Bexley College on the brink.

Jane and Cliff Murphy of the Bexley Brewery, accompanied by their son Cameron, were guests of local MP David Evennett at the House of Commons on Wednesday. Their excellent BOB (Bexley's Own Beer) is now being sold in the Strangers Bar in the Palace of Westminster. Bearing in mind that Bexley Brewery only opened in September 2014, they have come a hell of a long way in a very short time. They have won multiple awards for the quality of their ales, and were also recognised as the best new business in Bexley last year.  Contact details for the brewery are above. I can heartily recommend them; you can usually find me visiting the brewery shop on a Friday lunchtime.

If you don't already read The Thamesmead Grump, then I would strongly advise you to do so. Richard produces some very interesting posts, and the quality of his photography is second to none. This week Richard covers the threat posed to the Crossness Nature Reserve, which is now under threat of being virtually wiped out by a massive development proposed by Cory Environmental on part of the brownfield site next to the reserve. If this were to go ahead, it would completely overwhelm the designated nature reserve and destroy most of the last remaining grazing marshes in South East London. Richard writes: "As part of a campaign against this proposal, there is going to be photoshoot at the nature reserve at 10:30am on Friday 1st April (this is not a hoax) where we hope to get as many people as possible for a group photograph that can be used for press release. There will be banners and Skylark kites for protesters to wave so please do come along if you can and bring your friends and family too. You can find directions easily by Googling Crossness Nature Reserve". I fully support both Richard, and the campaign to protect and preserve the nature reserve. If you get the chance, please do go along to support this worthwhile cause.

You may recall that a while ago I wrote an extensive piece on the rogue biker gang Bike Life TV UK, and how they had been causing all kinds of mayhem in Lower Belvedere, Abbey Wood and Thamesmead. I knew that the Police were well aware of the illegal activities of the gang, and had plans to take action against them. On Thursday morning Bexley police released the following statement “An operation was carried out on 28th February utilising approximately 40 officers from various specialist units across the Metropolitan Police Service. This included officers from the Roads and Transport Policing Command, the Territorial Support Group and local officers from Bexley. A group of 20 motor cycles were identified early by unmarked Police vehicles travelling to the area. The group were stopped dealt with by Police resulting in a large number of vehicle seizures for offences such as no insurance and no MOT. A large number of fixed penalty notices were also issued and several riders were reported and summonsed for court for various traffic offences. 4 arrests were also made for offences such as Burglary, Possession of drugs and driving under the influence of drugs.  Of note one of the main organisers of the activity, who was disqualified from driving, had been identified as being involved in activity the previous week on Sunday 21st February. He was arrested early on the Sunday morning and later charged and remanded to court the next morning. He appeared at Bexley Magistrates Court on Monday 29th February and received a 12 week custodial sentence. Police have continued with the same plans for the past two weeks deploying large numbers of officers to the area. We are pleased to report that there have been no incidents involving motor cycle related Anti-Social behaviour for three weeks running. The tactics will continue moving forward and robust action taken against anyone found engaging in such activity in the future". This is all excellent news; I know of many honest, law abiding bikers who were severely ticked off by the activities of the illegal bikers, which reflected badly on the honest ones. Hopefully the members of Bike Life TV UK will realise that their activities will not be tolerated. They are a menace to both the general public and themselves.

A very strange story broke earlier this week, and it seems to have grabbed the attention of a lot of local people. A two year old girl from Greenhithe made the local news after losing her soft toy rabbit outside of the National Westminster Bank in Townley Road, Bexleyheath. An eyewitness believes he saw the toy – called Bunny, being carried away by a woman five minutes after the discovery was made - but nobody else was able to verify this.  After a public appeal, the News Shopper published the story on their website, and it quickly became the most read subject. The toy bunny was later found abandoned in Erith – whoever had taken it had then decided to dump the stolen property. Fortunately the little girl was reunited with the toy, and the story has a happy ending.

In a notification letter dated March 10, American Express warned  cardholders that their account information might well have been exposed after a third-party service provider suffered a data breach. They sent an email to card owners which said "Account information of some of our Card Members, including some of your account information, may have been involved. It is important to note that American Express owned or controlled systems were not compromised by this incident,"  The third-party provider, which isn't named, is engaged by several merchants. Cardholders should expect that their account number, name, and other card details were compromised. The interesting aspect of this notification is that the incident being referenced by American Express happened on Saturday, December 7, 2013. It isn't clear why the there was such a delay. American Express says the notification is just a precaution. The fact that two and half years have elapsed since the security breach was detected and the announcement was made is extremely worrying. Any damage will have been long done – it really makes me wonder what security notification policies a large financial services organisation such as American Express have in place.

An interesting story has come to light this week, with a result that I must admit did somewhat surprise me. The survey results on the Transport for London proposals for the East of London river crossings have now been published. Consultation on the proposals, which closed last month, showed that 88 per cent of people who responded support a new crossing linking Thamesmead and Beckton, or Belvedere to Rainham. Around 3,500 (77 per cent) support new crossings at both locations, which TfL says would cater for public transport and road users and help secure London’s future success. Bearing in mind the anti-river crossing campaigns run by both Bexley Council and the campaign group Bexley Against River Crossings (BARC), the results are pretty conclusive. It would seem to me that after open consultation, both Bexley Council and BARC have demonstrably shown that they don’t have a mandate on the matter. BARC in particular seem to have positioned themselves against mainstream public opinion with their policy to keep Bexley isolated from the rest of London in order to “preserve its character”. In an interview with the Bexley Times, as spokesperson for BARC was quoted as saying "Overall the consultation was inadequate and certainly not fit for purpose. More than two million people will suffer because of the crossings - 4500 respondents is hardly representative. Further, the consultation was flawed and gave the misleading impression that the road crossings would reduce congestion; it is clear that many people responded on that basis. There is overwhelming evidence that this kind of road capacity always increases congestion and destroys communities, yet the consultation did not tell people that, nor did it point out the dangers posed by the increased pollution and decimation of housing that will result from the crossings.” Personally I understand and can sympathise with the sentiments, but it would seem that the public have sent a very strong message that they want more crossings. Getting 4500 responses is actually very high; these kind of consultations tend to have very low levels of response, as most people don't care enough to bother giving feedback, or they don't find out about the survey until they read the results. I think BARC overestimate the level of resident engagement. As if this was not enough, rent a gob champagne socialist Russell Brand has got involved. A third river crossing has been mooted to join East Thurrock and Eastern Gravesend. Brand made the following statement on Wednesday “To build this new crossing they’re going to have mess with green belt land, dig up green belt land, destroy some new homes that were built for people, those people are going to have to be jogged on from their homes, even though they’ve just moved in. And the thing that touches me most - is there’s a school called Treetops which helps kids with Asperger’s, autism and mild learning difficulties of all varieties - they were going to expand that school that school had won its dream for expansion but now not only is the expansion scrapped that school is going to be subsumed in fumes and pollution unless we do something to stop it. Now this was the birthplace of the peasant revolution Thurrock, that’s where Wat Taylor who led the peasants - and I’m not making any comparison - that’s where he came from”. The points made about Treetops School are very valid, and would normally deserve serious debate and examination. The problem is the person who has raised them. Brand would have been better off encouraging another public personality with better credibility taking on the campaign. For me, and many others Russell Brand is like Chris Evans – an instant turn – off; if I catch him on the TV or radio I immediately switch channels. He removes credibility from any argument against a road crossing East of the QEII bridge. It is not like he has any recent connections with the area around Thurrock nowadays – he famously moved out as soon as he was able. Nowadays his main residence is in the Hollywood Hills in California. I occasionally see Russell Brand on the London bound platform at Greenwich Station – when I then studiously ignore the blatant self-publicist. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

I have received some rather worrying news from one of my confidential sources. I have been informed that Bexley College is in dire financial straits, and that things are so bad the college may be forced into a hostile takeover by Bromley College, who are already taking over the failing and bankrupt Greenwich Community College. My contact tells me that the information about the terrible state of the finances of Bexley College is virtually unknown outside of college senior management, and a few people in Bexley Council. I have been shown meeting minutes from 6th July 2015 , which show Bexley College predicted a deficit of £689,000 for 2015/16 (college financial years are August to July) and a cash loss of £660,000,  and with £2 million in reserves, it would leave a cash balance of just £1.34m. However, it then said by the end of July 2017 it would be down to £500,000. A predicted loss of £840,000 is forecast in 2016/17. The “smoking gun” can be seen here – the takeover is being sold to Councillors as a “merger” but my source tells me that this is for political and face – saving reasons. I also understand that the final decision is being made on Monday evening during an extraordinary meeting of the governors of Bexley College. “Bromley College seems to be on a bid for world domination” was something told to me by another of my very well – placed and reliable informants. I hope to have more on this story next week.

Much to nobody’s surprise, Southeastern Trains have been named as the worst performing train company in respect of lateness and cancellations. Four Southeastern trains run up to two hours late every day, making up seven per cent of the country's delayed trains, according to Office of Rail and Road statistics. Think of it. One relatively small train operating company that has managed to rack up a whole seven percent of the entire UK’s train delays and cancellations. If there was an award for running a terrible rail service, surely Southeastern would win it . By contrast, Transport for London (TfL) was the best performing operator - only one in every 7,288 trains were significantly delayed, just 11 journeys-a-year. Surely yet another reason for Southeastern to lose their franchise to TfL. What do you think? Would a takeover by TfL be a good thing, or would it be substituting a known for an unknown? Before anyone points out that some of the blame for the delays and cancellations needs to fall at the feet of Network Rail, I agree; however, other rail companies also have to deal with Network Rail, and by and large they make a far better fist of it than Southeastern. As recently said by local MP Teresa Pearce – “I have just one train line running through my constituency, two tracks, three stations, one train rail line, what could go wrong? Well, Southeastern could go wrong. Before Southeastern we had Connex and Connex was terrible and we thought Southeastern would be better and we were wrong. I have a real appreciation of the frustration of the what it’s like to stand on a platform in the certain knowledge of the uncertainty of the train service.” Well said. Connex were indeed terrible, but Southeastern are demonstrably worse in almost every respect – and I speak as a regular commuter. Extensive works both in relation to the rebuilding of London Bridge station and further engineering activities on the Elizabeth Line between Plumstead and Abbey Wood will mean that there will be no trains whatsoever in and out of London over the long weekend. According to the Southeastern engineering works website:-"Planned engineering work will take place. Between Plumstead and Dartford From 04:00, Saturday 19 March 2016 to 02:00, Monday 21 March 2016. All lines will be closed. All services will be revised. Abbey Wood, Belvedere, Erith and Slade Green will not be served. . A replacement bus service will be in operation between Plumstead and Dartford.” Unlike many other parts of Greater London, there is little in the way of alternative public transport – we don’t have the tube, or even DLR, and to be honest, when the North Kent Line is closed, the only realistic option for travel into London is to get the bus to Woolwich Arsenal, and then pick up the Docklands Light Railway from there. I completely understand the need for line closures when the scale of the engineering work is taken into consideration, it just seems to me that the project managers think that nobody needs to travel into or out of London at weekends, when nothing could be further from the truth.

The Maggot Sandwich has been published every Sunday afternoon for what in July will be ten years; in all that time I have never missed an update – even when I lost my broadband connection at home on one occasion, I headed up to my mother’s house to make sure that an update did indeed get posted. Over all those years, and a total this week of 580 weekly updates, the entry that has had the most visits was a relatively recent one. You may recall that back in August last year I wrote a piece called The “Funky Clock” scam. Well, that piece got picked up by Google and made it onto the front page of for anyone that searched for anything to do with “Funky Clock”. As a result of people curious to find more about the widely publicised online fraud, that one blog update has now has had nearly 30,000 hits. I had Emails from a number of people who had been scammed by the “Funky Clock” website, and some of their stories were heart-breaking. Because of the adverse publicity the “Funky Clock” scam got, the criminals behind it went underground. I think they also got some serious heat from the lawyers employed by the BBC, as their website used the BBC website layout and graphics in an attempt to fool people into thinking it was legitimately from the BBC. For some time the scammers went quiet, but I am afraid that I have to report that they are now back; this time they call themselves “Happy Crocky”, and they still have the colour palette and design of the BBC News website, though they have removed the BBC branded logos. You can see the result in the screen capture above. In case you were unaware of the nature of the “Funky Clock” / “Happy Crocky” scam, it essentially functions thus:  Links can be found on “respectable” websites such as tabloid newspapers and other showbiz and gossip sites; the links lead to a website which appears to be a legitimate news site such as the BBC, where a story claims that a company is “giving away” brand new, current model iPhones for £1. The thing is, the website is actually a “honey trap” designed to fool readers into thinking it is legitimate. In fact it has been created by the scammers to redirect the gullible to their scam website. The second site used to be  called “Funky Clock” and is now “Happy Crocky” which runs “special offers” amongst “skill and speed” competitions, where participants purchase credits to use to play games, the winner of which supposedly wins an iPhone 6. When you sign up for the “free” service, you are prompted to enter your bank details “for verification purposes”. What is only displayed in microscopic text is that the “free” period only lasts for three days, and that after that Funky Clock / Happy Crocky will debit your bank account by £74 a month, from now until the end of time. No cheap iPhones, no deals – the whole thing is a massive scam. The new “Happy Crocky” site even uses the same photos and much of the same text from its predecessor – it is definitely being run by the same shameless bunch of thieving scumbags as before. It would appear that many Internet Service Providers, notably including Virgin have been duped into forwarding “Genuine offer” messages from Funky Clock Happy Crocky to their subscribers, thus giving a veneer of apparent respectability to the confidence trick. This is a classic case of “if it seems too good to be true, it generally is”. Be warned – treat anything that says they are giving away high value items for next to nothing as a con until it can be verifiably proved otherwise (a very fat chance indeed). Unfortunately the criminals will continue such scams for as long as there are vulnerable people to fall prey to them. This was only the first of two scams that have come back out of the woodwork over the last week; a second, much longer running and insidious scam has come to my attention. I have been receiving spam messages that have been successfully filtered out by Google, but every so often I like to sift through the spam, looking for anything of particular interest, prior to permanently deleting them. I came across the message which you can see below from “Chris” – a self-described “Astrologer, Psychic Medium and Parapsychologist” (ahem) the scam involves relieving vulnerable and credulous people of large amounts of their hard earned cash. The composition of the Email graphic is very interesting – the photo of Chris himself is hysterical – the theatrical bar of light over his eyes to symbolise his “special” insight, and the horrendously Photoshopped hair which makes him look like he is wearing a hairpiece made of fibreglass! You may well have received one of his scam messages yourself. I have been tracking the activities of “Chris”, and have found the following comments made on a scam - busting website:-  "please do not ever give your credit card details to this man..or excuse for a man !! be warned .. how can he sleep at night ?? i'm embarrassed to write this here but i must to warn others. he has unlawfully just taken $28 nzd out of my account just after christmas after i was told i could unsubscribe to his emails/hypno sessions (people you are quite capable of helping yourself find friendship and improve your life without his lies) i'm a honest vulnerable financially single mum and now thanks to him i'm broke !! they just took another $115 nzd out of my account without my consent even tho the emails say you can unsubscribe … 10 emails later no response.. been to my bank and will take this further.. how dare he prey on vulnerable people .. my Dad had a stroke recently and now in financial strife .. i've received nothing from him but a bunch of crap emails and exactly as others describe… “i had dreams about you… i care … yadeyada… my friend will pay half… you can have the reading for free… blah blah.. i heard from his so called personal assistant and he said he would stop emails 2 days later my account cleared out of $150 for what sweet fa (excuse me) you @#4$@!!! how can you sleep at night. yes i made a mistake huge lesson learned Scam artist big time … please don't ever send any bank debts to this guy.. i will expose him and please be weary people i got sucked in and i feel so embarrassed and upset o have no money for food or bills this week and i work 3 contract jobs in health care … take care people". Aside from the atrocious spelling and grammar, the message is clear. Avoid.

Here is a guest piece by Maggot Sandwich occasional contributor Dana Whiffen, and his views on War Memorials:- "Listening to the radio recently with a phone-in programme there was a lady saying how annoyed she was when she witnessed parents allowing their children to climb all over a memorial while they sat fiddling with their mobile-phones, she told them off pointing out their lack of respect, although she doubted if they understood her. This was followed by another call from another lady saying that she did not know what all the fuss was about and who cares about memorials, she felt that 90% of the population knew nothing about them and that in a few years no-one would be interested or would care. This comment infuriated me and I decided to investigate their origin and design further and a book that I was reading pointed me towards the Dartford War Memorial. This opened up another door as it turned out this wonderful monument was created by sculptor Arthur George Walker. He was selected after the Dartford War Memorial Committee had seen his soldier memorial in Sevenoaks and they asked him to use a similar British Tommy figure design for Dartford. It was built in 1922 to commemorate Dartford’s fallen soldiers from the Great War, it stands tall pointed towards Dartford library and attracts many admiring glances from passers-by. Although it was built for WWI, it now carries additional dedications to the fallen from WW2 and the Korean War. Such was the influence of Arthur Walkers “Tommy in full battledress” he went on to create similar memorials for Ironbridge in Shropshire, Chesham in Buckinghamshire and Heston in Middlesex as well as Sevenoaks and Dartford. His most famous work though was for the creation of the Derby War Memorial (of a mother holding her baby) and The Florence Nightingale Memorial near Waterloo Station in London. Arthur George Walker was born in 1861 and he died in 1939, he also created statues and plaques along with his numerous memorials across the country that will hopefully leave a lasting legacy for future generations that will outlive the disrespectful and apathetic. There are many other war memorials throughout London and the UK that could well have equal this wonderful design, why not investigate you local war memorial. Those that don’t care or are totally ignorant of our history seem to be absorbed in total oblivion and selfishness unaware of the sacrifices made so that they can live their lives this way. I hope they are only the minority but fear they may not be! The Dartford War Memorial is now Grade 2 listed". Interesting stuff; if anyone has special insight into local history, and would like to share it with others, please do get in contact with me. 

The end video this week is by way of a tribute to the late keyboard wizard Keith Emerson, who recently died. See him with progressive rock giants Emerson, Lake and Palmer in their 40th anniversary concert, filmed in London back in 2010. Comments below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com. 

Horizon to Horizon.

The photo above was taken by local resident and occasional Maggot Sandwich restaurant critic Brian Silk. It shows the Sun rising over the River Thames at Erith. It is a beautiful shot, and proves that the riverside at Erith can be stunningly attractive when the weather and light are right. You can clearly see the classic Erith "Big Sky" - the town is the only place in the whole of the London Borough of Bexley where one can see from horizon to horizon with a completely unobstructed view - something I feel we ought to make much more of. Erith is undersold as a place to live - something I am keen to remedy. Brian has also written a short review on a long - standing Erith institution that has recently changed hands. "I recently checked out Dilz Café in West Street, ‘under new management’, having previously been West Street Café. I have to say I didn’t notice too much of a difference from this long-standing institution’s previous incarnation, but that’s no bad thing. Still the same kind of range of set breakfasts, snacks and sandwiches, and lunches and dinners. There were perhaps one or two additional menu items, but I can’t be sure. Still pay with your order at the counter and the food is freshly prepared. I suppose the new management thought, ‘Why change a successful formula?’ I chose the spaghetti bolognese for £4.95. I was not disappointed. A decent-sized meal arrived and it was really tasty. In fact, I had it again just a few days ago and it was every bit as substantial and good as the first time. Decent food at a reasonable price could describe all the Erith food outlets I use again and again (the others being The Running Horses, Yildiran and West Street Fish Bar) and that very much applies to Dilz. I look forward to trying out more of their menu before long. Dilz is at 115 West Street (opposite The Ship pub), phone 01322 446726". Excellent reporting Brian. If anyone else has content that they would like to supply me with, you can Email hugh.neal@gmail.com. 

There is much controversy about the various proposed schemes to add extra crossings across the River Thames to the East of London. As I featured last week, a group called Bexley Against Road Crossings (BARC) have formed to campaign against new river crossings. The next BARC meeting is on Tuesday 27 October at 7.15pm at Bexley Village Library, Bourne Road, Bexley. Personally I have no strong feelings either pro or anti additional crossings. Whilst the population of the UK is continuing to rise, and the London and South East region is particularly affected in this respect, I am also aware that the more roads you build, statistically the more traffic will use them. Malcolm Knight of the excellent Bexley is Bonkers blog does some detailed analysis of the BARC claims which you can read here. It makes for interesting consideration. One cross - Thames link that nobody seems to be disputing is the long established and well loved Woolwich Ferry. It is currently coming to the end of a £10 million improvement as part of a two-year upgrade programme, due to be completed at the end of this month. Over the course of a year the three ferries make around 50,000 crossings in total, carrying on average 1.1 million vehicles and 2.2 million passengers. The improvement works on the piers, loading bridges and vessels aim to extend the crossing's operational life and deliver a more reliable service over a period estimated to be around fifteen years.  The current three vessels were built in Dundee in 1963 by The Caledon Shipbuilding and Engineering Company, and were each named after prominent local politicians: John Burns, Ernest Bevin and James Newman (Newman was mayor of Woolwich, 1923–25). These vessels are now over fifty years old, and a considerable degree of engineering work has had to be carried out to extend their operational life to cover the new expected service period. 

Mobile phone usage has increased so much it has led to the invention of the term Nomophobia – the fear of being denied mobile phone contact. A study found that half of British people suffer anxiety if they lose their phone, run out of battery or credit, or lose coverage. Nine percent actually suffer stress when their phone is off. 3G mobile phone technology is also employed in many so - called Smart Meters, that various energy companies are currently plugging hard. These meters are part of the "internet of things". I have noticed that several of the national energy companies are currently targeting local residents with letters asking them to make an appointment to get their current electricity and gas meters replaced with a smart meter. Personally I have received three such letters from my energy supplier, EDF. As I have mentioned before, Smart Meters send real – time power usage data back to the supplier via a 3G mobile phone signal. This means that the meter does not have to be connected to a home data network. This sounds all well and good; the power company can bill you without having to send a meter reader to your house, and you get the option to monitor your power usage in an almost real – time way. There are however, problems. The data sent from the Smart Meter to the supplier is sent unencrypted, and “in the clear”; it is possible to intercept the data stream, and also a malicious attacker can potentially send instructions to the meter remotely. Several Smart Meter companies do tacitly admit this, but they play the whole lack of security aspect down. Secondly if one discounts the security implications, the various energy companies all supply different Smart Meters, many of which are incompatible with each other. If you choose to change your energy supplier, you will need to have your Smart Meter changed again – with the associated additional cost to you that this implies. Tellingly on the EDF letter there are a series of frequently asked questions. EDF initially state in the letter that “your current meter is old and now needs to be replaced – you need to book an appointment for an engineer to carry out this work”. They then go on to stress how old meters can be inaccurate and possibly unsafe. There is a giveaway in the FAQ’s that follow though – and I quote verbatim:- “Occasionally we may be unable to install a Smart Meter, usually due to communications issues with signal strength. If this happens we will not replace your meter, but will contact you again when we believe the Smart Meter national infrastructure will be able to support a Smart Meter in your premises.” There is the smoking gun – they don't actually need to replace the meter for the accuracy and safety concerns expressed earlier – they purely want to do it to make you have a Smart Meter, with all the security, privacy and expense worries that they entail. I have a preferred technique for dealing with such unwanted attention – I ignore everything they send me until they eventually give up and go away. Smart Meters primarily benefit the energy companies, because they no longer need to employ meter readers. The benefits to the consumer are minimal at best, and when allied to the security and compatibility concerns mentioned earlier, they don't add up for me. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com. 

Doreen Ives, Chair of the Erith Town Forum has released the following announcement:- "The next meeting of Erith Town Forum will take place on Thursday 29th October 2015, 7pm – 9pm at BEXLEY COLLEGE, Walnut Tree Road, Erith, Kent. Yes we have moved to Bexley College and to a Thursday evening.  The hall we use is normally the students’ lounge/restaurant. We have access to excellent computer facilities for presentations, and coffee or tea will be available. There is a security procedure we must follow so you should arrive five/ten minutes early to sign in. Obviously we only have access to the hall and toilets which are close by. Unfortunately as most of you will be aware, there is no car park specifically for the College but there is on street parking nearby. Richard Green, Bexley Town Centres Manager will give us updates on issues raised at our meeting in July. Tom Brown Director of Adult Social Care and Kevin Murphy Head of Housing Services will give a presentation including information about to the present use of the old Homeleigh site in Avenue Road. A second presentation will be given by Deniece Williams, a member of the Bexley Fostering Recruitment and Assessment Team. As you can see it should be a very informative meeting so I hope you will be able to come along".

The News Shopper have given extensive coverage this week to a story I featured on the Maggot Sandwich last week, about the launch of Operation Adgate, and also the new Neighbourhood Watch scheme called Bike Watch. The photo above was supplied to me by Dana Whiffen, the Chairman of Bexley Neighbourhood Watch Association. The problem is one of illegal bikers riding stolen, unlicenced, unregistered, uninsured bikes around the local area whilst not wearing helmets and pulling wheelies and other dangerous stunts on the public highway, then filming the results of their criminal activity and posting them on the Bike Life TV UK Facebook page, and also on to their YouTube channel. There has been a massive crackdown on these criminals led by Bexley Neighbourhood Watch Association and Bexley Police. Officers from Bexley borough have joined forces with the Met's roads and transport policing command, Bexley Neighbourhood Watch Association and the Gallions/Peabody Housing Association – in a bid to crack down on bike crime and anti-social behaviour across Thamesmead and elsewhere. Six illegal vehicles were seized and nineteen drivers reported for various traffic offences on the operation's launch day, Thursday the 16th October. In addition to this, legal action is being taken against an illegal biker that I recently had a personal encounter with. I hope to be able to report the full story after the 20th November, when the case will reach court. Until then I can say no more, though I know some readers are aware of the story. More on Neighbourhood Watch at the end of this update, with a video originally shot for a Russian TV news and current affairs show!

Many clubs and organisations, and all companies are required to have staff or volunteers qualified to administer first aid in the case of a medical emergency. Properly administered and professionally recognised first aid training can be expensive, so I am pleased to say that a professionally run course is shortly to take place in Erith, and local residents can take part, and get a substantial discount on the normal course price. The one day course will be taking place on Friday the 27th November in The Cross Keys Centre on Erith High Street. You can read more about the course, and how to book a place online by clicking here. I hope to cover this story in future, as it is a very welcome local addition.

You may recall that on a few occasions in the past I have written in some detail about an odious individual by the name of Joshua Bonehill. He is a self – professed racist, misogynist homophobic anti Semitic bigot. He targeted me with a threatening Email last year, which I published in full here. Bonehill has been in and out of court on numerous charges, and is currently on remand in jail on a charge of Inciting Racial Hatred. He managed the astonishing feat of being called back to court on a separate charge whilst actually already being in prison. Last week he appeared at Stevenage Magistrates Court charged with misusing a public computer network to propagate grossly offensive, indecent, obscene or menacing material. He had written on his website that babies with conditions like Downs Syndrome should be killed at birth for the good of the nation. He accompanied the story, on a site describing itself as 'Britain's number one nationalist newspaper' with a picture of a Tesco worker with Downs Syndrome.  He was also charged over another article in which he claimed food sold by Tesco that had been imported from Africa contained the deadly Ebola virus. District Judge Carolyn Mellanby dismissed both charges, saying that his right to free speech protected him from being punished over the stories. Tesco said that they were alerted to Bonehill's article, and were contacted by almost two hundred customers concerned that the story was true; I share the opinion with Richard of “The Thamesmead Grump” fame, that I find it worrying that so many people are prepared to believe anything they read, “because it is on Facebook”) . Despite accepting that Bonehill was behind the stories, district judge Mellanby said he was protected by the Human Rights Act, which guarantees free speech. She said: 'Freedom of speech has a very high threshold and I would have breached Article 10 of the Human Rights Act if I had found you guilty. You have a right to express your opinions. You came close, but not close enough. I therefore dismiss the case.' Joshua Bonehill, of Yeovil, Somerset, who also goes by the name of Joshua Bonehill – Paine was returned to custody after the hearing ahead of a trial he faces at Southwark Crown Court in December. He is accused of inciting racial hatred before a neo-Nazi rally in London in July. Whatever happens in the December trial, I feel that Bonehill will be encouraged by the court judgement, and will make much of it whenever he eventually gets out of prison.

Another thirtieth anniversary for a well known technology is now upon us, though the press have been remarkably silent on the matter - though they did pick up on Back to the Future Day on Wednesday last week. The undocumented birthday was that for Microsoft Excel. The now dominant spreadsheet was originally released for the Apple Mac in September 1985 (and in the UK in October of the same year). Microsoft originally marketed a spreadsheet program called Multiplan in 1982, which was very popular on text based CP/M systems, but on MS-DOS systems it lost popularity to Lotus 1-2-3. This promoted development of a new spreadsheet called Excel which started with the intention to, in the words of Microsoft's Doug Klunder, 'do everything 1-2-3 does and do it better'. The first version of Excel was released for the Mac in 1985 and the first Windows version (numbered 2.0 to line-up with the Mac and bundled with a run-time Windows environment) was released in November 1987. Lotus was slow to bring 1-2-3 to Windows and by 1988 Excel had started to outsell 1-2-3 and helped Microsoft achieve the position of leading PC software developer. This accomplishment, dethroning the king of the software world, solidified Microsoft as a valid competitor and showed its future of developing graphical software. Microsoft pushed its advantage with regular new releases, every two years or so. Early in its life Excel became the target of a trademark lawsuit by another company already selling a software package named "Excel" in the finance industry. As the result of the dispute Microsoft was required to refer to the program as "Microsoft Excel" in all of its formal press releases and legal documents. However, over time this practice has been ignored, and Microsoft cleared up the issue permanently when they purchased the trademark to the other program. Microsoft also encouraged the use of the letters XL as shorthand for the program; while this is no longer common, the program's icon still consists of a stylised combination of the two letters, and the file extension of the default Excel format is .xls. Excel offers many user interface tweaks over the earliest electronic spreadsheets; however, the essence remains the same as in the original spreadsheet, VisiCalc: the cells are organised in rows and columns, and contain data or formulas with relative or absolute references to other cells. Excel was the first spreadsheet that allowed the user to define the appearance of spreadsheets (fonts, character attributes and cell appearance). It also introduced intelligent cell recomputation, where only cells dependent on the cell being modified are updated (previous spreadsheet programs recomputed everything all the time or waited for a specific user command). Excel has extensive graphing capabilities. When first bundled into Microsoft Office in 1993, Microsoft Word and Microsoft PowerPoint had their GUIs redesigned for consistency with Excel, the killer app on the PC at the time. Since 1993, Excel has included Visual Basic for Applications (VBA), a programming language based on Visual Basic which adds the ability to automate tasks in Excel and to provide user defined functions (UDF) for use in worksheets. VBA is a powerful addition to the application which, in later versions, includes a fully featured integrated development environment (IDE). Macro recording can produce VBA code replicating user actions, thus allowing simple automation of regular tasks. VBA allows the creation of forms and in-worksheet controls to communicate with the user. The automation functionality provided by VBA has caused Excel to become a target for macro viruses. This was a serious problem in the corporate world until antivirus products began to detect these viruses. Microsoft belatedly took steps to prevent the misuse by adding the ability to disable macros completely, to enable macros when opening a workbook or to trust all macros signed using a trusted certificate.  Many of us use Excel as part of our jobs nowadays - and I reckon that many are not aware of the long and rich history the application has. Whilst in very widespread use, it is not the only spreadsheet available, despite what Microsoft might have you believe. Happy 30th birthday Excel.

Here is an announcement that you may well find of interest. "THE FRIENDS OF CHRIST CHURCH ERITH ask you to a QUIZ NIGHT on Saturday 14th November 2015. Doors open at 7pm for a 7:15pm start in Christchurch Hall, Victoria Road, Erith, Kent, DA8 3AN (vehicular access via Glebe Way).  Maximum of 6 people to a team - £3 a person.  Form your own team or join one on the night.   Please bring your own drinks and nibbles.  There will also be a raffle.  A fun fund-raising event for the upkeep of the listed Church building.  Thank you if you have already bought tickets for the Quiz Night, but if not, then now’s your chance!  Tickets in advance only please:  Contact the Friends of Christ Church Erith at focce1874@aol.com".

Several readers have asked me to write in more detail about Edward Butler, the true inventor of the modern motor car. He was the first modern motorist, he invented several automotive components that are still in common use today, and his wife Kitty, also known as Kate Gildersleeves – is thought to be the World’s first lady motorcyclist. When Edward Butler was developing his petrol cycle (photo above - click on it for a larger view), he used Manor Road in Erith for testing purposes. The reason for this was (unlike today) the road was relatively quiet with little traffic; it also benefitted by being a very long road and mostly straight. It can therefore be said that Manor Road in Erith was the World’s very first car test track. It still gets used by would – be boy racers nowadays, despite a twenty miles per hour speed limit on the residential stretch of the road. The Butler Petrol Cycle is accepted by many automotive historians as the very first British motor car, although as it never went into production. Although Karl Benz is recognised as the inventor of the modern motor car, the aforementioned Edward Butler was said to have exhibited plans for a 3-wheeled vehicle two years earlier than Benz in 1884 at the Stanley Cycle Show, London, and it was also the first design shown at the 1885 Inventions Exhibition, London. Butler however did not patent his vehicle until 1887 due to British laws on experiments.  On the vehicle the patent read “Butlers Petrol-Cycle Syndicate Limited Patent”.  It also referred to “F.B. Shuttleworth, Erith, London.” as Butler built the Petrol Cycle in the engineering works of F.B. Shuttleworth who was an engineer who built naval torpedo ships and civilian yachts, and additionally was a steam boiler manufacturer.  In 1890 Butler finished his design which was a vehicle powered by an engine that combusted mineral hydrocarbons. The respected publication Scientific American published an article on the Butler Petrol Cycle in the February 14th 1891 edition of the magazine. This stated that one gallon of petroleum or benzolene was enough to “furnish sufficient power” to achieve a journey of forty miles at a speed ranging from 3 - 10 mph. Edward Butler is credited with first using the word “Petrol” and inventing the spark plug, magneto, coil ignition and spray jet carburettor.  The speed of the vehicle was regulated by a throttle valve lever  whilst over heating was prevented by water circulating through a radiator over the rear driving wheel. Butler was continually frustrated in his automotive experiments by the law. The Red Flag Act of 1885 was a major source of exasperation; the act restricted automotive vehicles to a maximum speed of 2 mph in the city and 4 mph in the countryside.  In addition each vehicle had to be attended by three people, of which one had to walk in front of the vehicle waving a red flag (The 1865 Red Flag Act) to warn other road users and help control horses. This act had originally appeared as a result of the growing number of steam powered vehicles in the UK. The restrictive nature of the Red Flag Act meant that inventors and engineers could only test their creations on private land, something which proved instrumental in holding back British car development, and allowing Karl Benz in Germany not only to gain a technological lead in car development, but more importantly to register a whole series of patents under his name. Butler became increasingly frustrated and disillusioned; In 1900 Butler penned a letter to “The Autocar” magazine of which they published on April 7th 1900. The letter read:- “Now that public attention is being drawn to the early attempts of the two German pioneers, Benz and Daimler, I trust that you may find space in your journal for an illustration of a small petrol vehicle, which I believe was absolutely the first made in this country, and if I could have interested any one to finance it when the drawings were exhibited at the Stanley Show in 1884, and the following year at the Inventions Exhibition, I should have been contemporaneous, if not earlier than either of them. Although I cannot claim to have done very much in the light of the present enormous development of the automotor trade, it may have been forgotten that I carried out a series of experiments in the perfecting of a motor vehicle at a time when progress was much hindered by the prejudice and want of interest - the motor part of which has been since used in many types of engines for industrial purposes.” By this time Edward Butler had already give up further work on his Petrol Cycle, realising that due to the restrictive traffic laws of the time, he was never going to win the race to build the World’s first commercially available motor car. He wrote “..the authorities do not countenance its use on the roads, and I have abandoned in consequence any further development of it.” Butler broke his Petrol Cycle up for scrap in 1896 where upon the patent rights were sold to H.J. Lawson and the engine continued to be produced for motor boats.  Shortly afterwards the Locomotive on Highways Act of 1896 was passed that allowed speeds of up to 14 mph and opened up the highways to motor vehicles, but this was too late for Edward Butler. He died in 1940, largely unrecognised for his pioneering work in automotive design. If things had turned out differently, instead of driving around in Mercedes Benzes, we could have been driving a Butler motor car.

The ending video is surprisingly timely; it shows an interview carried out by Russian television channel 1TV for their news and current affairs programme. This is an excerpt of the longer, Russian language piece which shows a member of Bexley Neighbourhood Watch explaining what the watch is, and how it operates for the benefit of the Russian audience who I understand currently don't operate anything similar at present. This version is in English, minus Russian language dubbing, which was added later by the producers. As a fellow Neighbourhood Watch Coordinator, I am pleased to see that we are getting some well deserved international recognition. Thanks to Dana Whiffen, the Chairman of Bexley Neighbourhood Watch Association for supplying the video clip.