Lee Scoresby

Not ranting Alex K, and I don't need your condescension. Or does dissent bother you, Alex K? It's anger at a lousy public service. I have said on the EDF before, the more people put up with stuff, the more we'll get dumped on. This is a FORUM, read the label. In a democracy, people talk together and share knowledge. Now in fact, mechanisms of accountability and change are extremely imperfect in Britain, not least in local government. If there were an effective 'other venue' I would use it. But I can talk to other SE Londoners about the situation. ianr, it was Camberwell, coming toward East Dulwich.

Wrong. I have posted before about this lousy bus service, 'serving' (LOL) East Dulwich. Overheard last night: Between a driver waiting to start his shift on a 185, and numerous passengers waiting . . . waiting for the 484. Passengers point out to the driver that the Countdown time for the 484 has read 'DUE' for 20 minutes. And that this happens day after day. It's very simple, says the driver. The bus company misinforms the Countdown system. So there you have it - for a 4-late-4 you can't even trust the electronic wait time. The company in question is Abellio, who are Dutch. And you can bet your last guilder they wouldn't DARE mess Dutch travellers round this way back home. But here in London, dozy lazy complacent complicit TfL points one of its 2 blind eyes and waves the situation through. Wake up TfL suits! Put your pension plans down for just one minute and do the regulatory job you've been tasked to do. Blimey o'reilly Lee Scoresby

A heads-up about the t-lights was great - but davidh, a forum is more than a Twitter feed - things connect Entirely reasonable that a community can cross a busy road safely to local shopping - my point was, who gets results and who gets ignored? - and indeed, stacy-lyn, the crossing island is horrendously misconceived - only a matter of days before a head-on, I would say B-Jack, you've clearly got the 'shared space' religion - Q: besides common sense, what was it that slowed vehicles down when the lights were out? - A: first, that tentative "After you Maurice" eye-contact thingy which is central to 'shared space' ideology - very inefficient at an X-crossing, hence the attraction of a roundabout - second reason, that small but very dangerous minority of selfish immature 'yeah-whatever!' drivers about whom everyone else has to worry - you could see such specimens honking and bullying and barging through when the lights were down - and these scumbags are the big bug in the 'shared space' utopia - it wouldn't mean equality, B-J, it would mean priority to these thugs just sayin' iz all Lee Scoresby

I have posted before on the EDF about the ongoing scandal of this shambolic, dangerous crossroads. The axial and width misalignment of the road segments, the failure to filter right-turning traffic towards Forest Hill. The site is dangerous for drivers and pedestrians WITH its lights working - a schoolgirl died there in recent years. I am not a supporter of Hans Monderman and Martin Cassini, 'shared space' and all that, removing all traffic signs, constraints, separation - and traffic lights. But yes, indeed, traffic was doing rather well today without lights. Tho part of the reason for that is that London's traffic lights are still, in 2013, just 'dumb' phase-rotating relics, so vast amounts of time are wasted with everyone sitting waiting, no-one moving. More rationally run cities have traffic lights which are interlinked interactive flow management systems. The suggestion of my previous post was that this junction should be a roundabout, nipping a tiny piece off the corner of the Rye (shock-horror!), and with enhanced pedestrian protection. Many of us hoped, earlier in the year, when the junction was paralysed with roadworks week after week, that the faceless-nameless ones had actually woken up and were making needed changes. What did we get? New curbstones! And the removal of pedestrian islands, adding to the hazard of crossing and encouraging vehicles to speed up. It's traffic engineering by baboons - irresponsible beyond belief. More recent works in ED Road made me think that perhaps, at long last, they were going to construct that right-turn filter. No, it was just a crossing to Tesco. Ah well, the corporate master cracks the whip, the public official jumps. Shame a major supermarket doesn't insist the whole crossroads is sorted. The voices of ordinary people make no difference at all to those who run this city. Lee Scoresby

Decided to swim locally rather than going to the Brixton Rec just now - silly me. The usual grotty shemozzle - front-of-house bozo who had to be persuaded to look up from his reading, men's changing rooms a filthy mess, and the pool itself several times over capacity for swimming lengths - good for Fusion's coffers, lousy for ED swimmers. That was a brand new centre this gang of jokers was handed, just a year or two ago! So what might be done about pool over-crowding? Well, more intelligent timetabling. Southwark could finally insist that Fusion runs the pool til 8pm on weekends like comparable facilities. Controlling numbers. And proper pool management. Numbers - I know it's annoying to be turned away, or made to wait, but when the pool is allowed to get chokka-block, no-one can enjoy it. But then Fusion can't really 'manage numbers' can they? Ref their 'technique' during past summers at Peckham Pulse: Turf everyone out after 'one hour' (actually as little as 20m) and make everyone buy another ticket. No announcement whatever of this policy, anywhere. Hey, that's how Tony Soprano would do it! 'Dynamic' (moment by moment) pool management allows more people to exercise in the same space effectively. Interventions, for example, to disperse the hangin' about/ Adonis displays which block pool ends. But hey, Fusion doesn't do pool management AT ALL. What's that? 'Time of austerity'? The truth is, 'austerity' is the perfect cover for entrenching and excusing all sorts of sharp practice and lousy service. Things SHOULD be much better. I don't believe it's about money. The Dulwich councillors have a permanent advert on the EDF, and I'm sure they claim to read it, and to know what's going on. Well, wake up and smell the chlorine, Councillors! This rogue contract crew has had its claws into Southwark leisure facilites for years and years. I have posted in the past about Fusion's carry-on just at EDLC - no lost property system, absurdly long queues for tickets, seating ripped out for months, sky-high prices - a swim is TWICE what GLL charges at Brixton. Well past time to really review all those contracts, rotate the officers who supposedly 'oversee' them, and indeed, nudge the cozy dozy council committees which nod them through time and again. Lee Scoresby

I don't discourage anyone from exercising her or his democratic right but I caution you against any idea that either Fusion or the Southwark officers laughingly supposed to be supervising this contractor will take the slightest notice. Your reply will be either patronising wiffle or bare-faced denial of things you know to be true. This outfit has form, a great deal of it. A glance at the EDF archive will give a flavour of the shambles that accompanied what should have been the triumphant occasion of the Baths reopening. One of FL's grubbiest little secrets was throwing all pool-users out of the Pulse after just an hour when it suited them. No signage, nothing in the brochures, because they knew that nobody would accept it. Even this they couldn't pull off - I was flung out of a lane with no-one else using it after just 20 minutes! Nearly a year after I first drew to this to Southwark's attention, absolutely nothing had changed. Will they pull the same stunt this summer? Probably. Perhaps the new generation of councillors will be prepared to ask just why this bunch keep their stranglehold on ED and Southwark leisure facilities, and wonder whether certain council officers are far too cosy with FL. These are our facilities and we deserve a lot better. Lee Scoresby

I have posted on EDF before about Fusion Lifestyle, for example the casual doubling (that's DOUBLING) last year of the cost of a monthly swim ticket. Latest BS from these clowns piled onto long-suffering Dulwich Baths users: - no hot showers in the mens' swimming changing rooms, I am told for months now - almost all the seating in the men's changing rooms suddenly ripped out - why? - FL is too arrogant to tell us - accidentally left something behind? - forget it, the cleaners chuck it - there's no lost property system - supervision of lane swimming is as 'zzz, whatever' as it ever was I ask again, how does this truly shoddy outfit keep its contracts with Southwark? And I'd love to know too, what pay and perks is the FL boss taking home? We should know. Lee Scoresby

Honestly drew, I don't want to get into a troll-off with you, but jesus, that eternal English attitude: 1) It's crap and there's nothing we can do. 2) Nowhere else in the universe can possibly have arranged it better. 3) ING-ER-LAND, LUV IT OR LEAVE IT, GEEZA! There certainly are "more important things in life". I'd love not to think about buses. But life is measured out in time, and tiiiiiiiiime is what I'm expending at bus stops rather than doing those things. Drew, you need to distinguish life's inevitable (taxes, death) and random (shit happens) events ("events, dear boy, events") with which we do indeed have to deal, from crap that's handed down to us coz we say nothing. Apps are most excellent, but your preference for a techno-fix over analysing from first principles isn't robust common sense but a choice you've made. Enough about the bus now. I'm just saying is all. Lee Scoresby

So, hmm, never mind how contract-breakingly crap the service is, so long as you or I KNOW how crap it is at that par-TIC-ular moment? Don't get me wrong, I get the point, better to wait somewhere warm. But my Qs are: Why are we waiting? Why do Londoners put up with it? Why are we paying ?60+ pm on the Oyster and then shlepping down the wintery road with that heavy load? Where are the democratic mechanisms of oversight and objection that work easily and effectively for us in this urban context? How do we challenge the faceless complacent ones? For years TfL never got its act together to install Countdown at all stops, or even major logical stops. Will its successor ever be rolled out? That's publicly displayed information for the hapless app-less. Even in the anomised 21stc the revolution will not be an app. Lee Scoresby

In autumn last year I asked, is the 484 (serving Grove Vale and East Dulwich residents) the worst bus service in London? Plenty of you knew what I meant. Such high hopes as a new contractor took over this spring. And how quickly we're back to the same old nonsense: multiple buses arriving with endless chilly waiting between. Buses groaning like sardine cans in rush hour, leaving people at stops. Frequencies posted at stops seem to have been quietly altered. Now the contractor can get away with running just 4 buses an hour. So where is the ever-useless TfL? Or those brave tribunes of the people at City Hall? Silent as ever, is where. Lee Scoresby

Further to: the east side of Peckham Rye (Road), between the Rye's Peckham apex and where East Dulwich Road becomes Nunhead Lane, might work better as an uphill one-way. Also, the controllers' mono-maniacal determination that the up/down flow is favoured over the cross flow has some obscure connection to their having made a right horlicks of traffic flow down at the bottom of the Rye. Anyway, thanx for the feedback. Roundabout or not, part of the problem is that this 2011 urban light-system is just mechanical. In other countries, these systems are intelligent, responding to local stimuli (which can be as simple as ground pressure lines) or linked into area control rooms. Not in Southwark. Anywhere in London? I don't know. ratty's point is poignantly well made. Even the memorial tree to the young girl who died there in the latter half of last year, still to be seen quietly decaying, does not move the great ones off their municipal chuffs. Frankito, part of your problem turning right is the yobs wanting to move ahead in the RH lane and cut left. Also, both sets of lights only have 2 phases. Some traffic engineering protocols would erect a low barrier between LH and RH lanes, say from Fenwick Rd to the junction. But I suspect the yobs would then just barge across the crossroad itself. And responding to Frankito's point about roundabouts and pedestrians: - Crossings at the edge of roundabouts are more dangerous when the traffic is incoming. The Highway Code (gawd bless it!) is very clear about the danger of zooming past a vehicle approaching a crossing, let alone one that has stopped. I have nearly been hit in this way both at Goose Green and elsewhere. - Crossings near roundabouts also appear more dangerous when they are (pedestrian's initiative) zebra crossings, rather than light controlled. - However, lousy urban junctions and other badly managed road situations are far more dangerous than marked crossings. I am suspicious of the traffic planners' impulse to corral walkers and oblige them to walk where they do not want to go. But I refuse to believe a safe solution cannot be designed. - Generally, I emphatically reject the entire chuckle-headed philosophy of London traffic safety, with its bogus 20mph zones, ambiguous orange ground markings (hey, they work really well in some quiet provincial Dutch town!), and all the other hands-off walk-away cosmetic stuff. The problem is not the vast majority of non-idiot drivers (like Townleygreen) but the hard core of immature yobs, sometimes uninsured and unlicenced. London local authorities are really-really enthusiastic about issuing parking penalties. What London NEEDS is a helluva lot more detection and prosecution of what the Americans call 'moving violations'. Lee Scoresby

The problem : the junction where East Dulwich Road meets Peckham Rye (AKA Kings on the Rye). Where yobs roar down the right lane and push into the left to go straight ahead. All made infinitely worse by the fanatical determination of the faceless ones who phase these traffic lights to keep an open road between Peckham and Forest Hill - never mind that traffic tails back up over the hill past Goose Green to Grove Vale. I propose: - Twin roundabouts to replace this light-controlled junction and its oppo on the Nunhead side, nipping into the corners of Peckham Rye, even losing a couple of plane trees (oo, is that screaming I hear?) - The short stretch between becomes a 2x2-lane dual carriageway, with both footpaths relocated back behind the trees (demolishing the loo block). - The 484 goes round the bottom of the triangle and come up to a relocated bus stop - ending the peek-a-boo that 343/484 users are presently forced to play. - The end of Fenwick Rd is closed, to stop rat-run vehicles barging out into the flow. We have a great deal of traffic in this city; let us at least manage vehicular flow rather more intelligently. Lee Scoresby

Within a rather shabby local authority, Southwark's noise nuisance team does excellent and necessary work, 24/7. Officers perform the tricky and often unpleasant task of confronting bozos making a racket at all hours and in all the ways 21stc technology lets them. We live very close to one another in SE London. If you doubt the problem, look up the national stat's and find crimes as serious as murder and suicide motivated by noise nuisance. My worry is that, down at the town hall, the Westminster-wannabees and faceless suits, looking for big cuts, decide the noise team is a luxury that people don't need. Thoughts? Lee Scoresby, quietly

Thank you all for responding. To be clear, I am very fond indeed of Lordship Lane. Things could be improved - how is that 'negative' ? My thought was to have traffic move more carefully and slowly thru, and I agree that one-way, even if possible, does not necessarily achieve this. Crystal Palace is indeed a rather grim example. east-of-the-rye: I remember the Street Audit. I talked to those guys at some length. Their consultation period was ridiculously short, and I was alarmed by their wild enthusiasm for ambiguous zones. The bureaucratic detail you give re endless delay (at one extreme) and impetuous action (at the other) is interesting but hardly JUSTIFIES anything. computedshorty: goodness, what to say to you, my anonymous friend? I appear to have offended your professional pride - but I just don't agree that only town planners and LA officers can have a valid opinion about where we live. You seem to believe I have only just arrived, and pull the classic (and tired) dichotomy, we the REAL locals, you the 'orrible incomers. In fact, I have lived in the area for many years. Yes, I have seen East Dulwich improve wonderfully in that time - so does progress have to come to a stop right now? Can we not change "what is placed there"? Clearly, c-shorty, you have taken a considerable dislike to me - or to who and what you think I am - because it's a little tricky when it's just emails, isn't it? You express some objection to the period after which I reply to responders to my posts - but WHAT is it, exactly? Yes, I had an over-whimsical post removed recently - what is it you want to SAY about that? You have evidently taken much trouble to find my activity all over the EDF, and have drawn wrong conclusions about my nationality and musical hobbies. Frankly (and I draw this gently to the attention of the moderator, whom I know is lurking gently there in the cyber-bushes), I find this surveillance rather threatening - your tone is certainly abusive. What is the problem with using the EFF to discuss these important local matters? I suggest it is people who have nothing postitive to say who should "Take it easy just sit back". Sorry folks, what a silly distraction, but I feel that sort of post, if not answered head-on, would have a really chilling effect on the EDF. Lee Scorseby

London's high streets share the pre-modern pattern of terraced retail premises looking hard onto arterially busy roads. You wouldn't design 'em that way in 2010 - you can manage them well. Lordship Lane isn't. Specifically: - Footpaths are axial walking spaces. On LL (typically for London), on one side, local authorities and other bodies pull 'street furniture' way in from the curb; on the other, much of the space is curtilage - owned by the adjacent premise, which can enclose it at any time. Not an easy issue - is Southwark even aware of the principle? - There is a huge planning vogue for 'ambiguous zones' where drivers are supposed instinctively to give way to walkers without need of regulation. Hence the orange paving where side-roads meet LL. Is ambiguity plausible? Is it safe? - It would enormously helpful to Saturday's Northcross Rd market to close the LL end, and either close or restrict the upper end, so that idiots no longer roar past, inches away from stalls and shoppers. Southwark have chuntered about this for years without result. - Apparently, Southwark believes we all love the Goose Green circular island. Can't touch it! Never heard any such feeling myself. Is that roundabout really the most sensible size and shape? Might it not have been a good idea to close the end of Spurling St behind the EDT? - Several years ago, Robin Crookshank Hilton pushed through the planting of trees on LL. Absolutely brilliant they are too. A number have been destroyed. What would it take for our Southwark masters to bestir themselves and replace them? - The East Dulwich Grove turnoff to/from points west is certainly awkward, but it would be good to feel that Southwark had some ideas about how to improve it. - There is a complete absence of traffic calming measures on LL. And the lack of safe clear crossings on this busy road is a scandal. Note that the pedestrian crossing (where the crosser has priority) outside Iceland was replaced some years ago by a push-button light (vehicles have priority, the crosser waits). There should be another crossing at the Co-op bend, and probably several more. Share a thought with me. Lee Scorseby, serene in his own way

When Dulwich closed, I went to Peckham Pulse - and stumbled on major shenanigans. In the summer, they throw all pool users out after one hour to let new (PAYING) customers in. No signs, no warning (avoiding public awareness and anger - cunning, eh?), and in reality I was pointlessly ejected from the swimmers' side-lane after only 20 minutes! Add an abusive staff member (just one, don't get me wrong) and repeated refusals by Southwark to get a grip on this nonsense. It was Goodbye Fusion! Since then, I've been shlepping to the Brixton Rec, which is OK y'know: reading on the bus, gorgeous soukous music wafting thru sunny Brixton Market, maybe a post-pool cuppa java at the Ritzy, all of that. But, well, winter is setting in, and the 37 is going down the toobs (40m wait this evening, then a convoy of 3). So I'm glad our local pool has re-opened. I will go and plunge the ancient bod. The huge huge problem is that lousy old Fusion is still running the show. Regular users of the old baths became very familiar with endless queues and poor pool management. I don't want to rehash matters discussed on a previous EDF thread. I do ask myself how this shambolic outfit gets these contracts from our elected local authority when they probably couldn't manage a glass of water. I simply say to pool users, keep asking yourself how well OUR new pool facility is being managed. Don't settle for anything less than fairness and excellence. Lee Scorseby

I have the idea quite a number of New Zealanders have moved to East Dulwich and around. Is that true? And if so, why here in particular? Lee Scorseby, playing nicely

New Zealanders! Clustering upon East Dulwich in some vast atavistic migratory movement. Is that true . . ? Then who are they . . ? What do they want . . . ? Beneath those impossibly chirpy exteriors, what sinister truth lurks? Are they . . . the lizard people? Flat white, flat white . . . that's an accent description, no? The truth, mate, is out there. Too bloody right. Lee Scorseby, as it may be

Thanx for all contributions. Clearly, not all respondents agree with me, some not at all. It does bother me that some contributors declare that things are fine only then to give descriptions of horrible service. What to say? Luck? Glass-half-full personality? In any event, it is proving a discussion worth having. Bic Basher: brilliant news and it explains what's happening with the 484. It's corporate sulk - "We don't give a fuck anymore". That they can GET AWAY WITH doing it, now that's a Q. Let's hope Abellio make a better job of it. Can anyone tell us WHEN this changeover is going to happen ? DJKQ and Skidmark: Your posts are extremely informative. Skidmark, in just a few sentences your posts of 5:11 and 10:31 simply lay bare the whole stupid corrupted tender system which our masters impose on us. SeanMacGhabhann and many others: heavy traffic, roadworks, and most especially "the current [financial] situation", these are all fair points. But is there not a sense that these factors provide a smokescreen for a much more 'who's kidding who' situation? There are bus lanes, there are well-tried techniques to prevent bunching, and frequency times (not timetables, in fact) must be more than aspirational. These guys have a contract with we-the-people. Yes, SMG, I do think companies sometimes take the piss. And Skidmark (above) clearly explains how and why. If a route is suffering vandalism (presume this is what is meant by "attacks") then prevention should be incentivised. Specifically, defaced vehicles should attract fines. Companies will then 'find it worthwhile' to employ sufficient heavyweight inspectors and employ other strategies. Peckhampam: my point about doubling hopper (single deck) buses is that this the logical way to increase capacity at peak times. This should be regularised so that users are familiar with it and can expect it. I don't think a doubler could negotiate the route to Lewisham very easily. Medley: absolutely agree. The city is a big human machine and these moving parts need to be REGULAR. Enough voodoo free market bullshit, already. Plenty of scope for entrepreneurship in more appropriate contexts. The 37 did indeed improve to the point where it has been an excellent service - which is why recent falling off is worrying. An online real-time schedule (iBus) is to be welcomed. Helsinki does it with their trams. But why scrap Countdown? Some of us are not online on the move. Old people often are not. Kamamitykel: You seem to think this is just an attack on bus drivers. It isn't, not at all. We have all experienced a wide range of drivers, from cheerful and helpful to the very opposite. I think a reasonable criticism of drivers is that many of them fail properly to supervise their vehicles - in the matter of prams being all over the place, for example. But, I truly appreciate that it is a difficult and stressful job, one that is better respected in other European countries. Nero and PeckhamRose: the answer to your Q lies with TonyQuinn's post. Complaining 'through channels' would be a waste of time. Why should we HAVE to battle so furiously in all the ways TQ describes just to have the transport system we want and need ? More generally, to those referring to my post as a "rant" and a "whinge": I was certainly angry when I wrote. I would have expressed myself differently another time. It is supremely easy (and surely tempting) to be anonymously rude to first-posters and other participants, but that very ease might give you pause. Just much better to be constructive, even if disagreeing strongly. I raised the matter on the EDT (rather than elsewhere) to try to gauge and if possible focus local feeling on the matter. Anyway . . . I love buses. When the system is working, movement is indeed a breeze and London opens up for you in the easiest and most pleasurable way. That's good public transport. Lee Scorseby

I knew a Fred Clapper. That name always rang a lot of bells. Lee Scorseby (apparently)

This may have been an EDF topic since year dot, I don't know. Whether or not, it is an increasingly pressing issue for those of us not bombing round in cars. Basic mobility. For aeons the 484 service was lousy. Several years ago it had its socks hoiked up to become sort-of acceptable. Now it's complete and utter shit. There are just not enough buses running. It's supposed to be a 10 minute service. These clowns don't manage more than 2 or 3 buses an hour these days. I waited 45 minutes for a 484 last week, and 25 minutes again today (Tues). When the bus does come it's a cattle truck - dangerously and illegally packed. Are drivers just kind-hearted, or have they been instructed by their bosses to "pack 'em in" ? The other thing resulting from this gross overcrowding is people being left at stops. Nor can these transport halfwits stream their service at anything approaching equal times between buses - it's totally random, completely unpredictable. The most pronounced example is the convoy of multiple vehicles, with the resultant famine of provision for long periods before and after. What's the largest convoy a reader has seen (any service) ? My record is eight 343s. Any vaguely intelligent and accountable transport system would increase provision during the 3 identifiable daily weekday peak periods: morning, after school, and after work. Have these morons even noticed ? As single-deck buses this is one time when a convoy of two 484s makes sense. Sometimes, indeed, there is a second bus, often there isn't. How can the Londoner at the stop tell ? Answer: he or she cannot, no way. No signage of such a pairing on any bus, and most drivers have taken a vow of utter silence. Other SE London services noticeably deteriorating are the 37, which used to provide an excellent service over to Brixton and points west, and the once totally reliable 343. Practices now affecting travellers on all these services include: - Without notice, terminating the service before the end of the line, simply decanting passengers at the nearest stop rather than taking them where the service is meant to take them. How very convenient for bus companies, what a gross imposition on bus users. - School teachers standing in the doorway at home time, letting kids idle up the street to the bus while on-board passengers sit and wait. And wait. By what legal AUTHORITY exactly ?? - Buses remaining at stops for minutes on end while the company "regulates the service". Another triumphant technique of 21st century scheduling ! - Provision of the Countdown electronic noticeboard at stops is, again, utterly without logic, totally random. Why is there not a board at the major Rye Lane stop at the bottom of Peckham Rye, for god's sake ? Did all the wee TfL Einsteins, like, get really distracted by a shiny-shiny ball bouncing by and just, like, forget this project ? So . . Who is looking after our interests ? Who is defending Londoners ? Where are all those bright young poppets, Labour and Lib Dem, ceaselessly beetling about with their leaflets, their endless prate about strengthening 'the community' ?? Where (indeed who? - can any reader name one) are our SE London representatives on the London Assembly ? Where are the supposedly deeply local journos and editors, so obsessed with crime and trivia, so contemptuous of the real problems of their readers ? I'm sure there's a chap drawing a salary as a regulator of London bus services. I'm sure he has a lovely office, pot plant and everything, a big salary and a fabulous pension plan. I would love to see this individual get off his fat arse, stop accepting the lies of the bus company and TfL, and start actually regulating the contracts these companies have, to provide decent services to Londoners. I don't know if it still happens but I used to see something very strange, almost eerie, in the quiet hours after, say 9pm. Dozens of these buses going by, empty. I am quite aware that vehicles end up at the wrong end of the line, away from the depot, and so on, but this was evidently more than that. Was it some fatuous game to get service frequency numbers up to the required daily level ? Does anyone know ? I would like to hear the experience of other bus users. I would like to hear (ANYTHING !) from the gutless butterflies who claim to represent us. I would love to hear from bus drivers. I have the idea that while the media gawps at Boffo Boris and his toffy antics, the ol'Tory gang at City Hall is steadily slashing bus provision with the connivance of the companies - anyone know anything and willing to tell us ? I have said in another EDF 'room', another stream, that the English do not get angry enough, often enough, about the crap and nonsense they are offered. This is something to get angry about. Every minute you and I spend at some damp, frozen, poorly lit bus stop is a minute we have lost with our kids, at our dinner tables, at work, resting, at leisure . . . endless chips out of our lives, y'know ? Lee Scoresby, as ever was

This is the home of the barefoot goddess Cesaria Evora and the great Cape Verdean musical tradition, encompassing morna and other styles. Listen to CE's 'Sodade' and 'Angola', tho sadly the versions on Spotify are not the original and best, which are to be found on the fabulous CD 'Miss Perfumado'. Ah, even to mention it . . . The islands are part of the Lusophone world (Brazil, Angola, etc) rather than Africa proper. Tourism is increasing there, as are various second home and time-share developments, some doubtless more salubrious than others. The islands are reasonably far apart on closer inspection. Many visitors take in, say, two or three, flying between. Some are more kiss-me-quick than others, some more arid, more populous, and so on. Guardian Online has brilliant travel pages, blogs, etc which I know cover Cape Verde. Lee Scoresby

Well, that's good. I logged in, expecting to be engulfed in accusations of pissiness, rank paranoia, racism, snobbery, terminal bourgeois wimpiness . . . So thanx for the kind words. We did indeed consider schlepping outwards and SE'wards to where the grammar schools still roam free, and may yet do so. London careers and frail parents hold us here for the present. We've invested ourselves in homeschool, it's going well, and the present plan is to reinsert the beloved blighter into the system at 6th form - hence my original post. About 'discipline' this and 'strict' that, as we have discovered, this all gets fetishised into a sort of post-beating culture of unpleasant and abusive behaviour by staff which doesn't even work. (And let's not even discuss that bogus bogus 'tough fathering' stuff). Real discipline is inherently connected to mutual respect and restraint, and forms a sort of silent backbone to a calm and happy learning environment. Yeah, yeah, I know, where is that happening exactly . . ? Several years ago on the EDF I mentioned my son's search for mates. Now I have briefly outlined his school experience. I wish to make it very clear that I remain naturally reluctant to air these family issues in public. "Woe is us" and "Look at our suffering" is absolutely not the point of these posts. Asking for the experience of others certainly is. Regarding bitterness, anger, and so on, BB100, I believe, as I said, that there are things to be angry about - I don't think the English get angry enough often enough. I feel schools with slick PR operations covering a darker reality need to be talked about - as a service to other parents. But let me offer a basic distinction. I make the decision not to let it get to me and I don't, not at all - a compensation of middle age, no doubt. There have certainly been EDF threads about schooling in the past - more will spring up. I know that threads can be re-routed, shall we say, if participators want to discuss something else. This is just to say, once more, I am most grateful for all your suggestions, but that maybe these other (important) discussions need other threads. Lee Scorseby, as ever was

Sincere thanx to those who have replied. To be clear, we have been homeschooling my boy for several years now since he came out of school. It's fine, but I deeply resent having had to do so ("education, education, education", really ?), likewise what it costs us, as if it were some fey lifestyle choice. sillywoman : it was Forest Hill Boys - my god, where to start ? constant violence, spitting etc in the playground and corridors - teachers evidently at the end of their tether - classes utterly disrupted by headbangers, no work done - a huge discipline machine which a) was just not working, b) was unable to admit this (so that specific incidents just 'disappeared'), and c) persecuted the good kids becoz this was just easier - big bullshit PR based round the (then) head which suckered us in - long story short, after the latest assault (by 6th formers, head held in a heavy swing door - culprits never found !) and one bullshit by-the-numbers reassurance by staff too many, we took him out - he was a mess by then - PS latest from Forest Hill - an African Church (thus parents and pupils) literally witch-hunting some poor boy - I kid you not (which century are we in, exactly !!!) jollybaby : well, anywhere, potentially, coz we haven't fled yet - thanx for the recc. Peckhamgatecrasher : actually, what my kid needs is respect, a calm environment and excellent teaching, not people yelling at him (which 'heavy discipline' seems to mean since the end of flogging, and I regard as child abuse) - I would like find a 6FC which saw itself as a junior university and the students as the young adults they are womanofdulwich : thanx, but I don't trust results tables too much - I trust good WOM new mother : do you mean persuading a private school to have him FREE for his last year ? - pls tell me how Townleygreen : yeah, thinking along my own lines, thanx - but pls don't mention the deeply abominable Harriet Harman (If anyone wants to discuss this appalling MP with me, let's do it on another thread, what-what ?) Huggers : thanx - he DESPERATELY wanted to go to Haberdashers - I must say, like everyone else, all we got from them from day one was SNOTTY ATTITUDE - Prendegast, I recall attending a parents' meeting there some years ago where the head mistress ranted for an hour about how DISCIPLINE applies to parents as well as kids - niiiiice - Graveney I will check BB100 : I live near Harris Girls and, like the rest of the neighbourhood, suffer their 'yeah, whatever' approach to supervising their pupils - as to the Boys school, I remain outraged at the shitty Southwark "planning" process which permitted the destruction of the elegant and serviceable old building and its replacement by a monstrous block without any grounds, which lack, it is quite clearly intended, is to be remedied by this gimcrack institution colonising a chunk of Peckham Rye brezzo : I guess we were kind of thinking of a (semi) free-standing 6FC, but we are really open minded sian : thanx for that I am aware that the accumulation of these specific remarks probably leaves the impression that I am, to quote another respondent in a faraway part of the EDF forest, "pissy and paranoic". Well, sorry if so. I guess I think the English put up silently with far too much crap, not least from shit institutions, not least from the half-arsed education system. I am grateful for contributions and remarks, will follow up suggestions, and am still keen to hear about that groovy little 'junior uni' tucked into some quiet part of West Kent. Lee Scorseby

Franks Campari Bar & Cafe on top of Peckham carpark - but wait till the sun pop out. And go before it folds next month. Lee Scoresby.