Greenwich Park Revealed survey - don't mess with it!

Never rains but it pours ... or I'm having a morning of activism, and I do like to capture my pearls. So Greenwich Park have this 'Revealed' improvement project on which they are consulting, and there is a survey. It asks a lot of questions about me and my 'visit' - I go there most days for my morning constitutional, sometimes with Lesley, of a 2 mile fast walk around the perimeter. It is all lovely, despite the dogs and joggers, and the flower garden (which has neither) is the high spot. The survey only asked 2 questions about my opinions, and so here they are recorded for posterity (ahhh, that's the word).

What would you change/improve?

Honestly I love it just as it is - I would not change anything. I do understand the need for the Park to find other revenue opportunities, and I can see that is what you are doing on the back of the Revealed programme, but PLEASE just leave the Flower Garden as it is - a wonderful, quiet retreat. Oh there is one thing I would do, and that is get rid of the parakeets because their incessant screeching drowns out the normal birdsong and they don't belong.

What reduces your enjoyment?

The organised Running events are annoying because the runners seem to think they own the path.

Yay, ano 8 months go by .. Murdochs break the spell

Hello readers - I bet both of you thought I'd given up on this. Well, no ... it's just that I have been very positively busy on other things and have not prioritised sharing my insights with the world (well, you two anyway).

So what has broken the spell? My responses to Ofcom with regard to Murdoch's attempt to take control of Sky, facilitated by 38degrees yet written in my own fair hand. once emailed to Ofcom they disappear from the ether, so here they are for glorious ... um ... what's the word?

Dear Ofcom, Re Sky control

I want you to reject 21st Century Fox's bid to take control of Sky because this would be bad for the quality and diversity of television, and in particular the news media, in the UK. 

It is clear that Rupert Murdoch has had too much connection with senior politicians and too much influence over policy in the past. This move will simply make it worse. The claim that it matters less because so much news is on the internet is false; broadcasters still have a huge influence over political debate.


This deal would give one man and his family even more control over the media, and that simply is not right. This situation is precisely what Ofcom is there for, and I expect you to do the right thing for your public.

Dear Ofcom, Re Murdoch fit & proper

I do not believe the Murdoch family are fit & proper people to take control of a major broadcaster, and therefore their bid to control Sky should be rejected.


Media under their control was at the centre of the phone hacking scandal. Their newspapers have to been linked to police bribery. You strongly criticised James Murdoch: "repeatedly fell short of the conduct [of] a CEO"; "difficult to comprehend [his] lack of action, given his responsibility as chairman". Yet now he's back again as chairman, thinking all of that has been forgotten. Well it hasn't by the public and I'm sure it hasn't by Ofcom.

Yours faithfully

Nic Vine BSc MBCS FRSA