Phillip Lee - The campaign continues

A party political blog post. But first a short story from Cardiff Blogger


Serious stuff!
I recently asked my friend’s little girl what she wanted to be when she grows up. She said she wanted to be Prime Minister some day. Both of her parents, New Labour, were standing there, so I asked her:
‘If you were Prime Minister what would be the first thing you would do?’

She replied, ‘I’d give food and houses to all the homeless people.’

Her parents beamed.

‘Wow…what a worthy goal.’ I told her, ’But you don’t have to wait until you’re Prime Minister to do that.
You can come over to my house and mow the lawn, weed the garden and sweep my patio, and I’ll pay you £50. Then I’ll take you over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out, and you can give him the £50 to use toward food and a new house.’
She thought that over for a few seconds then she looked me straight in the eye and asked: ’Why doesn’t the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the £50?’
I said: ”Welcome to the Conservative Party!”
Her parents still aren’t speaking to me.


Anyway - moving on...

Participation and Donation


Anyone and everyone can help Dr Phillip Lee get elected.
He is eager to serve all the people of Bracknell Town, Finchampstead, Crowthorne and Sandhurst. He wants this constituency to remain a great place to live.
www.phillip-lee.com/ 

Helpers are always most welcome.
You can help by distributing literature.
You could carry out surveys/canvassing in your area in order to gain information about the electorate’s voting intentions, worries and concerns, etc.  This information enables us to campaign effectively and helps to increase our membership base.
Many people find that their skills can be best utilised by helping to organise the many varied social events that take place throughout the year, helping to raise funds as well as bringing enjoyment to everyone involved.
Donations to campaign costs are always most welcome.

More at myconservatives.com/dr-phillip-lee-for-bracknell 
And at bracknellconservatives.com 

Find Bracknell Conservatives on Facebook HERE

Blog Time

How do people get the time to sit and write interesting Blogs?
I get a few ideas together, but to link them up properly, and then make sense in a few words, takes time.
Perhaps I could spend less time of Facebook and Farmville? Facebook is useful for catching up with people, but Farmville is too addictive. I am not sure how to make time between work, housework council and political stuff.

On the subject of political stuff, canvassing takes up time, but is interesting to do. The Priestwood and Garth councillors try to do walkabouts quite often. With the election coming up the pace gets rather frantic. It will all happen again next year, when there are the local elections for Town and Borough.

I seem to be coming across a lot of fake virus alerts just recently. It would be good to know just how these things sneak on to people computers. There is a very useful guide to removing it HERE.

And to take up more of my time, there is an interesting event on at the Bull. The last meeting was attended by General election candidate Phillip Lee and the Borough Mayor Bob Wade. Nat West have kindly agreed to sponsor the food for the latest event. More HERE. It is all about local people and local Business.

On the subject of the election again, you can catch up with some stuff at the BBC - Dr Phillip and others on the Politics Show, and the Andrew Peach programme - Highlights HERE.

At least I got this written while waiting for a Windows Update on a clients computer to finish.

Garth Hill College, Sandy Lane School, Parking and the old NAGs

I see that the replanting of green screening around Garth Hill College has been taking place. It was a great shame that the mature vegetation had to be cut back to provide for a safe route to the new entrance. The new college though, will be a great asset to the area.

At the Priestwood and Garth Neighbourhood Action Group Meetings (NAGs) we have discussed the dangers of parked cars all along Folders lane up to Bull lane.  Some parents seem to leave the safety of tier children up to others. I have had a car stop in front of me and a child leap out in the “wrong side”. Very nerve wracking.  It also very dangerous when parents park on the bend.

Hopefully the council can come up with a scheme to help make the area safer during the school and college opening and closing hours, once the new College entrance is operational.

The police say that there have been reports from Wick Hill College car park attendants that parents from Garth Hill School and Sandy Lane School keep trying to use the car park at the start and end of the school day. This car park is only for students and the bus from Bracknell & Wokingham College. Some of the car park attendants have been verbally abused by parents. If you are picking your child up from the above schools, you can use Braybrooke Park or Albert Road car parks. There are also reports about some parents stopping on the yellow zigzag lines outside Meadow Vale School. PCSOs have been outside the school as often as possible to stop this happening.
It is good to note, from the above police report, that overall crime was down by 31.2 per cent compared with the same three months in 2008.

Parking as always is a problem everywhere. Of the 291 Priestwood  and Garth residents who responded to the neighbourhood survey on five aspects of life in Bracknell Forest which most needed improvement, parking came in at 43% behind Police on the Streets at 50%, the level of speeding at 39%,  Litter at 39%, and Anti-social Behaviour at 36%.

On a more positive note; on the five aspects of life in Bracknell Forest people in Priestwood and Garth  liked best: Parks and Open Spaces (54%), Access to Nature (42%), Health Services (38%), Sports and Leisure Facilities (29%), Cultural Facilities (26%).

Lights out?

I see from the BBC website that that Caerphilly council has agreed to turn off lights along non-residential roads between midnight and 0530 GMT.
Apparently there will first be health and safety assessments on certain routes.  "Significant savings" are to be gained according to the council there. Councillors backed the policy after considering the findings of a consultation with residents.


One wonders how they control the system, and what the wiring systems are. I would have thought that one has to look at the whole life energy cost of a scheme. The BBC site also reports on Coventry and a switch to dim lighting. Part of a £64 million package it seems.

The New Scientist had an article about this a while back. This states that street lamps account for 2 per cent of UK electricity consumption. What percentage of that 2% could be saved? Westminster City Council has been trialling the LeafNut system as a part of its SMART Lights project. It believes that it can save up to £46 per street light per year with the system, reducing CO2 emissions by 100kg per street light per year. There is more about this on the New Electronics website.

I wonder what the potential for this is in Bracknell/Bracknell Forest? It would be interesting to find out how the systems are set up. I suspect that there will be several, given the history of the town and surrounds.

Any more would have to involve public consultation. I can see all sorts of worries about crime in the dark, and accidents.

Farewell to My Father

There is just so much that I want to put in my eulogy to my farther on Friday (now today) as I write. I just don't know what to leave out. He was such a clever man, and lost so much when he got Alzheimer's. now we have lost him.

Aubrey, until recently, attended the services at Holy Trinity Church, I wish to thank all those who so welcomed him to this church. He had a great fondness for church music, and he was a choir boy in his youth.

Aubrey Finch, an only child, spent the first years of his life in Brixham, Devon.

His Father was a Merchant Navy Captain, who during the Second World War was based at Plymouth, Devon. Aubrey was evacuated to Cornwall during a part of the war with his mother’s relatives, but he still remembered the bombs dropping on Plymouth.

I have a story about him as a child, in the sail loft at Brixham, which is above the now amusement arcade in the town. In a loft owned by his grandfather, his uncle would lay sails out there for cutting, marking out the lines with chalk. The child Aubrey would draw railway lines on the sail, using similar chalk, and walk around the tracks with bits of sail constructing equipment, making his imaginary trains run. In later life he wondered if there were some ships out there will odd looking sails, where perhaps his uncle cut down the wrong lines.

This fascination with rail and the mechanics was taken further when we lived in Gutersloh, Germany, and Prestwood, Buckinghamshire where “I?”, “he?” had an “OO/HO” gauge railway.

As a youth Aubrey studied in the evenings at Plymouth Technological College.

After working long days as a mechanical engineer, he attended evening classes. He went on to gain the National Certificate (Higher Grade) in Mechanical Engineering at Cornwall Technical College. At home we have several books that were awarded to him as prizes for his outstanding work at college, especially in the area of heat engines.

Myself and Diane visited one of his great pals Irven Nute at a nursing home in Cornwall a while back. Irven told me how it was that Aubrey was the only Dockyard Apprentice that was allowed to cut propshafts for ships, due to the precision of his engineering.

Later, I believe partly encouraged by his friend Irving, Aubrey studied meteorology and went on to have a career with The Meteorological Office.

He always had fond memories of working on Radio Sond balloon systems, in Cambourne. I investigated the way that Radio Sond balloons were tracked a while back. I was intrigued to find that they used the now nearly defunct Loran system. The Loran system is one of the Navigational Aids that I wrote interface programs for at Marconi. I was then frequently visiting Plymouth Dockyard to carry out this work. Just a couple of steps behind my farther I suppose.

Going back slightly, to Aubrey’s teens, he & his group of friends formed an amateur band of Rhythms & Blues music – ( 1940s ), which  swept Britain  in the guise of Rock & Roll in the 1950s;  during the 1940s this teenage group swapped  British Big Band records for R & B  ones with their contemporaries in the U.S.A. He later had great enthusiasm for bands such as the Rolling Stones, and The Animas.

Anyway, lurching forward a bit we come to where Aubrey met and married Lucia. My mother tells me of waiting for her suitor to finish work, and come and collect her. She could hear the roar of his motorbike from miles away. She just hoped that her mother would not put two and two together, and realise that her daughter was waiting for this motoring fiend.

Lucia and Aubrey married In February 1954 whilst Aubrey was stationed at R.A.F. St.Eval.  They lived in Cornwall first before Aubrey was posted to Gloucester, Yorkshire, and then back down to St.Eval where I was born in the Officer’s Married Quarters in 1957. I gather that Aubrey was ranting at the inconsiderate Lancaster pilots that were exercising their engines, while his wife was giving birth. Perhaps that is why I feel that there is a certain “something” about the sound of a Merlin Engine?

I have heard that Lucia used to get faintly annoyed by Aubrey visiting the Airman’s or Officer’s mess after work and returning with rude jokes after having few drinks – It seems this stopped after found drink gave him bad head aches – He really was allergic to alcohol. It may also have been the onion sandwiches which he so loved. I think these things perhaps turned him into a fussy eater. Not a bad thing I suppose as these days, we are told to pay great attention to what we eat and drink, and the consequences. Something I must do myself.

In 1958 Aubrey was posted to Germany for 3 years, where Jennie was born in a British Military Hospital in 1959.

In 1961 Aubrey was posted to Buckinghamshire where his children – me and Jennie were able to grow up in a fantastic village community. Aubrey was very active in the Parent Teacher Association also the Village Hall committee.

He was always looking to help other people. Perhaps I should diversify here to his membership of the Institute of Professional Civil Servants. He was very committed to this, and was passionate as any of the greats of other Unions have been in the past about working conditions and pay. As an Air Cadet I went on camp to Topcliff in Yorkshire; one of Aubrey’s earlier postings. I toddled on down to the Met buiding one evening and was welcomed in by the staff. After a bit of discussion it turned out that Aubrey was well known there for the views that he expressed in the IPCS, and they wished that there were more like him. Again as in Plymouth dockyard I had that feeling that I was one or two steps behind.

Wife of Aubrey Lucia was busy in Prestwood,and  also an active member on a number of local committees. This she managed as well a being an excellent home-maker. At this stage in our lives holidays were usually camping ones. On these camping trips Aubrey would take us on some very interesting short cuts. This usually involved finding the few bits of nearly impenetrable Jungle in the UK. I think here again I was just that step behind Aubrey – In later years I would lead expeditions to places, and worry people by taking them “interesting” routes. The other step behind was the drive that he had to get involved in things. I am sure that I am still several steps behind him in what I can do at the council as a Councillor, and what I could do as a school governor.

In 1971 Aubrey took a voluntary posting to Bahrain in The Gulf without family for a few months. It was very strange living without a father for a while.

In 1972 Aubrey was posted to Bracknell Meteorological Office where he went from Weather Forecasting to Computer Programming at the age of 45.

At the time that Aubrey was converting to computing from forecasting, I was at Bracknell College learning about computers, as ever following a step or two behind.

In December 1986 Aubrey retired. He was happy with this for a while, and then he stared to get restless, and annoy my mother with asking what he should be doing next. At this time I had a computer company that was attempting to break into the travel business. He helped me by taking on various computer projects for myself and my business partner Tom Conlon. I thought maybe at this point I had caught up with my farther, but no, he eventually had enough of this work stuff, and wanted to get on with the things that really fascinated him. He designed a large Garage for Tom, drawing on his experience of building a garage and extension at Prestwood, and the garage he designed for me at my first house in Harmanswater. Aubrey went on to rebuild a 1930’s Douglas motorbike, and constructing some of the parts himself. His interest in anything mechanical was part of his being until the onset of Alzheimer’s disease.

Aubrey had time for Holidays with Lucia to many Mediterranean countries, Tenerife & Egypt – both of them being interested in archaeological sites & museums.

In his retirement he had much time for his granddaughter Rebecca being as protective of her as his own daughter. Becky when little, would ride around on his back.

Aubrey sometime made up names, and played with words – Ramble our rough Collie became Bingo Bongo (perhaps a reference to a dog from his childhood). When we were children I remember him saying we were going to “high wick pick wick” – Jennie thought he said we were going for a “pick nick”, and there were floods of tears when we arrived at High Wycombe to go shopping.

He very much valued his visit to David & Margaret Wilkins, neighbours whom he used to go to for an hour or so each week. David & Aubrey in the past used to frequent Auto-jumbles, travelling long distances sometimes because of their combined interest in them.

Sadly Alan Bell, a friend from the past, passed away a few years ago – He also valued the weekly visits from Alan. He will be buried not far from his old pal.

Aubrey will be remembered for his listening to highbrow music, rhythm & blues, and his large collection of CDs, tapes, also records he collected in his youth; With the onset of dementia he said he felt sad when he listened to any of them but never-the-less says he liked to listen to them.

Aubrey - A man of many hobbies, interests, and helping other people out.

Photography – developing & printing

Playing the guitar – he got very sad that he forgot how to due to dementia

Aubrey Loved to potter about in the garden and got very frustrated when he hit limits, both physically and mentally.

In the past Aubrey’s capacity for knowledge on most subjects has been exceptional; over the years he was able to turn his hand to anything from mechanical, architectural drawings, house extension – design & building. He installed every piece of central heating in the Bracknell house (with Lucia’s help), and fitted the house throughout with double glazed windows (with a bit of my help), and repaired all domestic appliances.

I am not sure of his views on life and death – I remember him telling us that we could just dump his body in a black sack, and let the bin men take it, he wouldn’t need it any more.

I said before, that Aubrey was always at least one step ahead of me. He is still one step ahead of me – It is a path I might fear to tread, but as my father, Aubrey has trodden it I am sure that it will be the right one. And there will still be still one more step to take to catch up.

On yer bike

I was recently reading an article in the IET magazine. Apparently “significant” numbers of bicycles are still being manufactured in Britain. It also says that a combination of convenience, cost saving and health and environmental concerns have inspired this urge to saddle up.
This, and a question from someone, prompted me to again look at Bracknell’s cycleway provision. It looks like there is money received from developers to join up more of the network in Bracknell. This money has been collected by the way of section 106 agreements, which may be used to support the provision of services and infrastructure. As this money has been already collected for this purpose, it seems that various schemes will be able to go ahead including cyclways. It is likely that it will be possible to provide some missing links in the network, on the Wokingham road in Priestwood.

Since we got a dog the amount of cycling for leisure that me and Diane do has gone down a lot. This has impacted a bit on my cycling for other purposes, as dog walking does not seem to keep one as fit as cycling does. Diane tells me that this means I should spend more time in the Gym at the spots centre. Hmm. Maybe...

This is all the more interesting since at the next council meeting a report of the Independent Remuneration Panel  is to be considered. It says "That reimbursement for travel to approved duties within the borough be restricted to travel by bicycle as detailed in paragraphs 22 and 47 of Annex A"

I wonder what shape the other councillors, and their bikes are in?

A Clean Sweep

I am often asked what soft of things I do when “cleaning up a computer” with the Microsoft Windows XP operating system. I though I would jot down a few things for starters, and if I feel inspired, I may type out some more. There are other tweaks that can improve performance.

Most computers have some form of Antivirus installed, but it is still well to do a scan. Often a scan with a Malware tool such as Spybot, or Malwarebytes will show problems not caught by the AV.
If the computer does not have any sort of AV then one should be installed immediately. You can buy or try for free online at sites such as AVG and Avira.

It takes a lot less time to scan if temporary files are cleaned up first. In fact a lot of little nasties often lurk in this area. The easies way to do this is through a tool such as Ccleaner. It may also be worth running Microsoft’s free clean up scan. The other options in “Windows Live Onecare” may also prove useful.

I mentioned Avira above. They produce a “Rescue System” that can be burnt to a bootable CD. As the software runs independently of the operating system it is better able to remove the  “rootkit” type of virus.

If you used the tools above you should now have a virus and malware free computer. You should also have a tidier computer with less rubbish lying about. If you used the “Oncare” tool full scan you may have also have defragmented your hard drive. It may now be worth downloading and running a clever deframentation tool like Mydefrag.

One of the features of the Ccleaner program mentioned above is the ability to turn start-up programs on and off. These programs often feature in the “System Tray” or Notification Area. Removing non-essential ones can speed up log-in, and free up memory space. Programs in this area often accumulate with installations of new software. Another useful tool in Ccleaner is the Registry integrity tool. Running this or the one contained in the Onecare package may help to improve performance.

On a final note, try running the memory scanners at Crucial and Orca. If you have less than a gigabyte on your XP computer more memory could help. Some computers may struggle with just half of that.