For whom the bell tolls: Do we really need to know when it’s time for church?

As I slip my feet back under the duvet, the ghastly Leonie and James seem to be starting another row. I sip my coffee. I’ve been looking forward to this…. CLANG; CLANG; CLANG; CLANG; CLANG..  Oh well.  Now we’re outside the Bull, and Jolene’s trying to organise everyone … CLANG; CLANG; CLANG; CLANG; CLANG. … Leonie’s berating James again.  Seems their aerial photo shoot didn’t go that well. I guess there’s always the iPlayer.

Kemptown’s noisier than Ambridge. People socializing in gardens, car alarms, Brighton Ballroom smokers shrieking drunkenly – and the seagulls! Can’t be helped, though, can it?  Unlike that CLANGING!

The insistent, tuneless racket is not an alarm. There’s no fire, or sinking ship. It’s St George’s call to prayer.

Olive Taylor’s garden is our shame, not hers

by Damien Murphy

Olive Taylor, 87, in her garden in Brighton.
Photo: Express and Star

WHILE most of us agree that recycling is important, most of us still knowingly bin recyclable waste, according to a study published last September.

The study showed that, for the most part, we throw out what we could recycle simply because we are too busy or too lazy.

So perhaps Brighton should be grateful to have someone like Olive Taylor, who has been picking up the slack, and the trash, for others for decades.

The Brighton pensioner has been shouldering more than her share of the burden, collecting cans and rubbish to recycle for charity since 1978.

But cleaning up after the rest of us is quite the Herculean task for a blind octogenarian, so it is little surprise her workload has literally piled up.

Brighton and Hove City Council has given the 87-year-old until April 10 to clear the four-foot-high piles of rubbish that line the path to her house.

It is hard to blame her neighbours for complaining about the rubbish and the flies it attracts, nor the council for viewing the hoard as a health risk.

Yet it is just as hard to doubt that Miss Taylor’s intentions are noble.

Back in 2003, Miss Taylor told the Argus: “[The council] seem to think I am an obsessive compulsive who collects rubbish for the sake of it… [but] it is there until I have sorted through it and taken it down to be recycled.”

It may be an eyesore and a hazard, but perhaps it is not Miss Taylor who should be ashamed of the mounds of rubbish.

Perhaps the shame better belongs to those of us who don’t take responsibility for the waste we produce, leaving it for others to pick up.

Clearing up Olive Taylor’s garden once and for all means getting better at cleaning up after ourselves, and binning only what we can’t recycle.

Body of Proof – Season One

 HAVE you ever wondered how a TV programme got created?  Possibly not.  Something genuinely original will draw you in instantly, you’ll forget these people and their stories aren’t real.  That’s the mark of good telly.  Anything else isn’t worth watching.  Right?

Apparently not.

The first thing I find myself considering about Body of Proof is the awkward title.  A bit like Body of Evidence, a great title but already taken. Body of Proof sounds like they couldn’t think of anything better. This doesn’t bode well.

Never mind.  I’m a cop-show junkie – I’ll give anything new a chance, at least for an hour.

As new Philadelphia Medical Examiner Megan Hunt, played by Dana Delany (Desperate Housewives), struggles to bond with her new professional partner while unpicking the last hours of a woman found floating in the Schuylkill River, far from suspending disbelief, I continue to contemplate the process by which these things get made.

Drill, Balcombe, Drill!

This week Iran pre-empted an EU ban on oil imports from that country and halted its own sales to British and French buyers. Well, good. We should be comfortable that we are not funding a nuclear programme that might soon point the fruits of its labours at us or our allies, funding our own demise. William Hague said it would have no impact on our energy security, but only eight days ago crude oil prices hit an eight-month high. With our elderly frequently having to choose between eating and freezing during winter, North Sea reservoirs running dry, businesses paying extortionately to transport goods, and especially with the UK economy flat-lining, one would think we would fall upon a new resource of energy in our own country like it was manna from heaven. The stuff has been lurking unleashed beneath our feet for millions of years.

Will the Greens be given a red light by supporters?

By Kat Hopps

After angry protests at the recent budget meeting, the Green party is at risk of alienating its voters

It may have been their first ever budget, but it’s likely to be one they wish to forget. The Green Party suffered a humiliating defeat at Wednesday’s meeting, not just from opposition councillors who defeated a raft of green proposals, including a 3.5% council tax levy, but at the hands of vocal protestors both inside and outside Brighton Town Hall.

A range of individuals came along to voice their discontent: allotment owners; parents; and students amongst them. Outside, individuals waved placards; inside, there was a tense, and at times, hostile atmosphere during the five hour meeting as members of the gallery heckled Green councillors.

From speaking to people who voted Green in last year’s elections, it is apparent many are angry about the party’s rhetoric in recent weeks. Some have noted a whiff of hypocrisy from a party which purports a ‘green’ line on issues whilst simultaneously trying to raise allotment rates and cut community services such as the mobile library.

Graham Ennis, a retired research scientist and former writer for The Ecologist magazine, said: “The Green Party has lost contact with ordinary people…. and simply doesn’t seem to understand what it is doing or how ridiculous it looks. A bright 12 year-old can figure out that if you say you are a green party and say you like green things, you should support green things and not snatch it away from people.”

Despite the defeat of some of the Green’s proposals on Wednesday, some argue that the damage has already been done. Will Scrim, a Brighton resident and student at Sussex University said: “Although the Greens initially made a stand against cuts, it is now complicit. It is not just the Tory’s who are at fault, it is the people who implement the cuts at a local level who become part of that agenda. They should refuse to take money from the poorest in society…they should build a campaign to force the government to change.”

It appears then that the Greens have some work to do. With a tarnished brand image, they may now be at threat from Labour in future elections over broken campaign promises – something which Labour leader, Jill Mitchell, is all too aware. She declared: “They have gone from the protest party to the party most protested in this city.”

When asked if he had voted for the Greens at the last local elections, Graham Ennis said: “I did and I regret it bitterly.” Watch this space: he might not be the only one.

Robbery of Brighton Man on Western Road is linked to similar Attack on Ship Street

By Harriet Thacker

Photo courtesy of Creative Commons by Yandle
Police believe that the robbery of man in Western Road, Brighton, at the weekend may be linked to another robbery in Ship Street earlier the same night.

Ian Rankin speaks at First Fictions Festival

By Elizabeth Hughes

Ian Rankin in conversation with Lesley Thomson at First Fictions Festival, University of Sussex, Friday 20th January 2012

place your bets… what are the true costs of gambling?

By Daniel Cheater

Should we gamble? Is it good clean fun or are we asking for trouble?

Photo used under creative commons by greengardenvienna

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Residents support communal recycling

Brighton Lite Reporter

Photo courtesy of Creative Commons by TheTruthAbout

New parking measures proposed for Preston Park

Brighton Lite Reporter

Photo courtesy of Creative Commons by Mark Wordy