And three nearly becomes four – double oops!!

Where DOES the time go?!  Admittedly I did manage to get away for a few (wonderful) days in Shropshire, just pottering around the countryside taking in the amazing autumnal colours.

One of the events I have been to over the last couple of weeks was a 20th Birthday party to celebrate LASA, the Swansea wide credit union, which had started life as the Hill Community Credit Union just covering Townhill before it expanded over the whole city.  For those of you who don’t know a credit union is sort of a people’s bank where as members we all save regularly, then use that money to lend out to other members who need a loan, at a reasonable rate of interest, unlike those handed out by companies like Wonga at over 4000%, yes you read it right, 4 thousand!!  Click here if you want to know more about it.

After missing a couple because they clashed with school governor meetings I went to a very interesting Equalities one on Hate Crime.  I have never understood how someone can actually hate another person who, in the majority of cases, they don’t even know, just because they look different, or don’t have the same beliefs, or dress contrary to some perceived norm etc etc.  And what worries me more is that this obscures the fact that good and bad people cut across all these differences.  On a more positive note, some of you will have heard about SRTRC – Show Racism the Red Card – which is trying to stamp this out on the football terraces.  Maybe we can take some comfort in the guy that was recently prosecuted who actually publicly stated afterwards what an idiot he’d been.

Earlier that same day I attended a public meeting to look at ways of providing more facilities for young people in one part of my ward.  It’s all very well, as the policewoman observed, telling kids to move along when they are hanging about but what if they have nowhere else to go?  Of course a common issue for many many communities throughout Wales and the UK, and I don’t suppose we’ll have all the answers but I’d at least like to help find some.

Les