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Sunita Gill »
Thank You Sainsburys
Posted on 4:51pm Friday 31st August 2012
Sunita thanks Sainsbury's for their support
Sunita Gill »
Working At The Paralympics
Posted on 4:43pm Friday 31st August 2012
Sunita shares her experience of being a Pharmacist Games Maker at the Paralympic Games
ivor »
Is there anyone you don't like?
Posted on 7:49pm Thursday 30th August 2012
Is there anything worse than disliking others?
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ivor »
Relight my (Olympic) fire
Posted on 7:52pm Tuesday 28th August 2012
Get ready for the second 'games' of the summer!
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ivor »
Wycombe from A-Z: R is for Railway
Posted on 3:37am Sunday 26th August 2012
This week my A to Z of High Wycombe has reached the letter R.
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ivor »
Sorry, you were out
Posted on 7:44pm Thursday 23rd August 2012
How many times have you been out when the postman tried to deliver a signed for letter?
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ivor »
The Olympic Legacy: Volunteering
Posted on 7:50pm Tuesday 21st August 2012
The recent Olympics highlighted the part that volunteering has to play in our society.
Click on the link above to read more.
Mark Brown »
Fracking in the Aylesbury Vale
Posted on 10:47am Tuesday 21st August 2012
Less than a week ago we learnt that pre-planning applications had been made to Aylesbury Vale District Council for hydraulic fracturing. If that means nothing to you then maybe the term “fracking” does. It is highly controversial. It is time we started reading about this in our local newspapers. Fracking is quite an old technology but since oil prices have risen it has been dusted off and refined. It allows us to extract oil and gas from places we never previously considered to be economical. How about the Chilterns?
Sunita Gill »
Final Thoughts At The End Of The Olympics
Posted on 6:16pm Sunday 19th August 2012
A reflection on being a Games Maker at these historic games.
Sunita Gill »
Athletics At The Olympic Stadium
Posted on 6:13pm Sunday 19th August 2012
Sunita watches Usain Bolt in the mens 100M finals.
ivor »
Wycombe from A-Z: Q is for Queen Victoria Road
Posted on 1:01am Sunday 19th August 2012
This week my A to Z of High Wycombe has reached the letter Q.
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Darren Hayday »
How the voting system really works
Posted on 11:46am Friday 17th August 2012
The way to explain how an election is won is to think of a mainstream political party as a Brand or as a professional Army. From a marketing point of view the top x3 political parties (i.e. Labour, Conservatives and the Lib-Dems) are the only parties that are likely to form a Government by themselves or as we’ve seen more recently as a Coalition. They have had many years in building up those brands (the longest being the Conservatives) and from time to time they do actually go through a branding exercise to re-invent themselves and appeal to their target audience. They also operate in the same way that a professional Army would, in that they need loyal foot soldiers to knock on doors, make phone calls and deliver leaflets in order to reach out to people that are likely to go out and vote for their selected candidates from the party. There is a hierarchy and a form of Officers that are tasked in keeping everything running smoothly. Those at the very top of the food chain are the ones with the power and who pass down the instructions, etc Within an area (i.e. lets give an example of Wycombe) you would have small ‘branches’ that meet up and get together to target elections in their part of the world and in the case of General Elections they do their bit for the local candidate standing to become an MP. If you are traditionally a Labour or Conservative voting person, they want to get your information onto their database so they know that come election time, they will knock on your door or try to phone you to ask for your continued support and vote for Joe Blogs the selected party member for this area (i.e. whether in District, County or General Elections, etc). Also to note is when someone knocks on your door and asks who you normally vote for – this information is fed back to the central database and your details are logged as a Labour or Tory voter, etc They know where you live and also if you went out to vote (i.e. do you ever wonder why people stand outside the election booths asking for your voter number?) they then take that information and tick it off their database to count you as another vote for their party candidates (i.e. as most of us don’t change our allegiance to other political parties in the main – although when it does come to local elections we do tend to shop around for the right person for the job!) Before it comes to the time whereby the votes have been counted, the party branches would already have a fairly good idea to whether their man/woman won or not. It is shocking but a lot of people do not bother to vote (for their own reasons) the main reason is that they are angry at the main voting and political system and do not want to get involved in it. This is good news for the political parties as it means that they don’t really care if only a handful of people for that area vote – as long as they get their candidates in – that in their mind is their only worry! Once that a new Cllr is elected (or re-elected) then they are made to pay their first months allowance to contribute to their election costs (i.e. for paying for leaflets to be printed, etc) In regards to Asian (i.e. Pakistani/Kashmiri) Cllrs – they tend to have to spend out a lot of their own money as it’s a cultural thing in how they connect to the heads of families, etc and it normally involves food and sit down meals, etc In Wycombe as an example there are x2 main families/branches of families that come from the same village in Kashmir but one of them votes for the Labour Party and the other for the Conservatives. So the parties are very well organised, they have a free army of volunteers that knock on doors and deliver leaflets, etc and this is why there are no current standing Independent Cllrs for Bucks County Council and a very small percentage of Independent MP’s in Westminster (the majority of them have fallen out with their party and have been stripped of their allegiance and taken the whip away from them). This is another reason why I’ve decided not to be a member of a political party ( I have been asked by all of them). As I do not believe that the system is in the favour of the voter and only the parties. Ironically its them ( i.e. the parties) that hold the power to how the system is set up and they don’t want it to change other than the Lib-Dems to some degree. They do not want to give up the Status Quo as it would mean that they would lose their power. I think that it was Jeremy Clarkson who said that the UK Caravan Club now has more members than the x3 main political parties all combined! The membership is gradually declining as more and more are getting fed up of not being listened to, their own political views falling further away from the parties and also fed up with the way that MP’s are (i.e. think duck ponds and moat cleaning, etc) – most of the ruling political elite are so far removed from normal people that you often wonder if any of them know what a hard day’s work is and if they ever go through the general hardships that we all do? I personally believe that we should have an elected House of Lords but only the Lib-Dems want it – the Tories and the Labour party are blocking it. We generally do not riot as a nation (except last summer!) – we quietly write letters of complaint and we whinge to our friends. But there is another thing that we can start doing… We can be careful on who we do vote for and not necessarily look at voting for the same party as we’ve always done. Finally I want to share one more thing that made my blood boil. Come the time when Paul Goodman decided to stand down as the MP for Wycombe – I witnessed the most shameful power play within the Conservative Party that was the nail on the coffin for me continuing to be a member. There were people that had friends high up the political ladder that they almost bragged that they had been offered seats in winnable area’s and in fact I can tell you for a fact that all Conservative candidates sitting in safe Tory seats were hand selected by the top brass (i.e. Eric Pickle, David Cameron, etc) and the local grassroots members of the party where allowed to vote for the right candidate that they wanted for their town – but it was a case of ‘pick a card, any card as long as it’s one of these 5 or so!’ i.e. SOUND MEN/WOMEN. All local party members were not allowed to stand.
ivor »
For some Thursday was A life changing day
Posted on 8:01pm Thursday 16th August 2012
Thursday was a major milestone in the lives of many of our youngsters.
Click on the link above to read more.
ivor »
The Olympic Legacy: Great Britain is even greater
Posted on 7:57pm Tuesday 14th August 2012
Sadly all good things come to an end and now the Olympics are over it's time to reflect on what was achieved.
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Sunita Gill »
My Visit To The Athletes Village Stratford
Posted on 9:00pm Sunday 12th August 2012
I was always intrigued to know how the polyclinic at The Eton Dorney site compared with that of the Stratford Village. This week I was given the opportunity to visit the Pharmacy based in the Athletes Village in Stratford and it surpassed my high expectations!
Bucks Bites »
The Curse of the Chip
Posted on 7:30pm Sunday 12th August 2012
This technology has revealed a side to the British that was better hidden.
ivor »
Wycombe from A-Z: P is for Parks
Posted on 1:55am Sunday 12th August 2012
This week my A to Z of High Wycombe has reached the letter P.
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ivor »
An unpleasant surprise
Posted on 8:41pm Thursday 9th August 2012
At lunchtime today I had a rather unpleasant surprise.
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Darren Hayday »
Kick starting our economy
Posted on 10:53am Thursday 9th August 2012
Not many of us would remember the 1930’s depression and living in the South East of England sometimes we don’t see the bigger picture and just how bad things are out there. Many of us by now have started to feel the changes and sacrifices that we’ve had to make in order to bolt down and get through this. Looking back to pre-bank woes, credit crunches, depression, and recession – I can just about remember the good times, the better times. Banks got greedy, politicians turned a blind eye and credit was far too easy to obtain – living today on tomorrow’s money. Of course Labour were racking up the bills and spending like crazy to keep themselves in power and I guess that I can see the sense in the Conservatives/Lib dem coalition having a main focus of reducing down the debt, etc But this all started in 2008 and now its 2012 – that’s 4 years that we’ve had to go through this and we are still here at 0% growth in the UK. I fully understand that the world economy is in the same position as there isn’t much investment/wonga flying around. However.. it’s about time that something was done otherwise we are never going through this. Some say that it’s going to be another 5 or 8 more years of depression. Here’s what I think that the current Government should be doing: • Instead of directing the Lottery money into Arts/Good funds/Sport, etc – for the short term – direct it into a scheme to help ownership of first time buyers. • Set up part ownership schemes so that first time buyers can get a leg onto the ladder. • Make the banks that are owned by the taxpayers – give mortgages to everyone (i.e. relax the tight constraints of not giving money to hardly anyone!) • Change the Stamp Duty limits – make them much higher. My house and those around me in my street will never sell our house for a penny over £250k because of this very silly band. • Relax new building laws, have more sites to build homes on. • If we get the housing market moving then this would at least kick start the economy. Look at what help that the car industry got and they are selling new cars. The housing sector has been shafted and forgotten and affects most of us. Another area would be for all companies to get ‘marketing grants’ to pay to find new clients. Surely David Cameron and co have some kind of brain cell rolling around somewhere?
ivor »
Music to your ears?
Posted on 7:58pm Tuesday 7th August 2012
It's amazing what modern technology has done for music.
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ivor »
Wycombe from A-Z: O is for Octagon
Posted on 1:33am Sunday 5th August 2012
This week my A to Z of High Wycombe has reached the letter O.
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ivor »
It's a no-grow at Bassetsbury Lane allotments
Posted on 8:24pm Thursday 2nd August 2012
Sadly it looks like Bassetsbury Lane allotments may be closed.
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