Mike Southby

I see that the opening credits on Eastenders have changed again; well they changed on Monday actually.  Wow, what a difference, not.

Of course there is the age old argument that if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it and I think the guys and gals behind Eastenders should have taken heed.  I’m not saying they shouldn’t have changed it, I mean the old one had been there for some time (a good 10 years+ I think but don’t quote me on it) and perhaps it was indeed time for a change but surely they could have done something a little more ‘substantial’, apart from the clouds (which actually I do quite like) and the artificially blue River Thames, it’s not exactly ground breaking stuff!  I hate to think how much of my licence fee they spent on the development.  Take a look for yourselves and see what you think:

Whilst we’re on the subject of Eastenders, what on earth were the casting crew thinking about bringing Danniella Westbrook back into the storylines as Sam.  Looking back, when Sam was played by Kim Medcalf I had no problems watching or believing her character, she was no better or worse than any of the other roles but now?  I think I missed most of the story tonight laughing at the appalling acting by Danniella, it’s utterly despicable.  As if her acting wasn’t bad enough, what is that face all about when she cries/laughs/smiles (because the gestures all look the same…), I think her time would be better spent on billboards depicting reasons not to take drugs.  Oh, and if I was her, I wouldn’t be paying that plastic surgeon either…

I see in the news today that official research has shown that over the last 2 years, congestion in the UK has dropped by almost a third, research into this by Trafficmaster and AA/Populus has cited this to be because of the recession that we are currently in.  Makes sense, what with the unemployment level and more and more people working from home in a bid to save money.  The research goes on to say that this is the first tangible decrease in congestion in over 20 years.

So my question is why has the London Congestion Charge not been reduced accordingly?  According to the official website, the charge was bought about to tackle congestion and is not some hidden tax, all net profit has to be reabsorbed into improving the transport infrastructure in London.  Now surely if congestion has decreased then this decrease should also be carried across to the charge we have to pay?   After all, we are in recession so every penny we as tax payers can save is going to help where it matters.

Those of us who have need to travel into London on a regular basis will know that no amount of spiel will convince us that this is not a money making scheme, have the roads been improved? Not really.  Has the charge made a huge difference to congestion and thus the amount of time it takes to get from A to B? Not really.  So what do we actually gain from paying this charge? Come on Boris, sort it out.

The London Congestion Charge, just another stealth tax.