The Future of GSK in Greenford

GSK have announced they will be moving out of Greenford

Steve Pound MP received the news of the closure plans announced by GSK today with dismay but not surprise.

“As soon as Glaxo merged with Smith Kline Beecham and moved their corporate headquarters to Brentford I have been dreading this day” said Steve “I happen to think that Glaxos are, and always have been, a really great firm to work for and almost everyone in Greenford knows someone who has worked there at some stage. I am relieved to hear that there will be no compulsory redundancies but fear for those people living near Greenford Road who now face the Hobson’s choice of a commute to Stockley Park or the loss of their job. I’m also very concerned about the Leisure Centre in Oldfield Lane North as this is a real community resource valued by Glaxo staff and a wide range of local groups from the Police to the Holy Cross Players Pantomime.

The Last Night of the Waldeck Road Proms

I thought that I’d reached that stage in life where absolutely nothing had the capacity to amaze me anymore when I walked into a fairly typical Ealing home on Sunday to find a forty piece Philharmonic Orchestra, a former England football manager and an eager and expectant crown awaiting the first note of what was billed as The Last Night of the Waldeck Proms.

This incredible achievement was the brainchild of Callum and Michelle McLeod and brought to fruition by the enthusiastic support of many an Ealing based musician including the violin genius known to us as Dermot Crehan.

With the start of a new season, new hope

The international scene is so profoundly depressing at present that I hope the good readers of the Ealing “Times” will forgive me for concentrating on matters a little closer to hope this week.

I can’t remember who it was who said – utterly unforgivably! – that the end of the football season is when you find out that your wife left you last August but I plead guilty to having spent Tuesday and Wednesday evenings at Hanwell Town and Craven Cottage and Saturday at Brentford. Were it not for the facts that my QPR season ticket holding son has promised to “out” me as a Fulham fan if I show my face in Loftus Road and for North Greenford United matches clashing I could have done an Ealing and West London accumulator.