Gary's views

Gary's weekly views

Each week an article by Gary has appeared in the Plympton Plymstock and Ivybridge News in South West Devon. The articles are published here

NEIGHBOURLINESS

Earlier this week we lost our dog, a miniature wire-haired dachshund, just about the smallest dog you can get, who for the first time seemed to penetrate our perimeter fences. We threw ourselves into a frenzy of activity, hunting the nearby streets and park, pouncing on unsuspecting youngsters to leave messages. We were about to start putting up “lost dog” posters when we finally got through to Crownhill police station (thereby hangs another tale). Yes they had a small scruffy looking thing answering Archie’s description. Sure enough it was he, and he returned in the car, a little shell-shocked, but none the worse for his adventure. Micro-chipping beckons.

A lady and her daughter had found him on the road and after making exhaustive enquiries had taken him all of the way from Plympton up to the police station at Crownhill to hand him in. I rang to thank her later; she was just relieved that Archie had been restored. It meant a great deal to us, this act of kind neighbourliness.

The press is so full of nasty news that we sometimes forget that only a small minority behave consistently badly. Most people fully embrace their responsibility to the wider community.
The real bonus is, if you help somebody else, you feel better about yourself. On the very few occasions when I have helped somebody “beyond the call of duty” I have felt really positive for days. I remember the red-faced youngster who approached me at Victoria station some years ago asking for help. He had lost his wallet and had no money to get home. Could I lend him the (whatever it was) give me his name and his dad would reimburse me. I believed him. No, I said and marched him to the ticket office and bought him a ticket and refused to give my name and sent him on his way, thinking one day someone might do this for my kids if they get stuck.
He got home safe and sound (I hope) but I was the real beneficiary. Not for nothing does the scout’s code include those famous words: do a good deed every day. It is an important part of finding happiness.

Good neighbourliness is still alive and kicking. People hand in lost wallets, look in on their elderly neighbours and give a helping hand all the time. Long may it continue. And, Mrs Metters, thank you once again for your kindness.

posted by Nigel on Monday, September 17, 2007

Gary's weekly views

Each week an article by Gary has appeared in the Plympton Plymstock and Ivybridge News in South West Devon. The articles are published here

HOLIDAY PLANS

Can it really be autumn already? Children back to school, football season well underway, the chirpy swallows gathering for their long winter flights. I am sure that a clever scientist will soon discover that time is not constant after all, but travels much faster during holiday seasons and weekends than during the working week. The trees are already starting to turn and some of us are still waiting for summer to begin. If this is global warming, you can keep it.

To cap it all, I have made a complete hash of the arrangements this year. The plan, brilliant in theory: enjoy the lovely August weather by staying in Devon during that month and ticking over in the office on a 9 to 5 basis (OK, 10 til 4) do the occasional constituency visit, tackle the complex reading and difficult files that keep jumping to the bottom of the pile, hold a couple of surgeries, and generally potter about. Then cram the first ten days of September with meetings and make sure that I see anybody who wants to see me, then have the next 10 days as a proper holiday somewhere warm and come back all fresh just in time for the Parliamentary merry-go-round to begin again.

The problem: The deluge that began in June washed out most of August too. The weather forecast became a nightly festival of disbelief in our house. Then just as the sun decided to return, some bright spark decided that the Prime Minister was likely to call an autumn plebiscite and election fever broke out in the Westminster village, meaning that even to contemplate leaving the country during this month was the equivalent of political suicide.
So our Flybe flights from Exeter to Avignon have been cancelled and I am going about my constituency engagements with one eye and both ears on the media endlessly analysing every reference to opinion polls and snap elections. There is still a gap in the diary, but it is likely to be filled with leaflets rather than li-los.

But at least I have not had to make the weekly trip to Westminster, and that is the best news of all. Besides, I am comforted by the thought that next years arrangements will be much more sensible and work like clockwork. How do I know? There is no way that Jan will leave me in charge of them again!

Hope you had a good summer.

posted by Nigel on Monday, September 17, 2007