The Boiling Frog: If You Don't Like It, Move!

Friday, 3 June 2011

If You Don't Like It, Move!

The following piece is not really important in the grand scheme of things, but the issue it relates to really does drive me nuts.

Every year there are many things which are predictable; Easter, Christmas, "A-Levels are easier" in August, and calls for "Greenwich Mean Time to be abolished" every October. I have another one to add to the list - on a local issue. After every Bank Holiday weekend without fail, my local free magazine, which is delivered once a month, is full of letters from whinging residents. Their complaint? That steam trains at the local railway museum has ruined their 'right' to sit in their garden because of the smoke and noise. And yesterday's free copy was no exception, here's one example:

Dear Ed,

Far be it for me to bring up old news, but again I've had a problem with the Didcot Railway Society. The...weekend we've just had was again marred by the smoke and fumes of one of the steam trains.... Several of my neighbours were stood outside their homes complaining about the fumes... the fumes were so awful that I felt the need to contact the Environmental Health Department, if only to seek reassurance that these fumes are not in anyway a risk to my health...some of my neighbours are elderly and some have young children.

Arrrghhh! I should point out that every letter of complaint so far has come from a resident of a house situated next to the railway lines and which was built less than 15 years ago - far far younger than the presence of the railway in Didcot. So a quick potted history.

Didcot was an inconsequential place until Mr Brunel's "Super Iron Snake" arrived in 1839 and transformed it into one of major significance - it became a junction on the Great Western Line to Bristol, London, Oxford and Southampton (the latter line closed due to Beeching) So much so it became an important part of military logistics - Vauxhall Barracks is still there. It's why it is known as a 'railway town' and why the local football team are nicknamed 'the railwaymen'. The railway links and the easy commuter route to London are the reason that the town is still popular (well it's not for any other reason I can assure you), indeed the demand for housing has been so great that it has lead to the current and controversial extensive house building programme. All of which easily demonstrates that the railway has been a proud and integral part of Didcot's history for 172 years.

And because of Didcot's history it has naturally been the location, for over 40 years, for the Didcot Railway centre, not only a celebration of the railway but in particular the Great Western Railway. Now, being Didcot's only tourist attraction unsurprisingly it doesn't keep this quiet. Directions signs are all over the nearest motorways and dual carriageways, the centre is heavily promoted in the local press and tourist offices and it even appeared in an episode of Inspector Morse. Not only that, the museum also advertises itself by means of a very prominent and very tall coal stage which has the words; "Didcot Railway Centre" emblazoned on one of the sides in large black letters. Surely that a relatively well-known railway museum has steam trains and that they make lots of smoke and noise cannot come as a surprise, can it?

So one would think that it is the responsibility of those buying a house (by far the most expensive purchase most of us make) to be aware of the heritage and the surroundings and take notice of the obligatory environmental survey at the very least. Apparently not to some residents.

I don't expect anyone to be the deduction genius that is Sherlock Holmes when buying a home, but seriously, how much more of a clue do some people want?

11 comments:

The Filthy Engineer3 June 2011 at 16:25
It's the same when people in Slough buy a house and then complain about Heathrow airport.
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WitteringsfromWitney3 June 2011 at 17:20
OK TBF, here we go:

Your comment re Sherlock Holmes presumably means the logic of their complaint has hit the buffers. Perhaps they should train their brains to think more logically? It is obvious that the coupling between their brain and mouth has broken, meaning they are talking above their station - ok, ok no more I hear you cry.......

Seriously, what a load of morons! As TFE says, on a par with those under the flightpath for Heathrow, who one could say are plane stupid!
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Mark Wadsworth3 June 2011 at 21:12
Agreed. The actual law is slightly trickier - it is not a defence for the railway company, bell ringers etc to say that the homeowner 'came to the nuisance', but that is just how deeply NIMBYism and Home-Owner-Ism is embedded in the system.
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TheBoilingFrog3 June 2011 at 21:59
@TFE Indeed, 'though anyone who wants to buy a house in Slough doesn't have my sympathy anyway - "come friendly bombs" :-)

@WfW Groan and marvellous - you've certainly signalled your views in a clear and trained manner. I adopt a similar line.

@MW Thanks for that.
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Bucko4 June 2011 at 14:49
Why do complaints always come down to old people and children?
Does your life loose all meaning when you turn 18, only to get it back when you hit 65?
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Bil5 June 2011 at 18:32
Miller v Jackson 1977 - which was there first, the cricket club or the house? Stare decisis.

http://www.bailii.org/cgi-bin/markup.cgi?doc=/ew/cases/EWCA/Civ/1977/6.html&query=miller+and+v+and+jackson+and+1977&method=boolean
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Anonymous6 June 2011 at 00:39
No local pride any more and common sense has all but 'left the station' from most Kids, they are not taught to think for themselves [come to think of it, they ain't taught an awful lot but all of them seem to be able to mouth such profanity from a overly young age, 'n' know their rights innit].
Choosing a house? That's beyond their ken and comfort zone.

I always check out an area for various stuff, first on the list I check for nearest river and elevation and then scrutinise flood maxima.
For me, it would be a joy to live so near a railway attraction, I'll just have to settle [to Carlisle!] sorry - for York Railway Museum and Nth Yorks railway, although I do make trips down to RHDR.

A long way from God's own county'!
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TheBoilingFrog7 June 2011 at 15:36
@Bil, thanks for that link, I wasn't aware of that.

@Anon, agreed, I always check out the local environment - buyer beware prevails.

Ahh York Railway Centre - I've been a couple of times, my parents live not far away
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TheBoilingFrog7 June 2011 at 15:37
@bucko - spot on
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Daniel197911 June 2011 at 14:37
How far is this guy's house from the coal-fired power station in Didcot?
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TheBoilingFrog13 June 2011 at 09:20
@Daniel1979 Not sure of the exact distance - prob about 10/15 minute walk away - certainly much closer to it than mine.
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EU quotes

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(Lord Kilmuir, advice to Edward Heath, December 1960)

"We should frankly recognise this surrender of sovereignty and its purpose."
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“America would welcome it if Britain should apply for full membership in the [EEC], explicitly recognising that the Rome treaty was not merely a static document but a process leading towards political unification.”
(George Ball Under-Secretary of State for JFK 1961)

"The single market was the theme of the Eighties; the single currency was the theme of the Nineties; we must now face the difficult task of moving towards a single economy, a single political unity".
(Romano Prodi, 13 April 1999)

"Let's imagine Europe is a football club and you join, but once you're in it you can't say let's play rugby". (French foreign minister Laurent Fabius)

"We perform the duties of freemen; we must have the privileges of freemen ..."
(Chartists 1836)

"The [Lisbon Treaty] is indeed a tidying -up exercise, it sweeps the rest of our sovereignty under the Brussels carpet".
(Lord Pearson)

"The Government’s guiding principle was...to swallow the lot and swallow it now."
(Sir Con O’Neill, the British diplomat who led the UK’s negotiations for EEC membership under Heath)

"I look forward to the day when the Westminster Parliament is just a council chamber in Europe."
(Kenneth Clarke, Conservative Chancellor in International Currency Review Vol 23 No 4 1996)

"The EU is the old Soviet Union dressed in Western clothes"
(President Gorbachev)

"Europe's power is easy to miss. Like an 'invisible hand', it operates through the shell of traditional political structures. The British House of Commons, British law courts, and British civil servants are still here, but they have all become agents of the European Union implementing European law. This is no accident."
(Mark Leonard co-founder and director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, the first pan-European think tank)

"We need to build a United States of Europe with the [EU] Commission as government".
(Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner 2014)

"A supranational union is a multinational political union where power is delegated to an authority by member states".
(Wikipedia)

“A coup d’état by a political class who did not believe in popular sovereignty”.
(Tony Benn on the European Communities Act 1972)

"Once [WWI was over, countries] went back to rules & customs of parliamentary democracies. I felt out of my depth".
(Jean Monnet, Father of EU')

"EU Parliament is incredibly responsive to lobbying institutions, but is unresponsive to public opinion".
(Gisela Stuart, Labour MP 2009)

"Europe will be forged in crises, and will be the sum of the solutions adopted for those crises".
(Jean Monnet, Father of EU')

"I have lived in your future ….and it doesn’t work".
(Russian dissident Vladimir Bukovsky on the EU)

"Determined to lay the foundations of an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe".
(Treaty of Rome 1957)

"This Treaty marks a new stage in the process of creating an ever closer union..."
(Maastricht Treaty 1992)

"This Treaty marks a new stage in the process of creating an ever closer union among the peoples of Europe".
(Lisbon Treaty 2007)

"Never out on principle; never in on principle [regarding EEC membership]. It depends on the terms and whether it is best for Britain".
(Labour leader Harold Wilson, May 1975)

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"[Norway] held a referendum [on the EU] that went the wrong way"
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"It means the end of a thousand years of history."
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"The Constitution is the capstone of a European Federal State."
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'If it's a Yes we will say "on we go", and if it's a No we will say "we continue".'
(Jean-Claude Juncker, President of the European Council)

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"I have read some of [the Lisbon Treaty] but not all of it."
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“They must go on voting until they get it right.”
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"If you go through all the structures and features of this emerging European monster you will notice that it more and more resembles the Soviet Union."
(Russian dissident Vladimir Bukovsky)

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“I have never understood why public opinion about European ideas should be taken into account at all,”
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“Let’s be clear about this. The rejection of the constitution was a mistake that will have to be corrected.”
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(Mary Ellen Synon, Bruges Group Annual Conference 2013)

"No government dependent on a democratic vote could possibly agree in advance to the sacrifices which any adequate plan for European Union must involve. The people must be led slowly and unconsciously into the abandonment of their traditional economic defences, not asked…"
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"[Bailouts are] expressly forbidden in the treaties by the famous no-bailout clause. De facto, we have changed the treaty."
(French Europe minister Pierre Lelouche)

"The transfer by the States from their domestic legal system to the Community legal system of the rights and obligations arising under the Treaty carries with it a permanent limitation of their sovereign rights... against which a subsequent act incompatible with the concept of the Community cannot prevail"
(ECJ Case 6/64)

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"European integration is fortunately a train moving too fast for anyone to stop it."
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"The European Parliament is a caucusing body that is incredibly responsive to lobbying institutions, but it is completely unresponsive to public opinion."
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“Millions of people in this country will feel as I do, that legislation passed in this way, with no consent, cannot command the assent of the country and would lack moral and constitutional validity."
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"...within ten years 80% of our economic legislation, perhaps even fiscal and social as well’ would come from the EU."
(Jacques Delors, President of EU Commission 1988)

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(Memo by MAFF to House of Lords European Communities Committee 1995)

"...we must now face the difficult task of moving towards a single economy, a single political unity."
(Romano Prodi, President of EU Commission 1999)

"The day of the nation state is over."
(Roman Herzog, German president, 1996)

"The European system of supranationality comes at the cost of democracy."
(Lord Leach of Fairford)

"The [EU] Council of Ministers will have far more power over the budgets of member states than the federal government in the United States has over the budget of Texas."
(Jean-Claude Trichet, current head of the European Central Bank)

"One must never forget that monetary union, which the two of us were the first to propose more than a decade ago, is ultimately a political project. It aims to give a new impulse to the historic movement toward union of the European states"
(Giscard d’Estaing, who drafted the EU Constitution 1997)

"The process of monetary union goes hand in hand, must go hand in hand, with political integration and ultimately political union. EMU [economic and monetary union] is, and always was meant to be, a stepping stone on the way to a united Europe"
(Wim Duisenberg, first president of the EU Central Bank)

"Once the interlude of [WWI] was over, [countries] all went back to the rules and customs of traditional parliamentary democracies. I felt out of my depth."
(Jean Monnet 'Father of Europe')

"We need to build a United States of Europe with the [EU] Commission as government."
(Viviane Reding, EU Commissioner 2014)

"We had imagined a political 'grand design', a new international order..."
(Jean Monnet 'Father of Europe')

"I like the English style of life. I feel more at home here in London"
(Tintin creator, Belgian born Herge)

"We are not forming coalitions between States, but union among people"
(Jean Monnet, 'Father of Europe')

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(Jean Monnet, 'Father of Europe')

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(Lady Thatcher, Statecraft)

"There is no question of Britain losing essential national sovereignty”
(Ted Heath)

Euro quotes

"Euro has done more to enforce budgetary discipline in rest of Europe than any number of exhortations from IMF or OECD".
(Nick Clegg, 2002)

"We're happy to give the Greeks anything, just not money".
(German MEP Markus Ferber 2010)

"The Euro has been a rock of stability... Joining the single currency would be a major step".
(Labour MEP, Richard Corbett, 2009)

"The single currency... marks stability and growth and is crucial to high levels of growth and employment".
(Tony Blair 1998)

"Britons will come round to the idea [joining the euro] once they’ve handled euro money".
(Adam Boulton Sunday Times, 2001)

"Staying out of the Euro will mean progressive economic isolation for Britain".
(Peter Mandelson, 2003)

"The European Union must take a decisive step towards a federal economic government, with common fiscal policies and a larger budget, if it is to save the euro".
(Andrew Duff Lib Dem MEP 2011)

"A European currency will lead to member nations transferring their sovereignty over financial and wage policy as well as monetary affairs".
(Hans Tietmeyer, head of the Bundesbank, 1991)

The single currency is the greatest abandonment of sovereignty since the foundation of the European Community: the decision is of an essentially political nature".
(Felipe Gonzalez, a Spanish former PM, 1998)

"The euro area now represents a pole of stability for those countries participating in it by protecting them from speculation and financial turmoil. It is strengthening the internal market and contributing to the maintenance of healthy fundamental figures, fostering sustainable growth".
(European Council conclusions, 2001)

"We must enter the euro with a clean sheet on all the criteria".
(Then Greek Finance Minister, Yannis Papantoniou, 1999)

"The reality of the euro has exposed the absurdity of many anti-European scares while increasing the public thirst for information. Public opinion is already changing…as people can see the success of the new currency on the mainland".
(Kenneth Clarke MP, 2002)

"The euro is a great success, and in today’s global economy, the pound is no longer an important currency. If we are not careful, we could become like Iceland in the next financial crisis".
(BT Group Chairman, Sir Michael Rake, 2009)

"I think the eurozone has turned the corner".
(Then French Economy Minister, Christine Lagarde, 29 January 2011)

"I believe that, within the next twelve months, we will have averted contagion and stabilised the eurozone".
(German Finance Minister, Wolfgang Schäuble, 30 December 2011)

"We cannot be members of the single market without being part of the single currency, the euro...In life, fighting for a minority view is sometimes dangerous and painful. But when you know you are right, and when so much of our national prosperity depends on it, we should expect our political leaders to act".
(Virgin Group Chairman, Richard Branson, 2000)

"We are writing to make clear our concerns about the implications for business if the Government rules out membership of the euro for the lifetime of this Parliament. Such a decision would be damaging for British-based businesses, British employees and the British economy as a whole".
(WPP Group CEO, Sir Martin Sorrell, et al., 2003)

"A single currency, introduced at the appropriate time, will reduce costs for businesses that trade or invest across Europe...More investment in growing
businesses means more employment".
(Then BP Chairman, Lord David Simon, 1997)

"Joining the euro would increase our incomes and thus our standard of living...Now the countries of Europe have taken one more step towards making a truly unified market, using only one currency. If again we delay joining, we again risk falling further behind".
(Former Energy Secretary, Chris Huhne, former CBI Director General, Lord Adair Turner, et al., 2002)

"Staying out of the euro will mean progressive economic isolation for Britain. It will mean fewer foreign businesses investing here, fewer good jobs being created and less trade being done with our European partners".
(Former Business Secretary, Lord Peter Mandelson, 2003)

"Britain should join the euro within the next few years in order to enhance British power and influence".
(Centre for European Reform Director, Charles Grant, 2001)

"Joining EMU would offer multiple benefits...The euro would be good for jobs".
(Then TUC Secretary General, John Monks, 2003)

"As time goes on, people will increasingly see that there is a price to be paid for remaining outside the euro".
(Former Labour Party leader, Neil Kinnock, 2002)

"The euro may well come to be regarded in the coming years as part of the answer to saving the City from permanent decline. It was easy to dismiss the fledgling euro as a ‘toilet currency’ before we realised our own economic growth was built on sand".
(Lib Dem leader, Nick Clegg, 2009)

"Obviously joining a currency that everybody in Europe - including soon all the new European Union members - are using, a currency that American and Japanese and overseas businesses understand, has to make sense".
(Then UK Europe Minister, Denis MacShane, 2003)

"The euro, despite gloomy predictions from anti-Europeans, has proved to be a success".
(Former Lib Dem leader, Charles Kennedy, 2002)

"In reality the economic integration between Britain and the Continent is so close, and we have confirmed this because we all belong to the common market, that it can't be good in the long run to stay out of such a cardinal element as the currency union".
(Then German Finance Minister, Hans Eichel, 2002)

"There are no real benefits and some real costs to the UK of monetary independence... it makes sense from a financial stability perspective for the UK to contract out monetary policy to the ECB".
(Citigroup Chief Economist, Willem Buiter, 2007)

"Taking part in EMU would improve policy and performance enough to eliminate many of the strains that sceptics predict would emerge without the safety valve of devaluation".
(BBC Trust Vice Chairman, Diane Coyle OBE, 1997)

"The euro is like a breastplate that will become more and more resistant. The stability of the currencies within its area is without question".
(Then EU Monetary Affairs Commissioner, Yves Thibault de Silguy, 1998)

"The strict rules attached to the euro could emerge as one of the best ways to persuade the markets that we will put Humpty Dumpty back together again, put the public finances in order".
(Lib Dem leader, Nick Clegg, 2009)

"The question of entering the euro is worth a lot more to Britain than the wild anti-federalist fantasies peddled by those who think Britain should have nothing to do with Europe. Nobody of any consequence in Europe wants to create a federal super-state".
(Former Business Secretary, Lord Peter Mandelson, 2003)

The British Government Knew The Consequences In 1971

Foreign and Commonwealth Office 30/1048 - 1971

...the transfer of major executive responsibilities to the bureaucratic Commission in Brussels will exacerbate popular feeling of alienation from government. To counter this feeling, strengthened local and regional democratic processes within the member states and effective Community regional economic and social policies will be essential.

Parliamentary sovereignty will be affected as we have seen. But the need for Parliament to play an increasing (if perhaps more specialised) role may develop. Firstly, although a European Parliament might in the longest term become an effective, directly elected democratic check upon the bureaucracy, this will not be for a long time, and certainly not in the decade to come. In the interval, to minimise the loss of democratic control it will be important that the British Parliamentarians should play an effective role both through the British membership in the European Parliament and through the processes of the British Parliament itself.

Test

Friday, 3 June 2011

If You Don't Like It, Move!

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