The National Audit Office today released a report into the supervision of community orders, and it is clear that the government needs to do more to make sure that they work properly.

Community orders have the potential to work very well. If they function properly, they provide an effective alternative to prison, which brings all sorts of benefits in itself, not least in helping the government out of the overcrowding mess it has got itself into. They can benefit the community and the offender as well though, by reducing re-offending.

But at the moment they are not working very well. They aren’t being used as effectively as possible, and the Probation Service itself doesn’t know how many orders it can effectively oversee. The government needs to urgently improve the data it collects, both in terms of the cost of the orders and the numbers of offenders failing to complete them.

Community orders can do wonders for our justice system if used properly. But the public need faith in them, and this faith won’t come without proper management of the system. Here in St Mary’s ward, people have lost faith in them because the offenders subject to them seem improperly managed and likely to re-offend. The government needs to get more of a grip on community orders urgently, to improve community safety, reduce re-offending, and make the most of what are potentially effective ways of reducing crime.

Rick

This morning I have been chasing up a number of outstanding environmental issues in the ward, with limited success. I must say that I am still very frustrated at the lengths I have to go to to even get a response from Council officers, let alone any action to taken to remedy legitimate residents’ concerns. We aren’t asking for solid gold pavements and diamond encrusted bin-wagons. We’re asking for dangerous trees to be cut back, and our streets dragged up from the medieval levels of squalor which they sometimes seem to have sunk to.

So I contacted the Council again regarding over-hanging trees on Bury New Road and on Church Drive, having received no word on progress since I first got in touch nearly two weeks ago. It’s not good enough, and I let the Council officers know as much.

It really is incredibly frustrating, and goodness knows how this level of “service” makes average Council-tax payers feel if this is how Councillors get routinely treated.

But still, I hope to be able to report success with these initiatives shortly. If anyone ever bothers to return my calls.

Rick

Last night I attended the Bury Holocaust Memorial ceremony at Radcliffe Civice Suite, along with Councillors from all parties, leaders from the faith and voluntary sector, and other members of the public. And it was especially gratifying to see so many of our young people take an active role in remembering The Holocaust.

It was a very moving and excellently put together evening, with contributions from Jewish, Christian and Muslim religious leaders, and school pupils from across the religious spectrum. The Mayor and the leaders of the three political groups signed the Holocaust declaration, recognising and deploring the Holocaust and giving the commitment of the Borough of Bury to stamp out discrimination today.

There were excellent contributions from young people - the children of local schools reading their thoughts on events, and showing their reactions in pictures, song and dance. Of particular poignance was the reading of the first hand testimony of a Holocaust survivor, which vividly brought home to all present the horrors of the time.

My congratulations to all those involved in organising this event, and in particular my congratulations to the children who took part. It was a fitting tribute to those who perished, and a timely reminder of the evils of persecution and prejudice.

Rick

Today I am back in work, after a busy weekend of furniture buying and general house planning. All very exciting. The delivery of the white good spassed with only moderate difficulties. Apparently we have plumbing “issues” which will mean the hiring of somebody who knows more about pipes than I do, to make the dishwasher work.

As well as the house, I dealt with ward issues over the weekend. First off there was a sewage leak down Clifton Road, which I was alerted to on Friday night. This is a United Utilities issue rather than a Council issue, but I chased it up over the weekend in conjunction with the resident concerned, and I am hopeful that the engineers will sort out the problem today.

Also, I heard from a resident of Sherbourne Court that she was having a problem with squirrels in her loft space. Apparently they are being very noisy (probably storing nuts…). I have been talking to Pest Control about the problem, and to Six Town Housing about whether or not it is up to the tenant or STH to pay the charge.

Lofts have also been on my personal agenda, since we’re having the new one boarded. I have got a guy to come and install a ladder, which will hopefully minimize the currently-quite-high possibility of me tumbling to my death whilst attempting to access the roof space.

Tonight it’s the Bury Holocaust Memorial Service in Radclifee, so I’ll be going to that. I will report back tomorrow on what I’m sure will be an excellent and moving ceremony in which all of our diverse community can take part.

Rick

Today is Holocaust Memorial Day, when ceremonies will be held across the nation to remember the millions of victims of the Holocaust.

Bury MBC’s own ceremony is tomorrow in Radcliffe, and I will be there together with lots of other Councillors and community representatives.

I think that days like today, and ceremonies like tomorrow’s here in Bury, are absolutely vital. It’s not just about looking back and remembering the victims of an unimaginable horror. It’s about looking around us today, thinking about our own communities and how we get along with each other. It’s about learning from the past and recognising that intolerance and prejudice are not acceptable and can lead to awful things.

It’s so important that we learn from the past, and come together as a community to make sure that nobody is a victim of racism or discrimination based on anything but their actions and the strength of their character. And I hope that it’s not just the people locally who heed this message, but those in positions of power across the world. It is heartbreaking that even 62 years after the liberation of the concentration camps, there are still campaigns of ethnic and religious terror taking place across the world. Even whilst the survivors still walk amongst us with their stories to tell, we haven’t learned the lessons and are still making the same mistakes. Days like today give us the opportunity to reflect, and I hope we take that opportunity.

Rick

Well, it has finally happened. After more to-ing and fro-ing between estate agents, solicitors and the most bitter recesses of my brain than I care to remember, I am finally a home-owner.

At midday, the solicitors rang to inform me that I now owe the Nationwide a staggering sum of money. And then a minute later the estate agents rang to offer me two sets of keys in return for my soul. It seemed a fair deal to me, and I’ll be picking them up at 4.

This evening Tamsin and I are going to sit on the floor of our empty house and eat fish and chips, whilst plotting what should go where. I have already come to the conclusion that she should go in the shed.

We won’t officially move in until Valentine’s Day. This is less to do with romance and more to do with the date we pay rent each month, but the coincidence is a happy one, and probably saves me a trip to the florists.

Between now and then we are buying, taking delivery of, and assembling various goods. Tomorrow, for instance, the fridge, freezer, dishwasher and washer/dryer arrive in the back of a Curry’s lorry. So apologies to my new neighbours for that. And then we have the very modern joy of buying virtually everything else in flat-pack form and spending the next fortnight turning allen keys until planks of plywood are transformed into beautiful side-boards.

But all this activity won’t stop work in the ward. The new St Mary’s Focus has been printed and folded, and is now ready for distribution across the ward. So expect one through your letterbox in the coming weeks, starting this weekend. And throughout the turmoils of rug-buying, finding an acceptable coffee table, and dealing with one too few screws for the bookcase, I will be available to offer any assistance you might need from a Councillor.
Rick

A local resident contacted Lib Dem Councillors earlier this week to report that some litter had been in Carr Clough since bonfire night. Despite his frequent attempts to get the Council to take action, they had done nothing, so he came to local Lib Dem Councillors to see if they could help tackle the mess.

After calls were made to the Council’s Environmental Services Department by the St Mary’s Lib Dem Focus Team, the litter has now been removed.

It is a shame that local residents can’t get the Council to act to clean up this type of mess. Local Lib Dems will carry on working to try to get the Council to react quicker and more efficiently to local concerns like this, and find it unacceptable that residents’ concerns are so frequently ignored without Councillors getting involved. But  we are more than happy to assist and to try and get these types of litter problems cleaned up across the ward.

Some weeks ago local Lib Dem Councillors were contacted by a resident of The Coppice unhappy that she and her neighbours on Church Lane had still not received their blue recycling bins. This was despite the Council promising several months ago that no house in Bury would be without one by the end of Summer 2007.

I raised the issue with the Council, and am pleased to report that the resident now has her blue bin, and that the new bins have now been emptied as well! So another success for recycling provision in Prestwich. I am glad to have been able to assist.

Rick

I have just fallen off the post-Christmas diet wagon in spectacular fashion. Using the excuse that “I need some change for a parking meter,” I went to a cash point and then to a cake shop, sandwich bar and sweet stall. And now the bag of fruit which was to be my lunch is sitting on my desk, leering at me. And I feel all salty and horrible after my needless bag of crisps.

I will try to make up for it with a run tonight, but not until I have done some leafleting in the Hilton Lane / Rainsough area. The amount of steps required to get up to some of the houses there will also double-up as some exercise, so with any luck I will have burnt off the excess calories by tea time, just in time to put them back on again. This diet and exercise lark is hard work.

Also tonight I unfurl the first of my boxes, ready to cram them full of the junk which currently clogs my little house and which will, from next week, clog my slightly larger house. I have come to the conclusion that I am a horder. I don’t really know how that makes me feel. Cluttered, I suppose.

Rick

Hazel Blears, the Communities and Local Government Secretary, was in the news today with plans for a “contract” between local government and the people. The plans struck me as a pretty good idea at first. But the more I’ve thought about it, the more I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s yet another bit of New Labour tinkering that will do nothing to increase either participation or satisfaction.

The idea is that public service providers like Councils will effectively sign a “contract” with local people to provide a certain level of service. And if they don’t live up to their side of the bargain, they’ll be forced to answer for it. This could be through appearing at public meetings, or even refunding some Council Tax if it’s serious and repetitive failure.

This last point is obviously the headline-grabber, but I don’t think it grabs much more than that. I’d be first in the queue for a Council Tax rebate (and I’d pull rank with non-elected people to make sure of it!), but the whole idea is unworkable, and even if it wasn’t on the manic side of impractical, it still wouldn’t solve anything. For starters, who’s going to decide who gets money back? And how much they get back? Will the person who’s house backs on to the dirty street get more than his neighbour over the road? Will the person who sprayed the graffiti benefit with a rebate when the Council don’t scrub it off and everyone gets some money back? If my town doesn’t get something that the next town does, why should I pay more than them?

It won’t work. And the idea that this unworkable solution is the end of a several-step programme of explanatory letters and meetings involving Council officers and the clamouring public is, again, silly. Such meetings already exist, and nobody goes. I know because I sit through most of them.

Nobody goes for two reasons – firstly because they are hugely boring gusts of hot air involving Councillors trying their best to surmount massive brick walls of bureaucracy, and doing so with very little power to change anything. And secondly, because the Council should be doing what it’s paid to do anyway, and we shouldn’t have to come to a meeting in our free time to beg and plead with these people to clean our streets.

If the government is serious about making local Councils accountable to local people, it should give them real powers to innovate and change things. It should devolve far more powers to local communities to decide the services they want.  It should do more than pay lip service to localism, by giving Councillors real powers to lead communities and give local people what they want. More people would come to meetings if they knew they could join us in changing things. And then when things changed for the better, more still would come.

But the government won’t do this. Instead it tinkers and it grabs headlines. So community meetings take place in empty halls, local election turnout stays tiny, and dissatisfaction with Councillors and Councils grow. And we as the elected representatives of the people can do nothing, nothing, to make the Council do what communities want.

So don’t be fooled by these announcements. Power still doesn’t rest with the people at a local level. We are still far, far too centralised, and no amount of silly schemes will change this without root and branch reform of the way decisions are made in this country. It’s a shame the government won’t grasp the nettle and realise this, because I for one want a refund on the money spent dreaming up this latest half-baked plan.

Rick

This morning I attended a meeting of the (deep breath) Greater Manchester Passenger Transport Authority Service Improvement Sub-Committee.

There were two main items – First off there was a report and actions list arising from a review of Integrated Social Needs Transport, which basically said that there needs to be more integration and joined up thinking between the GMPTA, Local Authorities and Primary Care Trusts. It wasn’t a particularly good or bad report, and it painted a mixed picture. What is clear is that as a County we sometimes fail the most vulnerable when it comes to transport needs, and this needs to change. What is disappointing is that this particular committee only meets a couple of times a year and so our ability to scrutinise and keep tabs with the agenda is pretty limited, especially for members who have full time paid employment as well.

The second item on the agenda related to performance monitoring, and the rationalisation of performance indicators. There are some new indicators, some revisions, and a fair few things that were being monitored before and that no longer are. A couple of indicators surprised me:

On Metrolink, the punctuality indicator is no longer being measured because, we were told, the reliability indicator is more useful. I disagree wit this because as someone who wants a Met every 6 minutes as promised, I get hugely annoyed when I stand at a platform watching three go the other way and waiting 15 minutes for mine. The system is reliable and there are no breakdowns, but if I want to get into town at the desired time, it’s just not happening. One of the key problems with Metrolink (and there are many) is that the timetable simply isn’t stuck to. And it’s a real shame that it isn’t being monitored any more.

Another indicator which caused some confusion related to satisfaction. Previously, there were three separate indicators asking frequent users their opinions of trains, buses and trams. Now, there will just be one combined indicator reported, although the split will still be made lower down, and we’ll be able to tell should the inevitable Metrolink revolt occur. Last year’s combined figure for satisfaction was 92%, which seems pretty high. However the target going forward is only 91%! In other words, the PTA’s target is to reduce passenger satisfaction! I questioned this and was told that the 92% figure was “a halo effect” and something of an anomaly. But frankly I don’t care, and any target which sees us aiming to lower satisfaction is plainly ludicrous.

Rick

I have once again been in discussions with the Council over their promised improvements to the ludicrous junction at St Ann’s Road and Bury New Road, which would doubtless take home the gold medal in the “Most Ridiculously Dangerous Road Junctions in Bury” competition, narrowly beating the one up the road at Hilton Lane.

As a reminder, this is the junction with two out-of-sync sets of traffic lights within 10 yards of each other, more or less forcing cars to plough into other cars like some kind of Council-sponsored box car derby. God knows why it was put there in the first place, and we’ve been campaigning to get it removed and reduced to one set for the last year. It may indeed be safer for pedestrians, but only because they’re glued to the spot in horror watching the passing cars career into each other.

We were promised that the work would be done to rectify the problem by the end of the financial year, but on chasing this up last week I was informed that the Council now  only “hoped to start” the work by the end of March. Let me say now that any delay to this work would be utterly unacceptable. The people of Prestwich suffer enough with filthy streets and pot-holed roads as the forgotten back-end of Bury. I am not going to let lethal road crossings join the list of Prestwich projects on the doomed list. I am sick of Council officers sitting idly on their thumbs as far as Prestwich is concerned, whilst I say the same things to them over and over again.

This junction should have been altered months ago, but was put off whilst they cancelled all road schemes for the duration of the Met line closure. That was fair enough, but you’d think they’d prioritise the backlog, would you not? Well, the line has been open for four months now and we’ve still got nowhere. I challenged the Council on their latest back-track, and am told that they do in fact hope to have contractors on site by March. But this really does need to be prioritised because it’s been put off long enough and I don’t want one of my constituents to be the next person sideswiped by a driver utterly flummoxed by the world’s most idiotic set of lights.

Rick

The cost of some Metrolink season tickets will go up from Friday 1 February, following the increases in single and return fares just two months ago. Weekly tickets will rise by up to 60p and quarterly tickets by up to  £7.  

Metrolink management claim that these fare rises are fair, and that the Metrolink offers good value for money. But once again they show just how out of touch and wrong they are.

The new increases means that it now costs £21.80 a week to go from Bury to Manchester, and £232 a quarter. This is more expensive than a number of city centre car parks, and despite the fare rises the quality of service provided by Metrolink is, in many aspects utterly woeful. 

I have said it before, and I’ll keep on saying it – there are too few trams, they are frequently late, almost always disgustingly dirty, and too often a Metrolink journey is disrupted by rowdy passengers unsupervised by police and unwatched by security. It’s a thoroughly nasty experience, and it doesn’t tempt anyone out of their cars except those forced to weigh up the general unpleasantness of the Met with the equally unpleasant congestion.

We have a third rate system in the Metrolink. The experience is nothing compared to the London Underground, itself hardly a paragon of virtue. Once again we are let down by a government intent on talking the talk on public transport, but not matching rhetoric with money. Fares go up, passengers get angrier, and the service doesn’t improve fast enough.

This isn’t good enough, and I will continue to campaign for better central funding, better services and more realistic fares for Metrolink until they come our way.

Rick

My apologies to anyone who read last night’s Rainsough posting and wondered why I wished to “amend” the community’s goodwill. I did, of course, mean to type “commend”! I can only put the error down to tiredness at the end of a very busy week! I have now amended (and I meant to type that!) the mistake!

Rick

They say that, with the exception of losing a close relative, moving house is the most stressful thing in the world. They obviously haven’t sat through a Prestwich LAP meeting when street cleaning is on the agenda, but other than that minor omission, I reckon they are more or less right.

We are in the process of moving at present. From Clifton Road to Butterstile Close. Last week we exchanged contracts, having been informed by our solicitor to get buildings insurance straight away because “now that you’ve exchanged, if the house blows up you still have to buy it.” With such a ringing endorsement of the joys of home-ownership in my ears, I hurriedly arranged cover, and am due to pick up the keys, explosions permitting, next Friday.

I am fairly lucky in that, because I rent, I don’t have a place to sell, and can gently move in over the course of a month. A knock on effect though of my fixed-abode-free existence up til now is that we haven’t really ever acquired any furniture. And so the plan for this weekend was for me to tip every penny I have ever saved out of my bank account, stroll into Comet, and buy most of their stock. Then do the same in DFS.

Unfortunately the sellers of my house-to-be have gone AWOL and have been incommunicado for the better part of a week (suspiciously, ever since exchanging). As a result we haven’t been able to measure anything, and so are dimension-less prior to our shopping spree. Which wouldn’t be so bad were the sales not about to come grinding to a halt. The TV screamed at me that SCS were having a double discount event this weekend. Not the type of thing I want to miss given my need for a sofa and their need to sell lots of them.

Tonight I peered into their darkened house, and deposited a pleading letter through their door asking if they’d be so kind as to allow me and my tape-measure inside to prevent me buying a sofa that is three inches too wide for the lounge. I have yet to receive a response. And of course the estate agents are about as useful as a mobile disco in a morgue. Quite what the purpose of estate agents is I have never quite fathomed. They are like the irritating middle-men between me and the sane world. When I asked them when it was OK to go around to measure the house, they confidently arranged a time with me, only to ring an hour before I was due to enter and casually drop into the conversation the fact that they’d made the whole thing up and hadn’t ever spoken to the seller at all.

My stresses will continue, I’m guessing, until well after I’ve moved. I started writing a list the other day of people I needed to ring to inform them of a change of address. It was thirty names long before I put it behind the clock on the mantel-piece in the hope that it would go away.

I imagine myself at some point relaxed on a new sofa watching new Sky on a new TV sipping a newly opened can of Dr Pepper in my new lounge and typing on my blog on my new wireless broadband on my new laptop, with my new white goods all whirring simultaneously in the kitchen. Until that point, which I fear may be several months, a bankruptcy and a nervous breakdown away, the stresses continue a-pace.

Rick

Tonight I attended my third Council-related meeting of the week, and this time it was the turn of Rainsough Tenants and Residents Association.

It was their first meeting of the year, and it was great to see well over two dozen people in attendance, including representatives from the police, Six Town Housing, Salix Housing (from Salford), and two Councillors including me, as well as lots of tenants and residents of course.

We seem to be making a bit of progress on improving the park on Kersal Road, and I have this evening made further enquiries with the Council to see if they can find the money to give us some play equipment for younger children, as well as more dog waste bins which I think are sorely needed. Hopefully there’ll be some good news there.

The main debate of the evening was around the future of the Chapel Road shops. Councillors from both the main parties in St Mary’s are clearly of the view that this has been a neglected area of the ward for too long now. We have the ideal opportunity to do something about it now, with Children’s Centre outreach facilities an obvious solution, and £20k available for this purpose. Labour-run Salford City Council have neglected Rainsough for decades, but have indicated a willingness to engage with us now, and that’s to be commended if they follow it up with action.

What struck me tonight though was the different viewpoints of so many residents. Some were keen on the idea of an outreach centre, whilst others preferred other options ranging on conversion to domestic use, commercial shops or even just to board them up. There are clearly concerns over security, and these were shared both by us Councillors and the Committee. However, the Police pointed out what I suspect most people in the room knew - that times and people have changed a lot since the last time the shops were open, and that security needn’t be an issue if things are planned correctly.

With such a range of views on display, the Committee has agreed to hold a special meeting with all interested stakeholders including Police, housing managers, residents in the immediate vicinity of the units, and the TRA itself, to see if we can find a sensible solution that will do the best for the whole community. I will be at this meeting, and I will let you know when I have a confirmed date. But it is vital that we move forward here and don’t let a golden opportunity slip through our fingers.

I’ve had a very busy week and haven’t been entirely happy with all the meetings I’ve been at. Sometimes it can be frustrating. But other times I leave meetings feeling hopeful, and tonight was one of those times. The community was out in force, and although there are lots of options on the table and points of view around, everyone in the room tonight was united in wanting to make Rainsough a better place. And that’s to be commended.

Rick

I have calmed down this morning after lat night’s rant about LAPs and the general rubbishness (pun intended) of the Council’s street cleaning service for Prestwich.

I am still determined to press this though, and won’t be giving up. In addition, I have been giving more thought to why I leave each and every LAP meeting feeling as though I may as well stand screaming obscenities with my fingers in my ears as be a Councillor for all the good I can do.

I reckon it’s because LAPs bring together the angriest residents in Prestwich and the world’s most toothless forum. Toothless not because of the people on the LAP itself, or even the decision-making structure of the Council, but because we’re all utterly hamstrung by bureaucracy and being part of a group unsure who to turn to to make sure things are done the way the community wants them done. We all nod sagely and say we sympathise, but actually getting stuff done to solve problems like vandalism, congestion and litter seems impossible.

At Council meetings the Labour group often accuse the Tories of letting the officers run the Council. And they’re right, but it’s not the Tories’ fault. The Labour group did no better and would do no better if in charge again. And I doubt we would either. Officers DO run the Council, because that’s their full time job and because they are in effect the agents not of the people of Bury or us Councillors, but of central government. And central government call the tune.

Our over-bearing, over-centralised and so often unaccountable central government control almost everything that the Council does. When I was a Council officer, the Members had lots of good ideas, as did I. But there was no flexibility in budgets, no room to try anything new, and far too little responsiveness to local community need. And it’s borne out at LAPs where people have problems and we just can’t respond.

We all want a responsive service but there’s no local power to vary ringfenced monies or alter government imposed targets that direct money away from things we really do need (like clean streets).

And it reduces Councillor power to virtually nil. All we can do is keep trying, keep building the relationships with the officers and see what comes of it.

I hope this cynicism of mine passes. I’ve been a Councillor nine months, so maybe I’ll learn how to be better. I can do the casework that comes my way, and I can do the big political stuff. It’s this middle bit about stuff that’s pertinent to the ward as a whole that I struggle with. Getting lots of streets cleaner, or revising bin routes to make things better for lots of people. In the end I sometimes think that all I am as a Councillor is a regular guy with the direct dial number of the guy in charge, so that it’s him that says no direct rather than the person in the call centre.

I want to help. I want to be the magic man, the man that does the thing that makes the difference. Sometimes it works and it’s great – I’m doing what I was elected for. Often times though it just doesn’t, and it’s very frustrating.

Rick

Tonight was Prestwich Local Area Partnership (LAP) night, and once again I came away from the meeting feeling more disenchanted and disappointed than anything else. Most of all I was disappointed in myself and the internal screaming I find myself doing when I just can’t help people who come to the meeting so evidently frustrated.

Once again there were probably as many people on the top table as in the audience. With so many problems evident across Prestwich, and so many people frustrated at the lack of action on so many things, it’s a bit shame that more people don’t come to speak to LAP members. Is it because people can’t be bothered, or just that they think their input can’t make a difference?

Sadly, tonight I came away thinking that, whilst it may be the former for some people, it’s the latter in a lot of cases too. Yet again there was a very eloquent and well-put complaint to us about the state of Prestwich Village - the fact that it’s mucky, untidy, never swept or cleaned. This is the same complaint made over and over, and no matter what I do, no matter what my fellow Councillors do, still it’s the same. It’s a shocking dereliction of duty by the Council itself, who are ignoring not only the elected members but the people who elected them in the first place. This isn’t a political issue. It’s not that one party can do it whilst others can’t. It’s that nobody can do it because the Council aren’t fulfilling their part of the bargain which says that we pay them money to keep the streets clean.

Two LAPs ago we got an officer down to the meeting to address us about street cleaning, and yet still nothing has changed. It’s an absolute disgrace, and the state of the Village centre is nothing short of a scandal. I may be a Councillor, but I am also a Council Tax payer and I am frankly fed up with all of my efforts and requests for help falling not only on deaf ears but also to officers who just don’t seem to care. Why should it take me phone call after email after phone call to get bins empties and kebab wrappers swept away? These things should be happening. The service is appalling and I stand shoulder to shoulder with any resident who says so.

I will keep trying. We will all keep trying, but as a relatively new Councillor I sometimes wonder what the hell I’m doing battling against some absolutely shocking non-interest from the Council itself. I was elected to help the people of my ward, to try and give them what they want, and yet all I am met with is excuse after excuse, and my patience is wearing dangerously thin.

Maybe I shouldn’t write this blog when I’m angry, and I am well aware that this posting is clearly lacking in solutions. But I just want any readers of this to know that I am just as angry as my residents are about the state of these services. I am elected to serve and it’s difficult sometimes. And hugely frustrating when I would have gladly spent tonight emptying the bins and sweeping the streets in the rain myself rather than sat in a school hall listening to the same complaints as last time. I’d have had a far better time, and we’d have achieved something at least.

Rick

Last night I was interviewed by a local lady who is writing a dissertation on anti-Semitism as part of a degree in Theology which she is studying for. It was an interesting discussion, which surprised me because I was worried I might have little to say.

For a Jewish guy in a slightly-more-public role than a lot of people, maybe I might be exposed to more abuse than someone else, but I can honestly say that I have never knowingly been the victim of anti-Semitism. I’m obviously lucky, because the papers report a lot of it, and it’s on the rise.

Of course, as a member of the community, I am a victim as much as the next guy when some mindless thug desecrates a cemetery, or hijacks a political campaign to send out vile and explicit anti-Jewish literature as happened over Heaton Park. These things are horrible, and I feel like a victim when they happen. They do go on, they need stamping out, and the perpetrators need hefty punishment because crimes motivated by racial-hate are amongst the worst that there are. But I’ve never been singled-out for abuse.

These attacks are clearly anti-Semitic, but I think they represent just one of a number of types of crimes, all of which can be reported as anti-Semitic, but a lot of which aren’t, although they remain awful acts.

It is unfortunate, but we live in a world where visible difference marks a person out as a target. The more observant in our communities, like people with a different colour of skin, are visibly different, and thus a potential target not just to anti-Semitic attack, but attack in general. And there is a difference, I think. A big difference, between someone daubing a swastika on a grave and someone beating up an observant Jew not because he’s Jewish but because he’s not like them. It wasn’t that the attacker hates Jews alone, or even hates Jews at all, he just hates everyone who isn’t him. Is that attacker closer in nature to the cemetery vandal, or would he just as easily have thrown a brick at a Mosque or shoved past an old lady and knocked her over on the street? Does he even think what he’s doing? And can the community do anything at all to stop a person like that?

Even less clear to me is the treatment of crimes where Jewish people are victims, but the motives seem absolutely nothing to do with race or religion. A Jewish boy gets mugged, or a Jewish restaurant robbed. Is the motive racial, or financial? Or both? I don’t know, but sometimes the newspapers seem a lot more sure than that, and a race crime makes a better story. Does that type of reporting make things worse?

It works the other way too though. I heard last night though about some disturbing comments which add to something I’ve been thinking for a while, and do present a worrying picture. I don’t quite know how to say it, because it isn’t clear, but it’s a sort of half-said under-current of anti-Semitism which pervades more of us than I thought. Off-hand remarks about “people with money” and “connections” made by people who should know better but clearly aren’t letting on about what they really think. And newspapers – national newspapers – making thinly disguised comments about Israeli connections and Jewish people holding undue sway. It just isn’t on. It’s growing too, and we’re right to be worried about it because it’s a dangerous road to be on, I think.

But I don’t know.

Understanding this problem needs more than just one mind. Solving it needs lots more than that. I’m just dipping my toe in the water because it’s on my mind. This isn’t some manifesto on race, it’s me splurging some thoughts down, stream-of-consciousness style. I’d welcome people’s thoughts on this though, I really would.

I’m looking forward to reading the dissertation when it’s done. I have my views, and they might be narrow or naïve or just plain wrong. I’m just talking from experience and a personal stance. It will be very interesting, very relevant, and absolutely necessary to read the research and find out the views of others. Anyone who purports to be a representative of Jewish people needs to do the same.

Rick

I spent the weekend in London, enjoying a three hour traffic-free motorway journey as far as the end of the M4, and then a two hour clogged-up apocalypse between Earl’s Court and my mate’s flat in Streatham. A flat which, rent-wise, sets her back as much as a genuine palace bedecked with jewels and minarets would do up here.

Why anyone lives in the traffic-soaked and unceasingly busy spiders-web of ramshackle flats that is London, is a mystery to me. And yet so many people I know do, which means I have to go there more often than I’d like. Unless you’re Frank Lampard on £120,000 a week, with your Bentley Continental gliding effortlessly between luxurious city abodes, living in London must be an unendurable nightmare of crowds, sky-high prices for everything, and take-away fried chicken restaurants.

Still, a number of likeable souls live there, and we all ended up watching a comedy evening in a pub in Balham (that’ll be sixteen pounds to get in, sir).

My trip down south meant a weekend off duty in Prestwich, although the week ahead is very busy indeed. Today I have already contacted the Council to once again chase up the planned improvements to the junction of St Ann’s Road and Bury New Road. The junction in its present form looks like the work of an evil scientist bent on causing mayhem and destruction, but keeping it peculiarly restricted to minor road accidents. The pedestrian crossing is not only a ludicrously short distance away from then main crossing, but is out of sync as well, meaning that cars and pedestrians get confused, nobody knows what’s going on half the time, and it’s pretty miraculous that nothing serious has happened. I received another report of a minor accident there today, so it’s about time the Council followed up on their promise to get it sorted by the end of the financial year. I will keep you posted.

This week it’s the Prestwich Local Area Partnership, which takes place tomorrow night at St Monica’s School (on Bury Old Road, near to the junction with Scholes Lane / Sheepfoot Lane). The meeting starts at 18.30 with LAP business and reporting back from sub-committees and the like. The public forum starts at 19.30, when you will have the chance to grill LAP members including all of your local Councillors. So if you have a burning issue you’d like to bring up about anything we might be able to help you with, please come on down and take the opportunity to raise it.

On Thursday it’s another  Rainsough TRA meeting, where we can update the residents on what’s been going on, and hear back from them on what they’ve been getting upto. Obviously the main issue at present is the Chapel Road shops and the potential conversion of one or more units into an outreach facility for the Children’s Centre. We have secured money from Bury Council, and despite my overtures to Labour-run Salford City Council for funding from them (the shops belong to them even though the residents / tenants pay council tax / rent to Bury) they have not come up with funding yet. I hope they come up with it soon, because if it isn’t spent by 31^st March then the grant we’ve got become worthless, and so much effort will have been wasted.

On top of my meetings this week I have an interview tonight with a local researcher about anti-Semitism. And I also have the City v West Ham replay on Wednesday. All of which means that poor Tamsin is left to measure up for furniture on our new house by herself, because I am out every night! We finally exchanged contracts on Friday, and will be moving in early February. People keep asking if I’m celebrating, but frankly the thought of having just signed my life away to a bank for twenty five years makes me want to do anything but! I will probably write (significantly) more about developments as they occur.

Rick

Did anyone see the Louis Theroux programme from San Quentin Prison last night? I am not normally one for much TV, but this was intriguing so I thought I’d watch it. And I don’t think I’ve seen a more upsetting piece of TV in quite some time.

I thought he spent a bit too much time on the prisoners’ love interests – whether or not transsexuals who find straight partners on the inside will carry on with them on the outside. I don’t care about that. Good luck to ‘em, but I really don’t care.

I found the interviews with lifers very distressing though. I almost wanted to cry when I saw Anthony, barely more than a boy at 21, a huge, limbering, orange-suited prisoner at the beginning of a sentence of 50 years-to-life. A twenty-one year old starting a fifty year stretch. I can’t even imagine what those numbers mean in reality.

He was advised by the guard not to show any weakness, to get his head down and do his time quietly. But how can a kid of that age even contemplate fifty years? If he lives to the end of his sentence he’ll be 71 years old. A whole life gone in the blink of an eye. I know he’s a murderer, and someone’s family has lost a son and a brother to a brutal crime, but where’s the hope in a system where simple kids are lost forever in a metal cage and an orange boiler suit? And where’s the justice in a world where the prisoner himself seems unable to comprehend his predicament, talking as if he’ll be out in a fortnight, and hailing from a community where it seems almost expected to either die in a hail of bullets, or fire them in the first place?

Anthony was hard as nails at the start of his interview. I think by the time Louis Theroux had finished with him, and put in straightforward words the fact that he was going to be incarcerated for the rest of his life with angry and dangerous men, he was virtually in tears. Tears which showed weakness, and probably made his life even less bearable.

I know these are bad people. Dangerous people whom society needs protection from. But do we not have a duty to rehabilitate as well as to punish? Do we not have a duty to give these prisoners a structure to their day, a job of work and a reason for living? Twenty three hours a day in an empty cell with screaming maniacs round every corner. It seemed like hell. Another prisoner, David Silver, sentenced to 500 plus years (with 11 life sentences on top) and calmly safe in the knowledge that he’s never going to be released. Having to exercise in a cage for his own protection, and telling us all how he rationalises his situation by taking comfort in not having to deal with life’s problems like losing your job or finding food or shelter. He’ll be looked after til he dies, he says. True, but surely prison should be about more than that, even if the prisoners themselves need to be in it forever. Crimes may render people unfit to walk free in society, but it doesn’t render them unfit to be humans.

A distressing programme all round, I thought.

Rick

It was with great sadness that I learned of the death of Sir Edmund Hillary this morning. Sir Edmund was, of course, the first man to conquer Mount Everest, along with Sherpa Tenzing Norgay in 1953.

I never met the man, nor do I have any interest in mountaineering beyond thinking that it’s a pretty impressive thing to do. I climbed Ben More on Mull last summer, which is about 3% as high as Everest, and that was about as mountainous as I get. But Sir Edmund’s passing marks another sad milestone, I think, as yet another of our dashing heroes leaves us, and leaves a world where his like may not ever come again.

I don’t like it when old explorers die, because with them dies a whole age of exploration. An age of mystery and of real struggle to conquer things which, nowadays, we can master at the flick of a switch and the touch of a button. Climbing Mount Everest today is still an incredible achievement, but one which thousands can achieve because the mapping, the equipment and the technology exists to help them in ways that fifty five years ago when Hillary did it were the stuff of fantasy. It’s the same with the Poles, and the depths of the oceans and the corners of the earth. It’s still bloody hard to do it, and I probably couldn’t in a thousand years – but there are fewer and fewer things that we can do that just haven’t been done before.

All I’ve got to do is hop on a plane, and tomorrow I’ll be in Australia, probably flying way over Mount Everest on the way. All I’ve got to do is flick on GoogleEarth, and I can see any where from any angle. It’s great!

But at the same time, who’ve we got left for heroes? David Beckham? Britney Spears? Kerry Katona and her Iceland adverts? As real trailblazing feats become ever more difficult to think up, we end up idolising the trivial at the expense of the brave.

I think that genuine heroes are so often forgotten about whilst the reputations of the mediocre live on. I am a big fan of the space programme, and I know a fair bit about it. But it amazes me how many of my friends can’t name more than one or, at most, two men who’ve walked on the Moon. Who was the first American in space? Nobody knows Alan Shepherd’s name. Who was the third man on the Moon? Nobody knows Pete Conrad’s name (or that he too has died). And yet ask them to name all five members of Girls Aloud, and you’re in with a shout. My mates know that Banksy is an artist, because he has stencilled some rats on walls. But do they know that Alan Bean is also an artist, and he uses for inspiration the memories he accrued on his space rocket journey to the Moon and back on Apollo 12? I doubt it.

Whilst it’s hard to find a mountain nobody’s climbed though, it isn’t hard to find real heroes if you look hard enough. I was just on the phone to a friend of mine who has been station manager at North Manchester General Hospital’s hospital radio station for over ten years. Entirely voluntarily and without a penny in recompense, here’s a man who has given a decade and more to helping local sick people feel better, and given countless young people a leg-up into a career in broadcasting. He’s a proper gent as well. And he’s just one guy I happen to know. I come across others all the time across my ward and all of Bury. People on resident’s committees, school governors, friends of parks and local groups of people who give up hours and days of their free time to help the community. They are real heroes, and they deserve our recognition too.

So as Sir Edmund Hillary passes away, and the remaining heroes of our age live largely forgotten whilst their feats illicit little more than a shrug of the shoulders, don’t concentrate on the rubbish that fills the papers in its place. I couldn’t care less which of the members of “Same Difference” has the more talent or how is the best dancer on “Strictly.” And I don’t see why anyone else should either. Real heroes and real issues are right in front of us and go largely ignored. It’s a shame, I think, and one so easily remedied if we all got involved and joined these local heroes in working hard for the good of the community.

Rick

Today’s announcement by Gordon Brown’s Labour Party to build a new generation of Nuclear Power stations is fundamentally wrong and dangerous.

Greenpeace sums up the case against Nuclear power simply:

• Even if Britain built ten new reactors, nuclear power can only deliver a 4 per cent cut in carbon emissions some time after 2025. Even the Government admits this (Sustainable Development Commission figure). It’s too little too late at too high a price.

• Most of the gas we use is for heating and hot water and for industrial purposes. Nuclear power cannot replace that energy. And it’s a similar case for oil as it’s virtually all used for transport - nuclear power can’t take its place.

• The real solutions to the energy gap and climate change are available now. Energy efficiency, cleaner use of fossil fuels, renewables, and state-of-the-art power stations like they have in Scandinavia. Together they have the potential to deliver reliable low carbon energy quicker and cheaper. They are also safe and globally applicable, unlike nuclear. But these technologies will be strangled if cash and political energy get thrust at nuclear power.

Lib Dem Environment Spokesperson, Professor Steve Webb MP set out the Party’s opposition:

“This is a flawed decision based on a sham consultation. There is a real risk that focusing on new nuclear plants will undermine attempts to find a cleaner, greener, more sustainable and secure solution. We should be concentrating our efforts on renewables and greater energy conservation.

“Ministers should also be promoting and supporting carbon capture and storage as a safe, secure and flexible way of plugging the energy gap.”

Rick

Construction work will begin in the next few days on houses in Rainsough and Carr Clough. There will be a variety of re-roofing works, including new soffits, fascias, rainwater pipes, guttering, renewal of slate tiles and, for some, new roof insulation.

The works will finish by the end of March, and will take place on most of the properties in Carr Clough and Rainsough.

If you’d like more information, please get in touch!

Rick

So last night was the first Performance and Resources scrutiny of the calendar year, and what seems like the eighty-seventh of the municipal year.

There was lots on the agenda, but the biggest success story was the Disability Services Review - There have been big improvements in the last few months as the action plan has come into force. Waiting lists have come down from 32 weeks, and look likely to be eradicated by April. Equipment is now delivered quicker too, and recycled more. This is great news and the service should be congratulated I think.

I must say though that it was disappointing that no Executive member was present to be scrutinised on the financial stuff. The Executive member for the Performance and Resources portfolio couldn’t make it (for legitimate reasons), but no replacement was sent for the finance stuff, so we couldn’t question the Executive. Since this is one of the main points of scrutiny, it seems like much of our time last night was wasted. The reports were presented, and very informative they were too. But where we had issues about Council policy decisions, there was nobody there to talk about them.

Which was very frustrating, and lots of Members made a very big deal about it. I think they’re right to have done, and I hope that this can be sorted out.

Rick
 

A new year it may well be, but the routine of being a Councillor doesn’t change with the date. Much as I love being a Councillor, and the fresh challenges it brings pretty much daily, there are certain things which come round with predictable regularity, and require attendance even if, like tonight, I’m not really in the mood.

It’s the first meeting of the Resource and Performance Overview and Scrutiny Commission tonight. I will let you know all about it tomorrow, because I don’t have the time to now. I am sat in the Lib Dem Group Room at the Town Hall typing this, and am due in the pre-meeting in thirty seconds.

Some may argue that the concept of a “pre-meeting” is symptomatic of everything that’s wrong with the over-bureaucratic world we live in. But it is actually pretty useful, and I get the impression is sometimes used by one or two members as the ideal opportunity to have a first glance at their papers.

I hope they allow eating in this pre-meeting though, or else I will pass out during the main meeting, and require some close scrutiny myself. Possibly with the inclusion of an intravenous drip.

Rick

A busy day at work today has meant no time for the likes of this. However, I have tried to figure out a way of getting some dangerous branches lopped back off a tree which is swaying alarmingly in the ward. Hopefully nothing will come crashing down before it’s sorted out.

Tonight I am attending the first Bury Lib Dem Exec meeting of the year, at Prestwich Liberal Club. And because of that, the busy-ness isn’t stopping, so I really should.

Rick

Today was the annual Lib Dem Council Group away day. Calling it an “away day” is slightly misleading because we went no further “away” than the St Margaret’s Community Centre, Prestwich. No tropical beaches and pina coladas for us, unfortunately.

Still, it was nice for the group to get together and discuss where we’ve come from, where we’re going, and what the challenges and opportunities are going to be for the next twelve months. From elections to referendums, and committee places to more leaflets than it is ever possible to contemplate, it’s certainly going to be a hectic 2008.

We also had a lovely selection of M&S sandwiches for lunch, which brought a smile to my face, if little comfort to my ego which is currently grappling with the news that my shirts no-longer fit round the neck.

With that in mind, I hurried into town after we’d finished and headed to the TM Lewin sale, where I bagged three shirts for a bargain price, to replace the ones that I can no longer wear with a tie for fear of slowly choking myself to death.

And tonight it is my best mate’s birthday, so we are heading back out into town for an evening of muted and sophisticated dining and high-society (actually, he wants to go to some horrific bar, and I’ll have to tag along). His birthday is irritatingly positioned just after Christmas, so it really is an effort to rouse my spirits. It is one I ma willing to make, but I have asked him to see if he can put back his birthday til about March next year. We’ll see if he can manage it.

Rick 

An independent Commission on Social Mobility, to be chaired by Martin Narey, Chief Executive of Barnardo’s and the Chair of the End Child Poverty Coalition, is being established today by Liberal Democrat Leader Nick Clegg.

The commission will investigate the reasons for Britain’s apparently low levels of social mobility and recommend policy changes to enable children from disadvantaged backgrounds to fulfil their full potential.

Current evidence suggests that social mobility is currently lower in the UK than in most western democracies.

Nick Clegg said “In 2007, a child born into deprivation is more likely to inherit his or her parents’ disadvantage than at any time in our recent past.

“It is utterly unacceptable that by the age of seven, a bright but poor child will be overtaken at school by a child who was struggling in pre-school years but is from a more affluent background.

“I want to know why it is that Britain’s low levels of social mobility compare unfavourably with almost every other developed nation. Children should be free to realise their aspirations and not be held back by the circumstances of their birth.

Key questions to be considered by the Commission will include:

· Why does social mobility in Britain appear to have stalled and to what extent is it now lower than other countries?

· Have significant increases in public spending in recent years made measurable improvements to social mobility or are they likely to do so in the longer term?

· What are the potential benefits to wider British society of improved levels of social mobility?

· What policy changes, within sensible spending limits, would improve the ability of people from poor backgrounds to improve their life chances. Specifically, how important are: increasing incomes for the poorest families; education and health services; decentralisation and local community empowerment.

The Commission will be expected to report back to Nick Clegg by the end of 2008, and to produce interim findings halfway through the year. The commission is entirely independent. The Liberal Democrats will consider how to take forward its recommendations as party policy but the commission’s report and conclusions will also be published and be available to all political parties.

Rick

Three local hospitals have announced visitor restrictions in response to the horrible “norovirus” vomiting bug which has been sweeping the country and which you may have read about in the news.

The Health Protection Agency have said that around 100,000 people are contracting the condition each week, which is more than ever before.

Visitor restrictions previously in place at The Royal Oldham Hospital to help protect patients from the risk of the condition have now been extended to cover Fairfield General Hospital, North Manchester General Hospital, and Rochdale Infirmary..

All hospital appointments should still be attended as normal – the restrictions only apply to people who are planning to visit friends or relatives in hospital.

The restrictions have been imposed as part of infection prevention precautions designed to protect both patients and visitors.

The restrictions mean that people must not visit if they are suffering from stomach complaints such as diarrhoea and vomiting. If they have, then they should wait 48 hours after the symptoms have cleared before visiting. Also, people with coughs, colds and sneezes should not visit at all. Only family and close friends should visit patients, and numbers should be limited to a maximum of two. In addition, children should not visit.

It is particularly important that any visitors to the hospital wash their hands to reduce the risk of infection to themselves and patients.

Advice leaflets have been distributed throughout the hospitals, explaining the reason for the restrictions, and stressing the importance of supporting the infection control work.

Obviously I hope nobody has to visit close friends or relatives in hospital at all, but if you do, please bear in mind these new and temporary restrictions which serve to protect both your loved ones in hospital and their fellow patients, as well as yourselves.

Rick

The amount of hits that this website recieves has increased from about 300 per day, which was what it was getting up until Christmas, to about 3,000 per day, which is what it’s been getting since.

Either I am very popular, or it is very broken.

I suspect the latter, but if anyone has any clue, let me know.

Rick

41 hours into the new year, and the meeting-arama that is my life is back in full swing.

This evening I attended a meeting of the Bury Lib Dem Council group to talk about priorities for the new year and start thinking about the important things for the party in the next four months. It is scary not only for my colleagues and I in general, but in particular for the frailty of my sensibilities that the next election is now less than four months away… There’s a lot of work to be done. Leaflets don’t write, print or deliver themselves. Which is one of life’s cruellest injustices.

I am pleased with our record of success on things like Rainsough, the Children’s Centre, the Village, blue bin recycling, year-round action and support to tenants and residents across the ward. There’s always more to be done, and I’m not resting on my laurels, but I am reasonably proud of my first 8 months. Unfortunately our political opponents disagree. Some with fire-spitting fury bordering on the insane. And so we have to convince them. And convince them we will.

After the meeting I stuck around to put the finishing touches to a presentation I am part-delivering next Monday at the inaugural Bury Lib Dem Executive meeting of 2008. All local party members are welcome, so please do get in touch if you want to find out more about where and when. I was very proud of the first draft, with its little Powerpoint “Bird of Liberty” watermark on each slide. Unfortunately each subsequent edit renders the template useless, and sees me striving with every frenzied sinew of my being not to hurl the laptop at the wall in rage. Bill Gates may have revolutionised the world, but any man who unleashes a product upon the populous capable of such feats of spirit-crushing irritation deserves to live in penury.

But I figured it out in the end.

Rick

Returning to work is simply the most awful thing in the world.

This morning I was lurched violently awake by Five Live and sent kicking and screaming from holiday peace into the desperate waking nightmare of the office once more. Eleven glorious days off, gone in the blink of an eye.

Of course, the thought of the return to work is twenty times worse than the reality. And the reality is three hundred times better than not having a job or living in a warzone or anything else remotely serious. But still, I walked from the car park to my desk this morning like a condemned man heading towards the hangman’s noose. I discovered, naturally, upon dropping from the metaphorical gallows, that the rope snapped and I landed on some pillows. It wasn’t quite as awful as it could’ve been, but all in all I’d rather not be involved at all.

The return to my desk has not been the only unpleasantness to befall me today. I appear to have got noticeably fatter over the holidays. Not sideways on, belly-wise, like you’d expect. But exclusively in the neck region. This morning, trying to put on a tie became less about sartorial elegance and more like an exercise in self-garrotting. I have been a bit light headed for most of the day because the blood-flow to my head has been restricted. Honestly, it feels quite nice…

Tonight I am also back in the Council swing of things. I am meeting with Lib Dem councillor colleagues to discuss our new year plans and the latest progress on our key issues and projects. Christmas is well and truly over… I just wish someone would take down the tinsel. It just stands there glinting at me like a taunting reminder of joyous times past.

Rick

The new year began with a bang when Tam and I saw in 2008 from up a hill in Ramsbottom. It made a change from paying £15 to stand in a dangerously overcrowded city centre bar with a roomful of angry drunkards, which these days appeals about as much as a shard of glass to the eye. Why I used to do it is a mystery. Why thousands still do is more mysterious still. Last night driving home we counted three couples screaming at each other outside horrifically packed bars. And it didn’t look like they were shouting “happy new year.” Those are hard yards I am gladly doing without.

The hill thing was absolutely great though, and not just because I avoided getting blasted at twice the normal price surrounded by awful strangers and taking the pain out on Tam. I had been unsure of the plan, truth be told, and imagined us stood shivering by the roadside counting down the seconds not until midnight itself but until sufficient time had elapsed post midnight for us to return to our car and go to bed without losing all of our pride.

In the end it was brilliant! A clear night meant we could see out over Bury all the way to the centre of Manchester, and as midnight rolled around, ten thousand fireworks lit up the sky in the type of show we’d have to have gone to Disneyworld to see any other time. Ten minutes of communal joy and wonderful lights brightening up the night sky all over the city. Glorious. I’d not seen anything like it before. The scale of the show was breathtaking.

I’d recommend it to anyone, especially if you want to combine romance with cheapskatery, which I always do. Remarkably, only about half a dozen other people had the same idea as us, despite it clearly being the best place for miles around to see in the new year.

The perfect way to see in 2008.

Unfortunately, shiny new experiences don’t last long. Today has been spent in alarmingly premature middle-aged cosy domesticity, trooping round IKEA looking at stuff we might get for the new house. Stuff we might get. We don’t have the house yet, so we can’t actually buy anything. But there we were all the same.

I never thought I would be so bewildered by wardrobes, and yet here I am utterly befuddled by the array on offer. Should I rejoice that we live in a time and place where every storage solution conceivable is on offer in flat-packed form and with a dozen meatballs for £1.99 at the end? Or should I just go with my gut feelings and curl up into a ball grunting out obscenities until I’m carted away from it all?

Whatever I choose, I know that facing the furniture is, in the end, unavoidable. The looming spectre of a house-move is now just weeks away. And I will have to tackle IKEA head on again shortly, with no chance of escaping the horror inside.

God help me.

Rick