Torbay weblog davecathy

Jan 25, 2006 at 11:34 o\clock

LOCAL ISSUES

by: davecathy

I see that Bideford's new marine Millenium Fountain is now up and running, paid for by the Millenium Commission.
 
 It is but a pale shadow of the marine fountain I advocated for Torbay, which would have given the whole Bay a signature feature. But my idea was turned down at the time in favour of a 'Timeline'; basically a line of red bricks along the seafront. That scheme was quite rightly turned down by the Millenium Commission as 'unworthy', and funding was refused. Yet another opportunity wasted.
 
This is symptomatic of the malaise in this area, so accurately portrayed in Richard Morgan's article and backed up by Trevor Fines letter (Your View 25.1.06). There are too many people in this area intent on keeping the economy, politics and aspirations of Torbay moribund.
Everwhere I go in this country, I find that Britain is thriving, and the pace of improvement is enormous, yet when I come back to Torbay, it is like going back 50 years, to a depressed, apathetic, run down town which looks backwards rather than forwards.
Torbay has great natural beauty, but there are many areas of the Borough which are crying out for updating and modernisation

Jan 25, 2006 at 10:54 o\clock

SPAM INVASION

by: davecathy

Is anyone else being plagued with spam entries on their weblogs?

I keep getting multiple entries for Viagra talblets and suchlike in my guestbook, and it is pissing me off.

Any suggestions?

 

Jan 19, 2006 at 12:09 o\clock

OLD AGE PENSIONS

by: davecathy

Michael Thompson of LINK AGE takes all us pensioners to task for our apathy. He has proven over the years to be a capable and committed lobbyist for his cause, and I respect and admire his dedication, but disagree with his aims, and think he has a bee in his bonnet over this.
The lack of response to your letters Mr. Thompson is not apathy, indeed pensioners are the least apathetic section of our society. I am a pensioner, as are most of my friends, and I have made a point of asking their opinions on this matter. Most of them consider that overall, pensioners are not too badly treated. Of course, we would all like more, tell me who doesn't, but in comparison to many people on a low wage, we do OK, indeed I am now better off now than when I was working, at least in terms of disposable income.
Mr. Thompson argues that as the 4th richest economy in the world, Britain should be able to afford £250 per week pension, without means testing. In fact, we were for a time the 4th. largest, not richest, economy, and there is a great difference between the two. We are not even the 4th richest economy in Europe, never mind the world.  
State pension was never designed to keep us in the manner we may have become accustomed to, but to provide us with a basic income that would keep the wolf from the door, and that is what it does, indeed, American senior citizens would envy us greatly. Many pensioners, including myself, live in homes that are perhaps bigger than our real needs, but were acquired when we were at our earning peak. Of course, there is a desire to hang on to them, but it means that we sometimes live beyond our income, and thus have to dip into our capital to defray living expenses such as council tax, or at least accept means tested benefits, and I think that is eminently fair.
Not just in this country, but throughout the western world, the inreasing proportion of pensioners to working people is putting an ever greater burden of taxation on those working people, and that is an inescapable fact of life, thus the aims of LINK AGE will remain an unrealistic pipe dream. Tell me one section of society that is not demanding more and more, but no section of society can be excused from taxation, be it the Queen or pensioners.

Jan 13, 2006 at 02:52 o\clock

TONY BLAIR

by: davecathy

The election of David Cameron as Leader of the Conservative Party comes as a breath of fresh air. Not before time, the old Tory policies, (which may go down well in deepest Devon), were recognised as making the party unelectable and nasty, and were ditched.
Even publicly, the Conservatives now admit that the present government has got most of its policies basically right, and are not the incompetent, bungling left-wing loonies so often depicted in the papers, indeed both the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats are now trying to outBlair Blair.
Whether his detractors admit it or not, Tony Blair and his 'cronies' lead a government of the centre, forcing the opposition to jostle for the middle ground. Both Socialism and Thacherism are dead, and no bad thing, and we now argue over mere detail. 
Cameron has changed the tone of his party, but as yet has few hard policies, and only time will tell if he can be successfully achieve this without losing the support of the harder right wing.
Under Tony Blair, we have had over 8 years of growing prosperity, and all sections of society have benefitted. Just look around you at all the new schools, roads, hospital buildings, the increased number of Police, teachers and doctors.
Nothing is ever perfect, but as was once said many years ago,
YOU HAVE NEVER HAD IT SO GOOD

Jan 4, 2006 at 23:58 o\clock

TRAGEDY IN WEST VIRGINIA

by: davecathy

Once again, an unbelievable tragedy hits America.

The death of the miners in West Virginia is shocking to the rest of the world because it again illustrates that the richness of corporate America is achieved at the expense of the working people. The abysmal and run down state of the mine, and its poor health and safety record, is what you might expect from a third world backward country, not the most affluent country in the world.

Even worse was the lack of decent management procedures and organisation that deceived the relatives into believing that their loved ones had been rescued alive, when in fact they were dead. That is no more than criminal cruelty. The communication mix up was not an accident, it was gross negligence.

But when American corporate's pursuit of the almighty buck, keeping shareholders happy, amounts to greed and a total disregard of human life, then, you have a sick and perverted society on a slippery slope.

Further evidence of this comes with the can of worms that is being opened by Jack Abramoff, who threatens to expose widespread graft and corruption in political and government circles.

When will the good people of America begin to wake up and open their eyes? America is not the great democracy they are constantly lead to believe. The United States of America is a place where money does all the talking, not the ballot box. They say that any man or woman can become President, but you have to be mighty rich to even attempt to.

Someone recently told me that while Bush is unpopular, you are stuck with him for a few years yet. Compare that to Britain, where a Prime Minister can be removed overnight, just remember what happened to Margaret Thatcher. She overstepped the mark, and was kicked out pretty damn quick. I suggest decent Americans should start putting the fear of God up their rulers, both fat cat moguls, financiers and politicians. Only then would you experience true freedom and democracy.