Nigello

Agree with P68 - it is a good/very good service with occasional bad experiences in my view. I mostly get first class mail, even sent from hundreds of miles away, the next day. Covid and other factors have made it very poor at times but it is good now.

Please let the local police know - [email protected] . They may be aware of a pattern and it could help them. (Goodrich School has security cameras, which may also help.) Thanks!

Of course there is but that doesn't prevent either method of being of use.

Think about signing up for Zipcar, which has a good presence here and can be taken to most, I think, London boroughs. Some are those that you can leave at your destination but a smaller number you have to bring back. There are electric cars within the fleets and all are usually reliable and clean, though some are a bit tatty and whiffy! (I don't use them personally but know others who do and who really like the service.) For longer trips you can hire from Avis, Hertz etc.

https://www.theguardian.com/media/mind-your-language/2011/sep/29/mind-your-language-buzzword-trope - how it started...

Global pandemics have long arms but hid harder, softer and more or less often depending on where you are, so its effects on, say, a hotel in London or a rail franchise is different from a small, retail area. My point is that even with a global pandemic you cannot apply a blanket or worst-case scenario for every situation, and perhaps the poster who says that the council (and business owners, for certain, yes) could have not been so precipitous and resolute in its traffic measures has a valid point.

A postcard sent to Germany took two days recently; one to Japan took 3, both posted from SE22 late in the afternoon. I think it is hit and miss but on the whole, now that the big woes of the pandemic and its knock-on effects on the post have waned, it is still a good service.

Try conacting this show on Radio 4 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/1YnZrF9w7xR82St8d7Pgc6x/contact-you-yours I don't work there but do listen and hear that they feature items generated by listeners.

Good idea - in the meantime, hammering home the message about good ventilation at homes, schools and places of work and leisure is as useful.

I agree with the slavishly-followed U S imports above, and add "couple" instead of "couple of" and putting "out" on the end of verbs such as "swapping", "tweeting". They usually come in via smart-alec commentators, pundits, columnists who use them as a way of signalling their global awareness/connections to America but more recently that job has been done by "social" media. Avoid unless you want to look instantly dated and a try-hard!

I agree that people are more likely to walk than cycle but disagree that public transport is bad. With apps like the TfL one and Citymapper it?s possible to know when a bus arrives. It?s also possible to bus hop without paying extra within 59 minutes of taking the first bus. A Tube or tram would be great but it?s not going to happen so make the most of what we have which I think is at least 7/10.

Coffee and ice-cream

I admire your self-assuredness. Given that you don't have to waste any time on such concerns, please post a link that backs up your point. Thank you

I fear your good intentions, alice, are more to do with how you would like to be perceived (even on an anonymous forum) than anything to do with the victim and others who may fall foul of the attacker. If you could point to a peer-reviewed research paper that confirms your assertion, please post it here and I will stand corrected (though how someone or a group of someones can be criminalised when they are not actually deemed to be criminals because they haven't been found guilty in court or even questioned is uncertain to me).

Dean Baquet now, Fran Dreschler last November - Dulwich Village and its portable treats are quite the draw for New York luminaries...

Alice - I amdire your confidence in people. Not everyone is as public-spirited as you think, and soem may not understand the importance of what they saw or heard and choose to not make a fuss and bother the police. What is wrong with putting a description up? Sure, some people will use it to confirm biases, but is avoiding that more important than warning others and preventing them, perhaps, from becoming another victim, or from helping an individual make more solid a suspicion they had which could then help the police?

Rockets said, in brackets to underline scepticism, which I agree with, "the community"; This word or just "the X... community" are such weasel-words and to be avoided, especially when uttered by self-styled "community leaders" and/or politicians.

Trams are a luxury we cannot afford right now. Guided buses, trolley buses are much cheaper and can do similar things in terms of routes and numbers of people carried, even to the extent of being made to look like trams so that the poor, starry-eyed councillors still think they are in Zurich or Lisbon. Even if we had them, though, our streets would be congested because they are not designed for so many vehicles. Just drive less, everyone, and don't rely on Amazon, etc. so much.

Please stop looking to people in authority/in authorities, like Southwark, for all solutions. Everyone of you who owns a car can do something by not using it at least for one trip a week, ideally many more. Just don't do it, as Nike wouldn't say. It is simple but not that easy. Nevertheless it is the surest way of reducing your carbon footprint - just walk or take a bus, or simply don't go! (And that doesn't mean outsourcing your trip to a Getir/Just Eat delivery person.)

Re the reality of - sometimes - Qs of buses idling whilst the one at the front of the Q is stopping to let people on or off: yes, this is a daily problem that could be made better by putting on smaller vehicles, or at least ones that use electricity as a power source. Half-empty (half-full?!) buses are not a good advert for bus lanes and restrictions on private vehicle uses, especially if there are long lines of them, idling away.

Best to tell the staff at the branch in question; they may well install another bin if they know about customers' feedback.

It is better than nothing, surely? If it acts as an incentive for someone to totally avoid such plastics, then that is good result, even if it is not the main objective. Plastic can be used for good - think of the spoilage on some goods. It is also light, which cuts down on transport costs.

Lest we forget, the school holidays do have a big effect on the amount of traffic in and around these contentious areas. It is only anecdotal, but the Village was like an early morning Sunday around 8am today - nary a vehicle to be seen. Why, then, not be honest about this negative impact on emissions and congestion from this reduceable problem? Maybe it is best to say that even with incentives, coaches, enlightenment from "busy mums/dads" there will ALWAYS be higher traffic in such areas and apply traffic measures accordingly?

A cormorant - maybe the same one as before - is in the lake/pond at Peckham Rye Park.

Only necessary in people's homes for a couple of days a year. Don't do it - you'll be worse off financially and climatically! (Retail is different, I know, but staff ought to be trained as to how to operate it properly so as not to deter customers and not waste energy.)