Ealing North
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Steve Pound MP Ealing North |
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Merry ChristmasDecember 2003 It’s been a strange old autumn on the campaigning front, dear reader. I’ve written before about my attempt to bring in a Bill that would give some relief to the thousands of people whose lives are made a misery by unthinking or malicious neighbours who grow vast screens of Leylandii trees. Having seen my Bill talked out by one bitter Conservative MP I thought that the cause was lost. As one who is still finding his way around the procedures of the House I had to take on a hefty research project and was delighted to find that I could see my High Hedges Bill added to the Government’s Anti-Social Behaviour Bill. The “Guardian”, not my favourite newspaper, was kind enough to refer to my “deft Parliamentary footwork” and I am still finding it hard to believe that I have got the Bill through the House and that it will become law next year. The whole campaign started in Hicks Avenue Greenford and I know that at least two of my Ealing North constituents will be mightily relieved when the new law comes into force. I’ve not been so successful in my attempts to stop stores playing Christmas music in October. This all started when Nikki Drury found that “Mistletoe and Wine” was on the menu in Woolworth’s at the start of November. Apart from the fact that Christmas starts with the beginning of Advent I find the whole “Jingle Bells” in autumn nonsense completely unacceptable. “Silent Night” is one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written but even that palls when you hear it every hour. Any where does the magic of Christmas go when tinsel and tinny tunes come out before Halloween? I seemed to have struck a nerve with this one but became, quite unintentionally, an object of hatred to the people of Wolverhampton when I made a less than complimentary remark about Slade’s “Happy Christmas Everybody”. Apparently they do not take kindly to criticism of Noddy Holder and the boys in the Black Country and I have been warned not to set foot in the area again. That’ll be a hard one to agree to but I think that I may just be able to force myself. It’s the children that I worry about. Every year the message of Christmas is subsumed ever more by the crass commercialism of the market. I’m just not prepared to see Christmas sacrificed on the altar of commerce and I urge anyone who agrees to make the point when they go into a shop that is blaring out some ghastly piece of seasonal muzak before the start of Advent. Have yourselves a very merry Christmas by all means – but not in November! |
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| Disclaimer | Copyright | Designed by Bassam Mahfouz. Promoted by Julian Bell, The Labour Party, Ruskin Hall, 16 Church Road, W3 8PP on behalf of Steve Pound MP |
