Numbers.

You may recall that last October I wrote about the conversion of the former Royal Alfred pub in Manor Road into apartments and a new larger Londis convenience store by the family that own and operate the existing Londis on the opposite side of Appold Street. You can see my original article by clicking here, which also shows some photographs of the then level of progress. Well, only a few scant months on from then, the scaffolding that has cocooned the building for almost a year has now been dismantled, and the remarkable changes to the historic building can now be seen. There is still much to be completed now that the large rear extension and new roof have been added, and the exterior still needs more work, but the refurbished, extended and repurposed building is now beginning to take shape. I will be having a tour of the interior soon, and I will report back with new photographs. Keep watching this space. 

I have asked some of my regular readers why they like reading the Maggot Sandwich, and one answer that consistently comes up is that it is a true local news provider. Whilst the original local papers such as the Bexley Times, and to a greater extent, the News Shopper have become regional rather than local due to major cutbacks and to no longer being located in the area. For example the News Shopper are currently reporting on a story about feeding feral pigeons, which has attracted some keen debate on their talkback page. This is understandable as it is a contentious issue which attracts strong feelings in both directions. My issue is nothing whatsoever to do with the subject matter – it is an item that will be of interest to some people, but my concern is that the story comes not from South East London or North Kent, but from Epsom in Surrey! I have never been to Epsom, and ended up looking it up on Wikipedia. It describes the place as “Epsom (/ˈɛpsəm/) is a market town in Surrey, England, 13.6 miles (21.9 km) south south-west of London, located between Ashtead and Ewell. The town straddles chalk down land (Epsom Downs) and the upper Thanet Formation. Epsom Downs Racecourse holds The Derby, now a generic name for sports competitions in English-speaking countries. The town also gives its name to Epsom salts, extracted from mineral waters there.” Well you learn something every day. Quite why people in Plumstead, Abbey Wood, Belvedere, Erith or Slade Green would have interests or concerns in respect of activities specifically local to Epsom somewhat mystifies me. What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

After what seems like an almost endless round of delays and changes, construction of the long anticipated London Paramount Theme Park is begin later this year, and it should be open to the paying public by 2022. The £3.2bn park is hoped to rival Disney resorts in Florida and Paris. London Paramount Resort will boast more than 50 rides, a nightclub and a 2,000-seat theatre. It is estimated that the 872-acre-park will bring up to 40,000 visitors a day. Thousands of jobs will be created by the park, with estimates of around 27,000 permanent full time roles being created. The project manager say of the development:- "The Entertainment Resort will contain a number of themed zones, with exciting rides and attractions for families, children and the more adventurous thrill-seeking visitor. At the heart of the Entertainment Resort there will be a wide range of indoor, covered and open-air experiences as well as a variety of cafes, bars and restaurants. a number of exciting events will be hosted each year such as shows and music events. Late afternoon every day the ‘Paramount and Friends Carnival’ is planned to take place. We are planning to follow this every evening with a spectacular show celebrating the works of Paramount Pictures and our other content partners. Also in the evening, there will be a chance to enjoy a West End quality production at one of our theatres, indoor or outdoor venues. These venues could potentially showcase Paramount films, BBC and Aardman productions and provide a stage for live comedy acts and concerts. The heart of the Entertainment Resort will open to the public in 2021, with additional rides and attractions scheduled to be unveiled soon after in the following years." This has got to be good news for the entire region; the number of jobs being created, and the amount of wealth that this amusement park will generate will be a force for real change and regeneration - it will be interesting to see how it all pans out. 

A story that certainly does have local relevance, and was picked up earlier in the week by the London Evening Standard is that of the forthcoming electoral boundary changes. The article, which strikes me as being written in a style designed to wind up local readers of both Bexley and Woolwich, describes how residents of the London Borough of Bexley are apparently up in arms over the proposed changes from the Boundary Commission. It plans to move the Abbey Wood ward from the Erith and Thamesmead parliamentary constituency to a newly formed seat called Woolwich as part of moves to slash the number of London MPs from 73 to 68 by 2020. According to the Standard, "dozens" of residents had objected, and have criticised the proposals, saying they have nothing in common with the riverside town best known for its huge Royal Arsenal. One of them, Maree Parra, said in an interview in the Standard that:- “We have paid higher prices to live in Bexley as we have no desire to live in Woolwich and do not visit Woolwich for any reason.” Mary Clark said: “Woolwich has gone downhill big time. I do not want to be classed as being in Woolwich, and the value of my house will go down.” Nicola Hunter wrote to the commission to say she moved to Bexley borough because “their ideas and priorities are far superior and in line with my views and aspirations”. But Woolwich resident Nick Bradshaw, 60, a freelance musician and music teacher, said: “Having lived in this area for 20 years, there’s a clear divide between the sort of people inhabiting Plumstead and Woolwich and those in Welling or Bexleyheath. I was always aware of the different demographics and Bexley is less cosmopolitan. They seem more reactionary and conservative. I go to Bexley and can’t wait to get away from there. I think it’s them being snobby and they have not been sensible about it. These comments don’t surprise me because I know what kind of people these are". Crikey - anyone would think we were talking about people from North and South Korea arguing over the divide, rather from a couple of neighbouring South East London suburbs. I get the distinct feeling that the Standard journalists behind the piece are trying to start a storm in a teacup - this outside the political reasons for the creation of the new ward, purely to do with the alleged perceptions and reactions of residents on both sides of the boundary. People in both wards share far more than they have differences, and I feel that the Standard's piece does not address this, and talks of "class war" - errant rubbish - it almost feels like "never let the facts get in the way of a good story". 

Several tabloid newspapers such as the Daily Star seem to be getting quite excited about a subject I have covered on the Maggot Sandwich in the distant past, but now seems to be back in the news. For some inexplicable reason, they have been writing about Secret Numbers and Book Code illicit radio stations in some detail. They have picked up on the espionage activities of North Korea, especially after the recent assassination of Kim Jong Nam which has received much press attention for understandable reasons. Numbers Stations have been in existence since World War II. They can be found quite easily if you have a radio which can receive the shortwave bands. Generally speaking, numbers stations appear somewhat erratically and consist of a disembodied electronic voice reading out streams of numbers which repeat a fixed number of times. The stations are usually outside of the main shortwave broadcast bands, and can sometimes be encountered in the amateur radio bands – much to the annoyance of their legal users, such as myself. Whilst numbers stations are well known to radio enthusiasts like me, most of the general public will be unaware of their existence. The purpose of numbers stations is simple. They are the most secure method of communicating with spies in the field. Computer communications are easily intercepted, and even the most heavily encrypted ciphers can be broken over time by supercomputers used by the security services – and it is relatively straightforward to identify a person from an Internet Service Provider. Old fashioned analogue shortwave radio is completely anonymous – no sign in, or account is required, and a suitable radio can be picked up in a shop for a few pounds. Anyone found with a radio which can receive the shortwave bands will not get much attention – most compact travel radios can receive shortwave broadcasts; thus a spy can be completely anonymous and untraceable whilst listening to the coded broadcasts. Sometimes new technology is not the best solution to a problem, and this is most definitely the case here. Each numbers station transmission is read out by a computer generated voice, giving it an eerie, somewhat creepy sound. One would have thought that once the Cold War was over, the need for numbers stations would cease, but in many cases, the number of stations has actually increased – radio traffic, including numbers stations has been recently noticed in the Ukraine, where before the recent dispute with Russia, it was pretty much a backwater. Book Code stations are a simpler but still very effective way of communicating via radio with any person intercepting the transmission unable to understand the meaning of the message being communicated. The key to a book code is that the sender and the receiver need to have an identical copy of a book - two different editions of the same book will not work, as the page layouts will be different. If you buy two identical copies of a book, the transmitter can compile their message in plain language (uncoded), then look through the book to find the relevant words in the text. The sender then notes down the page number, paragraph, line and number of words along the line. This is written down as a series of numbers. This is done for every word in the message in order (very tedious, but very secure as long as the books used are not known to anyone intercepting the message). The stream of numbers is then read out over the radio and the recipient then reverses the process to decypher the message. It is simple, very secure and almost impossible to crack without the use of sophisticated statistical analysis software and a handy supercomputer, which only the likes of the NSA or GCHQ would have access to. As long as the book used is kept secret - and preferably changed for another title for both the sender and recipient on a regular basis - it is pretty much secure. You can watch a short news broadcast about secret numbers stations below. It is a few years old, but still very accurate and insightful. Please leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

Further to my examination of Smart energy meters and the unexpected problems which they can cause; information came to light this week which on top of all of the other problems that they can have, highlights that they can be staggeringly inaccurate in a variety of circumstances. A recent study from researchers at University of Twente (UT) and Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (AUAS) has found that three-phase static (electronic) energy meters, which are replacing traditional electromechanical meters, can exaggerate energy consumption by as much as 582 per cent. Estimates of the number of households in the Netherlands with smart meters range from 750,000 to 1.5 million. In the US, smart meter penetration at the end of 2016 has been estimated at 70 million, according to the Edison Foundation. The government of the Netherlands aims to replace at least 80 per cent of the energy meters in the country with smart meters by 2020, in keeping with EU goals. EU authorities suggest that smart meters, on average, result in energy savings of 3 per cent. But as researchers Frank Leferink, Cees Keyer, and Anton Melentjev report, "Some consumers are complaining about their energy bills after replacement of the energy meter, because the registered energy is higher with the static meter compared to the old Ferraris meter." Smart meter billing problems have also been documented in the US. Some of the past flaws found in static meters have been attributed to electromagnetic interference, which has been addressed over the years. The researchers suggest that present flaws are made more difficult to detect by insufficiently broad testing and opaque industry practices. They point out that makers of the smart meters covered in the study test their equipment under ideal conditions, with consistent voltage and load, but fail to consider other scenarios. They also observe that faulty smart meters tend to get scrapped instead of being offered for examination and that utilities don't make their equipment available for testing, don't document the devices well, and tend to rely on proprietary software. Among the ten models tested, the issue appears to be a component known as the Rogowski Coil, one of the four-types of current sensors used in static meters. The three others are: the shunt resistor, the current transformer, and the Hall effect-based current sensor. "The reason for faulty readings appears to be the current sensor, and the associated circuitry," the research paper states. "As a Rogowski coil results in a time-derivative of the measured current, the measured voltage has to be integrated. Probably active integration is used instead of passive integration, and the input electronics are pushed in saturation caused by the high rise-time of the current." Which basically boils down to a poor design in the meter means that it is inherently inaccurate and cannot be relied on. I think we will see more on this subject in the mainstream press in the near future. 

A story appeared on the Bexley Times website this week, with an outcome that really surprised me. Just for once an all too common case of fraud ended up with a happy outcome. The attempted con happened on February 13, when the resident, who lives alone in Sidcup, returned home to find a man standing at his door, saying that a large piece of concrete had just fallen off his roof. He was told that it could be mended for £2,500 cash, with a further £6,000 to be paid. However, the trader ended up removing the entire roof and then demanded a further £39,000 to finish the work.  Trading Standards attended the address but the unidentified trader had left. The trader then continued to contact the elderly man by phone. During one call the trader was spoken to by police and informed that Trading Standards were dealing with the matter. After contacting Trading Standards by phone the same day, the trader was told he needed to return the total of £6,000 paid so far by the victim. Much to their surprise, an anonymous female attended the Civic Offices the following day and handed over £6,000 in cash to Trading Standards, who returned it to the victim. This is a welcome, but very unusual outcome; I don’t normally cover stories on the far side of the borough, as they are outside of the main remit of the Maggot Sandwich, but these con merchants operate all over the area, and there are vulnerable people who could easily fall victim as happened with this elderly man. It is just fortunate in this exceptional case that the Police and Trading Standards were able to get the man’s money back.

I got sent the photo above during the week; I have to say that I had never seen it before. It was taken during the long hot summer of 1990 whilst I was part of the crew of the Ross Revenge, the home of Radio Caroline, at that time moored fifteen miles off the North Foreland, in the international waters of the North Sea. and outside of British legal jurisdiction. It was taken by one of a group of visitors to the Ross Revenge on a day trip to visit the ship and crew / DJ's. The group brought lots of essential supplies such as drinking water, food and most importantly daily newspapers - something we were always very keep to get, as being stuck on a ship moored in the middle of the North Sea can easily make you lose touch with current affairs, despite having TV and radio. I can be seen on the right hand side of the photo, wearing a black T-shirt - and I am not unnaturally tall - I was standing on a bar which ran along the inside wall of the hull. It was not usual to see me up in the morning at this time, but after all, we did have visitors. I did an overnight album show which finished at 6am when I handed over to the breakfast show DJ, then I would normally mooch around, have my dinner whilst watching the breakfast news on TV, and then head to my cabin for a few hours sleep, normally waking mid afternoon, when I would then coordinate the repainting of the ship. You can see more photos from my time on Radio Caroline by clicking here. You can listen to edited highlights from a show I did during a force 9 gale by clicking here - apologies, I do sound about twelve years old, but in my defence, it was a very long time ago!

Much to nobody's surprise, Transport for London has scrapped its controversial standing-only escalators scheme on London Underground after a six-month pilot that sparked a commuter revolt and achieved only “mixed” results, according to the Evening Standard. Passengers were asked to break with the long-held tradition of standing on the right and walking on the left during the trial at Holborn last year. It was designed to ease crowds by regulating flow of customers at peak times. Staff with megaphones told passengers to ignore the usual protocols, footprints were painted on both sides of the steps and a hologram of an Underground worker was used to persuade commuters to break with convention. A Freedom of Information request by the London Evening Standard has revealed that at peak times during the trial, station capacity was increased by up to 30 per cent and congestion was “notably lessened”. Having said that, the standing-only escalators were able to carry an average of 151 passengers per minute, compared to 115 on the “traditional” escalator, according to the study. But Underground bosses on Wednesday revealed they have no plans to trial the scheme more widely. While congestion was cut on longer escalators, where the left-hand side is used by only a hardy few leaving large gaps in between, there was no improvement on shorter flights where more people are willing to walk. Commuters welcomed the decision to end the scheme, described at the time as “going against everything about being British”. Johanna Whitaker, 35, a communications consultant said: “I used the Tube at least twice a day during the trial, always in rush hour. Standing on the left broke London commuter etiquette. There was always the danger of people thinking they could stand on the left at other tube stations - can you imagine? The congestion at Holborn station is bad so Fair play to TfL for trying it, but I hope there’s a better way." I don't think this was ever going to work, but fair play to TfL for at least trying some way to reduce congestion. 

The photo above was sent to me a couple of years ago by Erith businessman and property developer Manjinder. It shows some very picturesque aircraft contrails reflecting the rising sun over Manor Road. It also illustrates one of the more bizarre conspiracy theories that persist despite much evidence to the contrary. You may have heard of the Chemtrail Conspiracy? If not, I will explain. The chemtrail conspiracy theory is the unproven belief that long-lasting trails, so-called "chemtrails", are left in the sky by high-flying aircraft and that they consist of chemical or biological agents deliberately sprayed for sinister purposes undisclosed to the general public. The main UK based group of Chemtrail conspiracists have their website here - click to view. Believers in the theory argue that normal aircraft contrails dissipate relatively quickly and that contrails that do not dissipate must contain additional substances. These arguments have been dismissed by the scientific community: such trails are normal water-based contrails (condensation trails) that are routinely left by high-flying aircraft under certain atmospheric conditions. Although proponents have attempted to prove that the claimed chemical spraying does take place, their analyses have been flawed or based on misconceptions. Because of the persistence of the conspiracy theory and questions about government involvement, scientists and government agencies around the world have repeatedly explained that supposed chemtrails are in fact normal contrails. Contrails, or condensation trails, are "streaks of condensed water vapour created in the air by an airplane or rocket at high altitudes." They are the result of normal emissions of water vapour from piston and jet engines at high altitudes in which the water vapor condenses into visible clouds. They are formed when hot humid air from the engines (when Kerosene jet fuel burns, one of the results of combustion is water vapour) mixes with the colder surrounding air. The rate at which contrails dissipate is entirely dependent on weather conditions and altitude. If the atmosphere is near saturation, the contrail may exist for some time. Conversely, if the atmosphere is dry, the contrail will dissipate quickly. The conspiracy theorists will have none of this, however. A 2014  research paper presented results of reviewing 20 chemtrail websites found that believers appeal to science in some of their arguments, but don't believe what academic or government-employed scientists say; scientists and federal agencies have consistently denied that chemtrails exist, explaining the sky tracks are simply persistent contrails. The 2014 paper also found that chemtrail believers generally hold that chemtrails are evidence of a global conspiracy; people who believe in the conspiracy allege various goals which include profit (for example, manipulating futures prices or making people sick to benefit drug companies), population control, or weapons testing (use of weather as a weapon, or testing bioweapons). One of these ideas, is that clouds are being seeded with electrically conductive materials as part of a massive electromagnetic superweapons programme based around the High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP). Those who believe in the conspiracy say the chemtrails are toxic; the 2014 review found that chemtrail believers generally hold that every person is under attack and found that believers often express fear, anxiety, sadness and anger about this. Experts on atmospheric phenomena say chemtrails do not exist, and that the characteristics attributed to them are simply features of contrails responding differently in diverse conditions in terms of the sunlight, temperature, horizontal and vertical wind shear, and humidity levels present at the aircraft's altitude. In the US, the grid like nature of the National Airspace System's flight lanes tends to cause crosshatched contrails, and in general it is hard to discern from the ground whether overlapping contrails are at similar altitudes or not. The jointly published fact sheet produced by NASA, the EPA, the FAA, and NOAA in 2000 in response to alarms over chemtrails details the science of contrail formation, and outlines both the known and potential impacts contrails have on temperature and climate. The USAF produced a fact sheet as well that described these contrail phenomena as observed and analyzed since at least 1953. It also rebutted chemtrail theories more directly by identifying the theories as a hoax and disproving the existence of chemtrails. Patrick Minnis, an atmospheric scientist with NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia, is quoted in USA Today and online, as saying that logic does not dissuade most chemtrail proponents: "If you try to pin these people down and refute things, it's, 'Well, you're just part of the conspiracy'," What do you think? Leave a comment below, or Email me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

The ending video this week comes from a recent Sky News report on homophobia in sport - specifically football. It features local club Bexley Invicta, which was started by occasional Maggot Sandwich contributor and restaurant reviewer Brian Silk. Do give it a watch.

Bridge or Tunnel?

I took the photo above last week whilst out one evening with my camera. I was amazed to see a young adult fox on the roof of the Vinton Metals warehouse, off Manor Road. The photo shows the fox reacting to the sound of my camera's shutter. The animal was scruffy and quite possibly suffering from Mange. It stayed on the roof for around five minutes before disappearing from view. Foxes in the local area have become almost completely indifferent to people; I saw a fox (it may have even been the same one as in the picture) on the footpath a couple of weeks ago. It had been going through a dustbin bag put out for collection. I moved toward it, expecting it to run off, but it just sat there watching me with evident curiosity. I then saw it again on Thursday evening when it was sitting on top of a wheelie bin, no doubt trying to get inside. It has absolutely no fear at all. 

The debate about the possible new cross Thames bridge in South East London drags on. After doing some research, I was astonished to discover that plans have existed in one form or another since 1943, where it was due to form part of the post war London regeneration plan. Then it was seriously proposed in 1979, before being subjected to a lengthy public inquiry, redesigned, subjected to a further inquiry, approved in 1991, cancelled in 1993, revived in 2002, subjected to another inquiry in 2005 – and finally cancelled again in 2008, after pressure from the London Borough of Bexley, who were concerned that there was no provision for improving the road infrastructure on the South side of the bridge to prevent serious congestion. If you look at London as a whole (in essence Greater London already functions as a semi independent state) there are twenty two road and rail crossings to the West of Tower Bridge, and only two to the East – the Rotherhithe and Blackwall tunnels (the Dartford QE2 tunnel and bridge do not count as they are outside Greater London). Bearing in mind that more than fifty percent of the population lives to the East, and a majority of the growth in both housing and jobs is going to come in the future, it seems curious that so little priority seems to have been given to improvements in communications to the East. There are practical problems; as the river travels eastwards, it becomes far wider as it heads towards the Thames Estuary. Any crossing will by nature have to be larger and more expensive than those in the West. This is one of the reasons I recently suggested a runnel crossing between Rainham and Lower Belvedere as an alternative to a bridge between Beckton and Thamesmead at Gallions reach, which seems to be the solution favoured by most of the current group of decision makers. Personally I think the Gallions Reach option is a poor one; whilst the Beckton side of the river is mostly a brown field site, with old factories and other structures which could easily be demolished to make way for bridge approach roads, the same cannot be said of the Thamesmead side – where a large and well established housing estate and residential nursing home are situated. It is evident to me that the planners of the Gallions Reach bridge have not spent any time in the area that the proposed structure will affect, or they would be aware of the unsuitability of the solution they propose. Studies have been carried out as the negative impact that additional traffic coming up Knee Hill in Abbey Wood – a narrow road through Abbey Wood that struggles with anything larger than a small car, yet carries HGV’s in a constant stream, which would only get worse with traffic from a proposed bridge. The areas surrounding Knee Hill would also have their own problems – Wickham Lane in Welling is already heavily congested, which would only get worse, as would the side streets which extra traffic would no doubt use as a “rat run”. There would be additional air pollution on top of any increased congestion levels. If this was not enough, any new bridge would need to be high to allow ships underneath, both to the new cruise terminal adjacent to the O2 Arena, and to the Pool of London. If a bridge had sufficient air draught to allow large vessels to fit underneath, it would also need to have very long approach roads to avoid a too steep gradient during the climb up and down from the cross – river bridge span. Conversely my proposed tunnel would have none of those restrictions, and would connect the A13 in South Essex with the A2, and the South Circular in Kent. I feel that other crossings on the East of London will also be required, especially with the creation of Ebbsfleet Garden City (or whatever name the scheme finally gets given) and the Paramount theme park. It seems as if my outline plan for the “Arthur Pewty Memorial Tunnel” (image here) between Rainham in Essex and Lower Belvedere in Kent have at least been in part listened to by the civic planners. On Wednesday an announcement was made that a formal proposal for a road bridge between the two towns was to be launched by Transport for London, in addition to the Beckton / Thamesmead one, as previously described. TfL’s argument is that having two new river crossings would mean that the volume of traffic over each would be reduced, relieving any potential local congestion problems. My concern is that the river is very wide at Lower Belvedere, and any bridge built there would need to be high, long and consequently very expensive. I am still of the opinion that my tunnel proposal is a superior solution. Please feel free to leave your comments below, or Email me privately to hugh.neal@gmail.com. I just hope that planning consent does not take over seventy years like the current scheme already has.

The cinema industry is starting to get very nervous about the forthcoming Google Glass wearable computer. Vue Cinemas and the Cinema Exhibitor’s Association had bilaterally announced that Google Glass wearers will be banned from their cinemas. They have concerns that the camera in the Google Glass headset will be used to pirate movies by recording them from the screen. They seem to have overlooked the fact that the current version of Google Glass can only record 720p video for a maximum of around 45 minutes, and is thus incapable of recording an entire movie, and even then not in true high definition. They also have a “recording in progress” light which fairly blatantly shows observers what the Glass wearer is doing. I understand the wariness of the cinemas though; the technology being showcased in the current prototype version will be upgraded to increase the devices’ capability before the proper commercial launch; I would not be at all surprised if the actual production version of Google Glass bypasses 1080 HD, and goes directly to 4K resolution. This would be a genuine boon to potential pirates, though any films recorded in this manner would still be as obviously low quality, wobbly and pirated as the current ones readily available on dodgy DVD on Morrison’s car park in Thamesmead from the Chinese pirate DVD sellers. To be honest I think there is just as much resistance to the cinema industry to new, potentially disruptive technology they neither understand or want.

A story from the News Shopper caught my attention this week;  a lady called Michelle Roberts got sent  down for three and a half years for a range of thefts, including from her own relatives at her Uncle’s funeral in Southend in 2011, and from other friends and well wishers when she fraudulently claimed that her son had cancer so that she could obtain money for his treatment. You can read the story here. Many readers think she only got six months in prison, but the judge sentenced her to six months for each offence, which are to run concurrently. What this news article does not say is that I used to know her when she worked at the Gallions View Nursing Home in Thamesmead, where my Dad spent the last six and a half years of his life. She was a care assistant there, and to be honest she was not bad; we certainly would not have taken her for a habitual thief and liar. I notice in the photo the News Shopper use, Roberts has a stethoscope around her neck. This must have just been a pose, as she was not a qualified nurse, or even a senior member of the carers. Knowing the Gallions View team as a whole, I am sure that they will be horrified at the news that a former employee could turn out to be such a nasty and dishonest piece of work.

Regular readers may be aware that I run an occasional feature on independent local businesses, and how their work benefits the economy. This week I have received an Email from Dave Parsons, the boss of Kort Propulsion – a world famous and long established marine engineering company that are based in the old River Police station in Erith High street, right on the river front. The Email contained a press release concerning a large export order the company have recently won:- "Kort Propulsion receives order for further 28 x 7.5M RAMEWC Tugboats in Egypt. Kort Propulsion has received an order for the second batch of twenty eight Tug boats for the Egyptian Army. The 7.5M RAMEWC tug boat which has a requirement of 8 Knots and 2.3T Bollard Pull. The first fourteen recently completed by Kort exceeded the Egyptian Armies expectations and requirements. We are delighted to receive this positive feedback and the new order, it secures the future expansion plans of Kort Propulsion. Managing Director David Parsons comments "For the past 6 years we have been working on this project which started with an order for 1 Tugboat, Fourteen more in 2012, and now the quantity is increasing to Twenty eight. This new order well into 7 figures gives the platform for further growth in the company. "This is a special day and a mile stone for the company, my late Father Norman who started this project back in 2008 will be very proud of what we have achieved in such a small period of time. We are continuing his 40+ years of service to Kort and proving we can continue in his footsteps for many years to come." This new order for Twenty eight boat sets from Alexandria Shipyard will consist of Deutz Air Cooled Engines, ZF Gearboxes, Shafting, Propellers, Kort Nozzle Rudders, Steering Gear, all of the Fenders on board, Electrical Controls, and switchboards. Alignment and commissioning will be carried out by Chock Design UK in Alexandria, Chock Design was acquired by Kort Propulsion in 2013 and helps strengthen the group, this company specialise in mounting and alignment of rotating machinery, it also has the distribution rights to the RotaChock adjustable mounting product which are being used in the mounting of the prime movers in this project. "With further quantities due in 2015, this provides a great platform to build on our success in previous years. It's exciting times ahead for the company. We have added new members to our team with Naval Architects in our design office and another member of family to the team. Ann- Marie Parsons, will be looking after the marketing and image of the company moving forward. A new website will be launched within the next 2 months to show the continued growth." Interesting stuff indeed. When Dave has returned from his annual holiday, I hope to visit their offices to interview him and his staff, and to compile a feature on the well known and long established independent local company.

Last week I covered the new Bexley College campus on the piece of land between Walnut Tree Road and Stonewood Road, which is getting close to completion, and is scheduled to open in September for the new academic year. Whilst I was being shown around by Principal Danny Ridgeway and Deputy Principal Martin Peat, we discussed some of the archaeological finds that had been unearthed on the site before construction of the new college building began. I was very surprised when they told me that the foundations of the original Erith Swimming Baths had been unearthed; I was aware of the original baths, but erroneously thought that they were located on the opposite side of Walnut Tree Road, adjacent to the old and currently unused Carnegie gifted library building. Actually the baths were sited in Stonewood road, which back in the day was known as Station Road. If you click on the vintage photo above, which dates back to 1908 you can see that the baths were little more than a tin shack with an open roof, right next door to the old Erith tram shed; from the original ordnance survey plans, one can see that the baths were opposite a large coal yard, and very close to cattle pens that at the time existed outside of Erith Station. There was also an electricity generating station where the current substation exists, next to the old library, and the smoke from the boilers would have added to the whiff. The place must have reeked – and I would have thought it would be used more by the working man than by the local gentry. The photo shows some kind of special event, possibly involving a game of Water Polo, which was then becoming popular, after the sport made its first Olympic appearance in 1900. I think the aristocratic looking lady and gentleman standing on the poolside to the centre left of the picture are John Parish and his wife. Parish was a wealthy local businessman who owned several enterprises in the local area, including Erith Ballast pit and the accompanying riverside wharf. You can read more about John Parish here. what is tragic about the photograph is that many of the young men featured in the picture would not have survived the First World War, which took place only six years later.

Residents in and around Manor Road have learned with dismay that their inconvenience is going to last longer than they were originally informed. The large scale re – engineering of the main road, which had planned to be shut to traffic for ten weeks has slipped by a further week, only eleven days after the work began. Residents have not actually been informed of the change in plans, the only way they discovered that things were progressing more slowly than anticipated was that hand written notices that had been spray painted on the old road surface on the section between Londis and Frobisher Road which had read “No parking from 3/7/14" were hastily re – written to say “No parking from 8/7/14". It would seem that the new road surface is being laid at a slower rate than was expected. Residents were told that a liaison officer from the surfacing contractor would be available to answer questions, but little evidence of such a person has been seen. The fundamental re-engineering of Manor Road is vital to the economy of the area, and I suppose a little pain now should lead to a lot of gain later – it is just a pity that communications between the contractor F.M Conway and residents are not better.

This week Samsung announced that they would be ceasing production of plasma screen TV’s by the end of this year. A lot of film and sports fans are very keen on plasma technology, as it offers screen images with very deep blacks and almost imperceptible motion blur. The downside to plasma technology is that it uses a relatively large amount of electricity, and the screens can run very hot. This is not a major issue for commercial users – you will often see very large plasma displays used in offices, where they are often inset into meeting room walls. They have become less popular for home use, however, where LED and LCD technology has been improving steadily, to the point where picture quality differences are now minimal. On top of that, the newer technologies consume far less power, and consequently run at a lower temperature. To cap it all, plasma TV’s can be made in resolutions higher than 1080i, but they are very difficult to make reliably at full 4K resolution (the old spectre of “dead pixels” returns as the pixel density increases exponentially between HD and 4K resolutions).  Plasma televisions tend to be substantially thicker that LED screens – something that is a major factor for many buyers, who want the thinnest possible television in their living rooms. As I wrote last week, now is really not the time to be shelling out a large wodge of cash on a new television – the technology is in too much flux right now. Better to spend a small amount on a cheap and cheerful HD TV and save your cash for when 4K TV has matured to the point when the big broadcasters are actually providing 4K programming before investing in a 4K television, which will also have the benefit of having dropped considerably in price. I recall when I first saw a flat screen television in John Lewis at Bluewater. It had a 42” screen and was about five inches thick – and it cost £12,000! Nowadays a telly a quarter of the thickness would be about three hundred quid; the same will happen with 4K, even if the first sets have not been quite so eye wateringly expensive as the very first HD ones were.

A team from Exeter University led by Doctor Fiona Matthews recently published a report:- "The Effect Of Mobile Telephones On Sperm Quality: A Systematic Review And Meta-analysis”  in the journal Environment International. The team of academic researchers have been studying the effects of microwave radio frequency energy from mobile phones on the production of sperm.  Many men carry mobile phones in their trouser pockets, and the team were keen to discover if this could be a contributory factor in the increase in male infertility in the last twenty years or so. Currently around fourteen percent of couples in developed countries have problems in conceiving a child, and mobile phone radiation may be a contributory factor. The University of Exeter team discovered that in normal conditions between fifty to eighty percent of sperm are healthy and viable, but that this falls by a little over eight percent where they have been exposed to microwaves on the same frequency as used by mobile phones. Dr Mathews said: "Given the enormous scale of mobile phone use around the world, the potential role of this environmental exposure needs to be clarified. This study strongly suggests that being exposed to radio-frequency electromagnetic radiation from carrying mobiles in trouser pockets negatively affects sperm quality. This could be particularly important for men already on the borderline of infertility, and further research is required to determine the full clinical implications for the general population." Certainly a cause for concern. You can read the full, extremely detailed and technical report by clicking here.

Long time Maggot Sandwich reader Brian Silk (who is also webmaster of the Erith Town website) is also the Manager of local amateur football club Bexley Invicta. They recently won the Aslie Pitter MBE Trophy after winning 4-2 against Bexley Police F.C. at the Thamesmead Town ground in Bayliss Avenue in front of a crowd of more than a hundred people including local MP Teresa Pearce and Aslie Pitter himself. The Aslie Pitter MBE Trophy is named after a chap who first raised the subject of homophobia in football after playing in the late 1980’s for Sutton United and later Clapham Old Boys; when a fellow team  mate discovered that Pitter was gay, he got dropped from the first to the fourth team the very next day by the manager. He realised he was never going to be accepted just for his footballing talent and quit the team. By 1991 Pitter had set up Stonewall FC – the first gay football team in the UK.  Today Stonewall FC has grown to sixty players, and they field three teams, playing home games at Barn Elms playing fields in Barnes, West London. Aslie still plays for and manages the second team. "Today there are five other gay teams in England so we're no longer unique. But with all that we've been through, from some colleagues dying of Aids to others meeting their life partners, the club has become an extended family, and more than a football club." Bexley Invicta are an inclusive football club with both straight and gay players, and are keen to fight homophobia in the game. Bexley Invicta play their home matches at the Northumberland Heath Recreation Ground. If you would like to know more about the local club, you can visit their website by clicking here. Please feel free to comment below. Brian is also a talented amateur musician - here is the video for his latest song. 

The builders are in.

The photo above shows the state of work on the building site that will become the new campus for Bexley College. As you can see, much of the site has now been cleared of trees and bushes – a not inconsiderable effort, as the whole area was absolutely overrun with undergrowth and full grown trees. I do wonder what has happened to the large colony of rats that were occupying the site – I walk past on a daily basis, on my way to Erith Station, and I have regularly seen giant rats scurrying around, usually after discarded fast food wrappers and the like. No doubt they will have moved on to the bushes around the entrance to the station; I will be keeping my eyes peeled for rat – related activity. Aside from site clearing, it would appear that the main activity going on in the site on Walnut Tree Road is the preparation for the building foundations and ground works. It looks to me that the site engineers will first need to dig up and remove the concrete base and foundations from the old Erith Tram Shed, which was located on the site. From the reactions of the engineers I saw on Thursday afternoon, they were not expecting the concrete slab to be as big or as solid as it appears to be; it looks like quite a big job to break it up and haul it away. I get the feeling that Erith Town Centre will be seeing quite a few spoil lorries coming and going over the next few weeks. Still, it is a small price to pay to get the campus constructed. As I have said before, I think that the campus will be a great benefit not only to the students, but to the whole of Erith. There is more construction work going on at the other end of Erith High Street; The Cross Keys is being refurbished and converted into offices for the international management consultancy The Aleff Group. I have seen BT engineers attending, and there is light and activity under way, but with the heavy metal anti vandalism shutters still covering the lower doors and windows, it is very difficult to see exactly what is going on. I have been invited for a guided tour once the work is completed, but by the look of things, this might be some time away.

Bad news for Erith residents with legal issues. The long struggling Cross Street Law Centre is having its’ funding slashed almost in half due to government cut backs. The long established drop in legal clinics will cease in April because of the loss of its’ legal aid grant. Quite what impoverished locals will do for help following this, I really could not say.

This years’ Bexley Beer Festival has a new venue. After seven years of being held at Sidcup Sports Club, the festival will be hosted at the Old Dartfordians Club in Old Bexley - the details are on the flyer below - click on the image for a larger view.

On a completely different tack, I was reminded of something strange I witnessed some years ago. Back in the spring of 1996 I had not yet moved into Pewty Acres, and experienced the joys of Erith life. I was walking down Picardy Road, in Upper Belvedere on my way to Belvedere railway station. It was a clear, bright spring morning, just before Easter. There were a few small clouds in the sky, but visibility was excellent. I was hurrying to the station on my way to work when I saw an object in the sky, which I initially thought was a hot air balloon. I first thought it was relatively small and low in altitude, but then I saw it pass through some clouds, which were at approximately 8,000 feet. I then realised the object was huge and very high up – it was also travelling quite slowly northwards, against the direction of the wind. As I studied the object I came to the conclusion it was not a balloon at all – it was dark grey and triangular, very large and like nothing I had seen before. It stayed in view for around ten minutes as I completed my journey to the station. I pointed the object out to several fellow commuters, all of whom were mystified by the object. The last I saw it had travelled over the Thames into East London. I had seen the infamous Black Triangle. I contacted LUFOS (the London UFO Study group) who in turn confirmed that a large number of people had independently seen the same giant flying triangle that I had seen, at roughly the same time. They also contacted London City Airport, who confirmed that they had monitored by radar a large unknown flying object in their controlled airspace at the same time as the object was visible over South East London. I never heard any more about the matter, and I have absolutely no idea as to what the object actually was. All I know is it was huge, silent and definitely not a conventional aircraft.  I am not saying what I saw was a craft from another star system / dimension or whatever – what I am saying is I saw something in the sky for several minutes that did not resemble any kind of flying vehicle I could recognise (and my aircraft recognition skills are pretty good) and it seemed to be under intelligent control. The mystery was never solved, and I am still perplexed by the experience to this day. Do let me know if you have ever seen something inexplicable in the sky.

With all the hoo – ha in the popular press about last Sunday’s Oscars, and the debate as to who deserved what award, the almost complete absence of awards for the latest Bond film “Skyfall” seems to have been the elephant in the corner. OK, Adele got to sing the title song from “Skyfall”, and the appearance of Dame Shirley Bassey singing “Goldfinger”, but the movie itself was award – free. Bearing in mind the huge critical and financial success of the film – by most counts now the most successful Bond film of the entire series, you would have thought all the fans would be delighted, but not a bit of it. Back in 2005 when Daniel Craig was announced as the next actor to take on the iconic role of the secret agent, a small group of extremely vociferous people banded together to set up the protest site Danielcraigisnotbond.com. Fair enough, people are entitled to their opinions; I thought that prior to Casino Royale being released, that maybe they knew something the general public did not, and the first Craig film would turn out to be a turkey. Of course is wasn’t – most critics regard the re-boot of the Bond franchise as an excellent film, and liking the fact that Craig brought a grittier, more realistic interpretation to the role. I thought that the nay – sayers would gradually be won over, but when researching the subject for this weeks’ entry, I found that the Danielcraigisnotbond.com site is still up and running. Many critics (and fans) agree that Skyfall is in the top three Bond movies of all time, with a clever plot, intelligent script, great acting and some cracking explosions (and what would a Bond film be without explosions?) Yet just like the members of the Flat Earth Society, the Danielcraigisnotbond.com members have continued in their protests about the choice of actor have continued despite all of the evidence to the contrary that he was an inspired choice for the role. They are either so pig headed that they will never change their entrenched views, or they are completely divorced from reality. I bet they are secretly seething after the news that Skyfall is not only the most successful Bond movie ever, but it is now also the most successful British film of all time. 

Recently I described the shocking state of Bexleyheath Broadway, which has nearly a third of all shops empty and unused; I mentioned that even the venerable company Kimberley Hifi, which has been in the Broadway for as long as I can recall is now no more. It would appear that not all nearby towns have been so affected. It has been pointed out to me that places such as Woolwich have thus far been almost totally immune to the closures that have blighted Bexleyheath and Welling, for example. The theory that has been expounded for this is that in relatively prosperous places such as Bexleyheath, local shoppers have money, but limited time and inclination to traipse around the shops. Shop rents and other overheads are high, meaning profit margins are very slim. Locals are likely to compare retail prices and then purchase goods online. In more deprived towns like Woolwich, many locals have all day to wander around the shops, and tend not to buy online, but to purchase in a traditional manner. Because such towns are less attractive to prosperous shoppers, rents and overheads are lower, offsetting the lower average spend by the shopper. This is just a theory, but it does seem to be held out by local events. In any case Woolwich has experienced fewer shop closures, though the shops it does have do tend to be of the Pound Land and discount store variety. I don’t personally feel that high street retail is dying completely – but it is definitely changing.

Some good news for a change, especially if (unlike me, possibly the most un-sporty person in town) you are a football fan. Local club Bexley Invicta have just come runners up in the Bristol Challenge Cup, a competition for amateur teams. Bexley Invicta lost in the final to home team Bristol Panthers. Bearing in mind that this was Bexley Invicta’s first season in existence, I think it is a very creditable showing indeed. The club Chairman is Brian Silk, a Maggot Sandwich reader and occasional contributor (he wrote the review on The Ark cafe and Christian bookshop recently). Bexley Invicta are the first mixed gay / straight football team in Kent; they are off to Lyon in March to take part in their first ever international competition. It looks like it won’t be long before Brian will be ready for the Chairmanship of Charlton.

The news that Bexley Council have now signed a deal with Tesco which will allow the supermarket giant to demolish the current Council offices in Bexleyheath (see the photo above - click for a larger view) to create a superstore on the site; at the same time the Council will move into the old Woolwich Equitable offices around the corner in Watling Street, which will be refurbished. Council Leader Teresa O’Neill is quoted as saying that "The fact that we are re-using the Woolwich building is further justification for our position as London’s number one borough for recycling.”. I could not have put it more cheesily. The move does make sense – the Woolwich building is relatively modern, and certainly looks distinctive enough, with its’ unique Chinese Pagoda styling. I understand that a number of houses are also going to be built (though who will be able to afford them in this credit crunch? Answers on a postcard please..) Tesco say that the deal will mean that they will be creating 400 local jobs, which is always good news. I must admit that I must strike a note of caution; firstly, whenever I see anything to do with Tesco, I am always suspicious. I have a deep and abiding dislike for the company – and yes, before you point it out, they would not be the massive retail behemoth that they are if they were no good at what they do; it just seems to me (and many others) that they want to take over the world. One suburb at a time. It also concerns me that Tesco are one of the worst companies in the UK for “Land Banking” – that is, buying up land when it is cheap, then sitting on it for years without doing anything with it (and preventing any other development by a potential rival) until the market picks up and they either sell it at a profit, or then build a supermarket on the site. Tesco have been guilty of this in Dartford; the site on Lowfield Street has been the property of Tesco for the last ten years, but they have held off building for this entire period, which has caused planning blight – the area has become run down, which has put off shoppers to the other businesses in the road, which has led to further dilapidation. It has got so bad that several shopkeepers in Lowfield Street call the area “liked bombed out Beirut”. Local opinion seems to be that Tesco bought the site to prevent a rival supermarket chain from getting it, rather than because they actually wanted to build a store on the site. Dartford Council have issued a “get building, or get out” order to Tesco, but I think they would be hard pressed to enforce it, as possession is nine tenths of the law – and Tesco can afford the very best lawyers. I just hope that history does not repeat itself in Bexleyheath.

Malcolm Knight of the Bexley is Bonkers blog has discovered something of interest – I don’t cover his ins and outs with Bexley Council, as he does such an admirable job himself, but one thing he has recently uncovered during a visit he made to the Lower Belvedere B and Q (blogger does not like ampersands, as they are used as a database control character, and it throws a bit of a tizzy if you use them). Next to the B and Q part of the structure is being converted into an Asda. Malcolm saw warning signs posted in the car park, stating that the maximum stay in the car park was three hours, and any over – stayers would have their vehicles clamped. As Malcolm correctly points out, clamping on private land was made illegal in the UK since the 1st of October 2012. As Malcolm says, it will be instructive to follow what happens when someone is clamped. Anyone with a clue as to the law could have an absolute field day; unfortunately most people will not realise that the law has been changed , and will probably pay the fine. Personally I would call the Police if I found a vehicle I owned that had been clamped whilst on private land. After all, a criminal act would have been carried out.

The Arabfly Dangleway fiasco flounders on; we now find out that Boris has been forced to go cap in hand to the European Union for a hand out of £8 million in order to keep the Emirates cable car running. So few people are using it – Transport for London’s own figures show that only sixteen people use it for a regular daily commute, despite Boris selling the scheme as a vital part of London’s public transport infrastructure. It is painfully obvious he knows little of South East / East London, as any resident could have told him you can cross the river via the Jubilee line from North Greenwich to Canning Town in around two minutes for half the cost of the cable car. Speed, convenience and reliability (not to mention cost) are far more important to the commuter than a pretty view (and even that I would question – who wants to look at old warehouses, a scrap yard and a lorry park?) The DLR offers another way of getting across the River that is pretty reliable, and you can use your Oyster card or travel card without paying an additional fare. The fact is, that over and above the sponsorship money shelled out by Emirates Airline, London’s council tax payers have been paying for the service, which is bleeding cash to the tune of £50,000 a week, which is why Boris has had to go with his begging bowl to the EU. What happens if they decline is anyone’s guess.

You may recall that last June I featured a story about poet Luke Wright who had written a 1,700 word poem called the Ballad of Larner Road, about the community that live on the notorious Larner Road housing estate that is soon to be demolished and replaced with modern low level apartments and some shared ownership housing. The poem has now been made into a short film that has been uploaded to YouTube. You can see it below. I was pretty cynical, thinking that it would be a propaganda piece for the housing association, but it is actually not bad at all. Let me know what you think of it.

Bexley Invicta.

Like pretty much everybody, I get annoyed by the repetitious nature of TV commercials. The same old boring dross seemingly repeated ad infinitum. It has got to the stage, that I now, rather than ignore them, have started picking them apart. Two current adverts especially have drawn my attention – the Dulux paint commercial, and the grindingly awful BT Infinity advert. The Dulux commercial – should you have been fortunate not to have seen it shows a forty something bloke who still lives with his parents. After staggering home drunk one time too many, his Mum and Dad repaint his room in bright yellow whilst he is out. When he awakens the next morning and sees the eye watering colour scheme, he tells his parents that he is moving out – much to their delight. The commercial has a glaring continuity error in it. There is a close up shot of the bloke as he awakens from his drunken slumber. He is lying on the mattress and there is a visible dark spot which is meant to be where he was drooling in his sleep. The shot then cuts to a wider view of the repainted bedroom with the bloke sitting up in bed, looking horrified at the transformation of his bedroom. The dark spot on the mattress is absent – in the space of about two seconds of screen time it has vanished. Look for it next time you have to endure the commercial; once you know of the error, it becomes glaringly obvious. I love finding this kind of thing, as it makes the whole commercial break experience more endurable. The second issue is with the BT Infinity commercial. This time it is not a technical fault with the filming, it is a matter of the advert does not make sense. The scene starts with one of the students who has featured in several of the recent advert series answering the door of their shared flat, to find an attractive girl standing there. She’s a fellow student from Spain, and wants to use their fibre optic wifi. All well and good, you may think – a strong plot device to get the girl (and an unfeasibly large number of her companions) into the lads’ flat. The point is, the wifi signal indicated on her laptop would suggest that she had a good signal in her own flat – all she needed was permission to use the signal, and the password. There was no need for the girls to lounge around in the boys’ flat, other than for the female student who lives with the lads to come home and find the place crawling with women. The advert makes no sense, and is pretty insulting to all parties portrayed. It is lazy film making, conforming to a ton of stereo types. I understand that commercials often use stereo types, mainly due to time constraints – the director has around 28 seconds to tell a story, and there is not enough time to set up a character, so you have to then rely on a stereo type that the viewer will instantly identify. Nevertheless the number of clichés that are shoe horned into the advert are to me unacceptable. I doubt that many viewers pay as much attention as I do, to what is essentially a piece of throw – away viewing. I would be interested in others views on the subject.

Planning consent is now under consideration by Bexley Council for the redevelopment of the Howbury Centre in Slade Green. Redrow Homes have the contract to build a total of 278 houses in three phases over the next eighteen months or so. I understand that a percentage of the new properties will be social housing. Whilst the potential creation of new housing is overall to be welcomed, I do question the location of the development. Slade Green is not exactly crawling with shops – the Londis mini supermarket in the small parade of shops opposite Slade Green station is about the largest in walking distance. Other than that, potential residents without a car will have to get the 99 bus into Erith for Morrison’s, Farm Foods, or Iceland. The other issue is that the housing market is flat right now, and for the foreseeable future. Although a proportion if the properties will be rental, I doubt that many people will want to buy a house on the new estate. First time buyers are having a hell of a time, often being required to stump up the most impossibly huge deposits – effectively barring them from the market. Whether this intolerable situation will change by the time the houses are built is debatable. Slade Green is never going to be the most desirable of addresses, convenient though it is for the rail journey into London, and close to the M25, it has not exactly got much in the way of cachet.

Much to my surprise, the Emails I received from the Melbourne Theatre Company have gone on to the point where I have now signed a contract, authorising use of one of my photographs as the backdrop to a stage production they are undertaking. I just received a small parcel in the post which contained a copy of the programme, complete with a credit, thanking me for the use of the image. I let them use it for free, as amongst other reasons, I don’t consider my photos to be of “proper” commercial quality. I was quite surprised at the theatre company’s choice of shot – a rather dreary snap of the office buildings in Snow Hill, Birmingham that I took a couple of years ago, whilst I was in the city on business (see the image above - click for a larger view). The photo does rather confirm most prejudices regarding Birmingham – that it is a dull, grey concrete jungle. This may have been true ten or so years ago, but nowadays it is a really nice city, with some excellent shops and restaurants – certainly somewhere well worth a day out visit to. I get the feeling the theatre company wanted an image of a grey and faceless municipal cityscape to portray an anonymous metropolis – although it is not anonymous as all that – there is a bit of a giveaway in the form of the BT tower in the foreground. I am unsure if they noticed this – far be it for me to impose editorial decisions on them.

Earlier I mentioned my current views on the state of current television advertising. I omitted one particular advert, as I felt it needed a piece all to itself, as I feel that it represents the thin end of the wedge, and a potential privacy concern. You may have seen the latest television commercial for Confused.com featuring their usual selection of animated people singing new lyrics to the tune of “YMCA”. “Why pay for bad drivers?” goes the hook line for the commercial, which features a cartoon stereo typical chav boy racer in a souped up hot hatchback, racing around and causing several upsets. The ad goes on to say that by fitting a small black box “to monitor what a good driver you are” you can reduce insurance costs. This sounds all fine and good, but the implications are widespread and serious. The Black Box they refer to is what is known as a Telematic Monitor.  It is designed to monitor what the driver does and how they behave. In essence it is a telemetric monitor of the vehicle, recording where you go, how long you spend in the car, your acceleration / deceleration and even G-forces experienced by the vehicle during each journey. The insurers (and for that matter, anyone the insurers give access to the data) can thus remotely tell what the driver has been doing. “Fine” you may say “I have got nothing to hide, and if it gets me cheaper car insurance” – but this is missing the point; it is only a matter of time before most, if not all insurers demand a telematic monitor box be installed. As soon as this tipping point is reached, the government will be in the position of making them law – and they will then have the perfect method of monitoring and controlling the general public. We are sleep walking into a system of totalitarian control. The government are already able to monitor and track the position of anyone with a mobile phone with a degree of accuracy you may find disturbing. To couple this with (potentially) compulsory telematic monitoring really would leave us in a situation where Big Brother from 1984 would be jealous. Paranoid rantings? I think not; it is just that most people don’t know about the technology or what use it can be put to; by the time they do, it may well be too late.

Local amateur football club Bexley Invicta are recruiting new players. They are just about to begin the new season for the first time in a competitive league; they will be competing in the London Unity League. Bexley Invicta are a gay friendly football club - their players are a mix of gay and straight people; something that should be strongly supported in the still widely homophobic world of association football. Their chairperson is a chap called Brian Silk, who is a Maggot Sandwich reader (and occasional contributor). He also manages the excellent Erith centered web resource Erithtown.net - which I can highly recommend. Here is a recording of an interview that Brian undertook about the team on BBC Radio Kent.



There has been some debate in the technology press over the last couple of weeks in relation to retro gaming – that is, playing old 8 bit games designed for 1980’s home computers. Nowadays emulators for all the major classic computers are available on pretty much every platform, and seem especially popular on Android. Websites such as The Register regularly feature “top ten” favourite retro games. One that consistently features is the ground breaking space warfare / trading game “Elite”. This was a very early pseudo 3D wire frame animation which initially ran on the BBC Micro, although it was later ported to the Sinclair Spectrum and the Commodore 64. The application is still available in various forms, and a small team of independent developers have created a modern, 32 and 64 bit updated version, now called “Oolite” with improved, solid graphics. The game is available for Windows, Apple OS X and Linux. The game is free and open source and you can download it here. I have tried the OS X and Linux versions and it has the same game play as the original, even though the graphics are now more refined. I would certainly recommend that you give it a spin – after all, it is free.

I swear that one or more reporters from the News Shopper read the Maggot Sandwich. The recent mini campaign I have been running about local food hygiene and the "Scores on the Doors"project seems to have been picked up by the local paper. The fact that Erith, and Bexley in general gets such a woeful overall food hygiene rating has been picked up by them; they have published a story on the subject - pointing out that the London Borough of Bexley gets the lowest score of any local authority in the UK! You can read the News Shoppers' take on the story by clicking here. It would seem that the area's kebab shops are the absolute overall worst offenders, and the advice is to avoid any establishment with less than three stars out of five. The bad news is that the highest rating any independent (non chain) takeaway in Erith gets is two stars!

The computer floppy disk is forty years old this week; its’ heyday was really from the mid 1980’s to the mid 1990’s. Whilst they are most definitely yesterday’s technology, they were the first truly portable storage media. I know cassettes were very popular in the early 80’s, but they were so grindingly slow that unless you were a die – hard (like me) you did not bother copying them and passing them around. Once floppies became popular, initially with the 5.25” format, a whole computer subculture arose around them. Many kids could not afford double sided disks – ones that you could turn over like a record and “play” the other side. Some enterprising individual discovered that if you carefully cut a notch in the correct position on the vinyl disk cover, you could turn over a single sided disk and use the other side – which nearly always worked – it seemed that the single and double sided disks had the same recording media inside – the single sided just lacked the extra notch which told the drive the disk was double sided. Most brands were absolutely fine doing this; indeed several kitchen table companies were set up selling notching tools of varying quality. Personally I found a pair of small nail scissors did the job just fine, and I cannot recall ever actually ever knackering a disk as a result. The 3.5” coffee mat sized disk came in during the mid 80’s – a more robust format, with a spring loaded cover over the recording media, but it lacked the ability to have its’ hardware hacked in the way of the older, physically larger , but smaller capacity disks. You can read more about the history of the floppy disk here.

I have been running an occasional series featuring independent local companies for a while now. This time it is the turn of Defender Consoles – not the home of the classic 80’s arcade game (which would have been nice in itself), but an Erith based company that manufactures custom dashboards and roof consoles for the Land Rover Defender series of off road vehicles. You can see their excellent website by clicking here. I think that this is just the kind of niche, specialist manufacturing facility that a small local company can really succeed at.

So many buildings in and around Erith stand empty and seemingly abandoned; Erith Trades and Social Club, situated on a piece of land that separates Morrison’s petrol station on one side, and the KFC drive through on the other has been derelict and empty for a couple of years now. The same is true of the old Erith Pop in Parlour building, opposite the Baptist Church in Queen Street, which was bought at auction on the 12th December last year, but which still remains boarded up and unloved (see the photo above - click for a larger view). I try and keep an eye on the local planning applications for clues as to what is going on locally, but I have seen nothing in respect of this building. The same can be said of the infamous Cross Keys pub, which has also been boarded up and seemingly abandoned since it lost its’ licence back in September 2010. It has been put up for auction a couple of times, and I believe it eventually found a buyer, but I have no idea what the latest position regarding it is. If any reader has information on any of these buildings, please let me know – you can contact me at hugh dot neal at gmail dot com (sorry about the format, but I don’t want a ton of spam as the result of an over enthusiastic web crawler).

I had a couple of comments regarding my coverage of the history of Sebel and Co. manufacturers of Mobo Toys in West Street, Erith, between the end of the war and the early 1970's. It would seem that a significant number of locals had an involvement with the business. I had a couple of comments regarding this, but for some obscure technical reason, one of them would not publish correctly - it shows in the blog management console as published, but it is not - until now. Here is the previously missing comment: "Sebels - I worked there for a bit as a kind, drilling and press operating. Pay wasn't all that bad for the late 1960's although the factory was falling to bits. Pathe have an interesting newsreel clip of local Erith kids testing some of the toy horses, etc, to destruction, something they liked doing, but was frowned on by mum and dad. See http://www.britishpathe.com/video/toy-testing/query/erith+toy+testing"

This weeks' video clip is from US sitcom "The Big Bang Theory" where Sheldon gets an unexpected Christmas present. Enjoy.