Is Britain becoming an unsafe place to be?

While on the way to collect my wife from work, I was listening to the Jeremy Vine Show on radio 2. He was talking about how an Australian, by the name of Timothy Smits, was stabbed on a London bus in Dalston. I admire Timothy's bravery for trying to stand up to the 3 yobs, and I sincerely hope he doesn't have any long lasting post traumatic stress from the incident.

What amazes me about this incident is how the bus driver did absolutely nothing throughout the whole incident. I was a bus driver for 10 years on London buses, and I know what I would have done. The drivers are in control of the bus and make decisions on what to do. The drivers of today are protected by a perspex barrier, so the yobs would have had a much more difficult task of getting to the driver than at one of the defenceless passengers.

On one of my journeys on route 286 (now known as 340) from Edgware to Harrow-on-the-Hill, I had some disruptive youths causing havoc upstairs. I immediately pulled over to the side of the road, and using the Public Address system made an announcement that the bus would not be going anywhere, until the youths got off the bus. When one of them threatened me, I just told him I was getting paid whether I drove the bus or sat still. He was welcome to stay on the bus until the Police arrived to arrest him if he wished. At which point the youth and his mates then ran off.

My purpose was to inconvenience these idiots. Where I stopped the bus, was on part of the route where no other service travelled, so these Yobs would have had to wait for another 20 minutes before the next bus came along. As we had radio contact with our Garage, it was easy to send out an alert to other drivers to be aware.

In my 30 year career working on London Transport (buses and Underground) I have been assaulted only 3 times. It is only the first assault that I still have the odd nightmare over, and this happened nearly 15 years ago! It was my own stupid fault for not assessing the situation properly (that the Yob wasn't alone) realising that I shouldn't have tried to tackle the Yob smoking on a train! I ended up being headbutted by one of the Yob's mates! With hindsite, I would have acted completely differently. I would have still confronted the Yob who was smoking, but I would have used a different tactic other than trying to grab the Yob's cigarette from his mouth! Instead I would have gone for the fire extinguisher and used it on the yob! (well there was a fire, right?). More importantly, I would have had a very useful weapon to defend myself with if they decided to threaten me with violence.

What worries me about society today, is how the Liberal do-gooders have eroded all forms of discipline in this country. Now, young children grow up knowing that they cannot be touched by any adult, no matter how obnoxious, violent, and intimidating they be. As they grow older they think they cannot be disciplined by anyone. In this day of CCTV, I cannot understand why schools are still not allowed to discipline unruly children in class. If a child is being disruptive in class, why can't the teacher discipline them? With the CCTV footage available, the evidence will be there to protect both child and teacher. Surely it is in society's interest to show these Yobs that they cannot continue to terrorise everyone around them with impunity. By instilling discipline at an early age, will have major benefits of having far fewer troublemakers growing into adulthood, and creating an even bigger problem for society.

Budding Film Mogul Bites The Dust!

3 years ago, I was approached to invest in a new film production called "The Mortician". I was told that it was a high risk investment, as there is many hurdles to overcome, before the film is ultimately released.

Most films fall by the wayside before they even get to filming! With "The Mortician" everything seemed to be going well until last November, when we were invited to see a private screening of "The Mortician" at the BAFTA offices in London. Then we were told the film company was still trying to raise another £500,000 to pay their creditors.

Even though the film was completed and ready for release, we were told it was to be shown at the Berlin Film Festival, where negotitations would be made for the distribution rights around the world. Once the festival was over, I was expecting news of the films imminent release. Instead there was a sudden silence.

About a month later, I started to receive emails from one of Full Circle's directors informing me that he was starting up a new film company, and I was invited to come along and invest in the new project! I am not that stupid to be bitten twice!

I then tried to go to the web site of Full Circle Films, but couldn't gain access to it. I wasn't sure if it was a problem with my computer, or the website itself. So I left it alone, and continued to wait for some news to appear.

Today, I tried again; and again, I couldn't gain access to the Full Circle website. I then started a more indepth search and came across a statement published earlier this month in the London Gazette that Full Circle Films has ceased trading!

It now seems increasingly likely that I will never see my investment returned, unless the film gets a cinema or DVD release. The only saving grace is I got some money back from the Government via the EIS tax rebate scheme. I only decided to take this risk as the money I had in savings was forcing me into the higher (40%) tax bracket, and this was a way of turning the tables on the Government. Had the venture worked, I would have been happy with a small profit. Now, all I can say is I have learned an expensive, but valuable lesson, and I am glad that I invested only the minimum amount allowed, so my loss is not going to be as big as it might have been if I had listened to the hype about how succussful the film was going to be, and invested more money!

Now I will have to make money the hard way, by working for it!

Governments Austerity Measures Hits The Working Class Hardest

After my Land Rover Discovery had been in for repairs for an entire week, I finally picked it up yesterday. I now have a major crisis as I need to find the money to pay the bill!!

The reason for the repair was at first what seemed a minor problem of a fuel leak from the bottom of the engine. When I took the car to my local garage in early december, they initially thought it was an oil leak, and not a fuel leak as I had thought. Still, I booked the Discovery in for repairs at the first opportunity a week later.

The garage took a look at the car, and discovered that the cylinder head was cracked, and fuel was leaking into the engine oil. I was told that a new cylinder head would cost £1100. They couldn't do the repair before Christmas, so I had to book it in last week.

I had worked out that the cost of repairs would not leave me with much change from £2000. Imagine my shock when I was presented with a bill for a few pence short of £3000 !!!

Looking at the breakdown of costs, about £1600 was for the parts, £900 for labour, and a whopping £500 VAT charged! I had to pay an extra £62.50 to the Government because the car was repaired this month instead of last month!! The garage even refused to give any discount for cash!

The garage has now lost my custom!

I have also noticed that the price of petrol and diesel have gone up by 10p a litre over the space of a month. So now it is even more expensive to have a car than before. Of course, public transport should be a viable alternative, except, due to previous Governments privatisation policies, the cost of public transport has gone up enormously, and any route that was unprofitable, reduced or eliminated. Where I live, I would have to add another hour to each end of my journey if I switched to pedal power. Buses are of no use as they do not operate outiside of daylight hours!!!

If the present Government continues with their plans to reduce the deficit so rapidly, I think they will kill any growth in the economy, as more and more people find that they cannot afford even the smallest luxuries anymore. If labour get into power again, all they will do is spend, spend, spend, and ultimately bankrupt the Country!

I've just received notification that my electricity is increasing by 8.5%. I am sure that gas, water and telecommunications will follow soon, it has to, as VAT has increased. I am almost certain that this year, very few employees will be given a pay rise that will negate the erosion of their wages by the government taxes imposed upon them.

I heard a guest on Radio 2 a few days ago mention that a good way to beat the VAT hike is to buy items second hand, as they are exempt from VAT. As a form of protest, I am now going to look closely at items I buy, and refrain from buying items that have VAT charged, unless I have absolutely no other option available. Does anyone know where I can buy second hand petrol and diesel from?

Industrial Action by Underground Workers

Today, the RMT and TSSA unions combined to instigate a withdrawal of labour by Union members working for London Underground. Having seen the propaganda put forward by both the Unions and Management, I feel I need to put my own views across as to why I believe that this dispute is necessary.

The management, quite rightly claim that this dispute is about the 800 job losses in Ticket Offices, and that in fact, no staff will be made redundant. What they have deliberately omitted, is that they have not covered any of the positions left vacant by people leaving the company, or retiring. So they have already reduced the current workforce by the necessary 800.

Instead of employing people to fill these vacancies, management have been covering the duties through overtime. When their budget was exceeded, they tried to cover the duties by relying on the goodwill of the staff to change duties and times at short notice. This is how they have been masking the reduction of workforce already achieved.

Having read the Evening Standard article about the strike yesterday, the way they reported this left me speechless as to the slant of their reporting! I thought that the press were supposed to make unbiased reports about events, not act as a glorified press release for the benefit of management!

Now, I fully understand why management want to reduce the workforce in an effort to reduce the cost of operating the Underground. What I feel aggrieved about is how they are not telling anyone the whole story. This is what I believe this dispute is really about....

London Underground have for the past few years concentrated on driving forward policies to reflect their catchphrase slogan "A World Class Service For A World Class City". With this in mind, they have set targets for customer service as a major priority. Staff are constantly being assessed on the quality of their interaction with the customers. These assessments are conducted through an independent company using mystery shoppers. On the strength of these reports, London Underground then decide whether to pay any bonuses to staff or not.

Last year, London Underground reduced the the frontline workforce by 1000. Customers using the service may have noticed that Ticket Office opening hours had been reduced, and fewer staff around the stations, especially early mornings, late at night, and at weekends. Management have decided to reduce the workforce the the bare minimum allowed to operate the stations. They leave no leeway for any unforeseen problems that arise. Management will tell you that the Oyster Card they have introduced is a runaway success and that is why their is no need for staff to be available in Ticket Offices, as the amount of sales through Ticket Office windows have dropped by over 70%. Of course this has happened. Management deliberately engineered this to happen. Don't believe me? Then think on this -

In the outer zone stations, they are staffed by supervisors who have Ticket Office licences to sell tickets to customers. Before the first round of Ticket Office closures, these Supervisors manned the Ticket Offices from 07:00 to 23:00. At present, management have instructed these same Supervisors to open only during the morning peak hours (07:00 - 10:00), and in some cases the evening peak too (15:30 - 19:30). The rest of the time they just sit in their office monitoring the station! Now this is where I believe the Unions missed a golden opportunity. There were some Supervisor's who tried to keep their ticket offices open as they originally had been. Management then threatened these Supervisor's with disciplinary action if they continued to open the Ticket Office outside the designated times. The Unions should have backed these Supervisor's, and forced a confrontation with management over this. I am sure that the media would have had a field day vilifying management over this ludicrous policy! It's still not too late for Union's to do this, so if any Union member reads this, then perhaps this idea could bear further scrutiny!

Now let's look at how these proposed cuts in Ticket Office staff will affect the customers (passengers) who wish to travel on the Underground. If you are coming to London for the first time, you will have two choices. If you go to a Station where the Ticket Office is closed (almost certain early morning, late at night), then you can buy a full priced ticket (minimum £4.00). You might be lucky to find a newsagent nearby, or possibly an Oyster card dispenser where you can purchase the Oyster card. Then you can use the Oyster Card to get a discounted journey for £1.80. There will be some stations, though, where you will not be able to purchase an Oyster card if the Ticket Office is closed. Management believe it is good customer service to tell the customer they must leave the station and go somewhere else to purchase an Oyster card.

Sorry, from a customers point of view, that is NOT offering a World Class Service!

O.K. You now have your Oyster card and start your journey. You try to "touch in" on the reader and it doesn't work. The staff member at the gateline tries to check your card, and finds that it is faulty. If you are lucky, you can go to the Ticket Office to get a replacement. At this station you entered, the Ticket Office is closed. Either you go and find a Ticket Office that is open, or you have to purchase a full priced paper ticket (£4.00 again), and then have to contact Oyster Card Helpdesk for a refund later. Or you can hope the staff member will let you travel for free (especially if you have no means to purchase another ticket!) to your destination, as at your destination, the Ticket Office there might be open. With the new proposed closures management want to implement, you might find the Ticket Office closed at your destination too! Now you have travelled for free to your destination, the staff there cannot direct you to an open Ticket Office, so they have to let you out of the Station. Result for you! You have just had a free journey, thanks to managements policy of closing Ticket Offices! There are a lot of savvy people out there who now take advantage of travelling very early, or very late, with faulty Oyster cards, knowing that they will get a free journey! I wonder if the customers who have to pay for their journey feel they are getting a World Class Service?

Now let's look at another problem. You have loaded up your Oyster Card with money, expecting it to last for all the journeys you intend to make. For some reason after a couple of journeys, it stops working due to insufficient funds. When a staff member checks your Oyster Card it shows there is unresolved journeys. Basically this means that the card hasn't registered the entry point or exit point on a journey. What a lot of people do not realise is the discounted journey is only given on completed journey's. If the card has not registered a complete journey, £4.60 is deducted instead of the £1.80 you expected. This can easily be resolved though, just go to the Ticket Office, and they can re-credit your card.... er.... sorry, the Ticket Office is closed. You can either add more money at the machine, or try phoning the Oyster help desk, only you will be held in a queue for a very long time before they answer, or even worse, this problem will happen outside their opening hours of 08:00 - 20:00 Monday to Friday only!! Again, do you consider this to be a World Class Service?

I could go on about all the different ticketing issues and problems customers face every day, that an open Ticket Office could quickly and easily resolve. If Management are determined to reduce Ticket Office hours, and ultimately close them eventually, why can't they be honest with the public and staff, and no longer promote their policy of providing a World Class Service. A World Class Service means that we should provide a service that does not inconvenience ANY of our customers AT ANY TIME. Closing Ticket Offices is doing precisely the opposite!

This is why I agree with the Unions fighting these job cuts, as I believe we will be providing a "Worse Class Service" instead of a "World Class Service". If the staff don't make a stand now, who's to say how far Management will go in their reduction of frontline staff in the future?

The Governments plan to make the nation miserable!

I have just read in the morning paper Alister Darling's pre-budget report. His idea is to tax the working population even more than before, borrow more money to shore up the crumbling economy, and worst of all delay any benefits as long as possible.

It doesn't matter who I vote for at the next general election, as these tax changes will still go ahead no matter which party wins. All I have discovered so far is that the Conservatives, might reduce income tax a bit, but have not bothered to reverse any of stealth taxes Labour seem to favour as their way to raise revenue.

If I could discover a politician who would try their best to reward the working population of this country instead of taking more away, I would vote for them no matter which party they belonged to. To give an example - Why is it that if you are ill and require medication you have to pay for the prescriptions in England? I know the Government will say that they have to fund the cost of the medication from somewhere, but I think that I have already paid for any medication I need.

We have been told that all workers will have to make increased NI contributions from 11% to 12% of their income. Now I was lead to believe that My NI contributions were supposed to support the NHS system. So why am I paying 11% of my income to fund the NHS and then have to pay again for medication to help me get back to work, when the Government is quite happy to allow people who are not working, and therefore are not contributing any NI into the Government coffers, allowed to get free medication?

I am beginning to wonder if there will come a time in the not too distant future, where those who work will be unable to provide enough taxable income to pay for all the benefits the government keeps paying out. Already we are told that the Government can no longer find the resources to continue to pay the state pension. What is the next casualty going to be?

The Governments drive to try and improve the NHS system doesn't seem to be working either. I have just discovered this week how it has affected me.

My daughter has been unwell since Friday (7 days) and I have finally managed to book an appointment for her to visit the doctor. Every day I have phoned the surgery, and every day I have been told there was no appointments available. It never used to be this way before. I could always get an appointment, if not today then at least the next day. Now I can only attempt to book an appointment for today. If I want one tomorrow, I have to phone tomorrow, and join the frantic queue of people trying to see their doctor! So tell me how this system is an improvement over the old system!

I have now got to the point where I am totally disillusioned with the political parties, and I am now unsure who I would vote for in the next general election. When the campaigning starts, I will have to discover what each candidate will try to achieve whilst in office, if they are elected. Then perhaps I might have a clearer idea of where to place my vote.