Christopher John Myers

Croydon Council has proudly prosecuted a 67 year old man for using his wife’s disabled parking permit.   The permit has been confiscated, presumably leaving the poor woman housebound. Well, no doubt the poor man did wrong, but think of all those ‘Council enforcement officers’, CCTV, lawyers and all the rest that could have been usefully employed tracking down fly-tippers and the people who lead shed loads of litter up and down our streets, not to mention the dog owners whose pets poo everywhere - do you know the council doesn’t seem to have found or prosecuted any offenders since the 1970s? The council press release reads, “A shopping trip cost a Woodside man more than he had bargained for after he was found guilty of fraudulently using a disabled parking permit in central Croydon. “Appearing before Croydon magistrates on Tuesday, Stephen Sempasa, of Gunnell Close, was convicted after denying the charge. The permit, commonly known as a blue badge, had already...

Cambridge researchers have been analysing Facebook ‘likes’ and worked out that Americans who like Harley Davidson motorcycles are most likely to be thick.   The Independent reads that as meaning all bikers.   Makes sense to me, after all – no one with any sense buys a Harley! The research suggests that people who like curly fries, thunderstorms and Morgan Freeman’s voice are more likely to be highly intelligent. You’re most likely to be gay if you ‘like “Wicked the Musical,” but straight if you choose “Being Confused After Waking Up From Naps.” “Barack Obama” turns out to cut across all groups, being ‘liked’ by Democrats; Christians, African Americans and Homosexuals. Great stuff! independent.co.uk

This killed me, from The Sun. Shamed MP Huhne mocked by warder in jail Tannoy prank DISGRACED MP Chris Huhne was ridiculed on his first day in Wandsworth jail yesterday — when a warder called him to breakfast by yelling: “Order! Order!”  The mocking prison officer, using the prison’s Tannoy system, mimicked the Commons Speaker by adding: “The right honourable member for Wandsworth North — down to the office.”  Other prisoners at the Victorian jail in South West London roared with laughter as former Cabinet minister Huhne, 58, trudged from his cell to pick up his morning meal.  One prison visitor said: “He didn’t have a good first day.” Read more: thesun.co.uk

  Oh dear, this from the SW Londoner By David Horsfall Croydon Council has spent only 4% of the £100,000 government grant handed out to regenerate the town, according to a recent freedom of information request. In May last year, Croydon Old Town was one of 12 selected towns to take part in the pilot scheme to regenerate failing town centres, based on the Portas Review.  Of the 12 towns selected, Croydon has the third lowest spend to date. Retail expert Mary Portas was appointed by David Cameron to advise on the future of the high street, and made  28 points in its recommendations to the Coalition Government. Creating market days, removing red tape for start up market traders, reviewing business rates charges for new businesses and implementing controlled free parking schemes are some of the main policies that Croydon are looking to implement. Although still early days for the scheme, not ...

I have often thought we’d be better off retiring Prince Charles, but after hearing how he’s lobbied to have the quack medicine homeopathy available on the NHS, at a cost to us all of £4million a year, I think we need to act quickly. In December 2009 the Foundation For Integrated Health, which Charles set up, wrote to the Department Of Health asking it to remove criticism of homeopathy due to appears on the NHS Choices website. As a result, the statement that homeopathy was ‘scientifically implausible’ was, as a result, edited out of the NHS website’s draft guidance. Our Chief Medical Officer, Professor Dame Sally Davies, says homeopathy is ‘rubbish’ and homeopaths ‘peddlers’. Homeopaths believe that if people are exposed to minute quantities of toxins that caused symptoms similar diseases, then they can fight disease by being exposed to the same substances in very diluted form. Homeopathic products are diluted in water or alcohol many billions of times, t...