A few words from the chair
I won’t start with the weather but as I look out of our living room window on a bright sunny day in May this is the view across the Bristol channel from our little bungalow above Redcliffe Bay in Portishead to which we moved in February. One to lift the spirits from a dull and dreary winter heralding a green start to spring. But back to business, commencing with our AGM on 14th March which we held at the Toby Carvery in Almondsbury, where we persuaded Martin Robertson to join the committee as our new Group Secretary to give Colin Fender a well-deserved rest from covering this role for the past 3 years as well as his other responsibilities. So welcome aboard Martin, there’s a lot to do as we prepare for our Kenilworth conference on 9/10th October, working alongside me as Chair and Colin as Group Membership Secretary/Honorary Treasurer to which we were re-elected. My thanks also to those members who volunteered to join the committee, who provide an important sounding board for the decisions we make. So, to summarise our new contact details are:
Chair/Newsletter Editor, Stuart Tarr: 5 St Augustine’s Close, Portishead, Bristol BS20 8JH. Tel: 01275 568847, Mobile 07769 640770, Email: stuart.tarr@hotmail.co.uk
Group Secretary, Martin Robertson: 6 Beech Road, Yatton, Bristol , BS49 4HY. Mobile: 07962 827937, Email: martin@mjlrobertson.org.uk
Hon Treasurer/Membership Secretary, Colin Fender: Tel: 0117 969 4752 Email colinfender@btinternet.com
Moving on to other business the annual audited accounts were approved with a balance of £1398.10 at 31st December 2023 with current membership, including Weston-Super-Mare, standing at 453 members after data cleansing and adjustments for gains and losses. With the main business of the AGM dealt with the remainder of the meeting concentrated on hearing from our guest speakers starting with Les Calder our SW Regional Representative to the Executive Council.
Les provided an overview of the challenges facing SW region and nationally, reflecting the continuing decline in the number of active membership groups with 48% of all groups having closed with only 52% still active. SW region now has only 4 active groups out of the original 11 and one of those Bath was facing a difficult decision whether to continue or close (it has since decided to close in June). About half the national membership is no longer represented in active groups and therefore not properly represented at the CSPA AGM. Moreover, this trend is set to continue unless regional arrangements are strengthened and this will be the main topic of conversation and motions at the Kenilworth Conference/AGM in October.
Moving on we welcomed David Luxton, CSPA Deputy General Secretary, who gave a comprehensive overview of the key issues that he and Sally Tsoukaris CSPA General Secretary are taking forward with key partners, Members of Parliament and the Cabinet Office around the Later Life Ambitions programme which covers a wide range of issues that impact directly on the well-being in later life of inflation proofing the value of state retirement and civil service pensions, steps to mitigate the rising costs of living, improving access to health and social care, reducing the risks of digital exclusion and improving access to public transport etc. David’s detailed brief on this can be provided if you’d like a copy. Finally, as part of its modernising agenda, CSPA is looking at changing the format of its present AGM arrangements perhaps to include an element of virtual online attendance, both to reduce costs and improve access which, again, will be an important topic to discuss at the Kenilworth Conference/AGM in October.
If you have views on any of these topics, regionalisation or the format of the AGM/Conference, or motions for conference, please do let me know preferably by email copied to Martin and Colin which helps to speed things up. But if you don’t have or wish to use email then a note or letter in the post will do.
Our next meetings in 2024 will all be at the Toby Carvery, Almondsbury, starting at 11am on Thursdays, with the next meeting on Thursday, 13th June. Together with other members of the committee I hope to see you there with lunch to follow. Our guest speaker is Christine Haswell to update us on pensions issues especially the McCloud report and its complications for recent retirees. Please let Martin or Stuart know if you intend to attend the meet so we can advise the Toby on numbers attending.
The latest on Counterfeit Stamps and do you still have non-barcoded stamps?
Members need to be aware of two potentially annoying and costly problems with the mail delivery. The information below is from ‘Moneysavingexpert.com’ website. Still have non-barcoded stamps. Exchange them using Royal Mail’s ‘Swap Out’ scheme.
To swap your old non-barcoded everyday stamps, you’ll need to complete a standard ‘Swap Out’ form for stamps worth up to and including £200, or a bulk stamp Swap Out’ form for stamps worth more than £200. There is currently no deadline on when you need to complete the swap by, but we suggest doing it sooner rather than later in case the scheme closes. Royal Mail says it’ll try to swap your stamps within seven working days.
But the charge for a recipient of a letter with the old stamp is £2.50p – but only if you the receiver – want to see who sent the item. This happened to us a few weeks ago.
Counterfeit Stamps Royal Mail is temporarily waiving its £5 penalty fee for anyone who receives a letter with a fake stamp on it while it takes fresh action against counterfeits.
How to try to spot counterfeit stamps. Royal Mail have issued guidance to help you to avoid buying fake stamps in the meantime:
Check if the stamp has an unusually shiny surface, unusual colouration or inaccurate perforations and be very wary of online retailers selling stamps at discounted prices.
Royal Mail does not sell stamps with discounts, except to actual Retailers. Any seller advertising stamps for sale and promoting a discount that looks “too good to be true” is probably selling fakes. Colin Fender
A Trip to Tuscany in April 2024
We had a two-centre holiday to Tuscany in late April, based in the town of Montecatini Terme for the Florence area and in Siena itself, all set in the Tuscan countryside.
We had decided that April would be sure to be not too hot. We were correct, but had not bargained for an Arctic cold plunge, that came all the way down through Germany to north Africa and the weather was unusually cold for Italy with snow on the mountains behind Florence with the cold north wind present throughout the holiday.
Our first city visited, Florence has so much to see, its cathedral (or Duomo) is very impressive, especially in the sun. However, by the afternoon we were sheltering on the central span of the Pont Vecchio over the river Arno during a raging thunderstorm (with forked lightning around us) before eventually retreating to a Pizza restaurant for the remainder of the afternoon. Our visits to Lucca and Pisa the next day were in bright sunshine, even if a winter coat was needed. Pisa has its own grand Duomo and it’s even more famous leaning tower both very impressive and not too crowded.
Lucca is famous for its complete 17th century city walls and centre, which includes a Roman amphitheatre, long ago modified to be made into somewhat narrow homes. These have now become upmarket holiday homes! Our four-night stay in Siena had a mix of weather and the visit to its unique and superb Duomo was made in fine weather. We also had an included day into Chianti wine country with wine tasting (naturally) which necessarily had accompanying heavy rain showers, was very pleasant. The countryside looked very green and lush enhancing the scenic Tuscan landscape. In spite of the weather, we had a very interesting holiday and after visits to the Siena Duomo and the city museum on our last day we were both well and truly ‘frescoed out’. Our return to Stoke Gifford from Heathrow, after a short flight from Florence, was going really smoothly – until a lorry caught fire at the M4-M32 junction – we were trapped for hours. That’s Life!
Colin and Jean Fender
Berlin (Part 2)
I am surprised, and gratified, that a number of readers have asked to learn more about my time in Berlin in the mid 1980’s, so here it is;
Berlin as it was then, was still a city with the British, Americans, French and Russians each occupying a ‘zone’, and the whole city surrounded by the German Democratic Republic (East Germany). For military staff and supporting the civilian component of which I was one, there were only 3 official ways into West Berlin; by military air flights, by military train and by driving along the 120km ‘corridor’ from Helmstedt in West Germany to Dreilinden to re-enter West Berlin. The aforementioned crossing points were named Alpha and Bravo, hence the renowned Checkpoint Charlie which passed from West Berlin into East Berlin. Either of the land routes required a possession of valid Berlin Travel Document that was printed in English, French and Russian but not German as we (the British Government) did not formally recognise the East German Government.
On the land crossings we went through a well-rehearsed song and dance act with our Soviet counterparts, with much saluting of their guards and then a period of calm (known as hurry up and wait) while they painstakingly photocopied all our documents, followed by a repeat performance at the opposite end of the corridor. The military train also went through a bizarre routine of padlocking the doors from the inside to prevent east German citizens illegally boarding at intermediate stops and then claiming asylum.
Our mission was to deter the Soviets from occupying our sectors of Berlin which had been agreed by Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin, at the Yalta Conference in 1945. In hindsight and discussing this ambition with my more knowledgeable military colleagues, it was a very tall order but in a strategic political and military context it was a key tripwire. If the ‘Sovs’ had wanted to invade we would have observed their preparation in advance and, hopefully, they could have been persuaded to back off. As a precaution we had several early warning systems in place including the listening posts at Teufelsburg (Devils Hill) and in the Olympic Stadium which I supported with technical systems. A quick look at the map will show that Berlin is only about 60km from the Polish border so we could ‘see’ radio traffic from Soviet military formations manoeuvring in East Germany and on the Polish banks of the Oder River.
On reflection it all seems trivial in the context of today’s terrible problems in Ukraine, but I think if the dice had fallen the wrong way in the 1980’s Western Europe could have faced a similar ‘special military operation’ to that awful situation that has been going on for over 2 years. In the mid 1980’s the Western powers misjudged the Soviet view of the West and when the allies conducted a truly massive field exercise (Ex Lionheart) in 1983 it was a sole, sensible, Soviet Lieutenant Colonel on watch in their strategic command system who realised the West was not about to launch a massive invasion and disobeyed his standing orders by not pressing the ‘panic’ button!
In some respects, it sounds as if it was a ‘difficult’ existence and I know some didn’t find it a comfortable place due to the sense of isolation but my wife and I thoroughly enjoyed our time there. We had a decent married quarter only a stones throw from my offices in the Olympic Stadium and the U-Bahn, we had access to the very well-appointed allied Officers Clubs and we could go into East Berlin via Checkpoint Charlie for very different shopping and a cheap night out. Another oddity which springs to mind was FRIS – the Family Ration Income Supplement. The allies maintained a siege buffer of foodstuffs in case the Sovs imposed another blockade as they had done in 1948/49. The stock was refreshed by selling it to the forces at very low price under the FRIS scheme.
That’s probably enough about Berlin for the moment – the next instalment will be about my four years in the USA. I can thoroughly recommend Berlin as a tourist destination – it’s easy to get to from Bristol and it’s convenient to get around. It’s steeped in modern history with a vast range of museums, buildings and galleries to visit, as well as the memorials to the terrible battles that were fought in the final days of World War 2.
Stuart Tarr – Chair
Martin Robertson – Secretary
