Curly's Corner Shop, the blog!

Traders to hold farmer’s market in Park Lane area.

It’s good news for them, and in a round about way, it’s good news for us in South Shields. If they make a success of a market in Sunderland then the competition may at last cause some stirrings of action to rejuvenate our market days in South Shields.

The protectionism of using a medieval mule riding law does not seem to have improved life on our Market Place.

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Speculation mounts on Miliband’s EU stance.

We would have to go back many many years to recall the last time that a South Shields MP sat in high office previous to David Miliband, James Chuter Ede was a Labour Home Secretary from 1945 to 1951, but as far as I know no other South Shields MP has attained such high political position as these two. Miliband, it seems, could eclipse the political career of the man whose name is etched above the door of the constituency Labour Party’s HQ in Westoe Road, South Shields.

Speculation continues to mount and there is a growing feeling that his name is on a “virtual shortlist” of candidates to fill the post of High Representative of the EU Commission (European Foreign Minister) drawn up by the centre left parties in the EU Parliament. So much so that other commentators are now talking more in terms of ‘keep an eye on David Miliband and forget about Tony Blair.’ Blair’s stock would appear to be falling according to who you read or listen to, whilst Miliband’s star is on the rise.

Gordon Brown sounds irritated that Miliband may be offered the position thus causing an unwanted by election in South Shields, and some in the Labour Party are already holding a healthy debate over the former Blair protege’s future. Alex Smith, the saviour of LabourList, after it was trashed by ‘Dolly’ Draper, has this to say of Miliband:

“Labour members would never forgive Miliband if he bailed on the party so close to the general election; like Hazel Blears, he would become an instant pariah.”

Whilst that stalwart of the left’s cyber politics Alex Hilton says in Labour Home:

“David has said he doesn’t want the job, but if he did, then I don’t see who would have a problem with that.”

Oh really Alex?

It would look OK for the Foreign Secretary to resign his South Shields seat and swan off to Brussels for five years enjoying life living in the lap of luxury complete with driver, housing grant, entertainment allowance, colossal salary and tax exemptions? Somehow, I doubt whether too many of the faithful would be so comfortable with that as they struggle through Brown’s debt induced recession (which shows no sign of bottoming out yet, let alone returning to growth.)  The only ones likely to be comfortable with the thought would be local activists in South Shields keen to see the back of a career politician foisted upon them by his mentor and political guide, one Anthony Charles Lynton Blair, former PM who Miliband spent seven years polishing boots for as his Head of Policy Unit. There is nothing that some Labour Party members in South Shields would like better than to seize the opportunity of returning a local man or woman to the House of Commons, so they can return to the quiet life of running the local council and sending the relevant enquiries to an MP who hopes to have more time on their hands than a globe trotting private jet fuelled CO2 emitting banana faced Foreign Secretary who likes to spend his time comparing the Tories with Nazis and tarring Eastern European politicians with the anti semitic brush (surprising for one with Polish blood in them).

Even staunch Euro sceptic MEP Dan Hannan is slowly warming to the idea of Blair’s mini me taking the job of Foreign Minister of the Euro super state, although he’s probably still yearning to hear that longed for apology.

“In his case, it is impossible to avoid the suspicion that he has been intriguing to get this promotion when he should have been concentrating on his day job. He knows that most EU states are governmed by parties affiliated to the  palaeo-federalist European People’s Party. And how better to suck up to the EPP than to trash its Euro-sceptic rival, the European Conservatives and Reformists? If this means badly damaging Britain’s bilateral relations with Poland and Latvia (see here) so be it.”

Kevin Doran suggests that Miliband and Blair may possibly end up with neither of the posts on offer, agreeing with Stanley Crossick’s suggestion that the EU Foreign Minister post goes to former Hong Kong Governor Chris Patten, and that the EU Presidential post may go to Belgian Prime Minister Herman van Rompoy.

I’m sure that the vast majority of people in South Shields couldn’t give two brass figs who gets what, it’s only the few who are remotely interested in Europe, despite the fact that the multi-state organ interferes with our life on a daily basis and our own Parliament cannot pass laws on our behalf without first informing the great and good in Brussels, but in discussing the possible futures of Blair and his pupil David Miliband I had to chuckle at this comment in a thread at Political Betting:

I think a more interesting question is “Why is Brown backing Blair?”. I think it’s a lame attempt to wrongfoot Cameron but maybe it is to keep David Miliband in Westminster as Brown’s anointed successor?

FPT: suggestion that the real danger for Brown is that Miliband goes to Europe, Blair goes to South Shields and then replaces Brown in Number Ten!!

Oh no! It’s bad enough when they come to town to enjoy Coleman’s fish and chips just once a year, but does South Shields really need the press circus descending on us day after day, and the hordes of Labour luvvies bussed in when it’s time for him to say bye bye and ride into the sunset once again?

I don’t think so, neither do I think there would be too many tears in South Shields if David Miliband hops over to Brussels for five years.

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…officials administer

The quotes from Prime Minister Gordon Brown came from a Christmas interview with British Forces Broadcasting Service in December 2007, where he added that our troops equipment is “nothing but the best”. You really have to worry about the competence of those who are briefing him.

Little wonder that Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth looked and sounded so contrite when giving his statement to the House yesterday.

At least he had the decency and courage to acknowledge that the Haddon-Cave report made very uncomfortable reading for politicians, MOD officials, and defence procurement staff as well as those at BAE Systems.

More heads should roll.

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Local councils will be allowed to seize assets from minor offenders

The Proceeds of Crime Act has never been a huge success raising a piffling amount of money from drug barons and organised crime, piffling when compared against the costs of running the operation. So it is unlikely that this move from Alan Johnson will fare much better, the Home Secretary is introducing the measure using a Statutory Instrument which will prevent it being debated iin Parliament, not a good way to get a new initiative off the ground. It allows us all to see a little more of NuLabour’s creeping intrusion into areas where, to be honest, councils have no business, such asset confiscation orders should remain as they are administered by the courts with the proceeds somehow going towards offsetting the costs of collection.

The interesting point in this article is the stance of the Police Federation who are concerned that “intrusive powers” are to be given to people who are not police:

“The Proceeds of Crime Act is a very powerful tool in the hands of the police and police-related agencies and it shouldn’t be treated lightly.”

Paul McKeever added:

the public would “would want such very intrusive powers to be kept in the hands of warranted officers and other law enforcement bodies which are vetted to a very high standard rather than given to local councils”.

You will note that at a time when I and many others are calling for greater caution in handing further powers to our police forces, we see a representative of the Police Federation grasping and fighting to hang on to powers that they already have, in fear of losing them to the incompetents who run other organisations presumably. However, perhaps he has a point.

Shadow communities secretary Caroline Spelman adds:

“We have already seen how surveillance laws designed to tackle terror and serious crime have been routinely abused and over-used by town hall officials.

“I fear these new powers to inspect financial records and seize assets will also end up being misused and will divert resources to minor breaches like being late in paying a parking fine.”

We do seem to be treading a precarious path with this one, and an ill thought out Statutory Instrument was not the best way to test the hypothesis that it would work, the right thing for Mr. Johnson and his Home Office team to do is to introduce an amendment to the Proceeds of Crime Act and allow it to be fully debated and tested in the Houses of Parliament.

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Public deserves to know who will govern

There is a lot of concern that the result of the next election may not be known on the Thursday night, as we are accustomed to,  many councils are deciding to hold counts on the following day. This is quite preposterous, we have managed for decades to count the votes and declare the results on the night.

Conservative party chairman Eric Pickles said:

“I think it is a dreadful thing.

“The amount of money that might be saved is miniscule and I think this is all about putting politics in its place.

“It is all about the convenience of some highly-paid returning officers. I am not impressed and neither is the British public.

“If chief officers aren’t able to organise a count on a Thursday evening, they should be wondering whether are good enough to do the job. It could indeed mean that we are without a Government for a day, but the main point is that the British public decide.

“We have always had a count on a Thursday and people like to know whether the Government is there or not.”

Nationally, 27 constituencies will not hold counts until the day after and decisions in more than 80 seats have not yet been made According to the Newcastle Journal, South Shields Constituency is amongst those still undecided, which surprises me immensely.

Surely Mr. Scott and his team have the information, experience, and know how to make a decision, surely they want to have the constituency declare who it’s MP shall be before the following morning? What on earth could be holding them back from following the traditional form and organisation that they have used in the past?

We are hardly out in the sticks with transport difficulties!

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Toon fans outraged

This Sunderland fan is not completely surprised, looks as though someone has already paid Google Maps to make a start on the job.

Sorry for the lack of posts recently, the new South Shields photoblog and the house have been taking up a lot of my time.

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2011 Census now a tool for virtual breaking and entering

Don’t you wish this government would just **** off and take it’s tawdry intrusive spying mechanisms with it?

The questions drawn up by the Office for National Statistics are an outrageous “virtual” breaking and entering job, I’m surprised that rights of entry haven’t been granted to an army of “interviewers” so that the 2011 Census form can be completed inside the home by “approved” people to ensure that they get at the truth.

What business is it of government what type of bloody central heating I have? If I’m burning my furniture on the fire to keep warm during Brown’s debt induced recession or finding a way to feed millions of litres of heavily taxed oil into an industrial sized boiler what has it do with them – it’s my bloody home!

What business is it of government to know whether I’m straight, heterosexual, lesbian, gay, married or in a civil partnership? They have the records in any case at the Register Office! Doesn’t government realise it has no business getting involved in personal relationships, of any kind?

Why do they want to know how many bedrooms I have? Why do they need to know the names and addresses of overnight guests?

Piss off, it has nothing to do with you!

They have the temerity to threaten you with a £1000 fine if you don’t complete the form and apparently nearly a million people snubbed it the last time round, one wonders just how many of these fines were collected.

NuLabour of course are only asking reasonable questions!

Old Holborn is holding another walk in the autumn sunshine on November 5th, I do wish I lived in London sometimes!

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Lawful protest now viewed as “domestic extremism”

Despite my glowing praise for neighbourhood policing in South Tyneside yesterday, the national picture appears to be deteriorating at a worrying pace as police have set up a unit (under the nose of Lord Mandelson) within the building that houses the Department of Trade and Industry to spy on people who get involved with peaceful and lawful protests over single issues.

Those who take on fancy dress in festival type gatherings to protest about climate change, planning permissions, animal rights, or Fathers for Justice are likely to be photographed and have their names, addresses, nicknames or pseudonyms added to a database which cuts across all force areas to be shared by the National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU) and covert intercepts are handled by a section of the NPOIU called the Confidential Intelligence Unit. Vehicles associated with protesters are being tracked via a nationwide system of automatic number plate recognition (ANPR) cameras.

NPOIU works in tandem with two other little-known Acpo branches, the National Extremism Tactical Coordination Unit (Netcu), which advises thousands of companies on how to manage political campaigns, and the National Domestic Extremism Team, which pools intelligence gathered by investigations into protesters across the country.

Anton Setchell, who is in overall command of Acpo’s domestic extremism remit, said:

“Just because you have no criminal record does not mean that you are not of interest to the police. Everyone who has got a criminal record did not have one once.”

He also said that people who find themselves on the databases:

“should not worry at all”.

I suggest that they should worry greatly after reading statements like this, or when the UK police are involved in propping up the interests of commercial companies and gather intelligence to be used against people who wish to be involved in perfectly lawful peaceful gatherings to protest, just because someone has a troubled conscience and wishes to voice their concerns with other like minded people should NOT be an excuse to label them as a “domestic extremist”, rather than someone exercising their democratic rights.

The use of these so called “Big Brother” databases and the mechanisms for linking them together in a state sponsored apparatus has generated fears of a style of policing more akin to that operated by the East German Stasi, or Felix Dzerzhinsky’s NKVD, rather than the friendly face of neighbourhood policing that we yearn for. However, since the arrival of NuLabour in 1997 the growth of the database state has snowballed and millions now find themselves on government records with, in many cases, no warranty. Our personal guarantees over our privacy and protection of personal information have long since been ignored by government, we are watched, tracked in our vehicles, our children get added to the DNA database without committing crimes, they put microchips in our waste bins, we erect more CCTV cameras than other similar sized country in the world (the Shetlands have more cameras than the LAPD) and yet all we want is for the police to solve crime. We DO NOT want them to stifle permissible protest or debate!

In any great democracy one of the greatest strengths that government and people ought to use, is the ability to control the power of it’s police forces, without it democracy will be under increasing threat of survival. Someone, somewhere in government (and I hope Alan Johnson is listening – the last Home Secretary certainly was not) has to learn to police our police!

We do not need these Orwellian mechanisms which will be of profound use should any sinister form of government evolve sometime in the future, unless of course you believe that we already have sinister snooping spying government already.

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Local bobbies available to meet South Tyneside residents

Regular readers will be very aware that I’m a big fan of neighbourhood policing and see it as a great tool in re-engaging with local communities and building bridges between Northumbria Police and the public of South Tyneside. We all want quiet peaceful communities with very low levels of crime and one of the best ways of achieving this is to develop a dialogue with your local police and feel comfortable in exchanging information, and feeling as though you are doing something to contribute to the safety of your neighbourhood and helping to create an environment which is pleasant for yourself and your neighbours.

There are times when you often feel as though you need to get something off your chest about a problem, when you feel that perhaps a problem shared is a problem halved, but you just need to find the right opportunity to take the first steps. Well that opportunity could well be with you now. Starting today neighbourhood beat officers from Northumbria Police are having “walkabouts” that will allow us all to meet with them and exchange views, these informal gatherings will take place in South Tyneside as follows:

- Monday, October 26, 6pm, at Souter View, Whitburn
- Tuesday, October 27, 7pm, at Boldon Village Hall
- Friday, October 30, 6pm, Westoe
- Saturday, October 31, 6pm, Ocean Road/Bents Park
- Friday, November 6, 6pm, Laygate
- Thursday, November 12, 6pm at Horsley Hill
- Wednesday, November 25, 7pm, Hindmarch shops, East Boldon
- Thursday, November 26, 7pm, Wellands, Whitburn
- Tuesday, December 8, 7pm, at Boldon Colliery Children’s Centre
- Friday, December 11, 7pm, The Village Library, Whitburn
- Wednesday, December 16, 6pm, Harton Moor
- Monday, January 25, 6pm, at The Wedge
- Wednesday, February 24, 6pm, at Horsley Hill
- Tuesday, April 13, 6pm, at Cleadon Park and The Lonnen

I’m not sure of exact locations, but if you see a large group of policemen accompanied by representatives from South Tyneside Council’s Anti-Social Behaviour Unit, community wardens, community safety and South Tyneside Homes, then that’s your cue to join in and get involved.

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Miliband brothers were talk of the weekend.

Following Lord High Almighty Everything’s visit to South Shields on Friday evening, our MP and Foreign Secretary David Miliband, along with his younger brother Ed have been the talk of the weekend. Various newspapers and commentators have jumped on the bandwagon that has started to roll towards Brussels with David Miliband on board, yet despite his denial in being interested – don’t politicians always deny interest? – the world and his dog now firmly believe that Miliband the Elder will be heading for the EU as it’s Foreign Minister (sorry High Representative of the Commission) as Labour gets turfed out of office at the next election.

If the intense speculation all turns out to be true, then one could perhaps then understand David Miliband’s recent attacks on the Conservatives, painting them out to be almost anti-semitic Jew hating baby killing Nazi types, after all he may as well try and cosy up to the remnants of the EPP, he may need support in other parts of Europe to bolster a bid for the big job. As Dan Hannan points out:

No wonder David Miliband has been waging his jejune campaign against the ECR, a campaign so malicious and misleading that the Latvian Government has called in our ambassador to protest. Suddenly, it all makes sense: what the Foreign Secretary is really after is a promotion. If that means sacrificing British interests in order to cosy up to the EPP, so be it.

In the current climate, with all parties proposing ministerial pay cuts, what national politician wouldn’t gladly slither to a new post in Brussels, complete with housing allowance, personal chauffeur, entertainment allowance, tax-free salary and all the rest? Especially when he expects his party to be voted out of office within a few months.

Yes, quite, the opportunity must have an awful lot of appeal.

Curly, like others, is gradually coming round to the view that Gordon Brown will not be allowed to lead Labour to an electoral disaster, and that sometime in the early part of 2010 he will be forced to admit to his Cabinet colleagues that he is an electoral liability and that his health has deteriorated to the point where it would be wise to allow someone else to carry the flag for Labour. Paul Linford in his column for The Journal suspects the same scenario:

I wrote several months ago now that I did not believe Mr Brown would lead Labour into the General Election if it became clear that the only consequence of that would be a catastrophic defeat.

The recent drip-drip-drip of information about the Prime Minister’s health, some of it emanating from within Downing Street itself, seems to confirm that an exit strategy is being carefully devised.

One slogan heard doing the rounds this week was “New Year, New Leader” – and once again, the name of Miliband seems to be in the frame.

The question of course is which Miliband?

The two sons of Ralph have done exceptionally well for themselves, weaned into the political class in the roles of advisors, researchers, and bag carriers as the NuLabour project was formed under Blair and Brown, given patronage and moved into safe Labour seats in South Shields and Doncaster North, neither of the brothers has had a job outside of politics (which is all too common in all parties these days). Both now of Cabinet rank in a government facing the agony of watching it’s own death. If Lord Mandelson had used his time profitably in the EU, and there is no reason to believe that he hasn’t networked extensively, then he ought to know exactly which ears to drip poison advice into, to further the prospects of one David Miliband succeeding to a highly paid position the High Representative for the EU, just in case EU leaders lean away from appointing Tony Blair as their President.

Should Mandelson win that battle then perhaps, seeing defeat awaiting Labour, he will gently suggest to the one eyed son of the manse that it’s time to play the health card and make way for Ed Miliband to lead the party in the next election and in Opposition. Such a move may rescue Labour’s position in the polls as a young new leader goes head to head with a young new leader of the Conservatives, ultimately of course, it will be the record of twelve years in government and a wrecked economy that will lose it all for Labour.

But, no need to be feeling negative, if all of this speculation materialises then both Miliband brothers will be sitting pretty in much better paid employment than they have at present.

As far as South Shields is concerned, David Miliband would have to give up this seat and the Labour Party would need to find a new candidate to fight the general election, in something of a hurry. Now image, just imagine, that South Tyneside Council Leader Iain Malcolm got the call (he has wanted to represent his home town in the Commons for some years), then the Conservative’s Karen Allen and others would need to have a “plan B” prepared and ready to use. Because, if Labour’s candidate was to be Iain Malcolm, we can be virtually guaranteed that an Independent candidate would enter the fray, giving electors a further choice and creating further electoral confusion with the possible permutations in the anti-Labour split.

Positive outcomes for the Milibands may end up leaving negative thoughts in South Shields, and also at Westminster where David Cameron would also need a “plan B” to deal with the possible prospect of Europe’s top two positions being occupied by the leading architects of NuLabour.

Update

A “Stop Miliband” campaign has already started.

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