What was wartime Christmas like?

THE BBC is recording an episode of Songs of Praise in Greenford for transmission in December.

The theme of the programme is wartime Christmas and we are looking for people from Greenford and the surrounding areas who have memories of Christmases in the area during the Second World War.

How did the war affect how you celebrated Christmas? How did rationing affect Christmas food and present-giving? If you were from a church-going family, did you go to church on Christmas Day? How did the horrors of war affect your faith?

If you would be willing to be interviewed about your memories, we would love to hear from you.

Please write to Janis Knox, BBC Songs of Praise, 1st floor, Dock House, Media City UK, Salford, M50 2LH, or email janis.knox@bbc.co.uk, before October 15.

JANIS KNOX

BBC Songs of Praise

Medical records vital in emergency

If any of the proposals to close local A&Es is accepted, I have grave concerns.

I am an octogenarian and have no relatives living in London. The few friends I have not outlived no longer drive a car, have mobility problems and small pensions. Should I have to be admitted to one of these far-flung hospitals, I would feel completely isolated. My friends would not be able to visit me as they could not cope with buses and Tubes, nor could they afford minicabs.

Even more worrying would be going to a hospital with no access to my medical records and past medical history. I have complex medical conditions, for which my own consultants have difficulty in deciding whether or not surgery is necessary.

After careful review of all the results of the umpteen tests and scans I have had in the past few years, and with the backing of my excellent GP, major surgery, which would have had a drastic effect on my quality of life afterwards, has been avoided. Even so, mistakes were very nearly made and procedure went horribly wrong.

How on earth would emergency departments with no access to my medical notes and past medical history decide what is best for me? Thankfully I have been well instructed by my consultants and GP, who happens to be Dr Spencer, in how to differentiate between one complex condition and another.

Also I am lucky that, unlike many people in my age group, I am still mentally alert.

I cannot be the only octogenarian with these concerns. It is vital to the safety and wellbeing of patients to be sent to the hospitals where there is immediate access to all medical information.

Thought needs to be given to the distance friends and relatives without cars would have to travel to visit their loved ones.

Please can we keep our local A&E units?

BERYL BASHFORD

Acton (by email)

Facts dictate that we must act now

THE discovery of 22 illegal immigrants in ‘illegal outhouses’ is hardly surprising.

Back in June when I blogged about this issue, I created a bit of debate within the community. Admittedly it was hijacked by party politics and the attempts to smear and discredit me began. I’m still suffering under the standards’ committee investigation process, a really valuable use of taxpayers’ money.

But let’s get back to Southall. What is happening there is morally repugnant and exploitation of the worst kind. It is estimated that 20,000 people may live in these conditions. That’s a national disgrace and the local community should be outraged.

Row after row of homes have these sheds yet we have one raid every six months. Why? When I commented on the effects this exploitation was having on crime and social disorder in Southall, I was heavily criticised as slurring a whole community.

Prostitution, alcohol and drugs are all related. They are partners in crime with poverty and desperation. In response to a written question, I asked the council how many people across the borough had been arrested for solicitation or prostitution in the past 12 months. I was shocked at the figures.

There had been 27 arrests in total and all were in Southall. Need I say more?

Let’s tackle this issue and stop pussy-footing about. The local community is the best weapon against these traders in human misery. It’s time to speak out, Southall.

COUNCILLOR BENJAMIN DENNEHY

By email

Vilification shown to be unjustified

ON Friday, August 31, the BBC national news gave a long report on hundreds of rogue landlords who were exploiting Indian and Pakistani illegal immigrants in cramped rented rooms and charging on average £800 a month.

We were shown graphic pictures of a police raid on houses in Southall, with five people living in a small room, and similarly in ‘beds in sheds’, where unsafe rooms had been erected in gardens without planning permission from the local authority.

Councillor Julian Bell, the Labour leader of Ealing Council, was interviewed on the programme.

Many illegal immigrants were found and more than 20 were arrested.

These facts give a complete vindication of Councillor Dennehy’s assertions, made in April, that criminality is endemic in Southall and that the area’s Indian community exploits its own people.

The reaction to Councillor Dennehy was a vilification from seemingly all the other council members, saying that he was factually incorrect, offensive and racist. And Liberal councillor Gary Malcolm actually wrote to the Prime Minister making a complaint.

This vilification was reported at the time in the Gazette, with a series of articles and many letters, but not one giving any reply or even factual information, even though there was evidence of this criminality going back as far as 1974, when the then Labour government granted an amnesty to the exploited illegal immigrants as a way of dealing with the problem at the time.

ERNEST PENDROUS

Twyford Avenue

Acton

Memories of living in ‘friendly’ Acton

I would like to thank the organisers of We Love Acton – Antoinette and Mike Smith – for a trip down memory lane on Sunday, September 2. I have very fond memories of living in Acton, some good, some not so good.

One not so good was when I was nearly six years old and I had a bad accident. I was crossing the road outside Acton town hall with my brother and his friend when a bus came along and knocked me down. Following this I was in and out of Mount Vernon Hospital having skin grafting. It happened in 1953 or 1954, on a boat race day.

Apart from that I have memories of going shopping with my mum and sister. It used to take us ages to walk up to the high street because we used to bump into people that my mum knew and they would be nattering for ages.

As a whole Acton was, and I hope is still, a friendly place to live.

JEAN BATH

By email