300,000!

On Tuesday last week there was a fairly serious bus crash at the junction with Nathan Way and Eastern Way in Thamesmead. The News Shopper reports that eleven people were taken to hospital with suspected neck and back injuries. More of this later. I too was involved in a bus crash almost two years ago; it happened only a couple of hundred metres from the crash last week, at the junction of Tom Cribb Road and Pettman Crescent, very close to the location of Plumstead Bus Garage. I was a passenger on a 380 single decker bus, making my way back from my then daily visits to my Dad, who was then resident in the Gallion’s View nursing home. The bus was packed; if I had not been in a hurry to get home, I would have waited for the next one to turn up (the 380 is a fairly regular service).  I was standing almost next to the drivers’ compartment in adjacent to the windscreen. The driver got the bus  to the junction of Tom Cribb Road, where it met Pettman Crescent. At the junction there was a silver BMW 318i waiting for the traffic flow to stop. The bus driver slowed as one would have expected, but then suddenly accelerated hard into the back of the BMW. I saw what was about to happen, and “braced for impact” managing to grab a pole as I did so, but lots of people were thrown over – I almost ended up going out through the windscreen as it was – had I not been holding on as hard as I did, I could have ended up in a nasty mess. The back of the BMW was trashed, and the front of the bus had partially disintegrated too. I yelled at the driver, who looked back at me blankly – plainly in shock, and I then asked if anyone was hurt, when there was no obvious serious injuries, I got off the bus and ran round the corner to the bus halt in the main road and grabbed the duty inspector – he came round and I then gave a statement, saying I had been a witness as well as a victim and it was completely the drivers fault – I suggested that the Police check him for both drink and drugs as soon as possible. The Police came, took my details and then let me go on my way. That was the last I ever heard of the issue, and I don’t recall any local paper or news service picking up on the story.  Going back to last Tuesday’s crash, and the large number of people reporting back and neck pains, I may be cynical, but I wonder how many were thinking of juicy compensation claims from ambulance chasing claim handling companies? I read a report in the Times earlier this week that fraudulent whiplash claims are now so prevalent that it is alleged whole buses are filled with volunteer fraudulent claimers; the buses are then deliberately crashed on public roads in a set up manner to enable mass claims for non – existent injury – a case is currently going through Court, where the fraudsters were caught out by a few genuine passengers unwittingly caught up in the scam. I am in no way saying that this was the case in last weeks’ case, but any case coming to light involving crash related injuries does bring some understandable doubts to mind.  Apart from those paying for car insurance, who get on average a £90 per year increase in their premiums to cover the cost of spurious whiplash claims, the biggest other loser is the person who is genuinely injured in a motor accident, as many people automatically assume that anyone claiming for an injury obtained whilst motoring must be a con artist.

This high quality, glossy and expensive flyer came through my door a couple of days ago. The Redeemed Christian Church of God are an absolutely immense Nigerian based Pentecostal Church. I have written a little about them in the past, but it is only now when I have been able to carry out some research into them that some serious questions spring to my mind. Their presence in Erith is relatively low key – they have converted what used to be a car tyre warehouse opposite the hideous fish sculpture into a church and children’s crèche, and they attract pretty substantial congregations during their regular services. They have a slick and professional website – unsurprising when one considers that they are the fastest growing church in the world. When one begins digging around online, their slick and corporate image starts to get a little tarnished to say the least; a search on YouTube finds videos of their pastors making homophobic and intolerant statements that really have no place in a modern and civilised society. They also are actively involved in soliciting large amounts of cash from their members – an old style “the more you give, the more you receive in God’s blessings”. Nothing new there then – the Catholic Church were selling indulgences back in Medieval times. Nevertheless, it is interesting to see that whilst their congregation turn up in a motley assortment of well used and very worn vehicles, the pastor and his wife seem to have the latest Mercedes Benz models, year in year out. Much more to be discovered on this matter, I feel.

This week brings yet another anniversary; it is the 30th birthday of the launch of the Acorn Electron computer. Not heard of the Electron? Not that surprising really, as it was basically a cut down version of the BBC Micro, that was designed to compete on price and performance with the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. The Electron was introduced a year too late, and was too little, too late - people wanted more performance for the price, not less. It was markedly slower than the £399 BBC Micro, and despite the assertion that it would run all BBC software, in reality it did not - some applications ran, albeit very slowly, but many did not, most tellingly Elite - the reason many BBC Micros got purchased in the first place. The Acorn was a major sales failure, and almost caused the end of Acorn Computers. The are very lucky in that at this point they created the revolutionary ARM processor which effectively saved the company.

At some point this morning, the Maggot Sandwich received its' 300,000th unique page view - many thanks to all of those who have read and contributed to the blog.

Ten percent of the cigarettes smoked in the London Borough of Bexley are illegal. This figure has been researched and compiled by the South East London Illegal Tobacco Cluster (which sounds like a criminal gang, but is actually a Quango). Overall they have discovered that the black market for cigarettes is worth £22 million a year in the London and South East region alone. This is basic economics – people discover that they can buy a products that is identical to that they find in the shops, but at a fraction of the price, then of course many will take this option. The Government argument that you cannot tell what is in the illicit fags, as they have not been through any quality control – the buyers counter this with “they are the same as you would buy over the counter in any European city”. Many large, organised criminal gangs have been moving from smuggling Class A and B hard drugs to tobacco – the market is larger, so the smaller profits are spread over a larger consumer base, keeping up cash flow, and additionally the penalties for tobacco smuggling are currently much lower and mainly classed as a financial crime, due to the loss of tax income to Revenue and Customs.  I am not, and never have been a smoker, so the whole appeal of cigarettes is a mystery to me; personally I cannot abide the acrid smell of burning cigarettes, and do my best to avoid it wherever possible. This has become somewhat easier in Erith Riverside Shopping Centre, as following the comment posted here a couple of weeks ago, there has been a crackdown on illegal smoking in the centre, and things have improved markedly. The security guards employed by the centre have been visible and active in discouraging illegal behaviour, as the centre management have taken the matter seriously and acted accordingly.  It looks like we can chalk this one down as a win for the Maggot Sandwich readers.

Metal thefts appear to have subsided a little over the last couple of months. I think that this may in part be due to the slight drop in commercial  scrap metal prices, due mainly to a slowdown in construction  in China. The Chinese have been the prime reason for the scrap metal boom over the last few years, and inadvertently have encouraged metal theft because of the high prices the boom engendered. They have had a massive campaign of construction, as they turn their economy from being a primarily agrarian based one to a modern production based economy. This has caused all sorts of problems of a kind that only a centrally controlled society can effectively deal with – the huge amount of construction carried out all over agricultural parts of the country has caused conflict between farmers and property developers, and there have been a number of well publicised cases where developers have speculatively built entire towns, only to find that almost nobody moves into them – the properties having been purchased by wealthy property speculators to effectively “land bank” the property in a hope that over a relatively short period of time it will increase in value. My Chinese contact told me that not long ago his own apartment was lit at night by the reflected light from sparks from welders building a skyscraper across the road – the workers don’t stop; construction is a twenty four hour process on many sites. Having said all this, nobody seems to have told a bunch of feckless chavs who got collared by the Police in Manor Road on Sunday night. They were caught red – handed by the Police helicopter, which was followed up by officers on the ground. The three men were arrested after a load of copper power cable was found in their van, the origin of which they could not say. Most unfortunately the men were released without charge, as the original owner of the cable could not be chased. It strikes me as unusual, as two of the three scrotes did a runner, and the helicopter had to follow them using its’ night vision cameras, before they were eventually captured. The fact that they ran off surely indicates guilt? If they were innocent , they would have no reason to run off. I suppose the evidence was not strong enough to secure a successful conviction. I would imagine the officers involved must have felt very frustrated.

It is now a year since construction work started on the Erith Wind Turbine, which has become an important local landmark in this relatively short period of time. The turbine is located on an industrial park near the junction of Manor Road and Slade Green Road is one of the largest in London; it reaches 288 feet above sea (or in this case, River Thames) level, and is certainly impressively imposing. When the turbine was commissioned last September, a chap from Slade Green was vociferous in his opposition, and he secured some quite extensive coverage in the local press. I found this quite surprising, as after checking the location of his house on Google Maps, I discovered that Pewty Acres was substantially closer to the wind turbine site than his own place. The dire warnings the man gave about the wind turbine causing noise and disturbance have been wholly unfounded – the turbine is almost silent, even when a very strong wind is blowing. There was a lot of bluster and noise from the usual suspects on the News Shopper website at the time, but absolutely nothing since. It seems to me that a small but vociferous group of malcontents stirring up trouble, rather than a concerted attempt at changing the situation.  It was also evident at the time that the chap in the story must have had his eyes closed when walking locally (presupposing he is not one of those people who goes everywhere by car). Bexley Council put planning application notices on lamp posts all over the area surrounding the proposed site of the wind turbine, and I am led to believe no objections were lodged. As I wrote at the time, anyone who lives in that part of town does so for one major reason – the relatively affordable house prices. The reason for the low prices is partly due to the proximity of the industrial estate and the attendant heavy traffic that transits the locality, plus the foreknowledge that new warehouses and other industrial structures have a likelihood of being built. It kinds of goes with the territory, if, like me you live in proximity to such things. Personally I find it a functional and far preferable piece of industrial sculpture than the horrendous “so bad that it is good” fish sculpture that guards the entrance to Erith Town Centre. 

After a huge amount of marketing, millions of dollars spent in advertising, and investments my movie studios and television broadcasters, it would appear that 3D both in cinema and TV has turned out to be a  turkey. Cinema audiences for 3D versions of films have been dropping steadily for the last couple of years; the only really successful movie that took more at the box office in 3D than in its’ 2D version was James Cameron’s “Avatar” (popularly known as “Dances with Smurfs”) but generally audiences balk at the increased admission fee for the 3D version. On top of this, whilst sales of 3D capable TV’s are steady, the actual use of the 3D functionality is very low. It would appear that consumers are buying the TV’s despite the 3D features, not because of them. My suspicions regarding this were confirmed recently when I had a detailed conversation with the senior A/V installation engineer from local electronics retailer Wellington’s and he confirmed my suspicions. He said that people buy smart TV’s mainly for applications such as BBC iPlayer and other streaming “catch up” services – the other smart functions are generally regarded as a novelty – as is 3D. This novelty soon wears off. I have to say that this mirrors my own experiences – I have a Samsung 46 ES8000 LED 3D smart TV, and I have found the same thing. I have also heard that Sky may be dropping their dedicated 3D content channel, as the very low number of subscribers cannot justify its’ continuation. It occupies a channel that could be better used for content that would generate more revenue. The aforementioned James Cameron has announced that all his future movies will be made in 3D. He’s probably only one of a handful of movie moguls who could get away with it – the Avatar sequels will apparently all be filmed exclusively in 3D, though whether movie goers will continue to buy into this is debatable – since the original Avatar was released in 2009, the numbers prepared to sit through what a significant proportion of people find to be a headache inducing, eye strain causing ordeal will be instructive to see. Personally I can get on with 3D for about twenty minutes at a time. I would most certainly not be able to sit through a full length movie without feeling distinctly unwell. I gather that the way that the 3D processing works relies on the viewer having perfect unassisted 20/20 vision – the overlapping dual images that are displayed on screen and filtered by the stroboscopic (in the case of active 3D) or polarising (in the case of the cheaper and less effective passive system) glasses are not interpreted correctly by the brains’ visual cortex if vision is anything less than perfect – this is why problems with watching 3D content are more common with people who wear prescription spectacles like myself.

I am no  fan of social media. Sharing ones’ every movement and activity is not something that interests me. I know that FaceBook is an integral part of a lot of people’s day, and that many people would find it hard to do without. One of the legion of problems of any widely used social media service is that gossip and rumour can rapidly become reported as fact, and the phenomenon of Chinese Whispers can cause what begin as relatively innocuous conversations but that soon turn into horror stories. There was a rumour posted on FaceBook that I was alerted to earlier this week; the story went that a group of black youths had assaulted a wheelchair bound man in Erith, and that when he had reported the incident, the disabled man was arrested instead of the youths. This follows a previous story doing the rounds a few weeks’ back where several people reported a group of Romanians kidnapping small children from shopping centres in the region. When investigated, no substance whatsoever was found behind the story. What is instructive is that both these stories involve minorities threatening white British people, and the victim ends up getting into trouble, rather than the protagonist. I am of the opinion that these nasty little rumours are being propagated by some racist group like the EDF or BNP to try and stir up ethnic tensions. The trouble is, a significant number of people think that just because something is in print (or online) that it must be true – which is most certainly not the case. Generally speaking, if something genuine has happened locally, both the Bexley Times and News Shopper will have picked it up – they are very good in this respect. If you have seen no mention of an incident reported on social media within around twenty four hours, the chances are the story was concocted by someone for nefarious reasons. The local papers check the veracity of stories, and don’t often tend to print unfounded rumours. Bexley Neighbourhood Watch Association occasionally alert Neighbourhood Watch co-ordinators like myself with information relating to local safety and security matters; they also provide alerts relating to social media propagated rumours – which invariably turn out to be utter rubbish. Any genuine issues will be published on the Erith Watch website without delay.

I need to offer an apology and a correction for something  I wrote last week in my piece about famous, fabulously wealthy  former Erith resident Hiram Maxim. I said that he had carried out the first heavier than air flight in Danson Park, nearly nine years before the Wright Brothers. Long time Maggot Sandwich reader Dave Martin posted the following:- "Hugh, with reference to Hiram Maxim I believe you meant Baldwin’s Park rather than Danson Park". Dave – you are completely right; I do believe that some earlier experiments were undertaken in Danson Park, and some sources have previously claimed that the flight itself took place there (the Science Museum even perpetrated this myth until they were corrected a few years ago). I think that there was a degree of confusion which has not been helped by the passage of time. The fact remains that a local hero is seriously under appreciated. Maxim was by many accounts not an easy man to get on with, but his inventions, engineering skills and legacy should be more celebrated. The fact that he flew in 1894 should not be overlooked – the achievement of the Wright brothers in 1903 was important, and led to the development of proper production aircraft, whereas the Maxim flyer (see the photo above - click for a larger view)was pretty much a design dead – end design, as it has no means of controlling itself in the air, but it did show the way for the other aviation pioneers.

Blues Brothers tribute band The Blues Brothers Experience played at TribFest last week; here is a promo video of the event. Do watch, and feel free to leave a comment below.

Brace for impact.

The photo above was taken by me on Erith Pier last week; many people enjoy using the structure, whether it be for a quiet walk, or for a whole night of fishing. The pier attracts a lot of salt water anglers, some of whom come from some distance in order to fish on the pier. I often see battery powered lights and tents lit with a warm glow of a camping gas cooker when I pass the pier at night. What it could do with is a unisex loo, and a tap with fresh water for drink making; it would certainly be worth a small out lay to improve conditions for the regular visitors and nocturnal campers. It is good to see a former industrial location in fresh use - the pier was originally used to unload industrial newsprint from the Scandinavian paper mills - the giant paper rolls were shipped over and unloaded at Erith, then stored in the Europa Industrial Estate, before being transported up to what was then Fleet Street.

The only florist in Erith is now no more; the Floral Design Centre which used to be located in Erith High Street has now closed, and the building has already been taken over by the Aglory African cash & carry, which already operated in the shop next door. I don't think that the location was conducive to running a florists, the row of shops is somewhat out of the way. I hope that Aglory make a better go of it.

I was in a bus crash on Friday afternoon. I was on the 380 – a single deck “hopper” type bus (see the photo above of a slightly older model), going the three stops from Gallions View back to Plumstead station to get the train home after my daily Dad visit. I was standing next to the driver –  the bus was packed. He got to the junction of Tom Cribb Road, where it meets Pettman Crescent (right opposite Plumstead bus garage). At the junction there was a silver BMW 318i waiting for the traffic flow to stop. The bus driver slowed, then suddenly accelerated into the back of the BMW. I saw what was about to happen, and “braced for impact”, but lots of people were thrown over – I almost ended up going out through the windscreen as it was. The back of the BMW was trashed, and the front of the bus had partially disintegrated too. I yelled at the driver, asked if anyone was hurt, when there was no obvious serious injuries, I got off the bus and ran round the corner to the bus halt in the main road and grabbed the duty inspector – he came round and I then gave a statement, saying I had been a witness as well as a victim and it was completely the drivers fault – I suggested that the Police check him for both drink and drugs as soon as possible. The Police came, took my details and then let me go on my way. I have a strained shoulder and a banged knee, but am otherwise OK – there were a couple of elderly ladies on the bus who were knocked right over, but I don’t think anybody was seriously hurt. The driver and passenger in the BMW were unhurt too. I have heard rumours of drink and drug misuse involving bus drivers based at the Plumstead garage on at least two occasions. I am now beginning to wonder if there is some substance to the allegations. Hopefully this incident will lead to a formal investigation and action where appropriate.

This time last year I wrote a piece about Stanley Green - the "Less Protein" man, who used to carry a billboard around the West End of London, and sell pamphlets expounding his views on how too much protein heightened levels of passion in people. You can read my original posting here. Stanley died back in 1993, ironically from malnutrition brought on by his eccentric and unhealthy diet. His billboard has now been preserved in the Museum of London, as you can now see below, courtesy of the photo taken recently by Ian.

On two separate occasions in the last week, I have been the unwitting witness to two conversations between chavs who had been involved in the Woolwich riots. I was on both occasions sitting on the train, heading back from London on my way to my daily Dad visit. The scrotes were sitting (unpaid for, naturally) opposite me, and discussing the aftermath of the rioting, and which of their mates had been prosecuted for various wrong doings. One mentioned to the other that he was having to do 200 hours of community service, mainly doing gardening, which he hated. He said that he would have preferred being "put back on the tag" (which inferred that he had already been tagged in the past, which pretty much marked him as a career criminal). The other group said pretty much the same thing; does this mean that tagging is regarded as a soft option by the scumderclass? From my small and admittedly unscientific research, it would appear so. 

If you are a long - time reader of the Maggot Sandwich, you may recognise the photo above; it shows the reconstructed Colossus II computer, housed at The National Museum Of Computing at Bletchley Park. I was fortunate enough to visit a couple of years ago, and briefly met the remarkable engineer and inventor behind the historic recreation - Tony Sale. In person he was modest and diffident about his achievements, but would soon become animated when describing what Colossus did and how it worked.  He was also quick to correct visitors who wrongly assumed that Colossus was used to break the Enigma code. In fact Colossus was used to break the even more fiendishly complex Lorenz Cipher - which was used by Nazi high command to communicate by radio with the Fuhrer. Quite simply, in 1944, now 67  years ago,  Bletchley Park were using a farm of ten Collossi to read Hitler's Email.  Historians agree that this shortened the war by something like two years.  The code breaking performed at Bletchley Park had a higher security classification at the time than the Manhattan Project in the USA. Unfortunately Tony Sale died this week aged 80, after a short illness; his contribution to the preservation and restoration of Britain's computing history is second to none.  You can read his obituary on the BBC News website here.

I was staggered to read earlier this week that Young's are giving up brewing their excellent real ale after 180 years of quenching the thirst of Londoners. The company is going to concentrate on their chain of pubs and restaurants instead. I feel that the writing has been on the wall for them since they moved out of London to merge with Charles Wells to form Wells & Youngs, located in Bedford in 2006. You can read the official announcement by clicking here. This leaves Fuller, Smith & Turner as the only major regional London based brewer. Fortunately the rapid rise of real ale micro breweries in the UK means that the popularity of proper beer is on the rise, and the sale of chemical laden, gassy and flavourless lagers is on the thankful decrease. I am convinced that lager drinking leads to increased aggression and violence, whereas the consumption of real ale leads to relaxation and bonhomie - it is a well known scientific fact that the hops in real ale act as a gentle tranquiliser and also have mild antibiotic properties. I think that if we could convince the Government to subsidise the production of ale, the country would be a better place. Picture this - a way to reduce unemployment, keep the streets safer, reduce urban violence and enhance the health of the public. Now that nearly everybody buys their milk and dairy products from supermarkets, this has meant that the traditional door to door milkmen have lost their jobs. All the currently unemployed milkmen could be re - hired to daily deliver bottles of real ale to every household in the UK. This would calm the lager fuelled aggressive tendencies of the criminal underclass, encourage the farming community to grow more barley and hops, enhancing the agricultural economy, and since the milk / beermen would be traversing the streets on a daily basis, they could also help with policing, acting as additional PCSO's during their early morning beer delivery patrols. What is not to like? I think this single endeavour could end the recession and reduce crime in a few short weeks.

MP for Erith and Thamesmead, Teresa Pearce dropped me a line earlier in the week; she's a regular Maggot Sandwich reader, and picked up on my recent coverage of her efforts to get Southeastern Trains to install a lift at Erith Station, as they are already legally obliged to do under the terms of the Disability Rights Act (DRA).  She has set up a Fix My Transport site in order to lobby the rail company into getting a suitable lift installed. You can see her campaigning website by clicking here.  The site can be seen in the picture below. If you live in the area and want to see public transport improved, or you just want to stick it to the penny pinching scumbags that run South East Trains, do sign up to Teresa's campaign website - it is not party political, it just wants to get things improved for local people, and that can only be a good thing.

Erith Morrison's continues on its' downward spiral into managerial madness. Following the recent replacement of the "hand baskets only" aisles with automated "self service" tills that spend most of their time flashing their little red lights, indicating that they are malfunctioning, leaving the two harassed and over worked assistants to apologise to the ever lengthening impatient and angry queue of waiting customers. As previously mentioned, I utterly refuse to use these exploitative tills, and I know that I am far from being alone in this opinion (I don't have a dog and bark myself - as I wrote last week). This week they have introduced a new feature in the middle of the delicatessen area. An olive bar - a circular island type feature offering around a dozen varieties of olive from around the world. One can select a microscopic pot to take away for £2.79 or a merely tiny pot for £3.49. Bearing in mind we are talking about Erith - a town where a significant percentage of the locals open a McDonald's burger to remove the slices of dill pickle and flick them on the floor, I do question the whole business effectiveness of an olive bar - many chavs will just wonder why there is a selection of big peas with a hole through the middle, where the microwave meals used to be. I give the enterprise three months at most before it is scrapped - there is just not the demand for "posh" food in the area, where many of the hoodied generation think that haute cuisine is a portion of fried chicken. I get the impression that Morrison's head office are handing down diktats from on high, without considering what will appeal to a particular target market. It is ironic that I am partial to the odd olive or two, but I am not exactly Morrison's rank and file customer.

If you have not already done so, I encourage you to check out the excellent Erith based local weather station that has its' own website. It is run by fellow Radio Amateur Bob G4MHJ. You can see his weather station online here.

The number of counterfeit £1 coins currently in circulation is extremely worrying; I have had check out staff give me fake coins in change on numerous occasions in the recent past. When I have rejected the fakes, the till operator invariably returned them to the till. This is illegal - to knowingly return counterfeit currency into circulation is a criminal offence. See the video clip below on how to successfully identify a fake £1 coin - it is fascinating stuff.

As the summer splutters to a grey and uncertain end, I notice that the local ice cream vans are touting for their final trade of the season. They all seem to be decorated with a variety of Disney and other cartoon characters as well as designs most likely to attract young children. I do wonder how many of them have engaged in intellectual property licencing deals with the copyright owners? Somehow I think none. If I was legal counsel for one of the big cartoon studios, I would be pressing for the van owners to cease and desist. You may think I am being a killjoy, but the depictions of the various cartoon characters is often so poorly drawn and shabbily depicted that it can only harm the image and reputation of the original. Crap cartoon depiction on ice cream vans has been going on for so long that it almost by default seems to be accepted - why?

Much has been written about the health and wellbeing of Apple supremo Steve Jobs in the last few weeks. When he stepped down as CEO of the organisation, many pundits seemed to think it would be the end for the seminal IT company. This has already proved to not be the case. I am not going to wade into this discussion - it has enough opinions already. Instead, I would point you at a blog posting written by someone who is one of Steve Jobs neighbours. Her posting is humane and insightful, and certainly makes for interesting reading. Take a look at "My Neighbour - Steve Jobs" and form your own opinion.

The final video clip is the full episode of TV series Room 101 featuring the late Linda Smith, who was born and raised in Erith. She famously once said that "Erith isn't twinned with anywhere, but it does have a mutual suicide pact with Dagenham".