As usual, before getting to the main part of the blog I have some links to share…
First of all, a story in the Mirror about housing benefits profiteers (i.e. big landlords) accompanied by a link to list of 20 of West Norfolk’s worst offenders in this regard:
Shocking but not in the least surprising to anyone who knows anything about destructive Dave the debate ducker and his mate Gideon is this story about the effect of Tory cuts on the disabled from the New Statesman.
Now, some political dynamite from Vox Political in the form of story about how the Labour and Green party candidates were omitted from 480 ballot papers sent out to voters in Hull.
Katie Hopkins has been at it again, and is the subject of another petition on change.org demanding an apology to the autistic community for her latest offensive remarks. Please sign and share.
My last story is of a good outcome to a horrible event. The people who attacked and almost killed Malala Yousafzai have been jailed for life, and here is the story courtesy of BBC News.
THE WALK
This afternoon I went out for a walk, which turned out be full of glorious spring sights. The first camera moment came within minutes of setting forth, as I was crossing over the upper Purfleet, in the form of this Moorhen…
The Great Ouse rarely fails to provide some decent opportunities for pictures, and here are some from today…
Neither Hardngs Pits nor the Nar provided much of interest, but the parkland areas (the Walks and the Recreation Field) certainly did…
Opportunities to photograph the South gate with no traffic interfering are not common.
The loco pulling a goods train.Tree sculptures, at the Tennyson Road edge of the Recreation Field.
A front-on view of the loco showing a couple of trucks as well.
Between Tennyson Road and Bawsey Drain there were a few small things of interest…
Bawsey Drain provided two examples of a mother duck taking her little ones out on the water and some small birds of the beautiful but frustrating (because they are so hard to capture on camera) variety…
I took the way home that leads via two ponds and a section of river to the Railway Station and thence home. This last stretch provided some further duckling pictures and as my final shot of the day a blackbird…
This is the first of two blog post I shall be putting up in the course of today. The other relates to an important meeting that I attended in Norwich last night. I have three things to cover from yesterday at work, after I have shared a few links with you…
LINKS
My first link is to a very interesting post in support of the tax dodging bill.
The other links I am sharing here rather than saving for my next post are all concerned with petition seeking to get Katie Hopkins sacked, about which I have already blogged. At present it has just passed 270,000 signatures, as you can see by visiting its home page. As well as the petition, complaints have been flooding in to IPSO, the press watchdog – more details can be found by checking out this piece from Huffington Post. Finally, both Ms Hopkins and the editor of the filthy rag that published her imitation of the Third Reich have been reported for incitement to racial hatred – more details in this piece from The Independent.
YESTERDAY AT WORK
My day at work yesterday featured three different strands, a press release, the official post about which can be viewed on the James and Sons website. I now reproduce the jpg version of the original document and a link to the word document…
The composite image I created for the press release.The press release in picture form.
The second strand was resolving queries, which involved taking a picture of some old writing so that it could be sent to someone for translation, and also getting some close ups of stamps to resolve a query about lot 491 in our April sale…
Finally, the greatest part of my day was spent imaging new stuff for our May auction (27th, Maids Head Hotel, Norwich):
Please share widely and do look out for my next post which will be about the Save Ashcroft Campaign.
As I often do I will start this post with a links section, before moving on to the main part of the post. I will also be sharing some high quality pictures – enjoy!!
LINKS
Given the title of this post I am in this section dealing only with the non-autism related links that I wish to share – the others will be handled as part of the other section. First of all, courtesy of the Independent, a truly appalling landmark that this government has ‘achieved’ – one million food bank users. Next, through Huffington Post comes a story about Faith Schools. As someone who is a part-time minimum wage worker, I would not necessarily expect the London School of Economics to have much to offer me, but this post from that quarter is a devastating indictment of what this government have done to wages in real terms.
I have a great interest in science, and this article concerning discoveries about the element Lawrencium and its place in the Periodic Table is well worth reading.
All except those who would murder folk whose beliefs differ from their own will find my next offering shocking but sadly unsurprising. It comes courtesy of Padraig Reidy.
A survey boat named the Humber Guardian has been moored in the Great Ouse lately. The boat is owned by Briggs Marine, and I was reasonably encouraged by what I found on their website.
There is a campaign going on at the moment to get the Sun to show Katie Hopkins the door. This is because her latest offering would have made Hitler blench. For more details, here is an article in the Independent.
Tomorrow is the last day on which people who are not already registered to vote in the General Election coming up on May 7th. 38 Degrees are running a campaign to get as many people registered to vote as possible. The process is very straightforward. I provide two options:
My final offering comes courtesy of Tom Pride and provides further grist to the mill of those of us who (like your correspondent) reckon that another five years of Cameron and co will be unendurable. Enjoy this catalogue of horrors!
A PICTORIAL INTERLUDE
Before moving on the main part of the post, here are some pictures for you to enjoy…
This picture and the next four are from framed maps that can be seen in The Crown, East Rudham
The first of four shots of Humber Guardian, mentioned in the Links section.
LIFE WITH ASPERGERS
I was diagnosed with Asperger’s at the back end of 2006, by when I was already 31 years old. I got involved with Asperger East Anglia very soon after that, and out of that came what is now the King’s Lynn Asperger Support Society (KLASS). The group was originally established as local support group under the aegis of AEA, but when they lost their funding to run such groups in October 2012 we decided to keep going as an independent group. Since then, we have had no funding at all. In 2013 we were able to use King’s Lynn Town FC‘s community hub as a meeting place, but then they changed the times at which they were available ton the public in January 2014, and since then we have had no formal meeting place.
Perhaps the area in which I have personally been most affected by having Aspergers Syndrome is in the world of work, where I went eight and a half years without having a paid job, until I got my current job at James and Sons in April 2013 (merely by going in to work on Tuesday I will officially make it two years in this job). Initially my job was for 12 hours per week, and I was therefore still on jobseekers allowance (yet another thing the Tories are consistently dishonest about is the number of people who have jobs but still need benefits to get by as the amount of money these jobs bring in is so little).
I have not directly run in to the kind of treatment that has caused Kevin Healey to be in a long-running dispute with twitter. Kevin is still trying to get twitter to protect him properly, and as part of that change.org have a petition running on his behalf – and I urge all of you to sign if you have not already done so, and share as widely as possible, starting now.
My twitter account is growing steadily, helped by the fact that I always have good photos to share, talking of which, here are a few more…
Stonework from King’s Lynn Minster
What can neurotypicals do in the way of autism acceptance? You can find out by reading the wise words of Autism Mom.
I am nearly at the end of this post, but one more thing I wish to do is signpost another blogger with an Autistic Spectrum Condition who has recently signed up to follow this blog, David Snape.
My very final words concern something very important to me: research. Ignorance is so often the father of prejudice, which is why I take part in research projects at every opportunity. I want more people to know about Autistic Spectrum Conditions and to appreciate the abilities that many of us possess. For those who have made it right through to this stage I have two final messages:
As is now quite frequently the case I start by sharing some important bits and pieces…
LINKS
First of all, a shocking story from across the pond concerning an 11 year old autistic boy who has been convicted of assaulting a police officer. The story, from which no one in any position of authority emerges with the slightest shred of credit is the subject of a petition, courtesy of change.org, which I urge you to SIGN AND SHARE. Further details of this truly appalling story can be found by following this link. Another unpleasant story concerning autism features a 12 year old who was beaten up (to the extent of spending five days in hospital) by a known and reported bully. An up to date account can be found here.
After these horror stories, some more positive autism related stuff. Firstly, a piece on the subject of inclusion, which deserves to be read in full. My final autism related piece is by way of introducing you to a site called the art of autism and it concerns somebody named Jason.
Moving on, and interesting science piece from the Independent about an early, major collision and its role in shaping our planet. The very last item in this little collection comes courtesy of journeyaroundtheglobe.com and concerns the town of Volterra.
MAY IMAGING
Today I got to image a variety of items, some of which I shall now share with you to conclude this post…
I have a few things to share with you before moving on the main meat of my post.
LINKS
First of all, the intention of the Tories to extend the ‘right to buy scheme’ to cover Housing Association properties. I have little to add to the criticisms that have already been made cogently by various people. So for more on this story to choose your link (or like me, read them all):
Today at work has been largely taken up with imaging banknotes for James and Sons May Auction. The exception, was this coin, done in response to an email query…
Here is a small selection of banknote images (I did over 100 today)…
England have managed 399 in their first innings in the test match that is under way in Antigua. This total, built around Ian Bell’s 22nd test century, is all the more impressive because the West Indies having won the toss chose to put England in.
http://voxpoliticalonline.com/2015/04/02/are-zero-hours-employers-committing-electoral-fraud/ Rumours have reached Mike Sivier that some of the unscrupulous bosses who use zero hours contracts have been threatening those on such contracts with dismissal if they dare to vote for anyone other than the conservatives. If these rumours are true, they are prima facie evidence of criminal activity.
Before moving on to today at work here are some pictures that will feature in the printed catalogues…
This one, unusualyy is not 100% my work – it is my photography but my colleague Andrew’s editing.
IMAGING
A combination of factors made today a bit of a tough day, but at the end of it I had accomplished a good deal, and had imaged some very interesting items. By the end of tomorrow the imaging for April’s auction should be complete. Meantime, here is a selection of interesting images from today…
This morning a letter was printed on the front of the Daily Telegraph. Appended to a few lines of body text about why they would be voting conservative were the names of 100 business leaders. Even if this had been entirely genuine, it would have been no more convincing than a letter to the Daily Mirror signed by 100 prominent trade unionists explaining why they were voting labour. However, it was not very long before it was discovered that the letter had been drafted in Tory HQ, and that a sizeable portion of the signatories were already known Tories, in some cases even Tory peers. As the day progressed, this was compounded by somebody noting the presence in that list of a 100 of a number of Mrs Cameron’s cronies (yes, they really are that stupid/ arrogant).
Various people made suggestions through the day about other selections of 100 people with a linked trait who could sign a letter about why they were voting labour (disabled people, and food bank users were two suggestions).
This letter was intended to boost the Tories and harm Labour, but I suspect that like the now legendary “Road to Recovery” poster that started the year its effect will be the reverse. The letter (unsurprisingly since it came from Tory HQ) was riddled with factual inaccuracies, as well as the problems already documented with the so-called signatories. It started out as a non-story given ridiculous air-time (“100 rich b**t**ds are going to vote Tory”) and un-ravelled from there.
Frankly, the use of this kind of tactic suggests desperation. To end this little section I have a couple more links to analyses of this story…
The text is mainly devoted to celebrating a big success in Cumbria. As usual there are some good pictures form in and around King’s Lynn.
What is this victory in Cumbria that I have used as the title for the post? Well, this body text should make all clear:
“19 Jan 2015 — FANTASTIC NEWS!! We had the meeting this morning and we got the yes we’ve been fighting for! Mike can now stay in the best home for him, in his local community and a street away from my mum! This has been a hard fight so thank you so very very much, without you we couldn’t have done it!! My brother deserves the best which is what we have got. Thankyou so much! xxxx”
If you read this, you will see that although this was a small, local campaign, it was of great importance, and as such the victory is worth celebrating.
It was cold today, to the extent that I have some shots of gulls walking on water…
This sequence of ten shots all show gulls walking on water.
I have plenty of other pics, some of which are worth sharing…
Here is a small selection of banknote images (I did over 100 today)…
As I was inserting these pictures, I got details of a small victory for the Living Wage Campaign, more info at: 
aspiblog 