<< Jan 2010 Happy New Year! Thursday, December 31st, 2009 - 11:55 am
A very happy New Year to everyone. Keep smiling!
I've got three living Christmas Trees ..... Thursday, December 31st, 2009 - 10:46 am
At present I've got three living Christmas trees, though all of them have seen better days. I didn't get one at all this year, but I've three in pots (from various years) in the yard. They must go back at least six years because I always use a growing Christmas tree for two Christmasses running. I think we're going to run out of space soon, so I think we'd better find out where to take them for the next stage of their life. (Should that be lives?) Hmm, that could be tricky with me not being able to drive at the moment and Gerald not being able to drive.
Anyway, re-using your growing Christmas tree is a good way of halving the expense in my opinion. A Serviceman's "Night Before Christmas" Wednesday, December 30th, 2009 - 1:41 pm
I'm a bit late with this poem, written by a British serviceman stationed overseas, but that's because I have had difficulty moving around just lately. I think it is expresses well the way we do not give our sevice personnel their due, whilst they themselves are keeping faith with their country. The capitalised words that follow are the words of the poem and of the email that I got with it:
CHRISTMAS DAY ALL IS SECURE
T'WAS THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS, HE LIVED ALL ALONE
IN A ONE BEDROOM HOUSE MADE OF PLASTER AND STONE
I HAD COME DOWN THE CHIMNEY WITH PRESENTS TO GIVE
AND TO SEE JUST WHO, IN THIS SMALL HOME DID LIVE
I LOOKED ALL ABOUT, A STRANGE SIGHT I DID SEE -
NO TINSEL NO PRESENTS, NOT EVEN A TREE.
NO STOCKING BY THE MANTLE JUST BOOTS FILLED WITH SAND
ON THE WALL HUNG PICTURES OF A FAR DISTANT LAND
WITH MEDALS AND BADGES, AWARDS OF ALL KINDS.
THEN A SOBER THOUGHT CAME INTO MY MIND
FOR THIS HOUSE WAS DIFFERENT, IT WAS DARK AND DREARY,
T'WAS THE HOME OF A SOLDIER, ONCE I COULD SEE CLEARLY
THE SOLDIER LAY SLEEPING, SILENT, ALONE
CURLED UP ON THE FLOOR IN THIS ONE BEDROOM HOME
THE FACE WAS SO GENTLE, THE ROOM IN DISORDER
NOT HOW I PICTURED A LONE SOLDIER..
WAS THIS THE HERO OF WHOM I'D JUST READ,
CURLED UP ON A PONCHO, THE FLOOR FOR A BED
I REALISED THE FAMILIES THAT I SAW THIS NIGHT
OWED THEIR LIVES TO THESE SOLDIERS, WHO WERE WILLING TO FIGHT
AND SOON ROUND THE WORLD THE CHILDREN WOULD PLAY
AND GROWNUPS WOULD CELEBRATE A BRIGHT CHRISTMAS DAY
THEY ALL ENJOY FREEDOM EACH MONTH OF THE YEAR
BECAUSE OF THE SOLDIERS, LIKE THE ONE LYING HERE.
I COULDN'T HELP BUT WONDER, HOW MANY ALONE,
ON A COLD CHRISTMAS EVE IN A LAND FAR FROM HOME?
THE VERY THOUGHT BROUGHT A TEAR TO MY EYE
I DROPPED TO MY KNEES AND STARTED TO CRY
THE SOLDIER AWAKENED, I HEARD A ROUGH VOICE
"SANTA DON'T CRY, THIS LIFE IS MY CHOICE.
I FIGHT FOR FREEDOM, I DON'T ASK FOR MORE
MY LIFE IS MY GOD, MY COUNTRY, MY CORPS"
THE SOLDIER ROLLED OVER AND DRIFTED TO SLEEP.
I COULDN'T CONTROL IT, I CONTINUED TO WEEP.
I KEPT WATCH FOR HOURS, SO SILENT AND STILL
AND WE BOTH SAT AND SHIVERED FROM THE COLD NIGHTS CHILL.
I DIDN'T WANT TO LEAVE, ON THAT COLD DARK NIGHT,
THIS GUARDIAN OF HONOUR, SO WILLING TO FIGHT...
THEN THE SOLDIER ROLLED OVER WITH A VOICE SOFT AND PURE
WHISPERED "CARRY ON SANTA, CHRISTMAS DAY IS SECURE"
ONE LOOK AT MY WATCH AND I KNEW HE WAS RIGHT
"MERRY CHRISTMAS MY FRIEND - AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!"
THIS POEM WAS WRITTEN BY A BRITISH SOLDIER STATIONED OVERSEAS.
THE FOLLOWING IS HIS REQUEST - I THINK IT IS REASONABLE.
PLEASE WOULD YOU DO ME THE KIND FAVOUR OF SENDING THIS TO AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN
CHRISTMAS WILL BE COMING SOON AND MUCH CREDIT IS DUE TO OUR BRITISH AMERICAN AUSTRALIAN CANADIAN SERVICE MEN AND WOMEN ( PAST AND PRESENT) FOR OUR BEING ABLE TO CELEBRATE THESE FESTIVITIES.
LET'S TRY IN THIS SMALL WAY TO PAY BACK A TINY BIT OF WHAT WE OWE! Reply about the curbs at Airedale Hospital Saturday, December 26th, 2009 - 11:06 am
I've had a reply about the lack of dropped curbs at Airedale Hospital, saying that they would look into it. So far so good. Hope to have more news before very long. Have a lovely Christmas! Thursday, December 24th, 2009 - 9:42 pm
I won't be able to go to church this time, but Jonathan brought me my Christmas Communion last week. Thanks Jonathan! A Message from Keighley Bus Museum about Christmas Day Buses and Severe Weather Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009 - 8:31 am
Here is a message I've received about the possibility that Keighley's unique Christmas Day bus service may be adversely affected by SEVERE WEATHER:
Question:- What traditionally happens in Keighley, and nowhere else in the UK, on Christmas Day ?
Answer:- The Town Council funds the provision of a free public bus service using heritage vehicles and volunteer drivers from the local Bus Museum!
Every Christmas Day since 1995, the Trustees of Keighley Bus Museum Trust (KBMT) have provided a "free-to-users” bus service across the Town for those who have no personal transport or those who choose to leave the car at home, have a drink and ride in perfect safety, or visit friends or relatives at the local General Hospital.
However, the current severe December weather conditions are causing Bus Museum Trustees some concern and Trust Chairman Graham Mitchell has issued this note of caution :-
“We have advertised our traditional Christmas Day Free Bus services as usual but in the current adverse weather conditions it seems sensible to say that whilst all reasonable efforts will be made to run the services as advertised, should road conditions on Friday 25th be treacherous, then services may have to be modified or even curtailed in the interests of passenger and bus crew safety. We very much hope that our loyal regular supporters will understand and bear with us if we have to change our schedules at short notice.” Scrapping Tuition Fees will be in our Manifesto Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009 - 2:13 pm
I'm glad to hear from Nick Clegg that the Liberal Democrat Party is sticking to its principles on the scrapping of tuition fees. In an email to me Nick Clegg says,
"We were right to oppose tuition fees from day one, and have been right to continue to oppose any lifting of the cap on the limit of fees. The government has been obsessed with artificial targets for how many people should go to university, while putting barriers in their way in the shape of fees. My priority is making degrees affordable, and that means scrapping these unfair fees, including for those who study part-time. This is vital, because it tends to be older or poorer students who can't afford a full-time degree, but under current rules they have to pay up-front, while everyone else is allowed to defer their payments."
I myself belonged to the most fortunate generation when we not only had tuition fees paid but received grants too. We learnt to make a little money go a long way but we left debt free. Very few students dropped out from courses at my university at that time.
Before my time students had to pay their own way through college and university. After my time students are having to take out huge loans.
Supporting students is an excellent way of making our society fairer. Otherwise only those from well heeled families can afford to get qualifications. Grit Bin Requests Saturday, December 19th, 2009 - 10:58 am
After an initiative from Keighley Town Council there has been an agreement with Bradford Council to supply more grit bins in Keighley. We certainly need them in this Pennine town with a large number of very steep roads.
It will be interesting to see how long it takes to install them, though no doubt the present snowfall will hold things up. The idea is that the general public can use them to grit the road in the vicinity and there is a community contact who will check the nearby bin and let a Bradford Council contact know when it needs to be refilled.
I've requested one near St Barnabas' Church (Calton Road) and one near Parkfield Nursing Home (just below the junction of Thwaites Brow Road and Low Spring Road).
The full list of requested bins is:
Long Lee
1) Junction of Birch Tree Gardens and Box Tree Grove
2) Calton Road, by St. Barnabas Church, next to snicket, on site of former telephone box.
Thwaites Brow
3) Thwaites Brow Road, outside Parkfield Nursing Home, just below the junction with Low Spring Road, spare land on same side or across road.
4) Opposite 28 Low Spring Road Thwaites Brow
Fell Lane
5) Between Nos 1 & 3 High Pastures
Riddlesden
6) Corner of 33a Scott Lane West with junction of Leach Cresent
Bogthorn
7) Outside 4 Valley View Close
Oakworth
8) Junction of Dockroyd Lane & Pasture View
9) By driveway of 69 Berrington Way Why aren't Airedale Hospital grounds DDA compliant? Friday, December 18th, 2009 - 10:35 am
It's funny how we can walk around without noticing things which immediately become obvious if we are in wheelchairs.
A friend took me for my check-up for my broken metatarsal this week. The very small car park by Accident & Emergency, where I'd been told we could park as long as we didn't use an ambulance place, was full. The places along the access road leading to A & E were full. The small car park near the main entrance was full, except for one designated space for disabled people. My friend wanted to park there, rightly pointing out that I was disabled. However I disagreed because I don't have a disabled person's blue badge and I thought he would get fined. My friend had to park at a slightly bigger car park just downhill. (Yes, quite a steep hill; good thing he's strong!)
He then had to get a wheelchair from the hospital to take me in for my appointment. This was when we discovered that from that car park there are no dropped curbs for getting a wheelchair on to the pavement!!!!!
This is a hospital I'm talking about. I know they've got rather a posh office suite in there! I'm writing to them. Free Christmas Day Bus Service Wednesday, December 16th, 2009 - 1:48 pm
Thanks to the Keighley Bus Museum Trust for running free to users buses in Keighley on Christmas Day. (The regular bus service does not run that day.)
Here is the timetable, all four routes are planned to run an hourly service though the Museum does point out that they cannot guarantee every bus because the whole thing is run by volunteers.
KEIGHLEY BUS MUSEUM TRUST WILL PROVIDE THE FOLLOWING "Free-to-Users" BUS SERVICES ON CHRISTMAS DAY 25th DECEMBER 2009
17 : Oakworth & Fell Lane Circular
North Street The Livery Rooms (Wetherspoon)
1025-1525
Coney Lane The Cricketers’ Arms
1027-1527
Oakworth Road opp The Brown Cow
1030-1530
Exley Head
1034-1534
Oakworth Windsor Road
1042-1542
Slack Lane Baptist Chapel
1043-1543
Fell Lane The Three Horses
1046-1546
Oakworth Road The Brown Cow
1050-1550
North Street The Livery Rooms (Wetherspoon)
1052-1552
18 : Guard House & Black Hill Circular
North Street The Livery Rooms (Wetherspoon)
1100-1500
Coney Lane The Cricketers’ Arms
1102-1502
West Lane The Brown Cow
1105-1505
Guard House Ring
1110-1510
Braithwaite Avenue Top
1113-1513
Black Hill Corner
1115-1515
West Lane The Brown Cow
1118-1518
North Street The Livery Rooms (Wetherspoon)
1120-1520
19 : Oxenhope & Haworth Circular
North Street Keighley College
1025-1525
Cross Roads
1032-1532
Brow Road Top
1034-1534
Oxenhope Railway Station
1040-1540
Haworth Old Hall Inn
1045-1545
Haworth Railway Station
1047-1547
Cross Roads
1050-1550
North Street The Livery Rooms (Wetherspoon)
1057-1557
19 : Keighley - Airedale Hospital
North Street The Livery Rooms (Wetherspoon)
1100-1600
Steeton Primary School
1107-1607
Airedale Hospital A&E Dept.
1110-1610
Steeton Primary School
1114-1614
North Street Keighley College
1122-1622
These services are provided “free-to-users” by Keighley Bus Museum Trust Ltd with financial support from Keighley Town Council and Double i Pressure Cleaning Ltd.
Whilst every effort will be made to maintain the services shown above, Keighley Bus Museum Trust Ltd reserves the right to cancel, alter or suspend any service without notice and accepts no liability for any loss, inconvenience or delay thereby caused. Contact telephone number 07961-174295. Civic Carol Service Friday, December 11th, 2009 - 2:53 pm
Keighley's Civic Carol Service will be at Church Green, next to St Andrew's Shared Church, at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday 13th December. Is it fair? Is it fair, my foot? Thursday, December 10th, 2009 - 9:58 am
Well Alastair Darling gave his pre-budget report, I mean his pre-election budget, yesterday and said it was fair. Was it fair, my foot? And my foot's not very well at present, with a broken bone.
Vince Cable said it was good for bankers but not good for real workers. Here's a link:
Vince video: CONGRATULATIONS to Redcar Lib Dems on their by-election win! Tuesday, December 8th, 2009 - 4:16 pm
Congratulations to Redcar Lib Dems on their latest by-election win, in Dormanstown Ward. It's good to know there is SOME good news for the area after the bad news of job losses at the Corus steel works. I used to go to school there and my father (GEPS) taught at Sir Willy T's. Ooh, I see the Tories did particularly badly.
From Redcar Liberal Democrats' website: Liberal Democrats have won the Dormanstown Ward By Election for Redcar and Cleveland Council.
The result was as follows:
Ken Lucas (Lib Dem) - 809
Marion Fairley (Lab) - 667
Lynn Payne (BNP) - 305
Barry Hughes-Mundy (Con) - 125
Turnout 36.83%
Composition of the Council now is:
Labour - 26
Liberal Democrats - 15
Conservative - 11
East Cleveland Independents - 2
Independents - 1
Independents supporting Labour - 4 This post by Lynne Featherstone is interesting ... Monday, December 7th, 2009 - 8:10 am
Here is a link to an excellent post by Lynne Featherstone, Lib Dem MP. Her post is about the Tories trying to get out of their agreement to accept the Kelly report's recommendations on managing MPs' expenses:
The survey I did about the Keighley Farmers' Market and Oktoberfest showed that it does bring people into Keighley and that they then also spend money at other Keighley outlets. It also showed that the great majority of people rated the events as good or excellent.
Here's my letter in this week's Keighley news (Impression of market was very positive):
I've got a little list, I've got a little list
And they'd none of them be missed,
Oh, they'd none of them be missed ...
And it includes those cheeky RBS bankers.
Go on, resign! What are you waiting for? This is the right place for them ... Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009 - 11:42 am
Violent rapists of from Haworth, Bradford and Driffield have been sent to prison. They attacked a little girl and forced another girl to watch. My heart goes out to the children. But at least these thugs are in the best place for them now.
Keighley News Report Listen to This if you Care about Children: Haringey, Baby P and a Social Worker who Cared Tuesday, December 1st, 2009 - 12:10 pm
Haringey Council presided over the deaths of Victoria Climbie and Baby Peter. Here a Social Worker who worked for Haringey Social Services, and tried but failed to get them to follow proper procedures, speaks in this morning's BBC Radio 4's The Choice. She describes the management as being "cold and uncaring". Nevres Kemal talks about the management of Haringey Social Services' appalling failures here:
We aim at the highest possible accessibility standards -
WCAG 1.0, AAA and WCAG 2.0, level 3 (with valid HTML).
Unfortunately, that's hard to prove.
The checker linked above, for instance, fails almost every page on the site,
but when I follow up the "faults", so far, they have all turned out
to be warnings about issues that have been taken into account.
Please feel free to check for yourself, then
if you find an exception, please
In accord with our aim of accessibility, it is site policy not
to specify font families or point sizes for our pages. You can choose the
size and typeface you see: set the
'default font' in your own browser. (Roger Beaumont has published
some instructions about how
to set your default font.)
Volunteers required.
We use the automated checking tools above to try to make this Website accessible
but need help from someone who has a real sight disability to give us feedback
about practical use with a screen-reader - especially about problems. If you
can help, we'd be very glad to hear from you.
The REAL alternative
"The Liberal Democrats exist to build and safeguard a free, fair
and open society, in which we seek to balance the fundamental
values of liberty, equality and community and in which no-one
shall be enslaved by poverty, ignorance or conformity." Preamble to the Liberal Democrat Federal Constitution, first sentence.
"Hope not hate"
This Website is hosted ("printed") by Roger Beaumont, 174 Skipton Road,
Keighley.
It is published and promoted by Judith Brooksbank on behalf of the Liberal Democrats,
198 Thwaites Brow Road, Keighley, BD21 4SW
All information and opinions on this site are provided in good faith, but we are
fallible - no liability is accepted except that required by British Electoral Law.
*
*