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If the head-long dive into winter is getting you down, then news that the TUC is calling for a new bank holiday for the end of October should lift your spirits.
In effect, the TUC is calling for a “Community Day” to celebrate and encourage volunteering and community activity.
Nigel Costley, Regional Secretary of the South West TUC, told the PRSD: “Community Day would recognise the importance of local communities in holding society together, and celebrate there is more to life than consumption during these difficult economic times.”
According to the TUC report, Why the UK can afford a Community Day, ‘cusomer-facing businesses’ (that’s retail, hospitality, leisure, tourism and transport apparently), ‘have stronger trading days on bank holidays and could benefit from a new public holiday’.
And as to the rest of the press release: “In sectors likely to benefit from a new bank holiday, consumer spending has grown from 31% of household income in 1971 to 39 per cent in 2005. A new bank holiday will therefore help to continue this spending boom, says the TUC.
“As well as encouraging people to go on holidays and short breaks, bank holidays lead to more ‘days out’, which bring in £90 billion worth of spending a year to the economy in England alone.
“In addition to the revenue benefits of a new bank holiday, the TUC argues that employers would benefit from the improved productivity, morale, health and well-being that it would give staff. The TUC believes these benefits vastly outweigh the cost of an extra day off work.”
Did you know Jonathan Ross is a great fan of Manga, the Japanese comic book style? So are plenty of Devon library goers and young people are being encouraged to find out more about these graphic novels in a new competition run by Devon libraries.
Budding artists could win a graphic design kit if they draw a Manga character based on themselves.
You can pick up Manga books (read right to left – they’re Japanese, geddit?) and even books about drawing Manga characters at your library. The main adult collections are based at Clyst Vale and Tavistock.
Entry forms for the competition are available at all libraries or online on the Devon libraries site at (which also includes tutorials and extras to get you going).
There are two age groups – 9 to 12 years, and 13 years and over (which includes adults). The deadline for all entries is Friday November 27.
All entrants must be members of Devon Libraries and potential new members are actively encouraged to join. The winner of each category will win a stylish graphic design kit.
Meanwhile… here’s some tips on drawing Manga eyes…
Car sharing in Devon has proved to be incredibly popular, with 6,200 members joining carsharedevon.com, making it one of the most popular schemes in the country.
The carsharedevon.com website puts those offering lifts with those who need them - or vice versa.
Ali Clabburn, managing director of Liftshare, which provides the car sharing system commissioned by Devon County Council, in partnership with Plymouth and Torbay Councils, told the PRSD: “Reaching 6,000 members is an outstanding achievement and demonstrates yet again how innovative and forward-thinking Devon County Council is in encouraging people to travel more sustainably.
“It works with energy and commitment to promote car-sharing as widely as possible, and as a result CarshareDevon is one of the most successful schemes in the country.”
Almost 150 people registered on the system between September 8-22, leading up to Devon Car Free Day.
The press release from Devon County Council includes two success stories, which we thought we’d share.
“Jenness Barber travels daily from Paignton to the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital, and linked up with four other drivers from Paignton and Torquay through the website. They are Glyn Parsons who works at County Hall, Dan Ray who works at Little Moor House at Sowton, Exeter, and Kevin Dixon and Kevin Jones who work at Park Five on Sowton.
“Jenness said: ‘I initially looked for women to share with but didn’t find a suitable partner so I widened the search to include men and came up trumps! I have no problems at all, we take it in turns to drive and do a day each. The car share group is working successfully and I am absolutely delighted with it.’
“Ann Goodridge, who also works at the Royal Devon & Exeter Hospital, car shares with three others on a daily return trip of nearly 90 miles from Plymouth to Exeter.
“She said: ‘We are nearing our 100th shared journey already since the start of this financial year and nearly 17,000 miles have been saved in six months. While not all the members of our car share work at the hospital, we improve our carbon footprint even further by dropping one member at the Sowton Park and Ride and another walks to work from an agreed drop off point.”‘
Towns can live up to their image in the oddest ways. The structured hierarchical idea that Dartmouth projects and the devil-may-care randomness of Totnes come through even in the towns’ bootscrapers.
The blog Faded London, which looks at the remnants of architectural windows into the past, went on the road recently and discovered the Bootscrapers of Totnes and Dartmouth.
There’s an obvious descent from the aesthetic bootscraper at the top of the hill in Dartmouth. “I think I’d be a bit ashamed to put mud anywhere near it,” says Faded London. And “the further down the hill you go the less impressive the scrapers. Some sort of social stratification going on here?”
Ending up with the no-fuss, simple honest-to-goodness scraper at the bottom of the hill.
Totnes, on the other hand, had bootscrapers competing with a plaintive dandelion, oddly placed poles, ‘odd white things’ and an ancient public faucet.
The latest addition to our myriad of pages is the People’s Republic of South Devon Blog Tips Central where we share our knowledge, experience and enthusiasm for blogging, and all things communication. We’ll steer you past the pitfalls and get you communicating effectively for business and pleasure. We’ve been blogging since 2006, so we know what we’re talking about.
First up, let’s have a look at content. Here are just five pointers to help you put pen to paper (kinda).
1. Eke out some time
Writing and communicating – whether it’s through words, pictures or video – can be liberating. But it can also be boom and bust, like the economy or New Year’s Resolutions. As the small print says: Stats may go up as well as down. To keep readers returning make sure you’ve got time to dedicate to your new blog. The ideal post frequency for your blog will depend upon many factors including your topic, your audience and how many bloggers you have. Start slow and you will become more efficient as you go along.
2. Choose your medium
Decide what you think is the best blog for you. There’s plenty of blog programs out there (we use Wordpress because it offers so much depth and flexibility) - there’s even blog provision on MySpace and Bebo which can tie in with your social networking. Or why not treat your Facebook site as a blog? Or, if you’re image-led, maybe explore the flickr world, or use your flickr account to feed into your blog. The world is your oyster, and the choice is yours. Just be aware of your, and your site’s, limitations.
3. Create a voice
Think about your topic, what you want to write and how you want to communicate. People are complicated creatures. Do you want your blog to reflect you (warts an’ all); aspects of your hobby; or to promote your business? All of these are perfectly acceptable - but it starts getting a little confusing if you cover each of them in depth on the same site. Fans of your fantastic art content, for example, will get annoyed if you start writing reams about last night’s X-Factor. If you have enough time, maybe create different sites and link to them.
4. Read and link to other sites when possible
Despite what the song says, it doesn’t take just one voice, singing in the darkness. Even if you don’t link to other sites (which we would recommend, by the way), it’s important to keep up-to-date with what else is in the blogosphere… and the world. Why? Because you are part of a virtual community and knowing what other people are blathering on about can only help to inform what you’re going to blather on about. It will keep your blog more relevant.
5. Engage and excite
Content is king - or rather, content is the most democratically acceptable way to get your point across. Even in this hyper-fast world, traditional skills come to the fore. Try to be succinct, consistant and accurate (spelling and punctuation, anyone?). Remember that people don’t often like reading too much on the computer, and they browse like butterflies, looking at the purty pictures, reading the captions, headlines and even (very occasionally!) your stories. Often people will only stick around for a couple of seconds. The trick is to get them to stay awhile. But we’ll discuss that another time.
What tips would you add, citizens? Has this been instructive? Is there anything you’d like us to cover? Comment below please!
It’s a bad week for squirrels – Otterton Mill is putting the frolicking grey tree crawler on its menu in the form of a squirrel kebab.
Otterton Mill’s head chef (or maybe you’d prefer chief chef) Ed Chester is committed to education, and he says squirrel meat is genuinely good, and you guessed it - tastes of chicken, a gamey chicken, but chicken none-the-less.
The squirrel is free-range and locally sourced - how can you argue with that? Although his planed dishes with rook and badger ham may seem a step too far.
And as to eating squirrel, we turn to Louise Vennells on What’s On South West, who said: “To me, it had a taste more similar to red meat with the texture of white, and was delicious.”
So there you have it – squirrel, best served with nuts.
A free storytelling event is taking place at Exeter Library on Wednesday October 29 from 12.30pm to 4.30pm.
Called 1001 Stories the event will feature stories from around the world as a celebration of storytelling and story writing from the black and minority ethnic community.
There will be a multi-cultural dance performance; an opportunity to tell your stories, make your own books and story sticks and children’s author Hanne Chen will be on hand, too.
There’s no need to book, all you do is turn up with your tall (or less tall) tales to tell - and listen to. The day is brought to you by Devon Gets Reading and the Devon Racial Equality Council.
For more information, get in touch with Suaad George on 07792 373347 or Jane on 07977 574009
News is wafting through to us that real nappies are up to 40 per cent better for the environment than disposables and they make parents better off, too. Now, that’s nothing to sniff it - no really! Don’t.
The figures come from a Defra report, which shows that the environmental benefits are achieved by ‘following simple washing guidelines like avoiding tumble drying nappies, using A-rated appliances and washing in full loads at no more than 60 degrees. These are all measures recommended by nappy manufacturers and commonly used by parents’.
And there’s the cash saving. Real nappies save parents hundreds of pounds, and the washing advice will help reduce energy bills too. (The savings are even better when the real nappies are used on a second child.)
With washable nappies, parents are in control of the impact they have on the environment.
As luck should have it the Devon Real Nappy Project makes real nappy trial kits available in most areas, giving parents the chance to try out different shapes and styles in a ‘no purchase necessary’ free one month trial. Interest free loans are available in some Sure Start areas.
A Seaton councillor, a mental health charity and the Royal Mail (boo hiss) have done well this week, but who have lost out? Find out in our weekly news round up
GOOD WEEK Young’ uns… Twenty-one-year old Seaton town councillor Sophie O’Connell has been awarded Devon Young Councillor of the Year. Since becoming a councillor in May 2007 she has worked with closely with young people, creating Ground Zero, an alcohol-free nightclub for 13 to 16 year olds.
Surf-ers… Schoolgirl Emma Pullar donated her prize money from poetry and photography competitions at a World Mental Health Day to mental health charity Surf. The 15-year-old picked up first place in both competitions and passed the money onto the charity her mother, who has post-traumatic stress disorder, established. Emma’s 17-year-old brother is autistic. She described both her mother and brother as “two very inspiration people in my life who deserve a lot more than the hand they were dealt”.
Making a packet… The operating profit for the Royal Mail is up to £177 million in the six months to September - the highest since 2001. This comes at time when 150 rural post offices have been closed throughout Devon and Cornwall, with fears of 3,000 more closing nationally. Community groups which protested the rural closers were flabbergasted
BAD WEEK Blind data… More computerised personal information has gone missing - this time from the individual thefts of 15 computers used by council staff while at home, and two have been stolen from schools. It’s feared that information about schoolchildren (including photographs), schools and teachers and personal details of County Hall employees have been lost.
TRIPers… The Honiton-based ring-and-ride charity is losing out after the advent of free bus passes for the over 60s. Because free bus passes are not usable on ring-and-ride services, it’s felt “to almost be discriminating against those people who either are too unwell or disabled to get to a bus stop, or who live too far from a service as they have to pay for us to collect them,” according to TRIP manager Neil Hurlock.
Wet feet… Senior citizens in East Devon are annoyed that leisure centres in the area are not taking part in a free-swim initiative organised by cereal manufacturer Kellogg’s, which allows senior citizens an opportunity to swim for free.
Long shots… Live firing on the moor is… err… under fire after disagreements about its long-terms aims and the environmental damage caused by the military activity. The Ministry of Defence has claimed a continued need, whereas the Campaign for National Parks, Dartmoor Preservation Association, Open Spaces Society and Ramblers’ Association were “deeply concerned” about the situation.
Some 15 laptops containing unknown amounts of personal information have been stolen from county council employees. But our question is, who is responsible for the loss? The victim or the perpetrator?
Devon County Council is definitely a loser in this week’s news, read more of the week’s winners and losers on tomorrow’s People’s Republic of South Devon.
• stay tuned for Orange Crate’s technology column, when reading the small print goes to a new nano level
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Welcome to the People's Republic of South Devon. Your subscription will begin with the next newsletter. Keep up to date by visiting the blog regularly and make sure your voice is heard. Many thanks, The People's Republic of South Devon.
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