Stop The Bedroom Tax

    I don’t usually comment on political issues. I do vote, but often feel that being just one in the several million who live in this country, my voice is very small.

    However, I have become aware of something that make me want to scream on behalf of all the people it is going to effect.

    Under pressure from the well-heeled the government of the day is not going to introduce a much needed Mansion Tax. It seems the rich can keep their money.

    On the other hand they, as art of the Welfare Reform Act which comes into effect on the 1^st April 2013 , will be taking housing benefit AWAY from those who can barely afford to live.  What is this plan? Well, if you live in a house larger than you need, you will not get housing benefit for the extra rooms and you will have to pay for the privilege of staying there.

    To whom will this apply? Almost everyone who lives in rented accommodation and has more bedrooms than they need, or the government deems they need.

    Now I might hear some people say, too right. Make these unmarried mothers who live off benefits suffer. But it is not only unmarried others, in fact such people will probably not be touched at all.

    The people this will effect are those in middle age who have raised a family in a house and now live alone, put down roots, have no desire to move, have, until now, paid their way but who, for one reason or another, no longer have a job – all those job cuts councils and other services are having to make because of cut backs – sick and disabled people who are unable to work and are probably fighting to keep their disability benefits, too. Mothers and fathers, widows and widowers, aunties and uncles. People who have lost their own homes because of job losses and repossessions.

    If this were a move to make larger housing available for waiting families it might make sense. It is, however, nothing more than a gimmick to claw back money from people who have none.

   The penalty for not paying – eviction. Advice given on how to pay when you don’t have the money – don’t pay a different bill. Honest, that is what some people are being told to do.

    This doesn’t just impact on single people, although they are obvious targets; how dare the son stay in the house his parents raised him in after they have passed away and he gave up his job to care for them? Couples without children should only have one bedroom, no matter if one needs a separate room because illness or disability makes it impossible to share a room. After experiencing the problems a relative had when dealing with a partner with dementia in a one bedroom flat, I strongly believe no one should live with only one bedroom. Children should share bedrooms until a certain age.

    This wouldn’t be so bad if there were alternative places for all the people to move to, if they wanted to move, which most don’t. Unfortunately there are not. So these people on benefit will have to pay regardless.

    And while people who rent from private landlords can possibly get around this by sharing the house they live in with other people, council tenants are not permitted to sub-let parts of their homes.

    I don’t agree with people falsely claiming benefits. But when help is needed people should be able to get it.

   I am appalled that this Bill seems to have gone through Parliament with very little objection from the opposition or, indeed, back-benchers or coalition members. I know the government needs to reform welfare, but this is not the way to go about it.

    Not so long ago there was an email going around saying how much better the country was one hundred years ago. There were far fewer taxes (some because the things that are now taxed hadn’t been invented!). The email didn’t mention the fact that there was no health service, that alms houses still existed, that poor people barely made it to their sixties let alone live long enough to draw a pension.

    Are we going back  to those days? Already food is being handed out to people who can’t afford to buy it. Are we going to end up forcing good, honest, people out onto the streets and into homeless shelters?

   I sincerely hope not.

   Pass this blog on to everyone you know if you care about ordinary people.  

Fact or Fiction

Ask me when I started writing stories and, although I can’t give you the actual date, I would say when I was about twelve years old and my English teacher said “Write a story about…”

My pen hit the paper and I haven’t stopped writing since.

    I can’t remember learning a great deal during my English lessons. I must have learnt something because I seem to have the ability to edit and know where words belong. My school days were a long time ago when we were still taught things like – “never end a sentence with a preposition”, “never start a sentence with a conjunction”. I sometimes sit and wonder “What did they teach us that for?” But never mind, I just get on with what I’m doing.

    The best thing about English lessons was the homework. After sitting through all the dross of English grammar, or the painful reading aloud of some set text, we would be set some homework and I would wait eagerly for the first words of the instructions. If the teacher, Mr Williams was his name, he is either dead or in his nineties by now, started by saying : “Write a story …” it didn’t matter what came after that. It might be a story to illustrate a particular point we had been discussing, alliteration or onomatopoeia (I love that word). The words would flow. I went from writing huge letters as I was taught at primary school to writing as small as I could to get more onto a page.  Then when the homework was marked I was nearly always asked to read out my story to the class. I felt great.

   The words I dreaded hearing were “Write an essay…” That meant something factual, something real. For ages I didn’t even really understand what the word ‘essay’ meant. I did know, however, that I couldn’t let my imagination fly. Sometimes it meant doing research, which I hated because it takes me ages to read anything, especially if it is boring facts!

    So imagine my horror when, after writing four novels, I was asked to write something more factual. I won’t say what in case it never comes off. I’m trying, honest I am, but the words just don’t flow the same way they do when I write fiction. This is why I wanted to be a writer not a journalist. Words are the province of both professions but they are used  differently. For me facts are conveyed in short sharp bursts while stories can run on for ever. Give me fiction every time.

Check Out This Interview

No, not on this site I'm afraid. I have  been interviewed by Tricia Drammeh on her website Authors To Watch.
   Read this insightful interview and find out what inspires me to write.

Facebook Spotlight Interview

Join me tonight at https://www.facebook.com/groups/shahsight/ to take part in my interview with Shah. 10pm UK time.

Are you a .99p or a Round Pound?

Believe it or not this post was inspired by reading Agatha Christie. Why? Because she lived and wrote in a time when a penny had worth. You could actually buy something with a penny and get change. So in those days it was well worth offering things for 5/11d (that's five shillings and eleven pence to any younger readers, OR 29p in the money of today. And, yes, even back in 1972 it was possible to actually buy something for 29p).
   Inflation has now raised prices and devalued the money we use. It now costs more than I used to get as pocket money for a week to buy a chocolate bar. But still some advertisers cling to the thought of giving you a penny or a pound change when you go to buy something.

Some in the marketing industry cling to the idea that offering things at a penny or pound off attracts more customers. I think they are wrong. Whether this is  male/female thing I don't know. I have noticed, however, that shops that cater mainly for women - supermarkets, clothes shops, shoe shops etc, tend to have all their goods labelled in round pounds. The supermarkets offer bags of fruit and veg at  Only £1 not Only .99p. I have to confess whenever I see the word ONLY in front of the price I tend to think - but last year it was only 89p. But that's another matter.
More expensive things are often advertised at £8,995 (the price of a car maybe) or £139,995 (a very cheap house these days in some places). I'm sorry but that is £9000 for the car, you wouldn't even be able to get a gallon of petrol for the £5 change you would get. The same applies to the house, although you wouldn't need any petrol for that.

   The thing that really annoys me is when some retailers offer discounts or special deals on good over, say, £200, then price their goods starting at £199. Because it is under £200 you don't get the discount. Once again, £199 is close enough to £200 in my mind that this is nothing more than a marketing ploy which I don't respond to. Maybe I'm different to the rest of the world.
   I haven't noticed it hurting ASDA, Tesco, Sainburys, M&S, BHS et al charging by the pound, so maybe it is time we got rid of the phoney .99p. I ALWAYS round up. I was taught that was the quickest way to add up in your head and as I'm rubbish at mental arithmetic that is what I do. Especially with petrol prices where you see  131.9 .  I have yet to be given point anything in change when I buy petrol. I know for commercial suppliers who are buying tens of thousands of litres, the .1 adds up to a lot of money, but to the ordinary motorist it means nothing.
   So let's make some sense out of our prices. It's time for major prices to be in round pounds. That's not saying pennies should be ignored. It should still be possible to buy things at £1.20 or £120, but let's stop trying to fool people - The general public is more savvy than the advertisers think.

And Now....

Monday 13th August and the Olympic Games are over - until the Para-Olympics start at the end of the month.
I am glad it has been a success, that so many people came and enjoyed the experience. I am glad we did well, well done to all those people who have worked so hard to achieve a medal. I am glad it's all over, can we get back to normal now, please?
Apart from the athletes in Team GB who did so well, I would like to spend a moment thanking the unsung heroes of the games. The people who built all the venues and got them finished on time. The people who came in and cleaned up every night after the spectators had gone, the gardeners who kept the Olympic park looking so wonderful, cutting the grass in the dark! The hundreds, maybe thousands, of Olympic Ambassadors and Marshals, not only in London but in the other cities involved, who gave their time, paid their own expenses and gave their services for no reward other than the honour and thrill of being part of it all. Without you all doing your bit the games would not have been such a great success.
And me. Well, I'm not interested in sport. I hate being in crowds. I like my life to be stable and things to be the same all the time. I turned the telly off on the 12th August and I'm not sure I will ever switch it on again, except for the News and Doctor Who, of course. While I'm sure millions of people enjoyed the constant coverage, in this day and age I could not see why it had to be on BBC1 all day and most of the evening, too. BBC3 ran all day, so why did everything else have to be shunted to BBC2? It's not as if people can't get other channels these days. Now that the country has gone digital I would think everyone has access to Freeview, so, yes, open up BBC3 and maybe even BBC4 and leave the other programmes as normal. Or maybe it's just me.
I hope something positive will come from these games; that a few, maybe more than a few, will be encouraged to take part in more sport in the future. But the training provision needs to be in place, all over the country, if the children of today are going to be the champions of tomorrow.  And let us not forget that getting to these dizzy heights means, hours, days, years of intense training and dedication, often involving pain and injury that will last for longer than the glory of a medal. I'm too lazy, always was, but good luck to those who regularly get up before dawn to swim, run, row or whatever. May your dedication bring you the triumph for which you strive.
Now, put your feet up and buy a book!

I've Got the Hump with Humps

This blog has been brewing for a fortnight - ever since my business partner got knocked off his motor scooter going over a road hump. He slowed down, the car behind him didn't. Result. Smash. Two weeks later he is still suffering with concussion and related side effects.
   What I would like to know is - How many people have been killed, injured or had their vehicles damaged by these so-called safety measures? Does the Office for National Statistics keep such records? How can we access them if they do, or do we have to wait for figures to be released?
   I have never liked these things. They are dangerous in the dark and wet when the markings for them have worn away. You can be driving along at the correct speed and suddenly, bump, you hit one. Once installed they are immovable so humps meant to slow traffic outside schools are still there in the middle of the night, all through the weekends and holidays.
   You cannot get into some towns without going over these obstructions. On entering one road I use frequently, the speed limit sign says 30mph. Then within yards there are humps which you have to crawl over. Why not simply reduced the speed to 20mph and have done with it?
   I drive a little two seater Smart car, mainly because I am usually a solo user and don't need a bigger car. But tackling speed humps in one of these short wheel-based cars is a nightmare. You have to slow down to about 5mph to negotiate it and if you don't hit it at the right angle it feels like the car is going to turn over. I know it won't, but it feels like it. Older humps are a bit better than some of the new ones that have appeared. Going into one of my local towns which has recently installed humps narrow enough for buses and vans to pass over without effect, is like running an obstacle course. These humps seem higher in the middle than older types, and do nothing for a car's suspension.
   So how many cyclists and motor cycle users have been knocked off their machines at these things?
   How many cars have been shunted from the rear because they have slowed down?
   How many accidents have been caused at night because people have not realised a hump is there, either because they don't know the road or the markings have worn away?
   How many cars have been damaged by these?
   I have little sympathy for people who were driving too fast in the first place, but even driving at the correct speed for the road seems dangerous when these things suddenly loom up ahead of you, especially in the dark.
   So if anyone knows the answers to these questions please let me know. Are they really cutting down accidents or causing them?