Happy Christmas from Philip Dunne MP
Posted by Philip Dunne, MP for Ludlow, at 11:37, Wed 23 December 2009:
The chances for a white Christmas seem greater this year than any other year of the noughties. Sub-zero temperatures for several days have brought joy to children, my own included, particularly where accompanied with enough snow to set a toboggan down hill.
But for many the freezing weather has brought real problems. Imagine if you were planning to travel on eurostar. As it happens, my brother-in-law was on the second train to get stuck last Friday night. He had to walk through the service tunnel for some distance, and sat for hours on a train with intermittent power and little information about what was happening. An alarming experience, but fortunately with a happy ending.
He could not alert relatives because of course mobile phones don’t work in the tunnel. One of my hopes for a new government will be to make mobile antennae compulsory on trains.
Closer to home, roads and pavements have been treacherously icy. I witnessed a gentleman in Ludlow falling on a slippery pavement and hurting his back. Several passers-by stopped to help. The paramedic arrived within a couple of minutes and the ambulance not long afterwards, despite the dispatcher having to ask where the station was in Station Road in Ludlow: an example of one of the challenges posed by regional control centres.
After a year of recession, declining incomes and worries about jobs, the last thing people need to worry about is how to keep warm. So this Christmas, at a time when we think of others less fortunate than ourselves, if you know someone who may need a helping hand, why not take a moment to drop by to see if all is well.
For those who can, enjoy the holiday break with crisp clear days, hoar-frost on the trees and our glorious Shropshire countryside shrouded in white.
Comments
Commenting on this message is now disabled.
Posted by tony phillips, 11:53, Wed 23 December 2009: (Is this post abusive?) #
Hi, if councils would save a bit of money in the summer instead of spending our money on damn fool things like Bridgnorth in bloom etc etc, there may be some left over for gritting places like the walkway down the bottom of Innage Lane leading into town. Other than that I hope Christmas is enjoyed by all in true Christian celebration of Christ's birth.