Bicester Good Neighbour Scheme, or The Perils of a Coffee-Morning Fundraiser

Bicester Good Neighbour Scheme is a charitable group that matches volunteers with elderly people who feel they would benefit from some home-visiting. You can find out more about them here.

A good friend of ours is one of their volunteers, and we know how much both he and his 'neighbour' get out of the arrangement, so it is a charity we are happy to support. Especially when there is a cake and coffee morning just up the road from us.

We missed the beginning of the event, but it was still crowded when we got there, despite the house concerned being quite large and several rooms given over to the event itself. I tried to get a photo of some of the cake and coffee without including people (I didn't want to have to worry about people's permission for posting photos of them), and this is about the best I could manage.

(I'm not noted for my photographic abilities.)

The biggest problem I faced was not acquiring a cup of black coffee, ably made using a machine identical to my own by the host, but in avoiding the cakes. I have decided this week that the few kilos that crept on over Christmas and since are no longer wanted. As the eagle-eyed among you may have noticed, there were cakes for sale, but there were also cakes and biscuits for consuming with the coffee and tea.

However, I really don't want those extra kilos any more, so I managed to resist.

Resist eating, that is. I seem to have come home with a cake....

Fortunately for me, it's not gluten-free. Though the fudge around the outside it. I may be recruiting some help.

I console myself with the thought that it's all for a good cause. And a local one, too.

What Not To Tweet

I'm not a regular Radio 5 Live listener (surprise surprise!) but I have occasionally heard Danny Baker's show on a Saturday morning, simply because my OH's car radio is usually tuned to Radio 5 Live.

It was generally random, entertaining and often quite funny. Topics were never obvious but nonetheless interesting, in a bizarre way. Most of which was down to the presenters and their on-air relationship.

So it was particularly sad to hear this week that Danny Baker had been sacked for an inappropriate tweet following the birth of Prince Harry and Meghan's child.

In his most recent apology, he acknowledges that he's not a fan of privilege. He selected the first picture he found that reflected that, without thinking further about the possible connotations.

To be honest, the connotations wouldn't have occurred to me either. I don't think of Meghan as being 'black' (or whatever the PC term is these days). She's American, a former actress and married to Prince Harry. I don't really think about her beyond those points. I've had to check online just to discover she's the Duchess of Sussex. So I can't blame Danny Baker for not thinking of it, though as someone in the public eye with goodness knows how many people following him on Twitter, perhaps he should have been a little more circumspect before hitting 'post'.

I find it rather more disturbing that the image was one of the first he found when looking for privileged baby, or whatever search terms he used. I find it odd that the Daily Mail should be one of the first papers to see it as racist. I am disappointed that so many people think it's okay to demand he be fired when they more than likely haven't heard his radio show and aren't aware of his style of humour. I am also a bit disappointed that he tried to gloss over his mistake so casually, to be honest, but perhaps that was down to embarrassment.

Either way, a lesson to all of us, but particularly those in public employ, to think before we tweet. There are some strange people out there who will make sure we live to regret our mistakes.

When a choice isn't much of a choice at all

Never mind world events, the major headline today is about the local council election results.

I don't know about other councils, but the turnout in our district was less than 33%. I don't know if that's because people think local elections aren't relevant, or that there's no point because we're usually a safe Tory seat, or maybe the voters are just fed up with politicians and everything they stand for. The headline, however, that Labour and the Tories have been hit badly by a Brexit backlash, would suggest that for some of us, at least, there was a point, whether at a local or a national level.

Where we live, we only had a choice between two candidates, one from the Labour party and one from the Conservatives. We're big believers in doing our civic duty (how can we complain about the incumbents otherwise?!) and tried to inform ourselves before going to the polling station. 

We had received a flyer from the Labour candidate (though I couldn't find it yesterday) but nothing from his rival. I don't mind cutting back on the use of paper that mostly goes straight into the recycling bin, and from a party point of view it must save on costs, so I don't have a problem with that per se. However, when we tried to find out about the candidates online, there was a statement from the Labour candidate but nothing from the Conservative candidate. Even via the council's own website, there was nothing to be found.

If that wasn't enough to decide us, the Labour candidate is opposed to Oxford-Cambridge Expressway. That's not the rail-link, but another road. Which did not go to public consultation. In an era when we are supposed to be trying to reduce carbon emissions and make more use of public transport, someone in the current government thought it would be a good idea to build another road - and they can't even keep the ones we have in a reasonable condition - to run loosely parallel to the railway line they are rediscovering.

I have no idea whether the Conservative candidate is opposed to the Expressway or not. My guess is not, since he doesn't appear to know where this end of his potential district is.

To quote a popular musical, "Jefferson has beliefs, Burr has none." But it's a pretty sorry state of affairs. I will be interested to find out how many people in our district spoilt their ballots.