Morning surgery in freezing cold room at Hornsey Library! Then rest of day paperwork followed by speech to Haringey Phoenix Group – who help the blind and partially sighted with the provision of talking newspapers, arts and crafts and IT classes and home visits. I have been trying to support the call for more rehabilitation officers as there are virtually none available. Here in Haringey there were two posts – but neither are now filled and we have just one locum. The really serious part of this is that when someone becomes blind, it is the first crucial months when you particularly need someone to come and help you in person and with equipment to get you out the house and get your confidence up. If too much time passes – the fears build and people can become reluctant to go out. I am shocked that this is something that is now provided almost totally by volunteers.

I meet lots of the attendees including one chap from Walthamstow who came on the bus with his guide dog. He is clutching a bronze statue of a mermaid that he has sculpted. It is quite lovely and accurate. He says it is from memory. I thought it was exceptional really. I cannot imagine how you can do that by feel and memory alone. And I tell you – it doesn’t half make you think about what you take for granted when you are sighted.

I tell them about how, quite early on as a Muswell Hill councillor, I had an elderly resident (partially sighted) asked me to go for a walk with him around Muswell Hill Broadway. He wanted me to understand the hazards that beset someone like him – and the lack of enforcement by Haringey Council of some of our street laws. He wanted me to gain the awareness of all the things that could trip him up.

And walking with him that afternoon, I learned a whole new attitude to blindness. If the law says that a shop may put out products and wares on the street then the measurement to which they are allowed should be observed. I cannot tell you how many breaches of the law we encountered on our expedition. And hanging goods. And pavement sandwich boards. And uneven paving stones. And old unnecessary street furniture. And so on and so on. It is so easy when you can see – but a completely different world when you cannot.

I leave to run to the inauguration of a new scouts group in Noel Park. I have had to miss the actual ceremony – but get there at least in time to say hello. It has been a real success – and already the scout numbers have increased from 5 to 13. The scouting movement is just still an excellent thing and I arrange to visit the Scout Park next week.