Charity Begins at Oxfam

As mentioned in a previous blog I am not intending to make any New Year resolutions this year, although if you do want to make changes a new year is the perfect time to make them. It is all very neat and tidy to stop smoking or start dieting on January 1st but for me that doesn't work. It is much better to start or stop something when the time is right as opposed to when the time is new. Recently I read an article about a woman who vowed not to buy any new clothes for a year (when I say I 'read an article' what I actually mean is I read the headline - an article about not buying new clothes struck me as being immensely dull) and this got me thinking. Could I go a whole year without buying new clothes? Of course not. This has nothing to do with fashion or trends but has everything to do with clothes becoming boring after a few months. That is not to say I don't like to keep certain things for years, because I do, and it is lovely to rediscover dresses you had forgotten, but I love the excitement of wearing something new. But I thought about all the money this lady saved, and hearing about nothing but cuts, cuts, cuts, I have decided that this year I am not going to waste any more money buying new clothes (apart from underwear and shoes) from a proper shop. Instead I will only buy clothes from a charity shop. Not only will this save me money but it will also support various charities. At the moment I have direct debits set up to make a monthly donation to two charities, the NSPCC and Breast Cancer Care, but by shopping in various charity shops I can support the British Red Cross, The British Heart Foundation, Barnardos, Oxfam, Scope, Sense and the Cat Protection League. All these charities have shops a short distance from my home and they are all, without exception, staffed by nice middle aged and elderly ladies who are extremely polite, helpful and grateful that you have made a purchase, no matter how small, but I have to say the ladies in the Cat Protection League are the sweetest old ladies you could ever meet. I am sure this says something about old ladies who like cats. I am coming to the conclusion that old people should keep a pet. They need something to care for, something that relies on them and most of all, something that is warm and loving.


Moving on...

I am not sure what I think about the sentence given today to disgraced MP David Chaytor. Yes, I think he is a plonker who behaved despicably and he certainly needs to ‘pay for his crime’ but does he really deserve to go to prison? Is prison really the best punishment for him? Aren't prisons overcrowded? Aren't we going to have to pay to keep him in prison? Hasn't he already cost the tax payer thousands of pounds? Shouldn't prison be for those people who are a danger to society? The murderers, rapists, bullies and drug dealers? Fraudsters have to be punished of course but what has been gained by sending him to prison? Surely it would have been better to make him pay back the money he stole, with interest, and then send him to work for some charitable organisation without pay. Tag him. Place him under house arrest. Ban him from working in the public service. Never allow him an expense account and, if he ends up on benefits, keep a careful eye on him in case he has an urge to work and not declare his earnings, or tries to claim DLA while working as a roofer. But 18 months in prison? The former MP for Barnsley Central, Eric Illsley, stands trial next week accused of dishonestly claiming £20,000 in council tax and other bills on his second home, while other former Labour MPs Elliot Morley and Jim Devine and the Tory peers Lord Hanningfield and Lord Taylor face trials later this year. These men must be shaking in their boots. Pathetic, greedy, nasty individuals who I would gladly see made to pay for their crimes (if they are in fact found guilty) but, if they are, is prison the right place for them, or any person who commits a non-violent crime? I would like to say ‘victimless crime’ but it would be argued that we are all victims somewhere down the line. Yet I would much prefer being a victim of Chayters crime than that of these two charming ladies. Prison should be reserved for criminals like these horrible women who actually escaped a prison sentence: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1344621/Care-workers-tormented-elderly-women-Green-Goblin-glove-puppet-banned-profession-life.html