uniforms are affordable and have badges that can be sewn on rather than integral to items only available from specialist suppliers (or using uniform sales as a fundraiser), would be a great thing for them to do and would probably "help" more parents than any amount of cake sales.

big cuddle and looking at the ducks in the park / baking some biscuits with you (all to themselves) is probably going to feel like a massive treat

This report from the Childrens Society makes for very affecting reading. It's been led by young people and children and makes some powerful recommendations for schools around uniform and cost of materials / trips and stopping stigmatizing free school meals. I know that some local schools already do much of what is recommended (see page 56) but I would love to see PTAs campaigning around some of these issues instead of organising cake sales and flogging overpriced tea towels. https://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/sites/default/files/At%20What%20Cost%20Exposing%20the%20impact%20of%20poverty%20on%20school%20life%20-%20Full%20Report.pdf

The Minkey Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > The idea that large corporates are able to operate > on the back of tax payer subsidies - by which I > mean welfare payments to their minimum wage > workforce - whilst posting vast profits for their > directors and shareholders seems really curious to > me. quite

Love him or loathe him Will Self is writing about this in the standard: http://www.standard.co.uk/comment/comment/will-self-why-i-am-boycotting-my-favourite-local-cinema-9823254.html

For Maths, I found this book http://www.amazon.co.uk/Maths-Mums-Dads-Rob-Eastaway/dp/0224086359/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1414519188&sr=8-1&keywords=maths+for+mums+and+dads Maths for Mums and Dads absolutely brilliant for helping me to understand how maths is taught now and how to help my kids when they're stuck... Local author too ...

well here's an account with a response from ph - http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/staff-face-sack-after-picturehouse-cinemas-agree-to-pay-ritzy-workers-london-living-wage-9819909.html

because they negotiated in good faith via acas and have reneged on that agreement?

couldn't post the link but there's a very good account on the Brixton blog

Pretty disgusted by picture houses move to make 20 staff redundant at the ritzy despite signing an acas agreement promising working patterns would remain the same. Looks like punishment for living wage campaign.

louloulabelle Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > James Barber are the police going to enforce the > rules of the road to the many Dulwich Cyclists > that do not stop at Zebra crossings, red lights, > do not indicate or even look around them when > changing direction, mount the pavement when it > suits them to aid their journey, ride without > lights etc in dim/dark conditions, ride two/three > abreast when not appropriate......and so on. Actually enforcing rules of the road is mentioned in the plan as is persuading the police to adopt a more relaxed attitude to pavement cycling (for children and vulnerable people)

Jeremy Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Drop-in systems are fine for emergencies, but > totally unacceptable for more routine visits. > People have lives, commitments, responsibilities. > We should be able to book appointments. > > They used to offer you an appointment with a lead > time of a few weeks - which was beyond crap, but > at least you could get one. Now they just tell you > that there are no appointments available, period. This is what happened to us. The reception staff were helpful and kind and clearly under an enormous amount of pressure; the pharmacist is great (I agree Sue) and good at the health checks I think the practice gets a bonus for; and I haven't ever had a great deal of difficulty getting an on the day appointment for a sick child with a high temp / rash etc etc etc but I have been trying to get a follow up appointment for my child,for something not life threatening but which needs treatment, for several months now. I don't want to be in the position where I feel that attempting to get an appointment for something I'm concerned about for me or a family member is just not worth trying to wrangle and wrestle for.

I think it's the worst I have ever experienced it and it feels like a health risk to be on their books: it must surely have an impact on the outcomes of their patient body especially re life threatening illnesses presenting with "niggly" symptoms or mental health outcomes when the barriers to accessing primary care are so high. It was slightly terrifying to hear the new nhs plans yesterday (more services diverted to and delivered by gps).

thanks everyone - and for the private messages

yes, indiepanda - describes my experience exactly. Trying to solve this by going private isn't an option for me and my family neither is taking my children out of school to queue up at the surgery for several days in a row to try and see a gp.

We are registered with Dulwich Medical Centre on Crystal Palace Road and have been for more than 10 years. Recently I have found it impossible to get any appointments. Its been trickier and trickier over the last few years but in recent months it's been impossible. I know that this is not the case for all GP practices in London. I have friends who manage to get appointments. Does anyone use a GP locally where the appointments system is working and where there are sufficient GPs available?

That's a very helpful post, thank you, Victoria.