Eltham went dotty for Demelza today as everyone from fire fighters to shop keepers (and the Post Office pub) got out the dots to support our local children's hospice.  I wore a dotty tie (I have a lot of dotty ties, so that was easy!) but I was thrilled to see lots of volunteers wearing their red and white outfits up and down the High Street asking for donations in the buckets.  I bought my Christmas cards from their stand in Passey Place and visited their shop - now all I have to do is find time to start writing them...

After the local elections in 2006, when Labour romped home in Greenwich, residents quickly saw the axe fall on essential frontline services across the borough.  Now, a leaked paper prepared for Greenwich Labour leaders has revealed further secret plans for savage cuts to yet more services amounting to £27 million.  The 'caring, sharing' Labour team that makes a big deal of claiming to work for the most vulnerable in society actually plans to attack neighbourhood services, voluntary sector services, social care provision, and to increase leaseholder charges.  No wonder that when asked directly at a recent Council meeting, the Labour Leader was so evasive (even denying previous cuts), and has since refused to even speak to anyone from the Newsshopper.

Everywhere I go in this constituency from Eltham High Street to Middle Park, Shooters Hill to Kidbrooke, people tell me they are feeling squeezed from every direction and now fear they will lose vital services.  In Coldharbour, rumours circulated for ages that the much valued library would be closed until Conservative councillors extracted a promise it would remain open - but for how much longer?  Perhaps it will go the same way as Queen Mary's Hospital and see reduced opening hours?

If Labour retain control of Greenwich Council in 2010, I make this prediction.  The elderly, the young, and those on the lowest incomes will feel the brunt of these plans.  I don't doubt there's waste to be reduced in Greenwich, but first let's look at the million quid spent annually on the self-congratulatory 'newspaper' Greenwich Time.  Not only is it a huge waste of money it also unfairly competes with commercial newspapers and magazines, including SE9 magazine.

More than anything else in the news this week, the comments of Alan Sugar irritated me to the point of fury.  His insensitive outburst, in which he accused small businesses of living in Disneyland because they complain about credit being cut off, shows he is not fit to have a role in political life.  Though a good businessman, and a great TV entertainer, his limitations have become all too obvious.  
The small business owners I meet weekly, who have re-mortgaged their homes, sold their cars, borrowed everything their parents had scraped together for a rainy day and still can't manage because of the way our high street banks operate, are living a nightmare, not Disneyland.  Lest Sugar forget, this country's economy is built on small businesses.  How quickly some people forget when they allow success to go to their heads, enjoying all the perks of wealth and fame.  He should spend a day in some of the shops in Eltham High Street or New Eltham or any one of the hundreds of small companies that face being finished because of the lack of credit.  The man's got no place as an Enterprise Tsar.  I don't hear anyone laughing as people are losing their homes, as businesses are closing and employees are losing their jobs.

On the train from London Bridge to Eltham tonight, a man carrying a can of lager walked through our carriage and loudly announced he was after his newspaper (I presume he had previously been sitting there and had walked elsewhere on the train before I got on).  He then proceeded to talk, very loudly, about what was in the newspaper, his thoughts on the war in Afghanistan, drugs - you name it.  Frankly, I couldn't have cared less.  I don't like loud people on trains, but to my surprise the young lady next to me thought him rather amusing so who am I to judge?  Previously her MP3 player was so loud I could hear the lyrics but he was such an attraction, she turned it off to listen to him.  Even when she coughed and the man announced to the carriage that she might have swine flu, she still thought him amusing.  Fair enough, though I suspected that not everyone on the train appreciated his extensive use of four letter words.

So when I felt my mobile phone vibrating in my pocket, I answered the call as quietly as I could though I was barely able to hear myself speak.  I explained to the caller I was on a train - it was an urgent business matter and I conducted it as quickly and quietly as I could.  Except the man opposite took exception.  He shouted that I should go home, that nobody in the carriage cared about my business and I should leave it at the office.  I calmly told him I'd appreciate him being quiet out of consideration to everyone else.  With that he rose, hurled a torrent of abuse, called me all manner of names and finally for good measure invited me to get off the train so he could fight me and shut me up for good.  There were quite a few obscene terms, some that would probably pass for racism, but we'll leave that to one side.  Suddenly nobody was laughing.  I stayed seated, despite being showered by his spit, and simply repeated that I had asked him politely to be quiet.  He became even more aggressive and as just about everyone else remained frozen, another chap came forward and simply asked him to sit down and be quiet.  To my surprise that did it.  And as we passed through Blackheath towards Eltham, the remainder of the journey was silent - though tense.

I do not think anyone should have to be subjected to loud noise on trains, nor should they have to endure obscene language shouted by others, nor feel threatened by fellow passengers.  If such behaviour was experienced on a plane, the person would be restrained and arrested on arrival at the destination.  On trains and buses passengers are equally vulnerable, but have no means to reasonably raise the alarm or seek help.  To object to a person's rudeness or inappropriate behaviour is to risk threats of violence or worse, even on a packed train.  What a tragic state this country has come to.