On Feb 9th 2015 a year ago, Ray Mills, aged 66 years, was arrested on suspicion of killing his wife Linda Mills with knives and a hammer. Both were “known” to the local community in that residents saw them out and about, but both rarely spoke to anyone other than their next door neighbour. On June 8th 2015 Ray Mills died in Wandworth prison however this never was reported until 14th July.
Ray Mills
Ray Mills never came to trial as three court hearings were adjourned as psychiatric reports were not available. Ray Mills thus had been in custody for four months before his death.
The news of his death came four days after coroner Dr Fiona Wilcox called for a formal investigation into the alarming number of deaths at Wandsworth Prison.
During a pre-inquest hearing into the suicides of two men who shared the same cell and hung themselves months apart, she said the inquest could not go on because of various “themes and common issues” of deaths at the UK’s largest prison.
Eleven men died at the category B prison last year – which she said was three times more than would be expected at a prison. It is not clear whether she knew about Mr Mills and whether his death was included in that figure.
The Ministry of Justice has yet to comment on how Mr Mills died in prison. And that is essentially where we are now.
The house remains in the same condition with a small padlock on the door and no signs of any activity or potential sale. One wonders as what might be happening inside of course.
Ray and Linda Mills House where the murder took place
An inquest into his death has been opened at Westminster Coroners’ Court. The case was due to be reviewed by a coroner on December 7. There is nothing reported regarding this inquest.
So one year on, Ray Mills must be presumed to have murdered his wife, however in the absence of a trial details and proof are unlikely to ever be known. The local residents are not so happy that the house remains closed and uncared for, and details of the cause of death of Ray Mills remain unknown, however one suspects that suicide must be one of the more likely possibilities.
Motspur Park remains a sleepy suburb, half in borough of Merton and the other half in the borough of Kingston. We must await further information.
Mills was awaiting trial at Isleworth Crown Court when he died at Wandsworth Prison on 8 June 2015. An inquest is to take place at Westminster Coroners Court on a date yet to be decided.
There is little doubt that these agencies are wanted by people and are used. They more or less guarantee that one can buy a ticket, albeit at a price over the face value. Many concerts these days do sell out and if fans are prepared to sacrifice their tickets for money that seems reasonable enough. Or does it?
Two things concern me that mitigate some of the above
Some people buy tickets through setting up numerous email addresses and credit cards with the sole purpose of re-selling the tickets. To be fair sellers do try and limit this by imposing various maximum number of tickets limits on what they can do.
That some of these agencies are in fact run by the primary ticket sellers themselves. Is this a problem? Maybe. Lets give an example where it is a problem. I was buying tickets, or attempting to, for a concert where ” presale” tickets went on sale 9 am wednesday morning. Resale codes and knowledge of such sales tend to go the fan clubs and those that follow the mailings or accounts of the various bands. No issue with that. Real fans deserve a chance to buy first, if they have been buying the records, merchandise etc. However by 10 am tickets were already on sale on the re-selling market websites confirming that in fact some buyers had zero intention of doing anything other than selling their tickets on at a large profit. That same company owned both the selling of the tickets and the re-selling , so they were clearly complicit in this. The remainder of the tickets then went on sale friday 9 am. I will not cite the actual company nor event simply because this is common . However An example might be Seatwave.com who are a re-selling company and are part of Ticketmaster as are GetMeIn. For those not so familiar it is not uncommon for such tickets to be priced well over £100 and sometimes over £500. A random example right now on SeatWave.com. Tickets for Noel Gallagher in Liverpool 25th April 2016 are found ranging from £52-£150.
This morning I got an email from Stubhub.
Dear Chris,
Stand Up For Your Right To Buy And Sell Tickets
The Government have launched an independent review into the laws around event ticket resale, and event organisers are pushing hard for new laws which will restrict your right to buy and resell spare tickets at the last minute for sold out events.
We believe that fans should be free to resell tickets for events which they can no longer attend, especially when they are routinely denied refunds by event organisers.
We have therefore launched a petition calling for a clear legal right for fans to be able to resell spare tickets without restrictive terms and conditions being imposed by event organisers.
If you value the right to buy and sell tickets safely and securely on a website of your choice, please lend your voice to our campaign and sign our petition.
Thank you for your support.
The StubHub Team
Should I sign this petition? Part of me wants to as there needs to be a market to indeed sell on unwanted tickets. But a larger part of me says that by doing so I am propagating the exact issue that I have highlighted above.
What is really required is a middle ground where re-selling of tickets cannot take place until all the tickets have been sold, where different companies act as sellers and re-sellers, so there can be no actual nor perceived conflict of interest and whereby somehow those that buy to sell are somehow dissuaded from doing this.
This is becoming an increasingly important market, concert tickets and it is important that the real fans can always have a fair chance of getting tickets. Logging onto a website at 9 am and being told at 9.05 am that all the tickets have gone is curious as there are few events that truly this will happen for. So have a read, have a think, if you have teenagers who are concert goers as them their views and vote in my poll.
Please share this too, as it is important that this gets discussed openly and clearly, as there are far more issues than Stubhub might want us to consider before signing their petition.
Finally there is an additional issue which impinges on the above. That some tickets for concerts never actually go on sale. They are sold separately at higher price. This is not so relevant to the above issues but will of course inflate prices if fewer tickets are sold at anything like the face value of the ticket. Ticketmaster are an example here. and i quote from their website
“About Ticketmaster Platinum
What are Platinum Tickets? Platinum Tickets are some of the best available tickets to concerts and other events made available by artists and event organisers though Ticketmaster. They give fans fair and safe access to some of the best seats in the house at market driven prices.
Are Platinum Tickets resale tickets? No these are not resale tickets. Platinum Tickets are being sold for the very first time through Ticketmaster. The prices are adjusted according to supply and demand, similar to how airline tickets and hotel rooms are sold. The goal is to give the most passionate fans fair and safe access to the best tickets, while allowing the artists and everyone involved in staging live events to price tickets closer to their true value.
Why can’t I buy Platinum Tickets for certain events? Currently Platinum Tickets are not available for all events. Be sure to check Ticketmaster often as new events are continually being added.”
An excellent individual goal from Luke Medley, taking the ball almost from the half way line and scoring. Its not so often that a sequence tells the story but enjoy these.
In an alleyway just down from where the old Nelson hospital car park was sited, is an amazing collection of graffiti or graffiti art. Not sure how long this has been there for but I have never noticed this before. Enjoy.
Despite the fact that Vanarama National League is a mere step below the football league is miles away in terms of its customer friendly approach. Where else might one see a lady with a dog on the terraces?
Where else do stewards take the word of a paying customer as to what exactly is in a bag they are carrying in? Where else do Northern football fans, well Halifax ones from Yorkshire wear shorts to football matches in the winter?
This and a multitude of other curious spectacles were observed at the Woking v Halifax game this weekend.
Even the ground at Woking is an eclectic mix of five very different stands/terracing. Behind one goal is a huge stand, all-seater, that dominates the ground and from the road gives the impression of a large league ground.
Then along side one side of the pitch are two small ancient looking stands that I am sure were there 50 years ago, looking quaint but maybe not fit for purpose really being honest. Normal covered terracing behind the other goal is matched with low level terracing along the other side of the pitch. It is almost as though no one can decide which decade the ground lives in nor which level of football it is fit for. A nice surprise was that there was no segregation with Woking and Halifax fans mixing freely. Banter was heard though it was difficult to make out easily much of what the Halifax fans were saying. This for me is good though. I prefer the lack of segregation which encourages a normal approach to football instead of treating each game like some kind of warfare.
The only matter of concern is that £18 seems a lot to pay for entry to any level of non-league football, especially when the entrance to Ryman level games is often around £10 or less. The worst crime though was £4 for a burger.
Some weeks in football terms are best forgotten. Simply a bad week in the life of Brentford football club. A free saturday afternoon meant that I could go in search of a non league football game that might restore my sanity and belief in football as a game.
My first choice for a game is nearly always Carshalton Athletic who play in the Ryman South league and are assembling a young and enthusiastic side who are not paid the kind of excessive wages that some non league sides have resorted to in an attempt to buy success. Their season is a good one so far and they sit on the edges of the play off positions.
The ground is on the outskirts of Carshalton with a decent amount of parking at the ground. The terracing would grace many lower league grounds and a crowd of 257 gave a decent atmosphere.
The first thing one notices is that it is easy to walk around the whole ground so you not trapped in one zone all game. The food is generally better quality than league grounds and generally cheaper. One also has to mention the 3G pitch of which I am a fan and the ability of games to go ahead in often highly inclement weather.
The football played could be described as robust, a few tackles flying in which on a different day might have led to a few yellow and red cards. But the game and the result mattered to the 22 players out there. The physique and fitness may not be a league standard but these guys ran, well mostly, for 90 minutes.
Local builders did not seem to be doing much building during the game from their high perch behind the goal.
Away support at this level is varied but I had an excellent conversation with the seemingly sole South Park fan standing behind the goal.
People come for different reasons and many nowadays bring cameras, including myself, and some excellent photos end up online post match.
This football is real, played by amateurs and watched by genuine football fans who in many cases have followed their clubs for years or even decades. Those fans who only watch league football at higher echelons could do worse than spend around 10£ or sometimes less to occasionally watch non league football. It does restore your belief that football is a game, that fans of all teams can stand together and chat, and that the complaints over the referee and officials do not stop at a league level!
As a photographer I also enjoy the ability to bring my camera in and get all kinds of photos from different angles that would never be possible at a league game.
The rants and warblings of an active and some would say disturbed mind. A Brentford Fc supporter and a psychiatrist and photographer. Welcome to my musings and rants.
This and a multitude of other curious spectacles were observed at the Woking v Halifax game this weekend.
Then along side one side of the pitch are two small ancient looking stands that I am sure were there 50 years ago, looking quaint but maybe not fit for purpose really being honest. 
Normal covered terracing behind the other goal is matched with low level terracing along the other side of the pitch. It is almost as though no one can decide which decade the ground lives in nor which level of football it is fit for. A nice surprise was that there was no segregation with Woking and Halifax fans mixing freely. Banter was heard though it was difficult to make out easily much of what the Halifax fans were saying. This for me is good though. I prefer the lack of segregation which encourages a normal approach to football instead of treating each game like some kind of warfare.
Away support at this level is varied but I had an excellent conversation with the seemingly sole South Park fan standing behind the goal.
People come for different reasons and many nowadays bring cameras, including myself, and some excellent photos end up online post match.
This football is real, played by amateurs and watched by genuine football fans who in many cases have followed their clubs for years or even decades. Those fans who only watch league football at higher echelons could do worse than spend around 10£ or sometimes less to occasionally watch non league football. It does restore your belief that football is a game, that fans of all teams can stand together and chat, and that the complaints over the referee and officials do not stop at a league level!
chris1957
Arcticterntalk.org 