Delivering the news from Henley on Thames and South Oxfordshire for over 100 years

Sir, — I would appreciate it if I could put an urgent question to Henley MP John Howell through your pages.

I think the question needs to be asked and his constituents deserve a public reply.

We now have a Prime Minister and cabinet who unashamedly declare that they think it fair to make the wealthy and very, very wealthy even richer at the expense of the rest of the country.

Please could Mr Howell tell us whether he will vote in support of such policies or will he use his voice and his vote to put the case for a more general view of what is fair and decent?

There are important principles at stake here. — Yours faithfully,

Like John Howell MP, I am considering closing my Twitter account.

I follow people of similar attitudes and am open to different opinions, hoping to learn.

But too many people make outlandish statements to provoke reaction.

Fifteen minutes of online “fame” or just a need for contact. I hear you. — Yours faithfully,

Sir, — As we approach the height of the vaccine “season”, those in vulnerable groups are being advised to have their covid jabs topped up (almost making it sound like a cup of tea or pint of beer).

Is it unreasonable, therefore, to wonder, couldn’t they have made the previous jab a bit stronger?

The majority of adults will have had, as a child, vaccinations against various diseases, when it was assumed these would probably last a lifetime rather than only a matter of months.

And isn’t it likely that continuing to have a dose every six months will become addictive. Wait a minute… you don’t think that’s the intention, do you? — Yours faithfully,

Sir, — Following the letter from John Whiting (Standard, September 16) about dead sheep in St Patrick’s stream and the Hennerton backwater, and to add to the gaiety of nations, I can report that there was indeed a tree fall across the stream of the Hennerton backwater in August.

The Hennerton Backwater Association — always prompt — sent a team to deal with this within a week and found the dead sheep accompanied by a pungent smell and a cloud of flies entangled in the branches.

By timely co-operation with the local farmer on the opposite bank, one leg of the corpse was attached to a claw of the lowered bucket of his excavator and the deceased was hoisted up and away. It can be confirmed that this dead sheep was no relation of the one(s) in St Patrick’s stream. — Yours faithfully,

A highlight for many at the Great Big Green Week fair in Henley market place on Saturday was Henley Rotary Club’s demonstration of a “magic” device that turns water into, er, water.

To be precise, it was an Aquabox pump which instantly transforms filthy water into clean water that people can drink.

The pumps are currently being sent to help flood victims in Pakistan.

They have previously been deployed in Yemen, Syria and Beirut, among other areas where disaster has cut people off from clean drinking water.

To demonstrate, Henley Rotarians placed the device in a tub of filthy brown water, gave it a few pumps and out came clear potable water.

The filter in the pump lasts for at least 100,000 litres and removes dirt and, most importantly, most waterborne diseases such as cholera.

The pumps are sent out to disaster areas by Rotary-supported charity Aquabox. They are packaged on their own or as part of a larger emergency box (costing around £150) containing everything from tools to toys for people displaced by disaster.

Children at the fair, invited to see a bit of magic, were fascinated. Their parents were also impressed.

As a result, the Rotarians’ JustGiving page raised enough to buy at least one emergency box with a pump and a number of replacement filters.

If you would like to contribute, visit www.justgiving.com/campaign/HenleyRotaryClub

Please make sure to add the word “Aquabox” to the comments to ensure your gift gets to the right charity. — Yours faithfully,

From here to a new world

It was early morning. I had been instructed to be ready at least three hours before take-off.

This trip was originally planned two years earlier. It was postponed by the covid-19 pandemic, which reared its head in Europe after threatening to spread worldwide.

The time to go was now. The time was here at last.

The world was now coming out of the threat to decimate the population. World leaders acted together urgently to bring the threat under control.

It was very clear and accepted by the leadership of the country of origin that this virus began its evil life in the city of Wuhan in China, ruled dictatorially by the Chinese Communist Party.

President Xi Jinping stated in 2020 and continues to affirm that the research laboratories situated in Wuhan were not responsible for leaking quantities of the virus into the public domain. The location of the origin and the rapidity with which the contagion spread from this single source led to an abundance of conspiracy theories blaming a Chinese plot to take over the world. It didn’t change the facts.

Vaccines were rapidly developed, produced and distributed around the world. Airlines and air traffic was grounded worldwide. Countries closed their borders to both outgoing and incoming peoples.

The flow of emigrants and immigrants between countries was stopped. Much of the world economy ground to a halt.

Only business that could be transacted under strict government regulation or online continued. Non-interpersonal contact continued.

Gradually, the restrictions were lifted as the benefits of all the controls began to show through.

Having rented a single- room flat on a short-term basis, I became locked down and could travel nowhere in the country or in the world.

It was like being in a prison without walls and a cell with an open door which led into a closed dome filled with a cloud of viruses waiting to find a new host to kill should they decide you be identified as their unlucky victim. Over several months after the restrictions were relaxed in many places, I waited my turn to travel across the world to see my son and his family almost 9,000 miles away in Perth, Western Australia.

Even though the government of Australia had relaxed intercountry travel restrictions, Western Australia had decided to leave the controls in place much longer.

This delayed the possible start to my travels.

Almost two years after the restrictions were put in place, it became possible for me to plan a trip. It was a long voyage of expectation, excitement and discovery for me. It would turn out to be a first-time, unusual experience, an experience that had been developed by science fiction writers over many previous years.

Jules Verne, in his epic book The Time Machine, written in 1895, was probably one of the first writers of recent times to try to describe the sensation of moving through space and time rapidly without crossing a border on land or sea.

The doorbell rang; my driver had arrived to take me away on my adventure.

At the airport I checked in and waited for my flight to be called. We boarded the flight, which was scheduled to go at 11.55am.

Then, with excitement building, we found our seats on the transport flight to Australia.

We all strapped in and were ready to go. We sensed movement as the aircraft moved away from its homing station and made its way to the take-off point.

The engines roared and we were off to the starting point. Then, as if by magic, we were in space and on our way rising above the clouds and high in the atmosphere above earth.

Time went by as we were fed and we slept. We were travelling through space and time to a far-off land many thousands of miles from the starting point without any real sense of motion.

After many hours there was a thump. Shortly afterwards the transporter was rehoused at another homing station. We were near the end of our journey.

The passengers began to disembark, passing through the door they had entered a few hours earlier.

We were back on land but in a very different place to where we had started.

Without any great sensation of change, we had entered a large room filled with reclining seats, then left the room later by the same door we had entered.

But we had travelled thousands of miles through space and time. What was this machine? We had been to the edge of the earth, we had travelled through time. It was a time machine. — Yours faithfully,

Sir, — I thought the recent comment in the House of Commons by the new Prime Minister that the late Queen was “one of the greatest leaders the world has ever known” reached the nadir of hysterical adulation. However, the view expressed by the Rev Angela Linton in Thought for the Week (Standard, September 23) that those watching the funeral “were having perhaps just one moment of a glimpse of heaven because of her presence” must come a close second.

Presumably, for believers only the presence of God is heavenly. Ms Linton seems to be verging on idolatry.

Undoubtedly, the Queen did her job well nearly all the time but such grossly unrealistic praise — and there has been much of it — sadly substitutes mere fantasy for her proper, earned worth. — Yours faithfully,

I was delighted to read the Diary item about the Queen’s visit to Leander Club in Henley (Standard, September 23).

I was a pupil at St Mary’s Preparatory School many years ago and have always had a vague recollection of being taken down to the riverside to see Queen Elizabeth II launching a lifeboat.

Being very small, I recalled a kind policeman pulled me to the front for a better view and when I looked up, Her Majesty was practically standing right next to me, although I didn’t really realise at the time just how significant this was.

However, when I have occasionally mentioned to people over the years since then about the Queen visiting Henley to launch a lifeboat and that I was there, the response has always been one of complete disbelief, causing me to wonder whether it was something I had dreamt.

I would love to find out more about the day and even see some pictures.

In the meantime, I am happy that it appears I haven’t lost the plot just quite yet. — Yours faithfully,

Can I give old coats?

Editor, — I refer to your article regarding “Refugees in need of warm coats” (Standard, September 23).

I have some lovely warm anoraks, one waterproof, with additional lining, and some woollies from my late husband’s clothes, which I would love to find a new home for.

However, the article ended with a reference to Facebook, which is not any use to somebody like me, who is not adept to deal with internet references.

Is there a real Henley address where somebody can help with this quest of finding a new home for pre-loved warm clothes? — Yours faithfully,

Sam Jonkers, regional lead, Care4Calais, responds: “There are various drop-off points in central Henley, Assendon, Shiplake and Sonning Common. We ask people to message us via Facebook or email and we will provide full details (sam.jonkers@care4calais.org).

“As the weather has turned cold, we have many requests from families in need and would be hugely appreciative of donations and helpers.”

SONNING Common post office is now closed on ... [more ]

THE Bird in Hand in Sonning Common will re-open ... [more ]

A HARVEST festival will be held at St Mary’s ... [more ]

WATLINGTON Christmas Market will be held on ... [more ]

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