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  • "
    A Very Private Gentleman wrote:
    Mail Member 4 Colchester says...

    Hello i will be as eloquent as possible and explain a little further i will admit i could not work out which bit of the above post was supportive or sarcastic.
    I came out into the real world some years ago and gave up a gold plated pension from the so called public sector and a hefty lump sum to care for elderly parents.
    In the process i ran a small business from home to make ends meet, Carer allowance then was £50 per week and it hardly set my world on fire.
    I think the term Public Sector is a too loose application: Pol Fire Amb NHS staff and even the grubby jobs like the thunderbird 6 lads the Bin Men are the front liners.
    What does cheese me off is the backside shiners who really take advantage with the man/woman flu:
    There are quite a few bin men that know me and one or two get a bottle of Castellano red out of me when the man in the red coat is normally flying around with the white beard.
    I am not very good with pen pushers who bemoan their lot.
    Now what I will say is that since 2008 we have all been in a horrific recession through no fault of anyone around here.
    nevertheless the public sector have had he cheques in the bank, where as I have had to fret over where to find £60 per week for Poll Tax before I can out food on the table.
    I have to sit and listen to public sector wingers on married couples combined salaries of £70,000 per year at dinner parties, when there is the likes of the rank and file living on peanuts.
    One of them who has just had a promotion and a hefty pay rise, bemoaned the government stating they were not getting enough.
    Its those and the like that irritate me, and that plays up with my ulcer.
    Some of the front liners should be paid more and the back room boys should be getting less if that is any consolation to any of my robust comments.
    There is an old saying from the war for every one on the front line there were ten in the back.
    As for my remarks about the scientists its a family thing i have to sit there and be brain washed by all the wannabe Brian Cox's in the blood line.
    I just open a bottle of castellano and think of more happier times like the 70's.
    All the best 4
    Jack Edwards :-)
    '...i will admit i could not work out which bit of the above post was supportive or sarcastic' (sic).

    Wow, just wow."
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Will this be our first snowless winter since 2002?

6:00am Saturday 18th January 2014 in News

Harwich and Manningtree Standard: Flashback to Hilly Fields, Colchester in January 2013 Flashback to Hilly Fields, Colchester in January 2013

ESSEX is set for a snow-free winter for the first time in more than a decade.

Tom Defty, of Essex Weather Centre, believes not a single snowflake will fall this winter.

If his prediction proves correct, it will make a stark contrast to last February and March, when there were several weeks of freezing conditions.

Mr Defty said: “This may be the first winter since 2002 that we see no snow, not a single flake, in Essex.

“It is past Mid Winters Day, we have survived without snow so far.

“From now it is going to be more of the same, it is going to be more rain and a very mild weather.”

Mr Defty said people should look out for signs of an early spring.

He added: “One of the biggest things people will notice is the spring bulbs coming through, the rose bushes flowering and the trees have got buds on.

“I have been sent so many photos of early-blooming daffodils.

“Normally when everything progresses early we have a sudden cold snap but I have not seen anything significant in the forecast.”

Mr Defty added even if cold winds were to come from Europe, sea temperatures are so warm, a cold snap would be unlikely.

He said: “A year agowe had pictures of Essex under really deep snow and rush hour was absolute mayhem. This year it is a completely different picture.

“We won’t have the big storm systems we had in December but we will have rainfall day after day, a couple of millimetres falling on saturated ground and it is going to take a long time for the ground to dry out.”

Surface flooding will be the main weather concern from now until the end of winter.

Essex Weather Centre figures show we already had the total expected rainfall for January within the first two weeks of the year.

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