Whispering Smith Column published in the Littlehampton Gazette January 19th 2017

Only nine more Mondays until spring…

A rainy, winter’s Sunday morning, a seaside town in the pouring rain. It doesn’t get much sadder that that, does it? Oh, yes it does. Consider this; Donald Trump the weird tweeting monster to lead the so called free world into only God knows where, Syria’s war and the freezing, dying refugees, our very special NHS service allowed to fail due to lack of funds, sometimes poor organization and certainly lack of foresight on the part of the government. Closer to home, Southern Rail which was not getting us to work and often leaving us stranded half way to nowhere long before the strikes began. Even closer to home, those Arun members who were able to attend the relevant meeting voted to give the council’s chief executive his £6000 pay rise – a bit of a slap in the face that for staff stuck with cuts and a 1% rise. The seeming lack of concern for the environment and our wildlife in the quest for personal wealth or pleasure. The dumbing down of television – so called ‘light entertainment’ littered with expletives – or continuously repeated news programmes crammed with speculation rather than actual reporting.The powerful and the wealthy trying to muzzle the press less their dark deeds be revealed to all. I am pretty fed up with 2017 already but things can only get better… or can they?

THERE were some terrible movie offerings on television over the Christmas period – apart of course from ‘Peter Pan Goes Wrong’ which was far more amusing than any of the so called comedic sitcoms and panel games. A chilly and damp winter’s walk maybe but it really was worth the effort and good to see our Windmill cinema packed to bursting last week for several films including the excellent ‘Sully: Miracle on the Hudson.’ Littlehampton really does deserve a larger and perhaps more central cinema and if the current operator were allowed to run it then so much the better.

Photo: Littlehampton Pier on that rainswept Sunday…