Alec John Moore

foils

Sounds great. What's the next step? A pub(lic) meeting, perhaps. Alec

yonks

It must be a reasonable business proposition if they are expanding into bigger premises up the road. I'm sure charities get preferential terms on business rates etc. The shop acts as a collection point and sorting/sifting function as well as a sales outlet. Charity shops must be primarily fundraising functions so they would want to maximise the proceeds from selling donations but it's interesting to speculate on how low quality stock in the shop might have a negative effect on donations.

I know one or two people who work for Oxfam and the line there is that Oxfam's work will be done when the countries they work in are "developed". I believe it's more about solidarity with people in other countries and a commitment to social justice, globally. That's why I think there will always be a role for international NGOs in the UK to facilitate that communication and raise awareness. That's also why I am interested in Live below the line.

Hi Zeban, I'm still not clear where you're coming from on this. I think the Live below the line campaign is fairly straightforward and isn't claiming to transform the world into a totally socially just society. I still don't see how it is patronising to try to understand how other people live. I am aware that poverty and development are complicated but I don't see how that negates an attempt to raise awareness of poverty. Do you have an alternative to suggest? Alec

We're such a helpful bunch on EDF. In my experience of Victorian houses the cold water pipe come in under the front door to the basement. I think you mentioned your cellar in another post. It may still be a lead pipe that is then connected to a copper one that will feed you water and heating systems if you've got both of those. There should be a tap there or thereabouts. Sometimes a plumber will helpfully install a joint that has an "inline" stop cock, if you like, in the pipework that leads to the taps. You will need a screwdriver to turn this a 90 degrees and then you can remove the tap beyond that. Hope that helps. Yours in DIY, Alec

Hi Zeban, I don't see how attempting to understand the struggles that poor people in developing countries experience just trying to get by is patronising. I have also lived on very little money and I understand something of the challenge. However, that was 25 years ago and I now live a fairly affluent life. In some ways I'm looking forward to the challenge because I'm not sure what I will learn from the experience. That's all part of it.

Having read Jeremy's last post above I feel I should be writing "Slinks off with hunched shoulders and downturned mouth having been patted on the head." However, It isn't easy to refute the point that food is cheaper in poor countries by using readily available information from the great interweb. I did find this fascinating set of comparisons: http://www.rustylime.com/show_article.php?id=1497 It is quite amazing to see the differences in variety of types of food and the degrees of processing and packaging at the extremes of the range of countries and families depicted in the photos. Still, the more important point - if we accept that people living on US$1.25 are in extreme poverty - is about the percentage of our income we spend on food. According to Oxfam "Poor people in developing countries spend between 50-80% of their income on food". In the UK, according to the ONS, it is about 15%. So, I think it will be an interesting challenge to see how I will be able to cope with the inconvenience, hunger and time spent keeping within my limit of ?1 a day. That will be interesting but the main thing about this is the awareness raising about poverty in developing countries and to get people thinking and talking about it.

One couple spent their ?10 - ?5 each - as described below. Why not give it a try and see the effect. You should be able to survive OK for 5 days. If its a struggle for us in developed countries then it must be even more difficult for people who live at the bottom of the pile as it were. As well as those categorised as living in extreme poverty - having less than US$1.5 a day - there are millions more who don't have much more and can afford to feed themselves to a point where they are persistently under nourished. "So yesterday we headed out with our ?10 to the shops to buy food to feed two people for five days. Having been firmly told by Emily that she wasn't going to put up with me for a week without coffee we had to budget in for a cup a day. There were a couple of things we had to buy in larger quantities and then multiply down for the amount we were going to eat, but that was simply because it's not possible to buy 1 egg for example. So here is our food for the week: 10 Bananas - ?1.29 1kg Potatoes - ?0.60 1kg Rice - ?0.72 400g Porridge Oats - ?0.26 1 Frozen Chicken - ?3.40 970g Frozen Mixed Veg - ?0.91 Coffee - ?0.30 50ml Oil - ?0.07 10g salt - ?0.03 1 egg - ?0.21 As you can see the big purchase was the chicken. This may seem like an odd buy but, it's truly amazing how many meals you can get from that one chicken. I jointed it into: 2 breasts 2 thighs 2 drumsticks 2 wings And of course I kept the carcass and the giblets that Mr. Morrison was kind enough to leave in for me so that I can make stock which I will turn into several meals worth of chicken soup. Those math's wizzes among you will have worked out that the above adds to a total of ?7.77, leaving us with a total of ?2.23. So Emily headed off to the local market to buy some fresh groceries. Thanks to her fantastic haggling skills, for a total of ?2.20, she managed to get us: 5 carrots 2 onions 4 peppers a segment of pumpkin a chilli So this means our total for the week is ?9.97"

I'm afraid I fast forwarded to R4 in my late 20s. Does that make me an archetypal R4 listener? I don't have time to look at the BBC Trust report but I would like to know on what they base their view. If by accessible they mean changes to programming that would appeal to those target audiences then there is possibly a limited case for that generally but it's not the only way to develop audiences for those stations. It could be a lose - lose situation if the programming is changed to appeal to a particular audience without retaining the programme making/commissioning and presentation that exists.

It has always seemed to me that convenience is a major factor in deciding how and where we shop. Just got this newsletter from the Streetbank people - www.streetbank.com "Collaborative Consumption Dear Alec Earlier this week Sam attended a conference on ?collaborative consumption? ? the idea that we can live better lives if we share our things and our time. It looked at some of the most interesting new examples of this ? whipcar.com which allows you to rent your car to your neighbour, crashpadder.com which allows you to rent a room in your house to a visitor and taskrabbit.com where you can be paid to run an errand for your neighbour. The big of question of the day was around trust. How does it develop? Two points emerged ? that once people had tried trusting once, they were much more inclined to trust again.. and again and again. The second is the importance of leaving feedback. Many of the websites have developed sophisticated ebay feedback systems. We haven?t yet but plan to develop this area a bit. In the meantime, if you have interacted with anyone on Streetbank it makes a big difference if you leave feedback on their page afterwards &nd ash; the streetbank system is very basic but your endorsement helps to build a picture of who other members are. Cheers, Sam, Ryan, Nic and Cath"

Hi, had a look at the previous thread referred to by SMG where MM ate for ?2.82 a day for 7 days as far as I could work out. The thread was also about the experience and the difficulties of living on benefits in the UK. Live below the line is asking people to attempt to eat for ?1 a day for 5 days. Clearly there are significant differences but lets not get hung up on that. Most of the extremely poor people in the world live in developing countries where if you fall into the category of extremely poor then you have only approximately US$1.25 a day for all of your needs. Trying to feed yourself on ?1 a day in the UK is a challenge that should help you think more about the problems poor people face in just trying to survive. Live below the line is about raising awareness on global poverty and taking the challenge should encourage you to think about the lives of poor people in developing countries and, hopefully, talk to others about it. I've mentioned it to my 11 year old son who seems to be up for it. I'm just trying to get my head round what effect it would have on his time at school etc for those few days. Interestingly someone in the MM thread referred to rationing in WWII as the next subject to experiment with. Somewhat ironic, I suppose. However, but the Green Party's The New Home Front report seems to suggest that rationing (or the benefits that come from a less profligate usse of resources) may be a necessary response to the challenges of climate change. There's a link to it from Caroline Lucas's Guardian blog: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/blog/2011/jan/20/home-front-war-climate-change Alec

Perhaps if it takes place at Goose Green we could persuade the local food producers to bring their overripe produce so that we could take turns throwing it at the sarcastic gainsayers who would be put in the stocks prepared for the occasion. Yes! Stocks within 20 postings. Seriously though, it has been suggested on other food/shopping related threads that the proposed expansion of the Northcross Road market could include stalls from local producers.

Do you think you could feed yourself on ?1 a day? The UN reckons that millions of people in the developing world have to do just that. There's a lot of interest in food on this forum - where it originates from, where to buy it, how to cook it and even, just recently, how to kill it. So, I wondered how many of you would be up for taking part in this challenge: http://guyem.blogspot.com/ The campaign is meant to get you talking about what it must be like for the estimated 1.4 billion people living below the extreme poverty line. Click on the link above for more info and I'll be the one with the shopping trolley full of "basics" at Sainsburys. Alec

Sorry if I wasn't very clear in my last post. I reckon I'm agreeing with both language and Sparky. It is possible to influence big organisations and I will join the Co-op to see if I can contribute to that. However, I still like the idea of getting involved in a locally-run enterprise where I would, arguably, have more say in what is stocked, where it is sourced from and how it could be responsive to the needs and interests of its customers. I have used smile for yonks, part of the Co-operative Bank, and it has consistently provided a really good service. I also think that credit unions are a good idea and should be supported. I look forward to reading Louisiana's report from the workshop she'll be attending this week.

I take your point LanguageLounger about the Co-op and I think they have been promoting membership more, lately. I remember my mum talking about "the divvie" when I was a kid. I don't remember the principles of common ownership being taken to heart in the way the founders of the movement clearly did. I wonder if the good shoppers of ED have any faith in a big organisation like the Co-op to respond to their wishes regarding stock and stock levels. I wrote to the Co-op via their website, prompted by the infamous EDF "Waitrose" thread and haven't heard anything. It is also understandable that people would want to consider taking matters into their own hands by creating an alternative when a faceless or unresponsive retailer is not meeting their needs. I think I would agree with you that my preferred route would be to influence the Co-op but the two approaches are not mutually exclusive. Incidentally, I started a photography project in Nottingham in the 1980s and one of my compatriots must have had a real internal struggle with his involvement since he was actually a socialist worker who was obsessed with photography. Eventually he confessed that he viewed the co-op we set up as bourgeois diversionism. I think he was right in the case of our project.

However, it's more likely to be regurgitated. So, who knows the source. Pathetic joking aside we ocassionally bought from someone who fits the description when we lived in Camberwell. Not the best way to buy fish, on reflection.

Just did it. There's no room for short sightedness when it comes to our natural environment.

I often find parts of old clay smoking pipes and occasionally old medicine bottles when I am digging the garden. When consdierign the previous inhabitants my thoughts sometimes go to the Mr Pooter character from Diary of a Nobody. Although the book it is mostly about his obsession with his position in society, it does give some insight into the Victorian middle class household.

I'd volunteer for this. It could even be, to an extent, an indoor farmers' market. Alec

Boring but maybe essential - have you looked into the visa requirements? I understand they have changed fairly recently and may be more restrictive than before.

From the BBC's Royal Charter: The Public Purposes of the BBC are as follows? (a)sustaining citizenship and civil society; (b)promoting education and learning; ©stimulating creativity and cultural excellence; (d)representing the UK, its nations, regions and communities; (e)bringing the UK to the world and the world to the UK; (f)in promoting its other purposes, helping to deliver to the public the benefit of emerging communications technologies and services and, in addition, taking a leading role in the switchover to digital television. Channel 4's remit: The Channel's primary purpose is the fulfilment of its public service remit, which was most recently defined in the 2003 Communications Act. This states that "the public service remit for Channel 4 is the provision of a broad range of high quality and diverse programming which, in particular: (a) demonstrates innovation, experiment and creativity in the form and content of programmes; (b) appeals to the tastes and interests of a culturally diverse society; © makes a significant contribution to meeting the need for the licensed public service channels to include programmes of an educational nature and other programmes of educative value; and (d) exhibits a distinctive character." As a publisher-broadcaster, Channel 4 does not produce its own programmes but commissions them from more than 300 independent production companies across the UK, a far greater number than any other broadcaster, including the whole of the BBC. It works very closely with the independent production sector, and invests heavily in training and talent development throughout the industry. What Sky is all about: http://annualreview2010.sky.com/what_sky_is_all_about/Default.aspx

Does Sky have an equivalent to Radio 4? My personal circumstances mean that I rarely get access to a TV screen and then its either Tracey Beaker or Mario Kart Wii. Oh, and a rented dvd on a Saturday night.

In a fluid situation as seems to be the case in Egypt at the moment I find it really useful to have the BBC's analysis alongside the voices of Egyptian people commenting on the changes in their society. The events could turn out to be momentous and may well have a really positive effect on the region - time will tell. My point is that our/most people's engagement with the situation is mediated by the BBC, largely, and that can only happen in the way it does if we pay a licence fee or find a similar method for funding the organisation that maintains its quality of reporting and analysis and its independence.