Fond memories of a land that I call home
5:15pm Tuesday 7th February 2012 in Your Say
Fond memories of a land that I call home
May I pass comment on the proposed referendum on my country of birth, regarding breaking away from the union, more commonly addressed as the United Kingdom.
I resided in Scotland for the first 28 years of my life. I have resided in Swindon for the last 40 years. I have three adult sons and a daughter born in Scotland, one adult son born in Swindon, eight grandchildren all born in Swindon, the product of 49 years of marriage.
In an antique cabinet in my home, I have a statue of Robert Burns and next to it is a replica of the Victory and a tea mug with Lord Nelson on it.
I have had the great experience of looking at nature in all its splendour at Glencoe, driving from Inverness to Oban as the sun descended over the lochs, an image I will take to my grave.
I have also had the pleasure of enjoying the fantastic visual splendour, as well as the spiritual benefits, of the south coast beaches on a regular basis, the beauty of the sight of the rolling fields of Wiltshire, on a return car journey from Scotland, the fantastic presentation to the public at Osborne House on the beautiful Isle of Wight.
I have deliberately not mentioned the political aspect of this scenario, except to say united we stand, divided we fall.
Bill Williams Merlin Way Swindon
We do have a plan
I am deeply disappointed to see Councillor Wright’s attack on the town centre redevelopment (Adver, January 25).
I am surprised he did not just take out a full-page advert saying “Swindon – Regeneration Not Wanted Here”.
With the May election campaign already underway, the Labour Party is too interested in scoring short term political points instead of caring about the long-term future of the town.
What message does Coun Wright think he is sending to investors in Swindon who are about to commit to £500 million in three schemes this year when he calls their plans mediocre?
Why should anyone want to invest in Swindon if they think the Labour councillor’s views are typical?
He says there is no plan. The fact is we have a plan, the Central Area Action Plan, which took four years of preparation, including extensive consultation to produce. This plan is being refreshed this year. If Labour councillors had their way and abandon this plan there will be no new alternative until 2016 at the earliest. This means that the regeneration of the town centre is unlikely to be finished by 2025.
These developments are being led by the private sector. Finance is incredibly hard to come by for any scheme in the current economic climate and yet Labour seem happy to attack a car park design I am told could be award winning!
My message is simple: Swindon welcomes redevelopment, says yes to a new town centre, and yes to private investment. We are working closely with developers to get the best we can in difficult times.
Those like the Labour councillors who undermine this message, are proving they are not just anti-Council; they are against the best interests of everyone who lives and works in this town.
They are entitled to their views but need to be responsible in expressing them and not play politics with serious issues for our town’s future.
Coun Roderick Bluh Leader of the Council
Rob’s right on EU
In a letter to a national newspaper from Charles Kennedy MP, and others, part of its content said: “Britain is part of the biggest trading bloc in the world and of a single market of 500million customers.
“Our EU membership gives us privileged access to that market, makes our economy more attractive to foreign investment and strengthens our and the EU’s hand in negotiating international trade agreements.”
Among others signing the letter was Robert Buckland, North Swindon’s Conservative MP.
Although not a Tory myself, I fully agree with him.
M J Warner Groundwell Road Swindon
It’s Monstro-city
Reference the letter from Bob Wright (Adver, January 26) on the monstrosities we are currently building in Swindon.
We are building concrete monstrosities because all of our architects are blind to pleasant looking buildings.
They are only interested in their own egos, ie; look what I have designed. They are rubbish, simply total and utter rubbish which are due to become the slums of the future.
God knows they have built enough ugly buildings in Swindon already without having more, such as the one illustrated on the letters page in the Adver to which I refer.
Rod Bluh tends to laud all these “wonderful” new designs. We only have to look around the town to see this, and if we look at the artist’s impression of the proposed multi storey car park they are planning to erect in Union Square you have a perfect illustration of the phrase “building monstrosity”. It looks ugly, it will no doubt get extremely dirty over time thus making it look even uglier. What are the Swindon town planners thinking of?
The answer is to get involved and don’t let the council planners get away with things, Protest and write in. You can win, as illustrated by the residents of South Marston and Stratton St Margaret when they took on the council and Honda and Eco-tricity regarding the turbines Honda was going to put on its site.
Fight them all the way, this is our town, not just the council’s!
David Collins Stratton St Margaret Swindon
Widows’ tax
In what would seem another 10p tax fiasco vote winner, Labour councils up and down the country have declared that, after the May elections, those people who at present get tax relief if they are a single occupant of a house will no longer be entitled to a discount.
These single people include widows and single parents. At present, their council tax bills are subsidised by 25 per cent. This move will push up bills by £360 per year for the average Band D home. I wonder if this will be in the manifesto of the Swindon Labour party at the next election?
T Reynolds Wheeler Avenue Swindon
Learn from history
regarding Robert Buckland MP’s letter (Adver, January 24) – “We must all learn from past mistakes” – Mr Buckland is to be congratulated on being the first man, in my experience, to expand the title Holocaust from the Nazi treatment of the Jews 1939-45.
In fact, genocide, or its equivalent, has bedevilled this earth since very early days.
The less popular question is, “just what have we learned?”
Not, it seems, to be able to give respectful memory to the victims without putting our pain and anger on members of the oppressor group/nation still living, even if such people played no part in such atrocities. Hence, our anguish and anger vent themselves on people suffering just as innocently as those we wish to remember and honour.
If we cannot or will not give honour and loving memory to victims without causing equivalent distress to folk unknown to us, also innocent, we prove (a) we are as bad as “those others” who cause needless suffering and (b) we lock ourselves into the evil of Holocausts – the vicious circle of evil-vengeance-evil.
By all means, let us hold in our hearts love and memories of all those who suffered unjustly, but then treat the innocent (often descendants) at least as neutral and until proved guilty.
This is not easy! Just reading Mr Buckland’s letter, I felt my hackles tickle, but someone, somewhere, has to really learn from past mistakes: Much harder than carrying on the same old way, but at least then we may also really have a future.
Mr T W Coombs Lansdown Road Swindon
Cycle for cause
National charity, the Meningitis Trust, is looking for cycling enthusiasts of all abilities to join it in the popular Isle of Wight Randonnee, on May 6, 2012.
The course, with a choice of 100km or 55km rides, follows a route around the whole of the island, taking minor roads and lanes where possible, to enable the rider to enjoy the best of the island’s scenery. Around 2,000 people are expected to take part this year.
David Light, the Trust’s Community Development Officer in the South East, said: “You don’t have to be super fit to get involved, and if you haven’t cycled this far before this shouldn’t put you off – it’s a great reason to start!
“Raising money for a good cause like the Trust can make the sense of achievement all the more special. As a charity we rely entirely on the generosity of our supporters to pay for the professional and community services we offer, which provide such a vital lifeline for people affected by meningitis.”
The event starts at 9am and finishes at 6pm. There is no entry fee, and cyclists can start at any of the checkpoints on the day. For more details see the website at www.cycleisland.co.uk For more information call David Light on 0845 120 4766 or email him at davidl@meningitis-trust.org Andrew Hopkinson Meningitis Trust
Right royal rant
‘Royals bring out the best in British people.' (Des Morgan, Adver, January 31): Is this a Palace propaganda press release? It certainly reads like one!
Is your existence that lamentable you have to gather along the shores of the river Thames and await the goddess to sail by and sprinkle royal fairy dust in your direction to make your day? How sad.
As for your reference to presidents: could you imagine the likes of Churchill or Thatcher wasting public money on all the toys of office you refer to had they become presidents? Moreover, the present American head of state grew up with a mother on food stamps, while the British head of state grew up with a mother on postage stamps. Is that a contrast that fills you with pride?
The Queen heads a morally indefensible institution. They cost us millions, including their tax-free allowances and gargantuan security costs. Stand by for the Diamond Jubilee: come July we are about to witness a feudal frenzy of deference and backwardness. Is this the best that Britain can offer? Their magic is beginning to wear rather thin. One day the nation will let out a huge yawn and the whole monarchy farce will collapse overnight. J Adams Swindon
Fight in me yet
Oscar Wilde, in his picture of Dorian Gray, wrote that one should never make one’s debut with a scandal. One should reserve that to give an interest to one’s old age.
Whatever notoriety I once possessed remains ensconced within the fading memories of my contemporaries, but nobody cares any more, not when your pate looks like the white oval on Japetus (Saturn’s third largest moon) and you rebuke fate for not putting your wrinkles on the bottom of your feet instead of your face.
As they say, that gleam in my eye is merely the sun reflected in my bifocals.
Mind you, if I was having a late burst of speed with say, the Duchess of Ludwigshafen, then the paparazzi would be dogging my every step, but I’d be kidding myself if I thought they were interested in me.
Though a British newspaper celebrity columnist would have at least have the decency to ask me if I would like to comment on reports of me dancing the fandango with the Duchess in my underpants, wearing a paper hat on fire, in a nightclub in St Tropez.
Not that I aspire to such things, you understand. What notoriety I have in the autumn of my years is confined to histrionic mutterings when some perfectly innocent old lady stops with her trolley in the overtaking lane of a supermarket aisle, to contemplate the meaning of life or losing my temper and threatening to beat the bejazus out of a fast checkout machine.
With the constant battle to adjust to life’s changes, we old ones are often a little improbable. So, I talk to the cats when going down the local shop. It’s when they start talking back I’ll start to worry.
As for these people walking about with hoods over their heads, wearing trousers halfway down their behinds, with something plugged into their earhole making a noise like a bee in a jam jar, my walking stick glows in the dark like Obi Wan Kenobi’s light sabre and if I can see off a gabby automatic checkout machine, I can see off the Jawas.
J P Hunter Swindon
