FIRETHORN1

My great grandfather, Reuben Berry, used to work for a coal merchant called Hawleys. He lived on Penistone Rd North in Sheffield 6 and I think he delivered mostly around the Wadsley Bridge & Hillsborough areas. The legend in our family is that old Reuben was the " last horse & cart" coal delivery man in Sheffield 6". I don't know if this is true, but I do know that he could never have driven a coal delivery lorry, because he never learned to drive! When I was a very small child, in the early 60's, my dad (then in his early to mid 20's) would take my little brother and I walking around the neighbourhood, knocking on doors, to collect Reuben's coal money. Reuben died in 1965, when I was 6 years old. He was in his mid-80's when he died. I remember him vaguely but I don't remember him at all well. I do re member that he wasn't a very pleasant old man - in fact, he was a right nasty old bugger, to tell the truth - and I was always a bit scared of him

As far as I'm concerned, the whole ethos of public ownership is that that everyone should be entitled to at least a basic level of service. Of course, some bus routes in heavily populated and heavily used areas will make more profit than those in more remote, less used areas, but the profits should be ploughed back into subsidising the less profitable areas and into maintaining the system, not just used to line the pockets of the rich shareholders. The same argument could be used for any basic service. It costs more to provide and maintain gas, water and electricity to remote areas. It costs more to deliver mail - or provide broadband - to remote areas - it costs more to empty the bins. Does this mean that these essential services should only be provided in built-up areas and that people who live in less busy areas should have to do without - or should have to pay an extra charge just to access basic services?

These postcode walks are a great idea Dozer - such a brilliant way to discover new areas, find your way around Sheffield - and keep fit into the bargain! I grew up in the S6 area and as a non-driving family, we did most of our walking around S6 and (in our younger and fitter days) we often walked around S35 areas too. Some of my recommendations for S6 walks would include Loxley Valley Rivelin Valley Low Bradfield & High Bradfield - including the surrounding reservoirs, like Dam Flask, for example Wadsley & Loxley Commons Beeley Woods Some S35 walks would include Wharncliffe Crags/Wharncliffe Chase Glen How Park Ewden & More Hall reservoirs Jawbone & Back Edge I hope you enjoy your adventures and explorations - please keep us updated on some of your experiences.

Thanks for this info Retro Queen. It's good to hear that at least some sort of service will be restored to the 52A bus and that the 32 bus will run every half an hour, instead just hourly. I agree with you that it's not fair that there will still be no evening or Sunday services. I think buses should be run as a service, not just for profit, but these privately run bus companies are only interested in running routes that make them money

I think Hillsborough is quite good as a shopping area. It's a good place to do a food shop, with a big Morrisons supermarket and a few independent butchers and a greengrocers. It has a few decent cafes and a few nearby pubs and bars, if you fancy a drink or a snack. It also has a few cheapo shops, like Poundland, BM Bargains, etc. Public transport links are quite good, with plenty of buses and trams serving that area - and there are quite few charity shops, if you want to browse around them. The Hillsborough area could do with a few improvements though. It would be nice if it had somewhere to buy clothes and shoes. A decent proper fishmongers and a decent bakery would be nice - and it would benefit from better parking facilities for those people who need or want to drive, rather than use public transport.

As far as I'm concerned, the state pension shouldn't be taxed at all. If you've worked all your life and paid your full NI and taxes all your life, you should get a state pension that is, at the very least, the same amount as the "minimum wage". I also believe that the personal tax threshold should be raised to £2Ok - and if your income, from either wages or pensions, is less than £2Ok, you shouldn't be taxed at all. To make up the shortfall, I would increase the top rate tax level to 50% for anyone earning over £80k per year.... & to 60% for anyone earning over £200K per year. On the other hand, I wouldn't give a state pension at all to those people who had never worked and had never contributed to society by paying taxes or NI . To those people who had never worked or contributed. I would keep them on subsistence level benefits - enough to keep them in basic food and pay their day to day bills - but certainly not enough to lead the sort of luxury lifestyles that many of them currently lead - like running cars, having foreign holidays, eating out, etc. etc when the people who worked and kept them on benefits all their lives can't afford that kind of luxurious lifestyle are living in much worse poverty than those who never worked at all!

No, El Cid, I wouldn't necessarily want to switch places. My resentment and bitterness is not towards my friend personally, it's towards the system, that rewards people for not working. I think your wife's case is different, because I do believe that it often makes sense for one parent not to work and to care for a child full time. It doesn't necessarily have to be the mother - a stay-at-home father can be equally beneficial at raising a child. However, both my friend and I are childless - and I do think it's morally wrong to pile benefits onto a single, childless person who is perfectly fit and able to work. I'm quite happy for my taxes to support stay-at-home parents, or disabled people, or people who are full-time carers to a sick family member & who are genuinely unable to work, but I balk at paying people who don't work just because they don't want to. My friend's attitude has always been "why should I use my time going to work when working fools like you can keep me in everything I need"? Maybe she has a point, but I would have felt embarrassed to spend my whole life leeching off the backs of working people when I was perfectly capable of supporting myself. Choosing to live off benefits just because you can, not because you need to, is morally indefensible. People who can work should be made to do so, or their benefits should be stopped - then surely there would be more "state" money available to increase the benefits to people who really need and deserve help?

The taxing of state pensions is deeply unfair - it punishes people who have worked and paid taxes and NI all their lives and yet rewards the lazy loafers who've lived all their lives on benefits. I turn 66 in May this year and have been told recently that my state pension will be £884.80, paid every 4 weeks - which equates to £221 a week, and £11,060.00 a year. I will have to pay the full 20% tax on my entire state pension, because I am already over the personal tax threshold , as I also receive a "final salary" pension of just over £13k a year from my previous employer. I worked and paid taxes and NI since I was 16 years old. I also paid a chunk of my salary into my employers pension scheme. I own my own flat and the mortgage is fully paid off. I have never claimed a single penny off the state in my entire life. By the same token, my old school mate, who turns 66 in April, will get exactly the same state pension as me - £884.80 every 4 weeks. She has always lived entirely on state benefits - she has never worked a single day in her life and has never paid a single penny in tax or NI. She lives in a Council Flat & has always had her entire rent and Council Tax paid by the state Now that we are both 66 years old, I am knackered from a lifetime of hard work and she is full of beans from a life-time of loafing. There's no reason why she couldn't work - she just chose not to - and the state has never cut her benefits - or encouraged her to find work. Our current situation is that we will soon both be receiving our £221 a week state pension, I will pay £42 a week tax on my state pension and will get no state help at all. My old mate will pay no tax at all on her state pension. She has also been granted "pension credits" on Universal Credit. Her entire rent will be paid Her entire council tax will be paid She gets £1.200 a year @cost of living payment She gets free dental treatment She gets free Opticians treatment a free glasses She gets vouchers to food-banks....and even to a pet-food foodbank, so she never has to buy food for herself or even for her pet dog! This all seems so very, very unfair to me. My mate just thinks I'm jealous and bitter.... and she's right about that! I'm indeed very jealous...and very bitter!

I think the pub you mentioned at the bottom of Cambridge St, near the back entrance of John Lewis (or Cole Bros, s it was then), may have been The Barleycorn pub. My mates and I used to have a drink in there in the mid-70's, as part of our Friday night town-centre pub crawls. It had a bit of a bad reputation at the time, but as teenage lasses, we always found it quite friendly. The posh book shop in West St was W. Hartley Seed.

When I was akid, I absolutely hated gravy and insisted on eating all my food 'dry' - even roast dinners and Yorkshire pudding! I started to love gravy as I reached adulthood - and now I'm in my 60's, I love lashings of gravy on everything . I've never acquired a taste for olives though. I thought they were disgusting when I first tried them in my teens - and I still can't bear the taste of olives even now - more than 50 years after I first tried to eat an olive! Black or green olives - it makes no difference to me - I just can't stand the mere taste of olives - they taste really acrid to me... like rotting flesh ...or something going seriously 'off'!

You just keep on trying love. that comment bove is just so breathtakingly patronising!!

I'm not an anti-vaxxer. I had the covid jabs and having them has completely destroyed my health for the rest of my life. Being covid-jabbed has also destroyed my brother's health and the health of several other people I know personally. I don't believe that the covid vax protected anyone - it just did no good for most people and actually did harm to many. The only people who benefitted from the covid vax are the big pharmas, who made billions from it.

Rhubarb is seasonal, so I think this is the wrong time of year to buy fresh rhubarb. It's at it's best in spring/early summer - like April to June/July.

Has anyone heard if there are any plans to re-introduce the 52A bus route between Hillsborough interchange and Wisewood/Loxley? My sis-in-law was speaking on Monday to a couple of ladies in the Riva Project cafe at Wisewood and they told her that this much-missed bus route is coming back into operation. I hope so, because Wisewood and Loxley are very poorly served by buses - making it very difficult for the elderly, disabled etc to get out and about - even in the daytime...let alone making it difficult for anyone at all to get a bus anywhere in the evenings

I have fairly recently been diagnosed as having RRMS - (Relapsing/Remitting Multiple Sclerosis). It's a very scary diagnosis, but my only symptoms so far have been 3 periods of sight problems. I have had seriously blurred vision on one of these occasions, double vision on another occasion, and most recently, a complete loss of vision in my left eye. All of these relapses lasted no more than a few days, after which my vision returned to normal. At my most recent appointment with my neurological consultant she has urged me to accept a " Disease Modification Therapy" which would involve going on a course of powerful drugs called Cladribine. I am in a real dilemma about whether or not I should go on this course of treatment. There is no cure for MS, but the advantage of this treatment is that it may slow down the frequency & severity of my MS relapses. The disadvantage is that the treatment itself will destroy my natural immune system and leave me wide open to all sorts of other viral and bacterial infections - plus other side effects, lie hair loss, skin diseases, etc ,etc. At the moment I feel quite well and I'm very reluctant o accept a treatment that would make me feel worse. On the other hand. if I don't accept this treatment, I risk my MS symptoms becoming more frequent and more serious. I really feel caught between the devil and the deep blue sea! My question is, are there any more MS sufferers out there who have been on course of the Cladribine drug? If so, what were your experiences? Did it make you better, or worse? I know that, ultimately, only I can make this decision - but I would appreciate feedback from any other MS sufferers who've taken this nasty Cladribine drug. Thanks