Welcome

Welcome to The Whine and Cheese Club blog. We had our first meeting on Tuesday March 8th in north west London, and somehow, out of all the rhetoric and the ranting, the scoffing and the surmising, the outrage, the outpourings, the olives, the treacle tart and the red wine, an idea was put into action - the establishment of a Club with the express aim of making life a little bit better, not just for the members but for everyone whose jaw clenches with anxiety or frustration when faced with the red tape and idiot-card inspired information that turns everyday irritations into insurmountable obstacles. Our inaugural whines included a correspondence with The Royal Free Hospital, Hampstead, over the inhumane issue of incontinence pants to elderly patients who are not incontinent, and a ding-dong with Stuart Rose over the threadcount in M&S socks. The first whine, by Shyama, resulted in a series of fob offs from customer relations managers working for the NHS trust. The general consensus within the group was that the issue, which had been laid to rest with the untimely death of the patient around whom the complaint was made, should be pursued because of the impact on all patients within The Royal Free. The second complaint had, however, elicited an immediate result. Our whiner, Peter, having sent the offending sock to Mr Rose with an explanation that it had developed a hole after one wash, was sent a cheque for £10. While this does not relieve the problem to which he drew attention, it does at least compensate for the irritation. We had a proxy whine from Hashida, who read us a letter her mother had sent to complain about the rudeness of a care worker on a community bus. A broad sweep of interest areas emerged as our conversation continued. Karen left us all in a state of disbelief while describing how she had been issued with a notice for flytipping because she left sealed rubbish by an overflowing municipal bin. Robin instructed us that the best people to approach when making complaints are those at the top who have dedicated staff investigating consumer issues. Reilly, another vociferous complainer, talked about wider campaigns and making the personal political. Krista's view was that all complaints have a validity beyond the personal and therefore all subject matter is fair game. Indeed, that was the general view, with the caveat that complaints must be genuine and not manifestations of inner turmoil, midlife crisis or an inability to deal with the everyday! Our next meeting is scheduled for Tuesday April 17th. If you'd like to affiliate to our group, please leave a message. Thanks:-) Shyama