Rats in London

                                                Rats in London          

The topic of rats in London is one that yields many myths. At one time there was a common myth that nobody was ever more than six foot away from a rat. This has now come under some scrutiny and seems to be a bit hard to justify. However the fact remains that London still has a sizeable rat population and their presence is evident in quite a few places.

All over the city it is quite  common sight to see rat tarps and in many parks they are increasingly bold and can be seen scuttling about the undergrowth in broad daylight..

One of the features of London life is the amount of takeaway food places that now sit on London streets. There are the traditional fish and chip shops  and also chicken and chips shops as well as doer kebab places along with some of the American chains such as MacDonalds, Subway and Burger King. Most of these places boast a lot of discarded food as it is very common for people just to throw it on the pavements without regard to the wider implications. While this supports a larger population of scavenging animals with the foxes, crows and starlings particularly benefitting from this it is also clear that this habit is providing a food source for rats

Another problem is that there are large populations of rats in the sewers. In times of austerity when cuts are made often rat control programmes bear the brunt as they cannot be seen. Local politicians would rather make cuts there rather than places such as old age homes and schools which would obviously court some unpopularity. As a result rat populations often become very large with some overspill on to London streets.

The tabloid press is also full of lurid stories of giant rats that are invading our towns. Most of these stories should however be taken with more than a pinch of salt

One fact is undeniable. The population of London’s rats is very large and is expanding. Rats are animals that are adept at exploiting the opportunities provided by human activity and a city like London provides plenty of opportunities. The recession has helped as well as vacant buildings provide plenty of opportunities for them to roost. Rat control is probably the best than can be achieved as eradication would be unlikely. The rat is here to stay.

           

Repairs and livelihoods

                        Repairs and livelihoods

A good example of the way repairs and livelihoods work is what happens at Archway station on the London underground. Apparently the block above needs substantial renovations and the scaffolding is going up everywhere. However this time I was witness to an argument that ensued as scaffolding was put up and the entrance to a shop was closed up.

The owner was remonstrating with the contractors. He had a business to run and that was his livelihood. All the workers were waiting round like vultures on the every word spoken

“Look if you put scaffolding up here I will take it down myself”

“Yes sir I understand but you have to observe the safety of your customers"

At that stage I took my camera out.

“So you are going to take pictures of us” one of the workers called to me

“I will take picture wherever I like” I replied. No reply was forthcoming and I continued to my engagement

The next day I spoke to the owner. There was scaffolding above but his place was secure. In this there was the conflict. I spoke to him about it and he just told me that the scaffolding was not for the station but for a block of flats nearby.

This encapsulates one of the problems for small business in this country. Decisions are taken for big projects without any regard who is affected by this. The people who enforce these are faceless bureaucrats. And people are affected by their decisions. In the end justice prevailed and the small café owner was able to keep his places but at no time was he offered any compensation for the effect it would have on his business

           

Cycling in London

Cycling in London

The third user of the streets apart from the pedestrians and cars are the cyclists. This is one of the most problematic groups as they are blamed for accidents on the roads and for not observing the highway code yet London is a death trap for cyclists. Many people are put off cycling in the city because in many ways it is a death trap,

It is a common sight to see bundles of flowers marking the spot where a cyclist was killed usually at a busy road junction. Lorry drivers claim not to see them and the death toll on the roads is very high.

At the moment the talk is of ensuring lorries are fitted with special safety equipment as well as a new network of cycle lanes in order to segregate cyclists and pedestrians.

It has been reported that cyclist themselves are becoming more worried about the roads. The number of accidents is fairly staggering. What should be an easy way to keep fit is increasingly being seen as a death trap.

London does not for instance have the history of a bicycle friendly culture that you have in many Dutch and Belgian cities and an unfortunate consequence of the way cyclists are treated on the roads is that they spill out onto paths in parks and on to pavements where they come into conflict with pedestrians.

One thing is certain. Changing the culture of the roads in London will be a lot more complicated that appears and any change will  necessitate a lot of foresight in order to bring motorists, cyclists and pedestrians into relative harmony

London Property Prices

London Property prices

One of the problems of London is its appearance as a world city

For so many years it has appeared as a safe haven against any crises in the word which has led to the phenomenon now occurring of the indigenous population moving out.

Cranes stand in many places with new housing developments holding sway. In fact there seems to be a rather frenetic pace of building. However this is not likely to benefit any ordinary people as the world comes to London’s doorsteps. Houses are seen as investments. Stories abound in the press of streets in parts of London where here are no light at night as the houses lie unoccupied.

Meanwhile the crisis for ordinary Londoners is fairly acute. The sight of people sleeping in doorways in this town is not unusual. The price of private housing is now so high that it is beyond the reach of most working people. Initially there has been a flow of people towards the so called commuter belt villages as they can no longer afford London prices.

The pressure on rented housing has also been substantial and for many people who have lived here all their lives the word is “how long can we stay?”Many people consider relocating to other parts of the country as they can no longer see themselves affording the prices that flats and houses in London command or raiding deposits of about £30 000 which is more than the average annual wage. In many ways the recession as exaggerated this tendency as banks play safe and demand higher deposits before they giver mortgages

Many of the regeneration policies followed by local authorities have tended to exacerbate this problem as flats are snapped up be rich overseas buyers leaving substantial housing shortage. The only local buyers able to afford the prices are those who already have properties or young people able to borrow from the bank of Mum and Dad. This is leading to big changes in the demographic of Central London. With the average price of a one bedroom flat in London approaching £400 000 owning  one’s own home in London is a pipe dream for most people.

Other ramifications exist! The poor seem to be in the process of being exiled to the outer suburbs as in many other European cities but increasingly what are known as key workers are as well. Key workers include such people as teachers, police, emergency services, cleaners. This of course leads to the spectre of Central London existing without key workers to service the place

One thing is certain. The crisis of housing in London is going to take more of a centre stage in local politics sooner rather than later

Clacton and UKIP

Clacton and UKIP

Now that the by-election has occurred the papers are full of analysis of what the result will mean. Will it be a new political force establishing itself or will it be a flash in the pan? Many columnists predicted UKIP was finished after the last European elections arguably their high water mark. However the fact that they have won a safe Tory seat and managed to push Labour to within 700 votes of losing in the other by-election speaks of a lot more than just that.

One of the problems for a third force in a country which historically has been the preserve of two main parties who alternate in government is that it is very hard for a third party to make an impression and to break the mould. Historically the British are divided into two major tribes Labour and Conservative and usually people will sport the trappings of which particular tribe they belong to. Of course politics is not a subject necessarily discussed.. These allegiances are however becoming more fluid

Normally the floating voters tend to determine which major arty winds power and the constituency first past the post does not tend to favour challengers. They usually have to concentrate their votes enough in a constituency to win a majority or plurality of the vote enabling their candidate to get elected. The systems in use for European elections, Scottish ad Welsh parliament elections and the London assembly elections are much kinder to smaller parties.

Several factors point however to a change in this view. One is percentage of the vote. If you look back at previous elections a different pattern emerges. In 1950 the two major parties gained 86 % of the vote between them. In 2010 they only managed 65%. This points to an increasing share of the vote being taken by third parties. In addition four way marginals are becoming increasingly common. A case in point is that in 1992 ,the constituency of Inverness, Nairn and Lochaber elected its Liberal Democrat winner with only 26% of the vote over his SNP,  Labour and Conservative challengers.. A third party can be successful in winning a constituency with 25% of the vote!

Another fact is that or the first time since the second world war the country has a coalition government as none of the major parties got enough to govern outright. The trend would seem to show that this is becoming the norm. Probably at the next election if the polls are anything to go by the major parties will struggle to win enough seats to govern on their own

What form the new challengers will take is difficult to assess. Historically the third party was the Liberal democrats who were mostly disaffected Tories who couldn’t bring themselves to vote labor and Disaffected Labour who couldn’t bring themselves to vote Tory. A lot of their supporters have left in disgust after their coalition with the Tories and their vote now struggles to reach double figures

Against ths can be se the rise of UKIP a party which capitalizes on fear of immigration, always a problem when people struggle to find jobs in a recession and also on the overbearing European Bureaucracy. However it also capitalizes on one thing which is the general disenchantment with the political class which runs very deep at this time. The Coalition government is very unpopular and Labour was in government recently.

this can be set the fact that another minority party the Green is rising in the polls and outpolling the Liberal Democrats’ in many constituencies which means the rise of another party. How this will translate into a general election is anybody’s guess. However the normal scare tactic used by the Prime minister of Vote UKIP and get Labour” does not seem to be working. Most UKIP voters are determined to have their say come what may and are no longer vulnerable to fears of getting the other.

One thing is certain : Four of five party politics is here to stay!

Railway travelling

                                                            Railway travelling

One of the most incomprehensible aspects of living in Britain is the price of rail travel. As more and more people are forced out of London by exorbitant property prices the demand for commuter trains increases. More and more people forced to travel on these overpriced amenities means that fares rose even further. At the moment an inflation busting 5.6% increase in fares is being forecast for next year. The inflation rate at the adjusted total is currently 1.9%.

All of this spells more misery for commuters and the other question is why is rail travel generally so expensive in the UK. Conventional wisdom is that it is the way the tendering system is set up and the rail companies will argue that tickets booked in advance are cheaper.

However the fact remains that it is cheaper to buy an air ticket to Greece than to travel to the North of England by train!

Faith in a workaday world

                                    Faith in a workaday world

One of the questions to be asked in a big city like this one is how easy it is to continue with a religious belief among the tumult of modern life.

In a country where most people profess a secular orientation and churches tend to empty more and more the issue of people of faith living as a minority comes to the fore more and more. In most churches the picture is the same. Declining attendances tell the story with empty pews in most churches. Differences can be seen in areas and in churches.

The Church of England has been the victim of a very steep decline in membership over the years with the Methodist church taking an even bigger hit.

It is as if Religion has been expunged from the national consciousness with even the Prime Minister speaking about having issues with faith. In terms of most moral issues that are affected in any cases there is a strong puritanical streak in secular Britain which damns all who do not see eye to eye on the issues of the day. Recent issues affecting Christians are usually spoken about as if the Christian position is wrong. On abortion the consensus is that it is a good thing and that only Catholics are against it. To be against abortion is to be against the rights of women over their bodies. It is a decidedly non party political issue but most politicians who raise their heads above the parapets endure strong derision from their party colleagues

A few years ago at the time of the Olympics, a faith outreach was set up linking all the main Christian churches. People were invited in for tea and coffee and a chat about faith. Various volunteers many from the US provided outreach services. I could only imagine the response that they got most of the time as people do not even want to talk about faith and in this case I ended up talking to a southern Baptist Lady from the US who almost fell off her chair with shock when I was able to produce a Bible from my rucksack. In England this would be a very unusual response.

Many churches have progressively ageing congregations with the membership dwindling. The Methodist Church was predicted to go extinct a little while ago. As far as other churches are concerned immigration has been a boom. It has halted the trend of declining catholic congregations and the catholic church seems to be holding its own in the battle of numbers. The same effect works for the orthodox churches which show a modest increase in membership. Apart from that the Pentecostal churches show some sort of increase in membership being increasing linked to arioso initiatives from the US.

Aside from this the picture is a bleak one. Increasingly the church has been all but expunged from national life. The new place of worship is the shopping mall driven by an increasingly money orientated consumer society.

The picture is similar for most of the British Isles with the exception of the Republic of Ireland ,though there the church has taken a knock due to child abuse allegations. However it remains fundamentally strong as still plays a part in national life unlike the other countries of these islands