Ordinary British Decency, 20 MPH Or Bust and Dawn Chorus Day

29/04/2009 by Steve Tierney.

Ordinary British Decency
Prime Minister’s Questions today brought up the important issue of the Gurkhas. I was pleased to see David Cameron give Gordon Brown both barrels over this because the current state of affairs is just plain evil. I was also surprised to find that Nick Clegg, somebody for whom I generally have little time for, made the most poignant statement and it was this:
“Simple ordinary British decency means that soldiers who were prepared to die for this country must be allowed to live in this country.”
He is quite right. It’s so obvious that I wonder how anybody can even argue about it? This one doesn’t need debate. It needs action. Right now. If for no other reason than to prove the government still remembers what Simple Ordinary British Decency is.

20 MPH Or Bust
The Local Liberal Democrats are once again on their high horses, this time over the idea to reduce speeds on our roads to 20MPH in towns and villages. Sadly, this is a clear example of what is so wrong with Liberal Democrat thinking. Their first impulse when dealing with any problem is to slap a law, or a rule, or a regulation on it. Aren’t they supposed to be the party of liberalism?  Anybody with any common sense would agree that dangerous driving is a problem that must be dealt with and that slower speeds almost certainly equal less danger. But where do we draw the line? Why not 10 Miles Per Hour? Or Five Miles Per Hour? Or two miles per hour while a man walks in front of the car waving a flag and tooting a horn? In the end, you can reduce speeds as much as you like, but if there’s no enforcement of those speeds it is nothing more than words and hot air.

I put it to you, dear reader, that if people actually kept to the current 30MPH speed limit, drove sensibly with proper care and attention and avoided using mobile phones, sat navs and other distractions while managing their cars that would go a long way to reducing accidents too. The Highways Agency used to tell us in their adverts: “It’s Thirty For A Reason.” According to the Lib Dems they should have reasoned a bit longer. There is a place for a 20MPH speed limit; alongside schools for instance. I worry that if we give the Lib Dems a free run on this they’ll keep slowing and slowing and slowing us down until we’d get there faster on a Tonka toy (and safer too, those Tonkas take some breaking.)  I’m just saying, before we begin knee-jerk legislation and enforcement, couldn’t we think about making the current system work properly?

Dawn Chorus Day
I tend to work pretty late hours quite often and its not unusual for me to be going to bed at about the time dawn breaks.  The happy chirping of the birds can be annoying when all you want is to snatch a few hours sleep.  Of course, that’s a blinkered view of what is actually a rather wonderful phenomenon.  Nature, having laid still during the dead of night, wakes up and bursts into song to mark the start of a new morning.  Which is precisely what Dawn Chorus Day is all about.  The brainchild of town park champion John Smith and in association with the Friends Of Wisbech Park, we are all being invited to come and experience the Dawn Chorus in all its glory, eyes wide with excitement.  On Sunday May 3rd, at 3.45AM (that’s the crack of dawn this Sunday for the chronally-challenged) many local people will be gathering in Wisbech Town Park for a tiny adventure amidst the urban spawl.  I can’t claim to be a bird-watcher or a person who spends much time getting up close and personal with nature, but I’m certainly going to attend.  The world wakes up and sings.  Can you think of a better cure for our current economic malaise than that?  They’re even throwing in a free bacon roll for everybody who attends.  Now that is nourishment for the soul.

Click HERE to see the Dawn Chorus Day poster which has all the details and HERE to book a place!  I’ll see you there!

The Small Print (legally required during election campaigns.)
Published by Mrs D N Clark on behalf of Steve Tierney both of 111 High Street, March, Cambs PE15 9LH.

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