I WAS intrigued to read in last week’s Gazette about the part that a neighbourhood watch group played in catching a bank robber.
Police were able to build a case against the armed man who held up Barclays in Ickenham – his sixth raid in 11 months – by studying a sophisticated network of home CCTV cameras in Ickenham.
These were set up by Hillingdon Neighbourhood Watch, after members bought them to combat the rise in burglaries in the area.
Turning the idea of alert neighbours completely on its head, I’ve always been spooked by certain countries in the past where people were encouraged to spy on each other and report any ‘disloyal’ behaviour or politically incorrect comments.
Having just read the prize-winning book, Nothing to Envy, I’m horrified at the extent of this type of Big Brother brainwashing which still goes on in North Korea.
The country hit the headlines recently when its leader Kim Jong-Un ordered his uncle’s execution – one of his misdemeanours was not looking happy enough at some pronouncement or other.
The author, journalist Barbara Demick, has based her book on interviews with people who have escaped to China or South Korea. It’s very readable and absolutely fascinating.
Thank goodness for our democracy, where we value free speech and good neighbours. I still see a couple from Birmingham who lived next door to us.
They, and their offspring, became like an extended family to us in the block of flats where I lived with my parents from the age of 11.
Mr F and I have been really lucky too, in the four homes that we’ve lived in. However, our most bizarre neighbours were when we were first married and lived in half a house in Greenford with a shared bathroom.
The people downstairs were clowns who, when togged up for a school fete or something, often passed us on the stairs in full regalia. I tell you it’s really hard to have a serious conversation when you’re faced by a manic grin plastered on a chalk white face.
If you live near some community-minded people don’t forget to nominate them for the Gazette and Uxbridge College’s annual Local Heroes awards before the closing date of April 24. But please, no clowns …
Email me! bmailbarbara@gmail.com, and read back copies of bm@il at www.getwestlondon.co.uk/authors/barbara-fisher/
