Penguin68

There are red squirrels in the Isle of Wight

I'm still here, Penguin. I do a huge amount of community work, ... I wasn't remotely suggesting you weren't, indeed that's the point of my post. My closing remark was simply to note that Renata was outperforming her party colleagues in terms of visibility, and was the exception that proved the rule about the ruling party.

... but you know, heaven forbid that people should be able to pass one another safely in the street. In this weather, sunny and breezy, and if you are talking about actually walking past people and not stopping to chat, then a metre or less of clearance will be quite safe. The 2 metre rule (which anyway now has been reduced) reflected long (10 minutes or more) contact in enclosed spaces (so still relevant for e.g. shops and supermarkets). Actually, normal walking at normal clearances, even unmasked, is almost entirely risk free in these weather conditions. Bumping into people is different, of course, but I really wouldn't be worried about passing people quite close in the street. Of course, if you yourself are symptomatic, stay at home and isolate.

The European Hornet is yellow and black https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_hornet

It is interesting that it is former councillors (James B and Robin) who were and are most conspicuous by their regular presence in ED - and that neither of them were members of the ruling apparat. But then no surprises there. [NB Renata is the exception that proves that rule, responsive and present.]

"Penguin68 Milk & More deliveries have changed, I had an email. Monday's changed to Tuesday , Wednesday's to Thursday and Friday's to Saturday." Ah, that makes sense then, not that I got any notification - but that may be because I'm not an internet customer of their's. Thanks

Last week I thought I had a problem but in fact the Milk&More delivery just seems to have slipped a day - maybe illness or staff holidays? So Monday, Wednesday, and Friday seem now (fingers crossed) to have become Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. I'll see tomorrow whether this remains so this week.

If it is so serious, you stay at home, get home delivery, do click and collect. For many people, lock-down has been seriously mentally disturbing, particularly for those on their own at home - balancing continuing to stay in isolation with getting out to see some life is difficult, certainly, but to condemn those who have underlying conditions to continuing imprisonment is simply cruel. I am sure those who can't wear masks for medical reasons (which in themselves make them more vulnerable) will have thought very hard about going out - but maybe their mental health needs are now trumping their physical health needs. Of course there will be people who claim disabilities they don't have. But to punish the disabled because there are able bodied cheats is I think wholly wrong. If you are worried about mixing with the unmasked, perhaps you could stay at home, get home delivery, do click and collect. If that's all so easy.

surely many peeps live within 30 mins walk of a restaurant? A restaurant, surely, but not necessarily one of the many in the West End. And an hours walk for a meal may be healthy, but if you're over 60 it ain't going to be much fun, particularly as the weather worsens into autumn and winter. With so many now working from home and thus not starting their evening in the City or West End coming in specially is going to be less attractive. This makes it even more so.

Outsourcing services is a perfectly viable option - but it requires very good management, including well thought-through SLAs (Service Level Agreements) and proper penalty clauses for non performance. Too often outsourcing is treated as 'move it to be someone else's problem' and of course, unless that someone else is a slap dash as you, that's a recipe to being done over. At times of crisis (as with Covid-19) the SLAs may have to be breached, but providing funding without clear outcomes and some form of pay-back is clearly just very poor management. So no surprises there, then.

so I went to a post box nearer me on which times are indicated clearly They may be indicated clearly, but they are, at best 'indicative' and often, frankly, inaccurate. And most sadly, often collected in advance of the time stated (in arrears wouldn't be such a problem).

it's a class war by a tory government on it's wealthy car owning voters Goodness, and there was me thinking that Labour were in power in Southwark - how did I miss that? The labour party in Southwark is continuing its publicly stated (they won an election on that) position to remove, as much as they can, private cars from Southwark. People voted for that (and it was also lib dem policy). If they are using Conservative legislation to achieve their ends, why wouldn't they? My point was that complaining that the plans didn't meet objectives that the council frankly isn't interested in is to miss the point. No, their plans don't improve the things that people might have wanted, like reducing queuing traffic pumping out fumes - but that was never their end. Conservative policy, if it's about anything, is about reducing car usage to reduce pollution. That's not the key aim of the local labour party whose policy long pre-dates Covid. And if you actually think that the conservatives won the last general election on the back of 'wealthy, car owning voters' (I had to assume you were joking there) - you did not notice what was happening north of The Wash.

Argon filled units are 5-10% more expensive - possibly higher for custom units to meet listed requirements. I don't know what their order times are, but possibly longer as well, which may not mean argon filled windows could not be installed in due time (for next term, for instance). For public expenditure (and a lot of windows) the 5-10% additional costs may not be meet-able. Double glazed (air filled) windows have a U of 2.8 - 3.00 - so less good than mono-laminate.

Devisive action is what we might expect, but I doubt but that decisive action will be beyond them.

Almost certainly traffic flow through suburban streets which include multiple connecting routes is a Chaotic System - where a quite small butterfly flapping its wings (road closure due to an accident or road works) can lead to a hurricane of stationary traffic and delays. The arrogant belief in such a system that planners can make changes the effects of which they can accurately forecast over time is arrant nonsense. Southwark's road planners however are not interested in smooth traffic flows, or congestion, or for that matter pollution. They have a political desire (which is stated) to remove cars from their roads (as part of their belief system, which we can see echoed here, that private vehicles are the purview of the wealthy few and not the deserving many) - they may hide behind the purity of the cyclist (or even the moral worth of public transport, though that one, where public transport is so bad, is a difficult one to validate) but this is simple class war, and one they are winning.

I think you were replying to RedstarGreen, Pugwash.

Yes Savvy girl, my wife pointed out my errors Dawson Hill not Dulwich Hill, the park and hill area behind Dawson Heights flats. It's a very easy mistake to make, if it's a mistake at all - Dawson Heights sits in the centre (well, almost) of the Dulwich Hill Ward - I can't think of anything else which would qualify to gift the ward its name.

I would report this to the police, saying you also told the park ranger. Threatening behaviour, which, as you describe it, this clearly was, cannot be acceptable, even and perhaps especially in these strange times - and the next victim might not be as lucky as you were to escape unscathed. You don't mention how old these boys were, I'm assuming young teenagers, but whatever age report it.

Surely it's quite simple - if you bring stuff into a park, you should take it away with you, or, if you're lucky, dispose of it in rubbish bins provided. If they are't, or they're full, then whatever you brought your 'not yet rubbish' in, can be used to take your, 'now it's rubbish' away with you. At a time when public space is particularly vital (for those otherwise sheltering in their homes) messing it up for other people is unforgivable. I wonder if 'spot' ?50 or ?100 fines might help sharpen minds? Enjoy public parks of course, eat or drink there, of course; but only if you're prepared to treat them properly and with respect.

When I learnt to ride a bicycle (in the mid to late '50s) I was not allowed on to the open road by my father until I had shown that I could ride one-handed (left or right) so that I could signal turns. He said that, on the road, you should know what everyone is doing and they should know what you are doing. I think that's still good advice, though I am always surprised nowadays when a cyclist actually signals a turn. Often they're my age, or look it! Later on he taught me, in a car, the concept of defensive driving. I am really worried, when I now drive, when I come up to very young children on the road who clearly are only just in control of their bikes, with both hands. Particularly when they are struggling to keep up with their biking dads.

At the start of the pandemic many people thought masks (even non surgical ones) would protect them - rather than masks protecting others from you. To have encouraged or even endorsed mask wearing then would have been to court danger, it could be argued, whilst now mask wearing is seen as a courtesy to others, as well as offering (albeit minimal) protection to others from symptom-less carriers. Had more been known about them and their prevalence maybe the advice could have been different. But certainly distancing and handwashing are still your best protection from others. To some extent at least mask wearing is a second set of braces once you have the belt and braces of handwashing and distancing - although in circumstances where distancing is difficult (public transport, cramped shops or workplaces) they may offer something to others around you, should you be the one silently infected. But now we (mostly) know what masks do (and, crucially, don't offer) - more wearing of them may be sensible.

When opened it was very crowded - tables v. close together - thus could not have operated in the new era - I suspect that there was no way they could see of making money in a post Covid environment. Sad but a commentary on layout, not initial business plan. Shame to see it go but I see no way in which it could have operated now.

The ancient roman system was to disallow wheeled traffic (carts) on the streets during the day, allowing them at night. It would make sense (and facilitate necessary deliveries to shops etc.) if Rye Lane was open to traffic, say, midnight to 4.00am (or even later, 1.00 am to 5.00am.) That way commerce wouldn't be entirely hamstrung.

Covid19 has now been analysed and found to have a range of characteristics which is believed to be impossible to have developed naturally. One such characteristic is the asymptomatic transmission. Others are the wide range of detrimental effect that it has on victims. Organs affected include lungs, blood, brain and for survivors their health can be impaired long term. This indicates beyond reasonable doubt that the Chinese have been cutting and splicing various viruses in their labs and that Vovid19 escaped. This is not a universally agreed view - others (outside China) argue the opposite (that this was not manufactured). Just because you can quote a source does not mean that source is right. The impact of the pneumonia which follows bad cases is not dissimilar to the impacts of other pneumonias. That the Wuhan lab does gene splicing is not in doubt, that is its purpose. If the virus is very variable, that would argue against a spliced virus, where consistency of effect is one of the requirements. It is possible, of course, that this is a escapee - but many experts with no political axes to grind do not believe this. And it is hardly surprising that the Chinese, like so many others, including a number in the UK, are working on vaccines and treatments. It is the typical action of a totalitarian state that it would require its military to act as guinea-pigs to test the vaccine - the PLA is a very large organisation and you would need a lot of test subjects to validate a vaccine where the infection rate is currently low (as the Chinese claim).

No, I think what was meant is that the work at Dulwich Hospital will be a King's Satellite delivery - and nothing to do therefore with the Health centre/ GP provision.