Jump to content

Recommended Posts

My 24-page Southwark Life magazine has just plopped through the letter box - full colour, nice paper and high production values to the tune of 12 staff plus designers, printers and distribution.


It tells me that we have a library, that the police want Southwark to be safer and that Southwark is a great place to be gay. It is completely free of paid for ads.


I know I'm a misery guts but who the hell reads this, needs this information, wants to pay for it in their council tax? I used to work on magazines and they cost bundles to produce believe me.

Link to comment
https://www.eastdulwichforum.co.uk/topic/6936-southwark-life/
Share on other sites

I once engaged in an hour-long conversation with someone regarding this very publication. It must have been five years ago, though time flies and I'm not sure that it wasn't 1956. Anyway.


She admitted that it wasn't at all aimed at me. Instead, it was aimed at those who live in Council owned housing and use Council services above and beyond the basics, which translates into the poor and 'vunerable'. She explained that they do not have access to computers and tend not to purchase local newspapers. Thus, you will always see the stories skewed toward services like job training, literacy, etc. and a lot of news and information on housing.


I make no judgements. I simply recount my conversation.

Maurice Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> She admitted that it wasn't at all aimed at me.

> Instead, it was aimed at those who live in Council

> owned housing and use Council services above and

> beyond the basics, which translates into the poor

> and 'vunerable'. She explained that they do not

> have access to computers and tend not to purchase

> local newspapers. Thus, you will always see the

> stories skewed toward services like job training,

> literacy, etc. and a lot of news and information

> on housing.


Exactly. Most of the people it's aimed at don't have the luxury of sitting in the garden phoning the council planning department every hour on the hour over a bottle of chablis I'm sure.


Anything that I don't approve of, or can't see the value in is a complete waste of money.

KalamityKel Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Ive always found it quite boring, about other

> parts of the borough and out of date



What's wrong with finding out about other parts of the borough? There's a whole life universe outside of the warm, fuzzy ED bubble you know...

Forget about the ethics of the magazine being nice, warm and supportive to the vulnerable / socially deprived / poor.


Ask the question - is Southwark Life delivering anything of benefit to the vulnerable / socially deprived / poor?


If it is - good news. Let's see if the same can be achieved for less (a question all public services are going to have to tackle over the next 10 years).


If it isn't - bin it and either save the costs or deploy the money to something more useful.

Marmora Man Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> Forget about the ethics of the magazine being

> nice, warm and supportive to the vulnerable /

> socially deprived / poor.

>

> Ask the question - is Southwark Life delivering

> anything of benefit to the vulnerable / socially

> deprived / poor?

>

> If it is - good news. Let's see if the same can be

> achieved for less (a question all public services

> are going to have to tackle over the next 10

> years).

>

> If it isn't - bin it and either save the costs or

> deploy the money to something more useful.


I'm sure they could employ a heavyweight designer, features editor, Quark expert etc, crowd-source their editorial content from a Twitter cloud....etc... which would cost even more money.


As with a lot of council things - it's a comprimise.

Peckham native Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> I think you'll find the 12 people mentioned only

> spend a small amount of their time on Southwark

> Life. The rest of their time is spent on other

> brilliant/rubbish* (*delete depending on your

> viewpoint) communication projects for Southwark.



....such as the 'good luck in your exams' billboards which someone on here was HORRIFIED they were spending money on a while back.

parsnip-io Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> KalamityKel Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

> > Ive always found it quite boring, about other

> > parts of the borough and out of date

>

>

> What's wrong with finding out about other parts of

> the borough? There's a whole life universe

> outside of the warm, fuzzy ED bubble you know...


May I suggest you dont stereotype EDF users to only be interested in East Dulwich and East Dulwich only. I just don't happen to find reading continuously of news and events on the further side of the borough particularly interesting. Give us news of Peckham, Elephant etc rather than Surrey Quays and the likes too tis all I'm saying.

KalamityKel Wrote:

-------------------------------------------------------

> parsnip-io Wrote:

> --------------------------------------------------

> -----

> > KalamityKel Wrote:

> >

> --------------------------------------------------

>

> > -----

> > > Ive always found it quite boring, about other

> > > parts of the borough and out of date

> >

> >

> > What's wrong with finding out about other parts

> of

> > the borough? There's a whole life universe

> > outside of the warm, fuzzy ED bubble you

> know...

>

> May I suggest you dont stereotype EDF users to

> only be interested in East Dulwich and East

> Dulwich only. I just don't happen to find reading

> continuously of news and events on the further

> side of the borough particularly interesting.

> Give us news of Peckham, Elephant etc rather than

> Surrey Quays and the likes too tis all I'm saying.


'Tis true.

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Latest Discussions

    • Pretty much, Sue, yeah. It's the perennial, knotty problem of imposing a tax and balancing that with the cost of collecting it.  The famous one was the dog licence - I think it was 37 1/2 pence when it was abolished, but the revenue didn't' come close to covering the administration costs. As much I'd love to have a Stasi patrolling the South Bank, looking for mullet haircuts, unshaven armpits, overly expressive hand movements and red Kicker shoes, I'm afraid your modern Continental is almost indistinguishable from your modern Londoner. That's Schengen for you. So you couldn't justify it from an ROI point of view, really. This scheme seems a pretty good idea, overall. It's not perfect, but it's cheap to implement and takes some tax burden off Southwark residents.   'The Man' has got wise to this. It's got bad juju now. If you're looking to rinse medium to large amounts of small denomination notes, there are far better ways. Please drop me a direct message if you'd like to discuss this matter further.   Kind Regards  Dave
    • "What's worse is that the perceived 20 billion black hole has increased to 30 billion in a year. Is there a risk that after 5 years it could be as high as 70 billion ???" Why is it perceived, Reeves is responsible for doubling the "black hole" to £20b through the public sector pay increases. You can't live beyond your means and when you try you go bankrupt pdq. In 4 yrs time if this Govt survives that long and the country doesn't go bust before then, in 2029 I dread to think the state the country will be in.  At least Sunak and co had inflation back to 2% with unemployment being stable and not rising.   
    • He seemed to me to be fully immersed in the Jeremy Corbyn ethos of the Labour Party. I dint think that (and self describing as a Marxist) would have helped much when Labour was changed under Starmer. There was a purge of people as far left as him that he was lucky to survive once in my opinion.   Stuff like this heavy endorsement of Momentum and Corbyn. It doesn't wash with a party that is in actual government.   https://labourlist.org/2020/04/forward-momentum-weve-launched-to-change-it-from-the-bottom-up/
    • I perceive the problem.simply as spending too much without first shoring up the economy.  If the government had reduced borrowing,  and as much as most hate the idea, reduced government deiartment spending (so called austerity) and not bowed to union pressures for pay rises, then encouraged businesses to grow, extra cash would have entered the coffers and at a later stage when the economy was in a stronger position rises in NI or taxes would have a lesser impact, but instead Reeves turned that on its head by increasing ni which has killed growth, increased prices and shimmied the economy.  What's worse is that the perceived 20 billion black hole has increased to 30 billion in a year. Is there a risk that after 5 years it could be as high as 70 billion ???     
Home
Events
Sign In

Sign In



Or sign in with one of these services

Search
×
    Search In
×
×
  • Create New...