The Rhyme Minister

The Gordon Brown rap (just helping this hilarious video go viral)

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South Shields Christmas Lights “turn on”

Cheeky Girls to entertain

The Christmas Lights in South Shields will be switched on next Saturday by the Mayor Cllr . John Anglin, ably assisted by his “Cheeky Girls” Joan Meeks and Joanne Bell, as a touch of glamour is brought to town during the popular group’s Christmas tour. Being South Shields you can guarantee that we always want to bring you the best quality entertainment and fun, allowing ourselves to bask in the aura of the stars.

(Ed. – you silly boy, it’s a different pair of Cheeky Girls coming to South Shields!)

Oh well, the whole thing was just crying out for some fun.

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Want a good laugh?

David Cameron portrayed as Thatcher Mkll

I kid you not, Henry Curteis writing at the Conservative Blog is adamant that David Cameron will continue to say NO, Nein, Non, to the EU at every available opportunity.

To the word ‘NO’ there is no argument or negotiation offered or required. It’s the language of non-recognition, non-obedience, non-compliance, call it what you will. Cameron is saying ‘NO. I am not playing this game any more.’ He’s not asking or negotiating. He’s telling – something Nigel Farage cannot yet fathom. Here is a eurosceptic Conservative Prime Minister-to be, getting ready to say what he wants to happen, and who doesn’t recognise the moral or democratic legitimacy of the EU as it applies to Britain.

Yeah, yeah , yeah, Henry, and if you believe it will all pan out this way in the future, then you probably believe in fairies too.

Another politician who cannot fathom Cameron’s approach to the EU is David Miliband.

David Miliband said this morning at the Fabian Conference that they will be campaigning against Cameron on his new EU policy as being either meaningless or dangerous, as it will lead to Britain leaving the EU.

But David, if it’s meaningless, it’s not dangerous. And if it’s dangerous, it’s not meaningless. And if it is dangerous, Farage is out of a job.

But what if it is all a load of insincere bollocks Henry, designed to get him over the winning line without too much fuss from the Eurosceptics ? This is nothing more than clever political positioning but this time without any “cast iron guarantee”.

Can you seriously believe that once David Cameron is inside 10 Downing Street that he will rock the EU boat, put noses out of joint and force the other 26 to consider what life might be like without British membership of the club? No, neither can I.

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Miliband again turns blind eye to human rights

British Indian Ocean Territory “consultation”

So the Foreign Secretary and South Shields MP wants to help create a marine conservation area around the Chagos Archipelago, that’s one way of keeping any sea borne threat away from the American secret prison base at Diego Garcia! He also wants to listen to the views of Chagossian communities whilst at the same time turning a blind eye and a deaf ear to the hundreds who are not being allowed to return to the lands of their birth – how nice of him!

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Miliband, Hepburn, Lord David Clark

You all appear to have far too much time on your hands!

This is just incredible, have a good look at Sam Coates’ post which is all about an email “round robin” which is going around Parliament, trying to persuade Peers and Commoners to join an All Party Parliamentary Group that is interested in “cyber security”.

Apart from the fact that hundreds of email addresses will be flying around in this email, which has obviously now gone outside of the Parliamentary domain and most of them will be known anyway, you just have to wonder just how many of “the righteous” have sufficient knowledge on cyber security to fill a proverbial thimble! Whitehall seems to have an almost exclusivity in the rights for losing data and making available the personal records of millions of UK citizens, they have a track record which stinks. Government departments, particularly the MOD have a habit of losing laptops, CDs, or USB flash drives with the regularity of a patient with persistent amnesia.

Worse still, these hard working MPs and Lords seem to be finding sufficient time to keep replying to this stupid bloody email and passing it around, as though they have nothing better to do!

Amongst those who cannot help but toy around with this stupid message are both South Tyneside MPs  the Foreign Secretary and South Shields MP David Miliband, Jarrow MP Stephen Hepburn, and former South Shields MP Lord David Clark.

Greg Mullholland the MP for Leeds North West has had enough of this crap and is trying to stop the “spam” by “spamming” hundreds of people on the list – you couldn’t make this up.

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South Shields Daily Pictures

Come and see South Shields in a new light

Since moving my daily picture posts on to a new free host at Animus3 I’ve been astonished at the reception, the interest, the leap in page views, and the plaudits. Aminus3 hosts thousands of similar photoblogs in hundreds of countries around the world, yet in a few short months their editors have twice chosen to put my pictures of South Shields in their daily “spotlight” which highlights the “interesting and the extraordinary”. I’m a little taken aback to be honest. Additional my pictures of South Shields have also been featured on their front page twice too.

If you haven’t done so already, why not go to South Shields Daily Pictures and see what all the fuss is about.

I’m a South Shields bloke, proud to live in South Shields, I love the place and enjoy showing off it’s best bits to the rest of the world. The photoblog has the traditional ease of navigation (left to go backwards and right to go forwards, and top of the page to see the whole lot in thumbnails) which makes the site very easy to use and find your way around. If you like what you see, please be kind enough to consider leaving a comment.

This week I have been showing Remembrance Day pictures and these will be followed by fireworks – enjoy!

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South Shields sea front swimming pool progress

Architects and designers sought for £16m Pierside leisure facility

Some thought it would be no more than a pipe dream but South Tyneside Council is now actively seeking an Architect, Quantity Surveyor, Structural Engineer, M and E Services Engineers, Filtration Engineer and Clerk of Works to work up plans and designs of a swimming pool to be located on South Shields sea front. I call this a major sign of intent and cause for good hope.

Our council is looking to provide a building that meets BREEAM assessments and is environmentally low impact, sustainable and low cost to run in terms of it’s energy efficiency and carbon footprint, all in a building suitable for use by schools, clubs and the general public. It is envisaged that the swimming pool will include fitness facilities, cafe and indoor public space together with external public areas and services. It is part of a major plan to redevelop the sea front area to help provide more indoor facilities for our residents, visitors and tourists, something which we have fell behind on in recent years, however the recent redevelopments at the Ocean Beach Amusement Park and the fledgling attempts to provide an additional four star hotel, as well as the restoration of the South Marine Park indicate the desire to make good progress and provide regenerative projects that will provide sustainable employment and give a boost to the local economy.

The council is looking for between four and six operators to compete for the tender which could be worth up to £16m with the aim of completing the project within 24 months of being awarded the contract:

The contract will be divided into three phases as set out in the Scope Of Works document. The first phase (pre-contract) is anticipated to start in January 2010 and to take approximately 6 months and the second and third phases 16-18 months plus defects liability period (tender/contract process and post contract).

This blog has always promoted the good sense in sympathetic development of our sea front which I regard as a major asset and a draw for visitors not just throughout Tyne and Wear but from much further afield, and this project, likely to be built on the site currently partially occupied by the Pier Amusements and Lasar Quasar and including a derelict back area, is ideally suited to provide some of the facilities required on those days when the weather is not exactly “Costa del Tyneside”. Today’s news can only be regarded as extremely encouraging and I hope that the lure of such a contract will provide a great opportunity for a successful developer to provide much needed employment during the construction stage, and that South Shields acquires a facility that people will want to visit and use for many years to come.

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Armistice shock over veterans

I was having a good day until I read this.

Walter Main was less fortunate during the war. He was wounded on the second day of D-Day, having already fought at El Alamein and in other parts of Africa and Italy. Returning from the war, injured and decorated, Main ran a grocer’s shop for 30 years in South Shields on Tyneside. “He was an old-fashioned chap, a pillar of the community,” says his nephew, Richard. After he developed Parkinson’s and bowel cancer, Main went into Garden Hill, Tyne & Wear, a purpose-built care home run by Southern Cross, one of the largest providers of care homes for the elderly in the UK. It promised him “a home from home” at £600 a week.

“The building was three storeys and understaffed,” Richard claims. “His condition deteriorated,” his nephew says. Richard wrote a formal letter of complaint and demanded his uncle’s medical records. Unsatisfied with the attitude of the staff, he then complained to South Tyneside Council. The report concluded that Southern Cross was doing its best. Richard was not happy with its findings.

“The social workers failed to do spot visits and announced them in advance,” he says. One day Main collapsed: his daughter went in unannounced and sat with him for six hours. Last Christmas, he contracted flu and died. “It was a relief,” Richard says. “He was better off dead.”

Full article here

Are we really so uncaring in South Shields and South Tyneside that our honoured veterans can be described as “better off dead”, whilst others in the community are more concerned about promoting the preposterous ideas that those brave souls who landed on the Normandy beaches and fought their way to Berlin did it to provide our youngsters with the golden opportunities to become instant celebrities and help raise a fortune for Simon Cowell?

Walter Main’s life and death should be of far greater concern than pandering to the delights of cabbage potato TV addicts.

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Are they afraid of him?

Brown buggers up on phone

Just a quick one after returning from an Armistice Day ceremony, this via Dizzy Thinks (image courtesy of Political Betting), I find the whole story about Gordon Brown’s crass incompetence with this letter and phone call quite astonishing. Is there no single person within his Downing Street staff who has the nerve to stand up to him and point out just where and when he is going wrong? Are they afraid to confront the Prime Minister with the truth, or do they just hope that he carries on towards an inevitable electoral oblivion?

The Sun’s transcript is here.

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A letter to Gordon

Dear Prime Minister….

I thought I mite take the time to rite to you and let you no what I have been up to this morning.

Before I walked my children to school I collected my email, all 92 messages since yesterday, and they included lots of comments from my new photoblog, as well as notifications that I had subscribed to. I also had mail from the Conservative Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for South Shields lying in my in tray, as well as mail from a Newcastle journalist and some webmaster in the USA who wants to spend a small sum advertising in this blog (ha, not sure about that one). After I returned from school I quickly browsed some news on the BBC’s website, I had a quick look at The Times Online, The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian, The Shields Gazette and the website of the South Tyneside Independent Alliance (purely for entertainment purposes), I then had a look at my photoblog and some of the 72 other AM3 photoblogs who are following mine. I also found time to send a quick text message to an old mate down south before making a small post in here.

That’s about it Gordon, why keep it a secret? After all my privacy is no longer my own and you know everything about me in any case, yes? Not a great deal to get excited about and nothing that might mark me as a guilty man plotting the overthrow of democracy or planning the mass murder of hundreds of honest to goodness salt of the earth people just going to work in South Shields today. I just thought I’d let you know and save you and your EU paymasters the bother of spending more £billions of tax payers’ cash to snoop and spy on me, especially since apparently I am no longer presumed to be innocent!

Yours Sincerely

Curly

(Now an insignificant statistic identifiable only by his IP Address)

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