ME vs The Mayor of London

Me vs The Mayor

26 June 2017

19:53

I never expected to write a blog. I never expected to be defending the people who for many weeks now I have been slagging off, But for the first time I can see where a lot of them are coming from.

Some of them have a lot to do before they go up in my estimation, and avoid the ever growing list of idiots. but that’s for another blog in the future.

Back to today I received an email from The Mayor of London's office. Once upon a time that would have been an embossed letter with the Mayors crest in gold leaf at the top of the paper, But that was another time which a lot of you wont remember. Now its just another box logo on another email. Please take a couple of minutes to read the original email I sent.

 Quite concise and to the point I thought. Then I got this in reply today and when I first opened it I thought wow finally some one has read and understood what I was saying.

 But once again how wrong was I.

 It’s a great thing to do to set up a charity and I have a great deal of respect for a lot of them, But you see a lot of them  have been around for a long time and are integrated into society with great names and corporate logo's.

 Run by near to retiring old men, and of course old ladies.

These are the types that have lavish Christmas parties at the Grosvenor House hotel. Sip pim's in Battersea Park watching Gary Barlow and JLS.

 Paying £350 a ticket for the privilege. 
I know I was there to. One of the men in black behind the scenes running cables and setting up lighting and stages.
Sound checks and Lunch with Gary Barlow and JLS is far more fun, and we were getting paid a lot more than the price of their tickets.

 My email to the mayor was a cry for help to find out if there are others out there who feel the same as me that a lot of people are being left behind.

 Been into town recently?

Barclays bank is now all machines. There is a massive queue to see the one advisor behind the desk while another shows pensioners how to use the machines.

MacDonald's  you have to put in your card in to order your food on a touch screen and receive a ticket with a number, then stand in another queue to wait for your "fast food".

Soon the courts are going online. When universal credit kicks in and the computers start to take over more and more of our daily lives,
Drinkers, addicts people with depression and disabled both mental and physical, will be pushed aside

A lot will be made homeless and pushed out into the suburbs. Meanwhile flats in my neck of the woods going for £1200 a month are not to be paid for by the council.  Many older people now the ones who slip through the fingers of society. locked away behind closed doors in overly hot so called care homes. sat in rows, munching tablets and ironically watching countdown have it good in some ways they dont see or wont remember what's going on around them.  A lot would not be able to cope and a lot will not understand any of it.

 I thought there must be more like minded people in London? It turns out there aren't. I wrote a blog about Amy a 23 year old who went blind after giving birth to her son. You should give that a read if you want a tug at your heart strings. I am doing this for people like her.

 Modern technology can help so many people especially the disabled. You see all these documentaries about how tech start ups are changing the world. People selling pants online and making millions. Food bloggers being flown round the world to review the latest fad restaurant. To feed the magazines and online content that have become part of everyday life for us all.

But you see I come from a different generation before mobile phones and inter web. And my homage to that is I turn off my phone at the weekends now. And just for a little bit of the week its like going back to those times. Its waking on a Monday morning that I dread most of all to find out who's been slagging me off on face world or who's called me a spastic behind my back.

 Something else you have to get used to when you become disabled.

When I received that email today, It just proves to me how sad things have become. You see if you click on any of those links it will take you to another charity who's aim is to teach the old and disabled how to use computers.

 My nearest centre is one of the places I have mentioned in the past. I am not going to slag off the volunteers as I think they do a wonderful job Its very 1950's and I mean that in a nice way. It harks back to another time. A time and place we have been programed throughout our lives to aspire to. Organic veg, the good life. Village fetes and bunting.  it’s a shame the teaching methods used inside also relate to an earlier age.

 So called experts in Excel, Power point and Microsoft word. Don’t really cut it these days.
I am not knocking anyone who tries to show others how to do stuff. But the people teaching don’t know and don’t want to know even they find it too complicated.

 Amy's life could be improved for just a few hundred quid, voice controlling her home. It brings a huge smile to her face when we talk about it, and making the toast when she's still in bed in the morning is the thing that brings the biggest smile of all

 Talking to computers, having them hooked up to your TV and if your like me your sound system isnt difficult to do and makes a huge difference to a lot of peoples lives.

Moyles jump in and comment on this one its changed your life.

So final thoughts I know I bang on about the Iphone Generation not understanding, how they skim emails not reading what's being said. its happened again. Slow down and read things dont skip you miss really important stuff.

 Sending me to the very people. I sent them the email about in the first place , the people who don’t understand is the biggest mistake.
The Mayor might see my email one day especially if you share this blog and 3400 people read it like the last one.

Maybe he will maybe he wont. But I hope he does and I hope he reads this blog and all the others to see just how society is letting itself down. How we are all addicted to the wrong things in life and how things could change if we went backwards a bit. Keep it simple stupid. 

By the way, the bit about help with social media. I take that back I got more reads of my blog than my local Lib dem party got votes at the last election. I'm doing ok there. Photo figures that’s 120 pics nearly at 100,000 not such an idiot after all. So thanks for the vote of confidence Mr Mayor Have a wonderful day be nice to everyone you meet See you all next time.