Curly's Corner Shop, the blog!

Does he “get it”?

Ed Miliband, the younger brother of South Shields MP David Miliband, seems to think that altering the format of Prime Minister’s Questions, sitting longer (an extra month for heavens’ sake), getting rid of some Parliamentary terms, getting rid of the traditions and costumes of some House of Commons officials, and devolving more power to local councils are the things that are needed to clean up politics.

Does he get it?

I doubt it.

It’s not the Clerk’s wig, the Speaker’s robes, or Black Rod’s mace that have caused the problems, it’s been the behaviour of “honourable members” who seem to think that an Additional Costs Allowance is an entitlement that was to be routinely taken because the public never get to know about it. That’s the problem Mr. Miliband, and until we have a general election to clean out some of these less than honourable members things will not change massively.

David Cameron is right to re-open the Conservative Party’s candidate list, he knows there are going to be quite a few vacancies caused by the retirement/shaming/sacking of some Tory MPs and he’s looking for squeaky clean people to take their places, Gordon Brown’s Cabinet by contrast still contains people who have profited from “flipping” properties and the non payment of Capital Gains Tax as well as hiring tax consultants to avoid correct the payment of taxes at our expense.

Miliband does not get it.

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A dignified exit

Yesterday’s game at the Stadium of Light was not as bad as some of us had feared, the Lads played some good football in phases and threatened Chelsea’s goal a number of times, having surrendered to the Blues in a dreadful fashion earlier in the season I came away relatively heartened that we had actually competed and managed to score twice through Richardson and Jones. The resulting 2 – 3 defeat was much as I forecast and we owe our Premiership survival to Hull City and Newcastle United, in the final analysis they were slightly worse than us over the 38 game campaign.

I have often thought that Sbragia would not be the man to take us into the next season in the top flight, despite his credentials and record as a coach at Sunderland, Manchester United, and Bolton and his decision to resign the manager’s job after yesterday’s game came as surprise, if only for it’s immediacy, I expected it to come sometime later this week! Sbragia showed himself to be dignified and humble, he managed (with the assistance of other teams) to keep the Black Cats in the Premiership but recognised that he is not the right man to kick the team on, he will revert to his first team coaching duties. We should thank him for his valiant effort which in the end kept us out of the bottom three, we could have been in a worse position had it not been for the two or three good results that he managed to put together.

There was a lot of talk and rumour yesterday about the amount of new investment that Ellis Short will bring to the club this close season, some of the numbers were as high as £200m! If this proves to be correct, then apart from the fact that Sunderland have never seen that sort of investment in the past, it confirms my beliefs that a new manager will be appointed very, very soon, and that the long planned seating extensions to the stadium may at last go ahead, the American way has always been to encourage more “bums on seats”, but knowing what rumours are like……

And so to the gloom of “the Dark Side”, relegated for the first time in sixteen years, I was told by the regulars in my South Shields watering hole last night that they took it well, in good humour, and that there was never any suggestion of trouble brewing, the Bigg Market in Newcastle is still in one piece, so perhaps they were resigned to their fate. Shearer will not take any blame for their season, he’ll take his £800,000 and return to the BBC more likely, their troubles can be traced back long before his arrival in the hot seat, or Kevin Keagan’s arrival and departure before him, the London Mafia will be made to shoulder the blame, and you can sympathise – running a football club is rather different to running a shoe shop!

I tried my hardest to be sympathetic with the few Mags who I met last night but in the end it fell down to poking fun at them, for once it was good not to feel like the victim and to put the boot on the other foot, so this video, is just for the black and whites around South Shields today.

[YouTube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1LVEKfSFiw&fmt=]

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Sunday roast off the menu

Will these people ever give up? Do they want us to exist on a diet of tofu and Linda McCartney’s sausages?

Give up lamb roasts and save the planet. Government advisers are developing menus to combat climate change by cutting out “high carbon” food such as meat from sheep, whose burping poses a serious threat to the environment.

Out will go kebabs, greenhouse tomatoes and alcohol. Instead, diners will be encouraged to consume more potatoes and seasonal vegetables, as well as pork and chicken, which generate fewer carbon emissions.

“Changing our lifestyles, including our diets, is going to be one of the crucial elements in cutting carbon emissions,” said David Kennedy, chief executive of the Committee on Climate Change.

They’ve actually spent tax payers’ money to find out how much methane and CO2 is farted and belched out of the backsides of lambs, and how much CO2 tomatoes and potatoes are pumping into the atmosphere!

I am fed up to the back teeth of people telling me what I should or should not eat, fed up of schools which no longer participate in competitive sporting leagues telling parents what they can or cannot put in “Junior’s” lunch box, whilst at the same time promoting the better eating diet of Jimmy Foreman the champion of dinner ladies all around South Tyneside. I’m fed up of being told what is and what is not good for us, I’m big enough to choose for myself thank you!

Oh, and by the way, the less healthy options such as Coca Cola and Cadbury’s chocolate seem to produce the smallest carbon footprints – go figure!

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Fancy trying your hand in Westminster?

I suggest that now is as good a time as any to get your applications in.

I feel a bit sorry for some very good candidates already selected to fight in Labour strongholds, they may see safer Conservative seats going to lesser intellectuals as a result of the carnage that is about to happen.

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What a nervous day for North East football fans

I admit, the nail biting has already started and I’m offering prayers that Aston Villa and Manchester United do the right thing and win their respective matches, seriously I am not expecting Sunderland to beat Chelsea, although a well fought draw would be nice. We really ought not to have been in this position after making such a promising start to the campaign under Roy Keane, yet somehow I believe that even he might have found it impossible to sustain the pre Christmas performances, and Ricky Sbragia was left working with Keane’s squad of mainly poor buys in another epic battle for Premiership survival.

The players and the management have only themselves to blame for putting die hard fans through the mill once again, their league position reflects a period of ineptitude, poor decision making, and a lack of fighting spirit which would have been all that we asked for against teams such as WBA, Bolton, and Hull. Nothing transpired in the fashion that we would have wanted, yet on their day the Black Cats can play attractive passing football, but all too often recently the passing has not been designed to go to red and white shirts, and defensive errors and the inability to put the ball into the opponent’s net have cost us dearly.

The consequence is that on the final Sunday of the season our fate hangs in the balance, to be decided chiefly by our nearest rivals on a day which could easily see two north east giants relegated to the Coca Cola Championship, this is not good for the region, it’s economy, it’s confidence, or it’s hopes for the future. Survival Sunday will be tinged with sadness as some supporters carry their grief for days and weeks to come, my only hope is that I won’t be one of them.

Here’s hoping that Man. Utd. take their title in style with a workmanlike beating of Hull City, managed by South Shields born Phil Brown (nothing personal Phil, but your team has been in free fall since those heady days when you threatened the top four), and that at least one of either Middlesbrough or Newcastle survive in the Premiership along with Sunderland, next season would be a very strange one indeed without a north east derby match to look forward to.

Haway the Lads!

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A fantastic piece of (well made) satire from Beau Bo D’or

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Overnight sensation

I think I’m one of those who are starting to find that the revelations about MPs expenses are becoming rather tedious now, and as I’ve said already in here WE’VE GOT THE MESSAGE (I’m shouting so The Telegraph can hear). I think the politicians have got the message too, and some of them will not be serving in the next Parliament as a result of thier grasping venality.

We all now know that the expenses system was not fit for purpose, initial moves have been made to reform it, and more will follow, I have no doubt at all that the next Parliament will build upon those reforms to bring the system into the 21st century. Yesterday I laughed and chuckled as Nadine Dorries told us how some MPs were on the verge of cracking up and The Daily Mail told us that “trick cyclists” had been hired at tax payers’ expense to counsel worried MPs, Nadine also alleged in her blog (now only available in Google’s cache) that the owners of the Daily Telegraph were using the story to boost it’s circulation and profits and attempting to destabilise Parliament to meet their aim of helping both UKIP and the BNP at the EU elections (cue more laughs).

Then this morning Dizzy reveals that the Tory MP’s blog has been taken down following an overnight action by lawyers acting for the Telegraph’s owners:

Lawyers acting for the Barclay brothers, Withers, instructed the takedown to Acidity via mail last night, citing the Acceptable User Policy. The takedown will be bolstered by the Godfrey vs Demon precendent, where an order can be made and it will be done instantly.

Of course, if the website was being hosted in the USA it would be much harder to order the instant takedown. You’d think though, that if the allegations were moonbat untrue there would just be a “point, laugh and call them ridiculous” strategy rather than ordering a takedown to gag Nadine from saying it.

This is especially the case I would’ve thought because once Recess is over, Nadine would be free to say such things in the House and be protected by Parliamentary Privilege. By taken her down like this the Telegraph will have fed the very idea of some sort of hidden agenda. Suppression, whether it is of speech that is right or wrong, is usually counterproductive.

He then goes on to add:

Interesting to note that the day after Nadine makes allegations that the Telegraph has a hidden proprietor driven agenda to drive votes to UKIP (I repeat this is an allegation not a proven truth), her blog gets taken down by lawyers and then this morning’s Telegraph carries not only more expenses scandals but a gushing piece about UKIP.

Conspiracy theories are always a good laugh, and so was Nadine Dorries at times, but I don’t think the current news narrative helps in making these alleged theories go away. What price free speech these days, huh?

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David Miliband sort of denounces Iraq war

Well it’s all rather a bit late David isn’t it?

This realisation that we have caused unmitigated resentment amongst the Muslim world and ‘aroused a sense of bitterness, distrust’ by cow towing to George Dubya Bush. Yet now you seem to be hanging on to the coat tails of Barak Obama!

And despite your hand wringing now, we can see that you have only ever voted against the government seven times on relatively minor issues, and that on major issues that will undoubtedly stir further resentment amongst British Muslim voters you have voted strongly in favour of the dreaded ID Card scheme, strongly in favour of Labour’s anti-terrorism laws (including 42 day detention without charge), strongly in favour of the Iraq war when in Blair’s cabinet, strongly against an investigation into the Iraq war, and moved heaven and earth to bury information relating to Binyam Mohamed and his detention in Guantanamo!

Pretty record for the South Shields MP and Foreign Secretary, huh?

Just when will some of our politicians realise that they have become the unwitting recruiting sergeants for Al Qaeda?

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Women police officers are rebelling against their official-issue trousers, which they claim make them look like Simon Cowell.

They say that suppliers have no idea what a size 12 looks like (it’s obviously a crime figure), and that:

“Women police officers have constantly brought up the fact they do not have a proper uniform. If you are going out there, protecting the public and being in confrontational circumstances, you need to feel professional and confident.

“If you are going out there looking like a sack of spuds, you are not feeling confident and you are not going to do your job properly.

Personally I couldn’t give a monkey’s whether they look like this or like this, so long as they arrive promptly when I call them, and do their utmost to catch the scrotes who break glass in the middle of the night, mug the old lady around the corner, burgle my neighbours, or defraud me out of my taxes once they are elected to Parliament!

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Important judicial ruling

There are other important issues to consider away from the Parliamentary and other political scandals filling the newspapers, and this caught my eye, a landmark ruling that gnaws into the creeping growth of the database state and the lurching movement towards 1984 or Animal Farm.

One judge said there were ­unresolved civil liberties questions about the way images were taken and retained in “the modern surveillance society”. Lord ­Justice Dyson said there were “very serious human rights issues which arise when the state obtains and retains the images of persons who have committed no offence and are not suspected of having ­committed any offence”.

So police find that the ruling provides ‘a useful set of guidelines’ , but one wonders just how many people have been photographed and recorded during peaceful political demonstrations and what sort of guarantees there are that the data collected will now be destroyed? The freedom to associate and gather and make a collective effort to voice an opinion is constantly under threat, and it is quite sad that in one of the world’s oldest democracies we find it necessary to resort to the courts to re-establish basic rights.

Where does this leave local councils who are routinely collecting CCTV imagery and retaining it for a minimum of 31 days?

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