We've now been in and out of lockdown so often I've watched all of The Crown...

 

I have to admit to having become slightly fascinated by “The Crown” on Netflix.  I had been avoiding it as a staunch republican but having watched it I admit, dear reader, that for better or worse I became hooked.  Whatever the truth of the Queen’s life this really is top notch story telling with individual episodes taking on big themes and running with them till they’re exhausted.

Memorable storylines include Winston Churchill’s hatred and eventual destruction of the Graham Sutherland portrait given to him as a gift by parliament, Harold MacMillan’s infamous visit to Beyond the Fringe and, of course, the discovery that the man looking after the Queen’s portraits was … something that’s been dramatised before but is done here with new twists.

An entire and painstakingly researched episode is given over to the Aberfan disaster and through the use of CGI we can now get a better picture of what actually happened to kill 116 children and 28 adults in a single day.  This entirely preventable man (and woman but it was mostly men) made disaster was and remains indescribably tragic.  All we were told when I was growing up was “some coal fell on a school” which leaves so much blank…

There are lighter episodes too such as when Prince Charles is sent to Wales to learn Welsh and puts everyone’s backs up.  And lesser known bits of history are explored such as the rescuing of Princess Alice of Battenberg (Phillip’s estranged mother) from Greece in 1967 to become Buckingham Palace’s chain smoking nun in residence.

Superb performances as well from both the young cast Matt Smith and Claire Foy and the older cast which includes the perfectly cast Helena Bonham Carter as Princess Margaret.  The disintegration of her marriage to Lord Snowdon and his manipulation of her own family against her in an attempt to disguise the fact he abuses her is a fantastic piece of writing and acting by everyone involved.  So lucky that most of these people are dead and can’t sue.  One wonders if Series 4 will be as easy legally…

Election result guess - Trump win Biden Loss

 Here's a picture I prepared earlier.

Well, that turned out to be rubbish.  Didn't it?  Still could be worse ...could have bet on it...

Sir Charles Stands Down

 Beta version

https://www.smashwords.com/books/presale/1049095/2MH262

 

Customer Guarantee

Another letter promising another letter from Thames Water

As they say ... Your friends you can choose...

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

...your Water company you are stuck with

Thames WaterCustomer Relations

PO Box 436 Swindon SN38 1TU

16 October 2020

Our Case Ref: 33434370

CCW Case Ref: 200910-000009

Our Customer Guarantee Scheme (CGS)

Dear Mr Miller

I’m writing in response to a referral we’ve received on your behalf from Linsey Williams at CCW. She’s written to us in relation to our CGS, and asked about payments that may be due, following an external sewer flooding incident in 2019. Just to let you know, I’ve spoken with Linsey today, to gain some further clarification about this. She’s let me know the flooding affected all residents in flats... 

We fully understand how unpleasant and upsetting sewer flooding can be for our customers. I am truly sorry to hear about the impact this incident has had on you and your neighbours, especially as it resulted in us having to use tankers, to ensure customers could use their facilities. I also note you all had difficulties in accessing your homes at the time. Please accept my sincere apologies for the confusion surrounding our CGS payments in this instance. It wasn’t our intention to avoid providing you with a substantive and meaningful response.

As you’ll appreciate, we must adhere to important and strict data protection guidelines. Therefore I’m unable to discuss payments and details with you, for neighbours who’ve contacted us in regard to this matter. However I can tell you that our CGS Team Manager has written separately to one of the residents in your block of flats. We’ve explained in our correspondence that CGS payments are always made to the person living at the property, as they are the ones affected. Furthermore the property would also need to have an active water services account with us. As the incident affected a communal area, this doesn’t have an account, and so under the terms and conditions of the scheme, you wouldn’t qualify for a CGS payment.

That being said, I realise each individual flat has their own water services account. We’ve also retrieved and reviewed the photographs we hold on our system, following the incident. With this in mind, I’m currently in discussions with our Regulatory Performance Manager. He’s reviewing our CGS terms and conditions and the photographs, to check your eligibility for a payment under the above circumstances. I’ll of course provide you with a full update following his thorough review, and this will be no later than 16 November 2020. I’m sorry I don’t have a conclusive answer for you today, but would like to assure you, I’ll do all I can to help and support you.

In the meantime, should you have any further questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to call me on 0800 0093666. Our offices are open from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday.

Yours sincerely

Sarah Sanders

Senior Case Manager – Executive Office

To view the Thames Water complaints procedure, please go to www.thameswater.co.uk/complaintsprocess

CCW (The Consumer Council for Water) is the independent voice for water consumers who can investigate your complaint and take it up with us on your behalf. If you wish to escalate your complaint further, you can contact CCW on 0300 034 2222.

Visit us online www.thameswater.co.uk , follow us on twitter www.twitter.com/thameswater or find us on www.facebook.com/thameswater. We’re happy to help you 24/7.

Thames Water Limited (company number 2366623) and Thames Water Utilities Limited (company number 2366661) are companies registered in England and Wales, both are registered at Clearwater Court, Vastern Road, Reading, Berkshire RG1 8DB. This email is confidential and is intended only for the use of the person it was sent to. Any views or opinions in this email are those of the author and don’t necessarily represent those of Thames Water Limited or its subsidiaries. If you aren’t the intended recipient of this email, please don’t copy, use, forward or disclose its contents to any other person – please destroy and delete the message and any attachments from your system.

The government explains its depressing policy of increasing fines and traffic jams...

The government claims that :

There are often concerns that reallocating road space will have a negative impact on business. However, evidence shows that people who walk and cycle take more trips to the high street over the course of a month than people who drive. Making access to high streets easier by walking and cycling has a proven economic benefit. Well planned improvements in the walking environment can deliver up to a 40% increase in shopping footfall and high street walking, cycling and public realm improvements can increase retail sales by up to 30%.

The obvious flaw in this plan might be that while those who walk and cycle take more trips to the high street over the course of a month than people who drive ...

...those who drive may not all start to walk or cycle as a result of driving becoming more difficult and just order stuff online...  

So not so much the carrot and stick approach.  More the stick and stick approach...

Still evidence also shows that investment in cycling and walking is supported by the majority of NIMBYs so I suppose it will continue to be so... 

 

 

 

 

 

Mr G Shapps MP (Minister for Transport) opens a low traffic neighbourhood

 

You’re receiving this email because you signed this petition: “Remove guidance and funding for temporary traffic measures that cause congestion”.

To unsubscribe from getting emails about this petition: https://petition.parliament.uk/signatures/93307081/unsubscribe?token=qBcH9OIfA19lgNR0-LlP

---

Dear Anthony Miller,

The Government has responded to the petition you signed – “Remove guidance and funding for temporary traffic measures that cause congestion”.

Government responded:

The Government is committed to delivering a step change in levels of active travel. We know the majority of people support giving more road space to cycling and walking in their local area.

Local authorities have a duty to manage their roads for the benefit of all traffic, including cyclists and pedestrians. The more people that cycle and walk, the more road space is freed up for those who really need to drive. Encouraging more cycling and walking is a key part of the Government’s efforts to reduce harmful emissions from transport, as well as to help make people healthier.

The Emergency Active Travel Fund (EATF) was announced on 9 May and included £225 million of funding for local authorities in England. The first tranche focused on temporary changes such as pop-up cycle lanes and widened pavements, to enable social distancing and encourage active travel while public transport capacity is constrained.

Alongside the funding, the Government published additional Network Management Duty guidance. This clearly set out what the Government expects of local authorities in making changes to their road layouts to encourage cycling and walking to support a green recovery. Low-traffic neighbourhoods, school streets, and cycle facilities are some of the measures listed. It is available at: www.gov.uk/government/publications/reallocating-road-space-in-response-to-covid-19-statutory-guidance-for-local-authorities.

Low-traffic neighbourhoods are a collection of measures, including road closures to motor traffic, designed to remove rat-running traffic. They deliver a wide range of benefits – a safer and more pleasant environment for residents, more walking and cycling and better air quality.

School streets are part-time access restrictions that operate during school pick-up and drop-off times, during term time only. Access is maintained for residents, businesses and others such as Blue Badge holders. They can reduce the number of people driving their children to school by up to a third.

There are often concerns that reallocating road space will have a negative impact on business. However, evidence shows that people who walk and cycle take more trips to the high street over the course of a month than people who drive. Making access to high streets easier by walking and cycling has a proven economic benefit. Well planned improvements in the walking environment can deliver up to a 40% increase in shopping footfall and high street walking, cycling and public realm improvements can increase retail sales by up to 30%.

Evidence also shows that investment in cycling and walking is supported by the majority of people in local communities. Although some schemes have attracted negative attention, this is still only a small minority of the people living in those areas.

Local authorities are responsible for delivering cycling and walking schemes in their areas. Although central Government cannot intervene in local democratic decisions, our position remains that if councils fail to demonstrate that their plans are genuine improvements then we will not hesitate to withhold funding. Many measures in tranche 1 of the EATF had to be installed quickly, and local authorities should be willing to consider making changes to these in the light of experience, as some already have.

Effective engagement with the local community, particularly at an early stage, is essential to ensuring the political and public acceptance of any scheme. We are clear that in implementing any of these measures, local authorities will need to ensure access for Blue Badge holders, deliveries and other essential services as appropriate. They will also need to be mindful of the requirements of equalities legislation, ensuring, for example, that in redesigning and reallocating road space they take careful account of the impact this may have on disabled people.

Many schemes have been installed as trials. This approach can help achieve change and ensure a permanent scheme is right first time, but schemes will take time to bed in and for the benefits to become apparent. Trials still require consultation, which is carried out alongside the implementation so that changes can be made in response to feedback.

Some measures, such as road closures, require Traffic Regulation Orders to give effect to them. The temporary amendments made in May to the process for making these orders did not change any of the notice periods. More information on this is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/making-traffic-regulation-orders-during-coronavirus-covid-19.

Local authorities must consult with the emergency services to ensure access is maintained. They have been generally supportive of low-traffic neighbourhoods, and in some cases, their access has improved because narrow, unsuitable roads are no longer full of traffic.

Different types of intervention will be appropriate in different places. For example, what works in urban areas may not be suitable in rural areas or smaller towns, where people are more reliant on private vehicles. Schemes must balance the needs of cyclists and pedestrians with the needs of other road users, including motorists and local businesses.

Department for Transport

Click this link to view the response online:

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/552306?reveal_response=yes

The Petitions Committee will take a look at this petition and its response. They can press the government for action and gather evidence. If this petition reaches 100,000 signatures, the Committee will consider it for a debate.

The Committee is made up of 11 MPs, from political parties in government and in opposition. It is entirely independent of the Government. Find out more about the Committee: https://petition.parliament.uk/help#petitions-committee

Thanks,
The Petitions team
UK Government and Parliament

Torchwood Miracle Day

 

Finishing my wander down Torchwood memory lane I suppose I should also review Miracle Day.  An Amercian/ BBC Wales co-production it exits in a strange place between Hollywood and Cardiff with Torchwood’s remnants forging an uneasy alliance with Rex Matheson and Esther Drummond of the CIA.  As with Children of Earth there’s one Earth changing back story.  Everyone has ceased to be able to die.  People are still living after having been blown up, squashed in a car crusher and several of the characters have failed to die after being killed yet stay alive.  Chief among these is the child murderer Oswald Danes who is executed on death row after everyone stops being able to die and becomes a weird kind of cult celebrity.  His career is propelled by the sinister and cynical PR lady Jilly Kitzinger who works for a shadowy Mafia like organisation called “the families” about which we learn very little.  So Torchwood takes another wander into its favourite subject matters – death its self and political corruption.  As with Children of Earth soon the government are making cold decisions and splitting people up … this time into Categories 1, 2 and 3…? Sound a bit like Tiers 1, 2 and 3…?  As usual we see the human tragedy through the effect it has on Gwen Cooper’s family.  The 10 episode run seems a little over-long and it sags in places.  And I wonder about the final confrontation …is that crack …actually supposed to look like … a crack?  One wonders what became of many of the US actors in this… not that it’s any of my business. 

This is the end.  Torchwood never came back to TV but one has to wonder where you can go from here after a series based entirely around the issue of immortality.  What bigger crisis can humanity face than no one dying?  And it’s a cliché but "no one seeming to remember the last times the entire world was held to ransom" is getting a bit silly now.  Russell T Davies kind of acknowledged this in a running joke in Doctor Who that humans are somehow wired to not remember and Moffat insinuated that the fabric of reality its self is changed by the Doctor which may explain no one remembering but … then again when the Daleks don’t invade earth in 2160 I guess we’ll have to admit it is all nonsense anyway which …after all it all is.  But having stories that affect the entire world takes one away from the feeling of “well that could happen” that you get from stories like Horror of Fang Rock.  I dunno.  But where do you go from here? 

Backwards to Children of Earth

Further Back to Series 1 and 2

Torchwood : Children of Earth ...

 

Torchwood : Children of Earth is probably the best of the Torchwood series.  For one thing it features to-be-Doctor-Who-himself Peter Capaldi in his most forgotten but probably his most subtle performance of no less than 3 in the Doctor Who universe…. Permanent Secretary John Frobisher.

Permanent Secretary John Frobisher is a workaholic Civil Servant who is in charge of “negotiating” inside the MI5’s HQ with a mysterious being call the 456.  The 456 (named after “a wavelength") is a fantastic villain – we never see it fully and it exists in a large box of toxic gasses.  All we see of the 456 is some kind of green protuberances in the mist that it occasionally bangs against the glass walls.  It also appears to extrude some kind of spurts of what look like a kind of green vomit against the walls of its chamber in heightened states of emotion.  When it speaks the 456 speaks in short threatening sentences. 

Frobisher is over-promoted to the job of managing the 456 because everyone else wants to keep their hands clean and his negotiations do not go well.  While other villains in these kinds of stories seek to take over the Earth the 456 has already successfully invaded once and its aim is not so much to invade the Earth but to blackmail it with the threat of worldwide pandemics.  Frobisher is instructed to accede to the blackmail and finds himself embroiled in an ever more disastrous series of compromises which result in ruthlessly amoral Cabinet discussions whereby the Prime Minister and his cronies sit around a table discussing which subsections of the public to sacrifice in order to avert the pandemic while preserving their own and their own families.  It’s an all too chillingly believable scenario and remarkably topical given the current pandemic.

Frobisher also gives instructions to blow up the Torchwood hub and kill Captain Jack and so the Torchwood team and Gwen’s husband go on the run.  One has to admit some kind of sympathy too with the authorities when Jack’s gung-ho style of alien confrontation results in the death of almost everyone in the MI5 building including the much missed… 

New character Lois Habiba (Cush Jumbo) reveals a lot of the plot to us via some quite cool webcam contact lenses as Martha Jones was unavailable due to having a better gig.  The actual resolution of the alien threat is not really the point of this drama - the point is watching the humans squabble over who is and isn't important in society.  Then again isn't that what all political argument is in the end?

This satire hits so many nails on the head and is really very nightmarish in places.  You really do believe that something like this could happen.  Indeed, some may say that as I write the Cabinet are sitting round a table (or in a zoom meeting) discussing whose death is worse than a continuing pandemic.  Some may very well say that.  I couldn’t possibly comment.

Forward to Miracle Day

Backwards to Series 1 and 2