Palm Sunday Procession

Reading Station Redevelopment

Reading Station Redevelopment, a set on Flickr.

Easter Weekend 2013 Reading Station was closed ish......There was so much work going on. I was there at 17.00 on Monday and it looked to me like there was still lots of work to do before the station reopened to First Great Western traffic. Lots and lots to see, if you haven't been round the station. I recommend it.

EDL Recruiting in Reading

EDL Reading, a photo by rdgmck on Flickr.

Sad to say that the EDL were recruiting in Broad St Reading this afternoon.

In this picture they were trying to tell a Christian who was evangelising on the street, that they were an "honourable" organisation and that they never threatened anyone. As someone who has received a number of threats from the EDL some of them violent I had to intervene at this point.

The chap on the right of the photo went on to tell me that he had nothing against muslims as he had lived in Pakistan but was against those muslims who wore burkas and were plotting to take over the country.

We argued in a light hearted way for a bit, when he also admitted that he was also protesting against the decision in decision in Belfast to only fly the Union flag from the Town Hall on certain days. He also told me he was against the Poles coming over to the UK in droves.

This arguement./discussion went on for a while and it looked to me that they packed up and went home, or at least moved on. They were not happy at being challenged in the street.

So what should the ordinary person in the street do when they see the EDL campaigning in Reading Streets. It is probably best to simply walk on by and ignore them. Perhaps if you are of a Christian bent, they should be prayed for, perhaps. If you believe in free expression, you should express your opinion of racism to them?

Workers or Shirkers?

I was passing Jessops in Reading yesterday. It is a place I used to work and a place where I still have some friends.

My friends were cleaning up the shop and, I guess, doing a stock take for the administrators. It struck me that there was an important question. My friends, soon to be unemployed, were up until Jessops going in to administration "workers" but will the Government now call them "shirkers" because they have lost their jobs in the Clegg/Cameron double dip and now possibly triple dip depression.

I am sorry to see Jessops fail they are one of the high sts stalwalts. I fear however that my friends will be branded by the government as "shirkers" despite losing their jobs through no fault of their own.

They are a great bunch of guys at Jessops and I hope they get paid for the time they spent stocktaking and will be working again soon.