Every cloud has a ...
Every cloud has a silver lining - or so they say.
But after the events of the last two weeks I would think many of us are wondering just where it is.
I've been watching the FTSE rise and fall and along with it the value of our pension funds and ISAs. The conservatory in our retirement home has been put on the back burner and we are now dreaming of a few patio flags.
My share portfolio (such as it is) has plummeted and the trip to Australia has transformed into a weekend in Brid.
BUT
We're still here and we're still having a laugh and the whole sad and sorry mess (which many of us born and raised in more frugal days of rationing and reckoning) may have brought many people to th erealisation of what's important in their lives.
Health, happiness, family, food, warmth and fellowship, in whatever order you like.
I rather think that, so long as we have these (and a job) things are not so bad.
Published Date:
15/10/2008
Modified Date:
15/10/2008
The last word...
Our village - like any other, one supposes - has its share of animosity, unpleasantness and rivalries.
Currently there are factions battling it out on one or two fronts - and what energy it must be consuming. They should all the thin as rails...
However, an acquaintance of ours died, very unexpectedly, last week.
He was a chap who had had a pretty raw deal in later life. Nevertheless he had seized each day and had made the very best of the bad hand he had been dealt.
We were talking, as you do, about his life and how he had lived it to the full... about having to make the most of each and every day... how life is very short and not a dress rehearsal - you know the sort of thing.
And then we wondered what, if at the end of your last day, while mulling over what you had done and how you made the most if it - you had to say to yourself: 'Well, I harassed so-and-so, ignored this person, upset that person, snubbed you-know-who and fell out with the neighbours.'
What a way to go!
Published Date:
04/08/2008
Modified Date:
05/08/2008
Lessons learned!!!
Did you hear the local news today (Friday August 1): Half a dozen homes flooded in North Ferriby by the overnight storms - the cause, a blocked drain.
The victims have to look forward to being out of house and home for six months and Christmas in a caravan - and all for summer storm and a blocked drain. You can't blame climate change, carbon emissions or freak weather on this one!
So 14 months on from the floods, just what lessons have the local authority, Yorkshire Water and the Environment Agency learned?
We have had public consultations and policy documents published and panels are to be set up. And, from what I can see it has been all talk and no action, thus far.
In Wansford, which suffered when the Driffield Navigation overflowed at one end of the village and dykes blocked up at the other.
Agencies have been and looked and talked and discussed. Money has flooded into the East Riding to try and get things sorted. And perhaps things are being sorted elsewhere. However whatever may or may not have happened elsewhere, it doesn't help the North Ferriby flood victims.
Shame on the East Riding Council, the other agencies and the officers riding about on our rates.
Published Date:
01/08/2008
Modified Date:
01/08/2008
Anniversary waltz
Well - it's the first anniversary of the flood and what do you know?
The Driffield Navigation Trust has, through various grants, come up with the money to restore and refurbish the Wansford Lock and add the by-wash considered crucial to prevent further flooding from the canal.
Yippee!
Now all we need is for the non-voluntary organisations to show the same application and sort out their dykes, drains and ditches. Then we should be home - and hopefully - DRY.
Published Date:
25/06/2008
Modified Date:
25/06/2008
Anniversary
Well - next week sees the anniversary of when the floodwaters engulfed the village.
At one end the canal came over, causing devastation to a handful of home owners and - at the other - drains and dykes backed up causing misery to even more people.
And, after a year, what has happened to try to ensure that we couldn't get an action replay?
Well not much from what I can see: there have been flood reviews and consultations and increased powers. There's been an awful lot of talking but very little action.
The canal at Wansford still doesn't have a by-wash - the thing that would, according to navigation enthusiasts, drain off the rising waters and prevent the canal coming over again.
And while dykes have been walked and letters written and human v water vole arguments have been expounded, as yet not one dyke owned by any one of the authorities concerned has been cleaned out.
While very aware that moves are afoot to try and remedy all these situations, the wheels grind exceeding slow. Had my home been flooded, I think I would be swinging off the chandeliers by now!
http://www.driffieldtoday.co.uk/news/Flood-of-frustration-at-the.3259927.jp
http://www.driffieldtoday.co.uk/floods/Canal-water-level--priority.3209785.jp
Published Date:
19/06/2008
Modified Date:
19/06/2008
Jobs for the boys
I am appalled at my own ignorance!
Because today is the day that I first heard about the Yorkshire and Humber Assembly.
Now I knew there were rumblings - if I remember rightly John Prescott (someone put me right if I am wrong) was pushing for a Yorkshire Assembly but there was some resistance as WE (the people) felt that regional assemblies were yet another, costly, tier of talking shops creating think tanks and forums and expense accounts for its members.
And suddenly, there in print, I see it. A fait accompli. A body already formed. In 2002!!!!
A body which has taken SIX whole years to make an impact on lnot-so-little but fairly old me.
I quote:
The Yorkshire and Humber Assembly is a partnership of all local authorities in the region and representatives of various economic, social and environmental sectors. The region covers an area of 15411 square kilometres from Sheffield to Whitby, Hull to Huddersfield, and has a population of over five million.
And a bit more:
The Assembly has a number of roles and responsibilities, uniquely bringing together stakeholders representing the region's five million residents to tackle challenges facing Yorkshire and Humber.
This work includes helping ensure a strong and vibrant regional economy, delivering sustainable improvements to our quality of life and environment and enhancing the region's growing stature on the national and international stage.
And this:
Scrutiny is about the Yorkshire and Humber Assembly working with Yorkshire Forward and partners to better deliver the Regional Economic Strategy. Its work is about making sure that the activities undertaken by Yorkshire Forward are the right ones for the region, supporting Yorkshire Forward and other regional bodies to become more accountable.
So what has it been doing all these years to not have a high public profile - apart from sustaining retired civil servants and commissioning expensive studies?
Has the quality of life changed here in the East Riding? Are our small, rural communities more sustainable? Are their jobs for our young people?
Or has life just changed for the people working for and with the Assembly?
I don't know but it seems typical of this hard-up, hard hit country where:
- banks, by reason of their own folly, are having to raise billions
- house prices have gone through the roof
- we appear to have no manufacturing base to speak of
- our erstwhile Chancellor encouraged an economy based on debt
- education standards have been so dumbed down that degrees are 10 a penny
- our fields are full of Eastern Europeans and our doles queues full of indigent, idle English
- our police can't police for fearing of breaching people's human rights
- and Labour governments make the poor poorer
- where...well I could rant on and on and on...
That we have another bunch of folks on yet another gravy train making out they are trying to make things better.
Published Date:
30/04/2008
Modified Date:
30/04/2008
Charity ends at home
A couple of years ago my heart was touched by a letter received from a very worthwhile charity which helps adults with special needs live a useful, community life.
To my great regret - and in a spirit of thankfulness that my own family had been spared such problems - I sent off a sizeable donation.
Since then I have been plied with letters seeking similar donations. Initially I used to open these lovely letters which contained personal messages and pictures of the individuals they were helping.
Then, with many other calls on my available cash and many more equally worthwhile charities to try and support, I stopped opening their letters.
Each one seemed like a reproach and, at the same time, appeared to me to be waste of my original donation. Many pounds must have been spent in stationery and Epson inks as the full colour glossy pictures and publications arrived.
Then, this week, came the final reproach. On the outside of the latest - and hopefully last - missive was a message - Do You Not Support Us Anymore?
This one I opened and duly returned the enclosed form, ticking the box indicating that I wished to hear no more, but wished them well.
It was a sad moment when it came to popping the letter in the post (complete with stamp to save their hard fought for cash).
Instantanously I hesitated, wishing that I had sent them a last little cheque - and then all that may ensue came to mind and I let that letter go.
There's a fine line between marketing and mithering.
Published Date:
21/02/2008
Modified Date:
21/02/2008
High and dry in love and charity
February is almost over and, fortunately for us, has not lived up to its name 'February fill dyke'.
A return home is imminent for the flood victims who have not already been repatriated.
The Driffield Navigation crew appear to be using Wansford's flooding to put pressure on for public funding for a bywash and new lock gates for the village - their coffers obviously being quite dry and there being a lack of any real enthusiasm to re-open the canal on part of the people with the wherewithal and clout to make it happen.
Meanwhile the Environment Agency has cut a little bit of weed back here and there, but, true-to-form, appears more concerned about habitats than human habitations.
No real dredging to let the drains (ie dykes and ditches) run free has been done and we all wait to see what the spring rains - should they materialise - may bring.
Apart from that all is well - apart from within the village's Christian community, which is split assunder amid an unholy row about various issues close to the hearts of a handful of the worshippers.
At the moment the protagonists appear to be completely missing the target in their aspirations towards achieving the Christian aim of living in love and charity with the neighbours.
With such a shining example, it is little wonder that the church is as empty as the dykes are full!
Published Date:
21/02/2008
Modified Date:
21/02/2008