Christopher John Myers

STOP: PRESS SORRY gig cancelled. ‘Time is Tight’, Purley’s premier R&B band, are back at the Rayon d’Or, Airport House, Purley Way on Friday 28th October. The instrumental group’s appearances are infrequent - but always popular - so make sure you get there before kick-off at 8.30pm Time is Tight’s infrequent apparaces is nothing to do with a shortage of booking requests … it’s a reflection of the demands of the band members’ second careers and heavy business commitments. One of the biggest commitments is keyboard player Giles Holland’s ‘other’ full-time job … as top ranked violinist Vanessa Mae’s personal assistant.   It means global jet-setting, often at short notice. The band members all met up through connections with St Barnabas Church in Higher Drive , Purley where Giles is a regular organist and band conductor – when jet-setting demands allow.   Drummer Gary Pope is married to choir member Pam and guitarist Dave Rayner is a pal of Giles’. Since getting...

You wouldn't think there would be much sensation in Croydon Council's municipal magazine, Your Croydon ... but there's a record number of exclamation marks in the October issue of what's self-importantly titled 'Your primary source of community information'.  Seventeen, in fact, almost one per page... Apres the riots, the magazine predictably, launches a 'Love Croydon' campaign.  'We want people to love Croydon!' someone asks ... is this a rhetorical question?  Whatever, it's clearly sensational. My personal favourite exclamation mark is this one - 'Youngsters make clean sweep - with a smile!'  Love it! The riots, looting, violence and arson of August makes an appearance in Your Croydon but curiously, the writing team makes strenuous efforts to avoid using such, presumably inflammatory, terms! "The incidents of August" is how Council Leader Mike Fisher describes a series of events that saw one person killed, busine...

If you've ever parked on a Coulsdon street, you may not be aware of the latest Croydon Council scam that could cost you £60.  They caught me. The trick is, they've introduced two different types of pay-and-display bays, but one is free.  Confused? You will be when I tell you that one type of bay delights in the Croydon Council-speak term, 'shared use bay'!  It's all too confusing. It gets worse ... there are now two types of pay-and-display machine - one of these is free too.  But they LOOK identical.  And they both issue tickets. The trick is, that tickets from the 'shared use' machine give you a half an hour or so of 'free' parking, but ONLY IN THE 'shared use' bay, if you can spot it.  The other one dishes out tickets at an hourly rate as usual.  This was the machine I used. So, I got caught by BUYING a ticket and using it in the 'shared use' bay. Or at least I think that's what happened.  I argued that it seems unfair ...

Croydon's decision to go to fortnightly refuse collections on the pretext of improving recycling is looking even more like a scam, as it turns out we have to buy our own food waste bags! A handfull were delivered, enough for a month's use, or so.  We have to buy the rest! A patronising booklet with gurning Council staff posing by recycling bins tells us all about this so-called recycling scheme, but it doesn't say what the council ITSELF is doing with its waste. Council Tax-payers should be told how the Town Hall is recycling its food waste, paper, plastic and the rest ... if it is.  Surely they should be setting an example? But there's no information about this on the website. As we keep reading about English waste plastics ending up in Chinese landfill, I think we're entitled to to be told how responsible the council is with its plastic disposal.  Be good to see an audit that shows where the plastic ends up.  I feel a Freedom of Information reques...

Latest figures show that 85 per cent of those August rioters and looters charged with offences in Croydon already had criminal records.  That's fully ten per cent higher than the average figure announced by Justice Secretary, Kenneth Clarke and shows how deeply-rooted criminality is in our borough. Think about it - criminals running amok burning and looting their own neighbourhoods, surrounded by whooping hangers-on and 'supporters'.  What an example!  What a challenge for the 'great and good' charged with the local investigation. I am heartened by local people organising clear-ups and 'Love Croydon' events ... but these faultlines in our communities are so deep and so entrenched ... we're going to need divine insight and possibly a miracle to repair our severely wounded town.

As a non-graduate, I wish this year's new undergrads all the best.  But I'm still struggling to understand what a Floristry degree is.  And how it differs from what you end up with after a few weeks evening classes. The explosion in degree courses and graduates, is supposed to be a 'good thing' for the country.  But we now have the Chief Executive of the Royal College of Nursing (no less) who says that nurses now have 'too much theoretical knowledge at the expense of practical skills' And this is a profession that has seen a deliberate shift towards making it an all-degree job.  Has this benefited the NHS and us?  I think not. Similarly, primary and secondary school teaching is now an all-degree profession.  Not so long ago, you didn't even need A levels to go to teacher training college.  But does anyone really believe that teaching has benefited?  Please don't say you believe that school-leavers are any better educated than they were 30 yea...

Wouldn’t you know it, Basildon Council is paying rent and council tax rebates to some 25 ‘households’ at Dale Farm. A council spokesman said the maximum they could claim was £25 a week in housing benefit and £845 a year for council tax. "People are entitled to make a claim even if the property they are renting does not have planning permission," she said. telegraph.co.uk

Tax-payers bailed out failed Royal Bank of Scotland boss Fred, ‘the Shred’, Goodwin … so why can’t we get restitution?   Why should we not be able to claw-back some of the cash from his £3/4m pension and prosecute him? Head of the Serious Fraud Office, Richard Alderman agrees!  He says says reckless bank bosses who have to be saved by taxpayers should go to prison …adding, ‘I think that is what the public wants to see.’ Peter McKay, writing in the Daily Mail today, agrees as well. “What do we call Fred Goodwin, the former chief executive of the Royal Bank of Scotland, whose dealings cost the taxpayer a total of £45billion when the Government took over the bank rather than let it collapse?” he asks. “He’s right, but I’d go further. Every single member of our so-called banking profession who was rewarded for failure prior to the recent collapse of their institutions should be compelled to return the money to the Government. It can’t be hard to put together a list of ...

As four men, all from the same family of ‘travelers’ have been charged with slavery offences relating to four people at the Green Acres Caravan Park in Leighton Buzzard site in Bedfordshire … more shocking news of how 'treveler' gangs exploit vulnerable homeless people. A letter from a former homeless volunteer in the London Standard (14 September 2011) writes, “gangs would arrive in their vans (at a hostel) and cart off residents, some of whom were in their ‘fifties, for a day’s labour for very little return – just cans of beer or small sums of money.   One of the residents told me that he had been held against his will on a gypsy caravan site and forced to work for just his food and his bed” The volunteer, Cyril Thomas from Vauxhall, continues, “This has been a well-known feature for some time of how the travelling community ‘earn’ their money and they should be exposed and prosecuted for this vile crime.” There’s more evidence of criminal gangs exploiting vulnerable people...

What a relief - Dr Rowan Williams is to retire as Archbishop of Canterbury to return to academia.  Not before time - Dr R's stewardship of the dear old C of E has been plagued by rows, confusion and negative press.  I suspect C of E bishops have been planting negative stories about him for years and this latest news (denied by Lambeth Palace appears to come from the Bishop of London!).  Lately Rowan's blundered into politics and acquired a reputation as an apologiser - for missionaries, for heaven's sake! But his biggest handicap, apart from the scruffy beard of course - is his inability to communicate.  Few understand his arcane rambles.  This is just another reason why we're better off without him. So now, the challenge is to find a man who has a common touch, who is in tune with the times, who has charisma, passion, deep faith, unshakable conviction and sense of mission.  Step forward Bishop Sentamu ... please! * Dr R is apparantly off to Zimbabwe ...