Curly's Corner Shop, the blog!

Apologies for lack of activity

Sorry to those who have visited today and found no activity, and for some reason quite a few of you ended up here via Dizzy’s place, but if you follow me on Twitter (or read down the side bar) you will know that I’ve been pretty much tied up with a big batch of photos that I was working on. “Well, he’s always working on pictures”, you must think to yourselves (and you wouldn’t be wrong) but these were a big batch taken after dark in South Shields last night. To make matters worse I’ve somehow managed to attract a lot of dust on the ccd sensor in the camera, so I’ve been more than busy with the healing brush in Photoshop – what a pain!

Spent a lot of time reading on the interwebz about how to clean the critter yourself, now I just have to find some swabs and fluid in the north-east. Photography being one of my biggest hobbies means this has become one of my biggest headaches too, and on top of that I’m planning to bring South Shields Daily Photo to a close after this year’s summer festivities. I won’t be deleting it, the pictures will still be there for folks to see and comment on, but after three years of activity I’m finding it increasingly difficult to provide something new and fresh every day. I’ve enjoyed the time with the City Daily Photo community and I’ll miss the interaction with some of them, but all good things have to come to an end.

Unfortunately I’m also finding that the WordPress platform is not the most ideal for showing photographs, particularly as I’ve hosted them all elsewhere in order to keep within storage limits. I’ve also found some of my posts have literally been stolen and have appeared on other blogs, a clear theft of copyright material. However, as one door closes, another opens, and so I have started a new photoblog titled South Shields Daily Pictures on the Animus platform, and it has a far more “photoblog” feel about it, just click to the left of the picture to see previous work, and to the right of the picture to see newer work. Although I’m calling it “daily” there is no guarantee that it will be, and there will be less of the mundane and more of the special or arty type of thing in there. So if you like it, please add it to your bookmarks and feel free to leave some comments to encourage me to carry on a bit longer. You can also find a link to it in the sidebar.

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Oh no you don’t!

Seems that Independent Cllr. Mr. Allen Branley attempted to get himself off the hook over his non attendance at meetings of South Tyneside council by penning a letter of resignation full of spin and bluster, work commitments, busy schedule, but dealt with residents concerns none the less, etc. etc. (One wonders who actually wrote it?)

It was treat with complete disdain at the Town Hall.

As Alan Sugar might have said:

“You’re fired!”

Update

Brian T Scott, South Tyneside Council’s Head of Corporate Governance has confirmed to me by email that Mr. Branley is no longer a councillor, and that he submitted a letter of resignation five days after he ceased by law to be the councillor for Westoe ward.

Allen Branley has ceased to be a councillor for the Westoe Ward of South Tyneside Council.

Section 85 of the Local Government Act 1972 states that a councillor ceases to be a member of a Council if he fails to attend any meeting of the authority throughout a period of six consecutive months, unless the Council has approved the reason for the failure to attend within that period.  It is sufficient to attend the full Council meeting or a committee meeting to which a member was appointed.  There are exceptions for people serving in the Armed Forces.

Council records show that Mr Branley last attended a Borough Council meeting on 18^th December 2008.  The Council had not been asked to approve a reason for the subsequent non-attendance.  He therefore ceased by law to be a councillor at the end of 18^th June 2009.

Formally, the Borough Council must declare a vacancy.  This is a requirement of section 86 (1)(c) of the Act.  This will be dealt with at the July Council meeting.  The matter was too late to be included on the Council agenda this week.  The Council is obliged to do that and has no discretion.   That will initiate the process for holding a by-election to fill the vacancy.  After the Council resolution, we have to give public notice.  As returning officer, I am obliged to fix the date of the election, but I cannot do that until after the Council has made the formal declaration of a vacancy.

Mr Branley did submit a letter of resignation as a councillor on 23^rd June 2009 but that was after he ceased to be a councillor.  A notice of resignation is not effective until the Proper Officer of the Council receives it.

I hope this clarifies the matter.

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Ashley in new promotional deal tailored to fit new circumstances

This should go down well in his sports shops,it looks like something that they used to wear in the Stock Exchange thirty years ago, or a uniform that Backworth Juvenile Jazz Band might have paraded around in during the early 70s, but surely he isn’t expecting this Mr. Blobby designed thing to become the fashion accessory de jour around the Bigg Market, huh?

Some Toon fans are less than impressed:

Stephen Buchan, of Consett, saying: “It’s awful. It reminds me of a deckchair on Blackpool beach.

“At a time when NUFC need all the money they can get, they go and release a kit that Mike Ashley would probably struggle to sell at rock bottom price in one of his cheap clothing outlets.

“It’s not as though we fans have been made to look stupid enough without being asked to fork out good money to wear something as awful as that.”

Supporters of local rivals Sunderland, who avoided the drop from the Premier League, are revelling in the appearance of the new shirt, with one, Ryan Jenkins, saying: “It really is appalling. I love it.

“It looks like Norwich and Blackpool got into a fight and this was the leftovers. Newcastle will have to call themselves the Toongerines.”

Another anonymous comment chanted: “Bananas in pyjamas are going down the league; bananas in pyjamas are trying to look like Leeds!!!”

Source

It’s a good job they are playing Blackpool away, midweek, at night, don’t hang around too long on the beach lads the council might cart you away and lock you in a cupboard at six o’clock!

With attendances set to plummet further after their relegation to the fizzy pop Championship, Ashley should manage to get all of the Toon fans through the Blobby sponsored grunge tank in one afternoon, all looking like a giant bowl of Ambrosia custard!

The Sunderland Echo asks if this is the worst away kit ever produced? Then they manage to leave out one of the worst strips ever in their list of competitors – remember that green and yellow striped thing as worn by some Brazilian called Mirandinha.

Shocking memories.

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Rumblings over new Speaker

OK so he may have flipped more than just his second home, he may have been elected on the strength of Labour votes intending to enrage Conservatives, he may, as Cranmer intimates, have switched or dropped many of his allegiances over the years (including his religious heritage), he may have swung from hard right to soft left, he may have helped out Gordon Brown by agreeing to serve him as an advisor, he may have done many things to frustrate the leadership of the Conservative Party in Parliament but he is now the new Speaker of the House of Commons, the first to be elected by a secret ballot.

By virtue of the fact that the whole House is steeped in mire his task will be enormous in attempting to return some sanity and respect to political life as seen through the eyes of the public, and as a few said yesterday they were collectively responsible for getting into the mess, and therefore they must be collectively responsible for digging themselves out of the dung heap. One man alone cannot achieve that, and if he could he could only achieve it with the support and backing of 600 odd others, so talk of supplanting Bercow after the next election is both premature and unwise, he must be given his chance to work with the House but must stamp his authority upon it almost immediately if he is to be seen as his own man.

To allay the fears that he is in the Executive’s pocket he must ensure that on Wednesday that the Prime Minister actually answers questions rather than ask them, he must ensure that the session becomes something which was once meaningful and that the House can probe and peer inmto the workings of government without valuable time being wasted by planted questions that substitute for another ministerial announcement. These would be the first steps in restoring faith in the office of Speaker.

As Tim Montgomerie states at Conservative Home on talk of replacing Bercow as Speaker after the election:

It would devalue an already devalued Speaker’s office still further.

John Redwood also urges a measure of reconciliation in his blog this morning:

Conservatives now have to accept the result, and show respect to our new Speaker. We all need this to work. The Opposition should not prejudge this Speaker. He should be judged on how well he does at allowing Parliament to have more teeth and to hold a more central role in public debate.

The cudgels should be put back in the boot for now, the Conservatives should see this election as a time for change and hope and pray that Bercow delivers as promised and that the House of Commons can begin to rebuild it’s relationship with the electorate and regain it’s ability to hold the government to account. Bercow carries a heavy weight upon his shoulders, a burdon that he may not be able to carry alone, it is incumbent upon all Members to give him aid and not to shrink from the task as he sets off on this journey, to add more to his load right now is quite unthinkable!

Give him a chance before sitting in judgement.

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…..if it was elected as President of their own Parliament

Via Trixy

The EU now want to ensure that you may NOT eat your own horse, they really do know how to fill their time productively!

Video of speech by UKIP’s Godfrey Bloom

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

So will they be introducing another inspectorate to ensure that horses are particularly categorised as pets, competitive animals, working animals, and purely bred for the dinner table animals?

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New EU political grouping

Conservative Home are rporting the make up of the new 55 strong group consisting of the 26 British Conservative MEPs, 15 Polish Law and Justice Party MEPs, and various others, they expect additional members to join in due course. The declared objectives of the group (henceforth to be known as the Prague Declaration), are as follows:

“CONSCIOUS OF THE URGENT NEED TO REFORM THE EU ON THE BASIS OF EUROREALISM, OPENNESS, ACCOUNTABILITY AND DEMOCRACY, IN A WAY THAT RESPECTS THE SOVEREIGNTY OF OUR NATIONS AND CONCENTRATES ON ECONOMIC RECOVERY, GROWTH AND COMPETITIVENESS, THE EUROPEAN CONSERVATIVES AND REFORMISTS GROUP SHARES THE  FOLLOWING PRINCIPLES:

1. Free enterprise, free and fair trade and competition, minimal regulation, lower taxation, and small government as the ultimate catalysts for individual freedom and personal and national prosperity.
2. Freedom of the individual, more personal responsibility and greater democratic accountability.
3. Sustainable, clean energy supply with an emphasis on energy security.
4. The importance of the family as the bedrock of society.
5. The sovereign integrity of the nation state, opposition to EU federalism and a renewed respect for true subsidiarity.
6. The overriding value of the transatlantic security relationship in a revitalised NATO, and support for young democracies across Europe.
7. Effectively controlled immigration and an end to abuse of asylum procedures.
8. Efficient and modern public services and sensitivity to the needs of both rural and urban communities.
9. An end to waste and excessive bureaucracy and a commitment to greater transparency and probity in the EU institutions and use of EU funds.
10. Respect and equitable treatment for all EU countries, new and old, large and small.”

There still remains, of course, the broader question of how to approach the Lisbon Treaty if it is still not fully ratified by time the Conservative take the reigns of government.

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Teachers to be banned from joining BNP?

What a load of utter cock waffle from Balls, I’m with Timmy on this one, trouble is once you make a climbdown on one legally constituted party there is no reason why you shouldn’t use the same modus operandi in the future and ban teachers from thinking like or even joining the Liberal-Democrats or God forbid the Tories!

You can think what you damn well like. It’s only actions which should be proscribed.

Well said Tim.

We don’t need a an excuse to introduce thought crimes, our people should be free to hold their various political beliefs and ideologies, it is what makes democracy rich and precious.

Besides wouldn’t the BNP just love a few bans to inflate their own egos? Ever noticed how banning orders tend to make something even more popular?

Balls you are an incompetent idiot.

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The Press Complaints Commission says:

This note brings together the provisions in the Code which are relevant when reporting allegations that individuals have committed a criminal offence. Such allegations might originate from a third party, police sources or a formal police procedure such as an arrest.

Accuracy

Given that there will be occasions where allegations turn out to be ill-founded, particular care must be taken to ensure that they are presented accurately and that conjecture is distinguished from fact. Clause 1 (iv) therefore has a particular relevance in such cases, although this should not be taken as restricting the legitimate rights to freedom of expression that accusers might have. There may be times when it is difficult to substantiate allegations made by third parties, but which ought to be reported in the public interest if true. If editors wish to publish material in these circumstances, they should give serious consideration to doing so without identifying the accused as a way of meeting the requirements of the Code.

Source

For the avoidance of doubt.

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South Shields couple have been kicked off council before

I alluded to the fact yesterday that Mr. Allen Branley had previous form for being booted out of South Tyneside Council for non attendance, in fact both he and his wife Jane ceased to be members of the council on 20th December  1993 and 30th January 1994 respectively, after they had both failed to attend any meetings in the previous six months. At the time Allen Branley was the Labour member for Cleadon Park ward, and Jane Branley was the Labour member for the Westoe ward. Because the vacancies occurred so close to May that year, it was not deemed necessary to call new elections for the two wards.

Yet since then, they have both racked up a sizeable personal following in the Westoe ward of South Shields as Independents – there’s nowt so strange as folks!

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Update 16:30

The ten candidates have given their speeches the markets have moved and Sir George Young is now the favourite at Ladbrokes, latest prices – here

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