Uxbridge Road/Shepherd's Bush Green roadworks

Having forgotten about the fact that buses (or anything else) cannot now turn left up Uxbridge Road from the Green towards Acton I enjoyed a detour on the 607 yesterday via Westfield and then bloemfontein, till we got back onto Uxbridge. All in all not a big deal really, at least not for me.

But having gone past the workmen on the site on the way down into the Bush I can confidently predict those works will be there for a long time, just like their Camp Bastion on the Green which has been there for the best part of the year.

Clearly standing around not doing much apart from smoking is an essential part of modern road engineering - and looking at this roadmarking from the corner of Uxbridge Rd and the Green, they obviously have a clinical approach to measuring what they are going to do next. "Very deep"? Up to our necks I'd say!

Lovemaking on the tube

No seriously, read this! Have a good week-end all..

Circle Line extension on the way

You will all have seen the various advertising boards on the tube highlighting that the Circle Line extension, which will effectively do away with the Hammersmith & Shitty Line and make it part of the Circle Line, is on its way. It will go live on December 13th. Good news for those of us subjected to the vagaries of the H&C line for the last few years.

The Tube online says this:

Trains on the Circle line will become more reliable and evenly spaced. Other changes will depend on which part of the line you use:

Between Hammersmith and Royal Oak

• More frequent services, with trains every five minutes


• Travel direct to Aldgate, Tower Hill and further round

Travelling via Edgware Road

• Eastbound trains from High Street Kensington will terminate at Edgware Road and you'll have to change


• Westbound trains will run to Hammersmith so you'll have to change at Edgware Road to travel towards High Street Kensington or further round

Travelling to or from Paddington

All trains via King's Cross St. Pancras will run from the Hammersmith & City line station - with a more frequent service.

As earlier posted, I thought this was another opportunity to have a little celebration so here once again, back by popular demand, is the Thriller Dance on the Tube. Happy week-end everyone!

War memorial: remembering in Shepherd's Bush

One of the first articles I ever wrote for this blog a year ago was this account of last November's commemoration at the mini cenotaph on Shepherd's Bush Green.

At the time I was particularly sad to witness the sight of lots of bright young children marching in step, clad in fatigues and boots. They seemed almost eager for the next war. I don't think this year will be any different for me, just like previous years I will probably see it coming out of the gym at the W12 centre.

We do need to mark the occasion, not least for all of those in 1914-18 who never came back, the last of whom have only just died.

But I wonder whether we also put enough effort into listening to what that lost generation would be shouting at us to realise about how we need to change.

H&F News branded "propaganda" .. by the conservatives

It seems the propaganda rag, which you pay for, and which puts out completely misleading articles like this, and has a devastating effect on independent local media by hoovering up their advertising revenue is attracting the disapproval of even the Tories in parliament.

Read the transcript of Cllr Mark Loveday being challenged about this by Philip Davies MP, and make your own mind up..

Philip Davies: …we will start off with Hammersmith and Fulham. This is, let us face it, council propaganda masquerading as an independent newspaper. There is nothing here to the casual reader that would indicate that this had anything to do with a council publication. This is masquerading as an independent newspaper. If you are so proud of your publication, let us have it plastered all over it that this is a council publication so that everybody who reads it knows exactly where they stand when they read it. Why are you not upfront about what this is?

Councillor Loveday: I can bowl for Britain on the subject of propaganda, and Sefton Delmer and the radio stations that were set up in this country during the war, and the distinctions between black propaganda and other propaganda, and so on, but in terms of residents knowing that this is a council newspaper, my simple answer is that we do test this, and the latest survey showed that 80% of residents said it was clearly a council newspaper. People are aware of that. I suspect that 80% is a pretty good score by any means.

Philip Davies: I will give you a better score, which is 100%. I guarantee to you that, if you were to put on the front of your paper (and plaster it quite prominently) that this is the newspaper delivered to you by Hammersmith and Fulham Council, you would be able to improve on your 80%, you would probably be able to get to 100%. We would all know where we were and also you would not need to spend any money testing out whether or not people knew; you would be able to know straight away that people knew. I know you are obsessed with saving money at Hammersmith and Fulham Council. I have given you a perfect money saving idea, so can I now expect you to save money on testing it out and plaster over it that this is council propaganda so that your residents know exactly what it is they are reading?

Councillor Loveday: Can I ask you a question?

Philip Davies: No, I am asking you a question.

Councillor Loveday: Will you give us the £400,000 to put it through our paid-for local media, because that is not going to happen.

Philip Davies: I am asking you, on here, to make it abundantly clear to your residents that this is a council publication, right on the front page. You are saying how good it is. Why are you ashamed of it? Surely you should want to be proud of the fact that the local authority is putting out this kind of propaganda. Let everybody know why you are hiding your light under a bushel.

Councillor Loveday: The majority of copies, I think, certainly did have a strapline reference.

Philip Davies: I am just unlucky, am I?

Councillor Loveday: No, I have not followed the details of the straplines on the various editions. The front cover, of course, is a slip advert, or a wrap-around advert.

Philip Davies: Yes, inside is even worse.

Councillor Loveday: Inside this, obviously, the front page---

Philip Davies: Yes, I know exactly what you are doing: you are putting out propaganda and masquerading it as independent news.

Councillor Loveday: Propaganda is a loaded word.

Philip Davies: It is indeed.

Council tax cut by 3%

Our Council has just announced that our council tax will be cut by 3% next year, for the fourth year in a row.

Stephen Greenhlagh, Leader of the Council, said:

“All councils have a duty to respond to the impact of the worldwide recession on the nation’s finances and the finances of hard-working families across our borough”

“We need to deliver better services for less money which is why we are cutting tax at the same time as putting more bobbies on the beat, improving our parks and making our streets cleaner. We managed to open the first new library in the borough for 40 years at virtually no cost to the taxpayer.”

But Opposition Leader Stephen Cowan said:

"This is the most controversial stealth taxing, front line service cutting, self-serving administration in the country", accusing the Council of making the poorest pay with cuts to essential services.

All of which will make this summit very interesting indeed. Tickets selling fast so I hear ...

UPDATE: The Times newspaper are covering this story and reporting that H&F is being used as a test bed for future national Tory policies should they win the general election. We've heard that a lot recently - so we are guinea pigs for Cameron's policy shock troops!

Brussels Airlines: avoid this airline at all costs

I am typing to you from a poky little hotel in Bujumbura Burundi after Brussels Airlines cancelled my flight home.

Let me give you a few facts about my experience with this Mickey Mouse airline which might help you decide to avoid them if at all possible.

Today I tried to reconfirm my flight, which they insist on if it is a flight outside Europe. If you do not they simply cancel your reservation without warning and you have to buy another ticket.

Which is especially worrying since it is impossible to reconfirm your flight on their lousy website, which just sends an email to their HQ - so if you're lucky someone checks their inbox in time. If you're not you get bumped off your flight. No bother, I thought, I will ask my partner to call them for me - especially since their office here in Burundi was not answering their phone. So she called them from London, to be told yes, I was confirmed and there was no problem with the flight. Which is interesting because if the flight was cancelled they would have known by then because it would not have taken off from Brussels Airport in order to get here in time.

They were either lying (most likely) or they didn't know.  Either way tells you all you need to know about them.

And all this on top of having my flight two weeks ago from Brussels to Burundi also cancelled - again with no notice despite the fact that they could have told me when I checked in for my flight at Heathrow allowing me to spend another 24 hours with my family.

All you get at the airport every time they cancel your flight is some photocopied letter expressing 'regret' at the 'technical incident' that just has the date changed at the top - I am building up quite a collection of them - all identical -  from this crappy airline. Please, for goodness sake, you owe it to yourself - DO NOT USE THIS AIRLINE UNLESS YOU HAVE ABSOLUTELY NO OTHER OPTION WHATSOEVER!!!

Quiz the Leaders

Did someone say there was an election coming?!

Hammersmith & Fulham Council have called a Borough Summit for local people where we will hear from, and be able to question, the leaders of our health, policing and other services in addition to Stephen Greenhalgh the Leader of our council.

I always find these occasions amusing for the reaction of Cllr Greenhalgh to the inevitable arrival of Andy Slaughter, our MP who is never invited because he is from another political party but always comes anyway!

But what will make this meeting all the more entertaining, and credit has to go to the Council for organising this, is that it will be chaired by John Humphrys. This of course is the same BBC presenter that campaigned against the Goldhawk Block decision, but whos' letter to the planning committee was publicly dismissed by a council officer as misinformed! I'd say it's pretty brave to ask him to chair under those circumstances!

I will be going and expecting to hear questions about the 'super sewer', the recent decision on the Goldhawk Block and the continued stain on W12 left by our murderous local gang.

You can sign up to come too here. Hope to see some of you there.

My one year anniversary

4,565 of you read this blog in October, up over 700 from the month before. When I first started I got about 300 per month but I now get a regular readership of around 150 for every article and then some receive hundreds more if it is of particular interest.

Not bad for something I started on a whim after this incident when I called an ambulance for a homeless man who we'd left lying on our streets all night one cold November morning almost exactly a year ago. At the time I thought the Bush was missing a real news & views service and sadly that holds true still, although this blog will only ever be my own personal musings.

The strength of the blog though, and probably why it gets so many readers now, is you. Most of the stories that get posted here are sent by readers, including those who actually risk consequences by passing me information that some people would rather you didn't know. Anonymity is always respected.

We're now approaching an election, which you're probably already sick of hearing about, that will nonetheless decide a lot about how our Bush is looked after in the coming years. That may be why, for example, the Council has just called a public summit which I will be going to and reporting back from.

Looking back it's been an exciting year to be reporting on the Bush, with some real highlights and sadly many low points. The most popular postings on this blog have the following:

1 with 2051 readers: Ecclestone, QPR and Adolf Hitler

2 with 1908 readers: Why are our councillors in Cannes?

3 with 467 readers: 48 hour tube strike

4 with 428 readers: Hammersmith & Fulham Gazette cuts W12 news

5 with 406 readers: QPR: Fixtures, season and prices

6 with 384 readers: Mind that cyclist

7 with 318 readers: Shepherd’s Bush acid attack man sentenced to life

8 with 303 readers: Hammersmith flooding: it's your problem

9 with 255 readers: Gang stabbing on Uxbridge Road

10 with 244 readers: Gun crime war

So those are some highlights from a year in the life of the Bush. I write this to you now from Burundi, just south of the equator in central Africa where I have been for the last two and a half weeks for work. I work in peacebuilding and regularly travel to regions of the world affected by armed violence and conflict. For the last week I have been over the border in the Democratic Republic of the Congo where you can buy an AK-47 for $25, regularly see children serving in the army and the security forces regularly demand bribes - because they don't get paid. I was working next to a military base that is co-ordinating the biggest military offensive even Congo has seen for years, with the inevitable deaths, rapes and other assorted catastrophes.

For all the problems we have in W12 - don't ever forget how lucky we are. Here's to another year.