Garden Party yesterday and though plenty thunder not a drop of rain - a dry Garden Party in every sense. Caught up with lots of people I haven't seen for a while and had a good time. Just as I was leaving I bumped into Campbell Christie, holding a very fetching cream hat (for Betty who was in the loo). He told me he's just recovering from treatment for bowel cancer. 'Snap,' I said and we fell into a discussion on the relative merits of our respective treatments. We have both been very lucky. One in two people who contract it, die of bowel cancer: it was a sobering moment - two lucky survivors. Oh yes, and I did see the Queen and Princes Philip and Edward too...
And today, an elderly constituent contacted me - his kitchen is riddled with dampness and some months ago EBS arranged to visit to pull the ceiling down and remove the damaged plaster from his kitchen walls. Then, it seemed like they forgot about him 'cos several weeks later he asked me to visit to see the ruin he's been left with...
If you can imagine it, all his kitchen equipment is stacked in his livingroom, his kitchen ceiling has a gaping hole, perhaps a metre square, and the plaster that's left on the walls is riddled with dampness and black spores. Immediately, I get on his case but for some reason my email/letter goes missing so another month drags by before he comes back to ask what's happening and at last - easily 3 months after the first work started we see some action by the Council (and a very fulsome letter of apology citing mixed dates, missed appointments etc etc). Today I receive another phone call from him (elderly and on a low, fixed income) : a humidifier has been installed to dry the dampness but it's running away with his electricity card and he's had to switch the machine off - so my office gets involved in explaining the problem, looking for an answer. Now, I am pleased to say that the housing officer dealing with the case shows some understanding of the old fellow's dilemma and agrees to find out how he can be helped with the cost of running the machine...however, it takes a lot of energy, time and money to sort out what is, in effect, a problem of poverty and the casual assumptions that go on day in, day out about people and their circumstances.
Once again, I am struck by the immense contrast in our great city: palaces and poverty - three miles apart yet may as well be on different planets.
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