Darkness

It was very surprising to see that the County Council of Norfolk did what they already announced last year.
Street lights are turned off in parts of the city of Norwich. About 4,000 lights are switched off. It was announced this would be between 12 and 5, giving a saving of £ 35,000. Keeping on a light extra is costing
£ 20 per night. Last night I noticed lights were off from 1 AM till 6 AM. It was a cloudy night, so pitch dark.

There were a lot of protests to prevent that this would happen, but the council has dismissed every complaint.
Predictions that streets will especially be dangerous for women have been rebuffed by statements that lights will be kept on on streets where there is CCTV. So these streets have double protection while others are kept totally in the dark. Should women restrict themselves to these streets? How to get into the neighbourhoods?
The streets in neighbourhoods are in the dark.

What happened to the 24 hour economy in the UK? Everything has to come to a standstill at 12 (or 1 AM)?
The government is going to decide for the people at which hour they should be in bed? What will happen if criminality really will rise, when people will feel less safe on the streets. Turning the lights on again?
I fear that will not happen. I predict more police on the streets, demands on harsher punishment. Should there be a curfew?

After 11 PM there is hardly any bus transportation. All pubs should close at 11 and people should have to rush home by foot when they don't own a car or can't afford a taxi. Going to the theatre will cause problems for these people for the same reason.
The Council doesn't care for people doing shifts that cause them to go home on nightly hours. Better paid jobs and people who own their own business mostly will not have these problems. So this will mainly hamper the lower classes.

It reminds me a bit of what my parents told me about the times when the Germans occupied the Netherlands.
The years 1940 till 1945. There were curfews and police was patrolling the streets and would shoot on sight. Shoot first, ask questions after a hit, was the policy.

I just saw a very significant article: Brasil surpassed the UK on the list of the largest economic countries.
Which will be next?
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It's the last day of the year 2011. I just read this article:
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2078947/Street-lights-dark-road-soldier-killed-Christmas-Day-accident-switched-save-cash.html?ito=feeds-newsxml
The first victim because of this stupid decision!
Does this mean that a life is worth £ 35,000?
It really makes you think!

January 4, 2012
A storm passed England last night. It happened to be the night that the good people of this neighbourhood are supposed to have their bins out. They are always emptied very early in the morning.
This time the wind decided to blow them over and empty them.
Normally this would have been a nuisance, but with the lights out it was really terrible. I could save our bins but the rubbish was already untraceable when I got to these bins and their lids. This morning I saw at the end of the street a garden filled with the rubbish of our bin and some more. The poor neighbour was trying to clear his garden. With some light I'm sure we had been able to prevent this at least a bit and the same goes for other neighbours. We only had a little torch.
There is still a lot of rubbish on the street, not sure where this came from. I'm certain it will not be cleaned by the city.
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