Curly's Corner Shop, the blog!

Suffering the Black Dog

I am very concerned for Thomas Cranmer this morning as he suffers the Black Dog, his spirits are at an all time low and he may be considering terrible personal harm (even though he has already died once). One hopes that his spirit recovers and that one of the best writers and free thinkers in the British political blogosphere is soon back in his pulpit lecturing the righteous and unrighteous as soon as is possible.

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South Shields business comes up trumps

I’m a heavy user of rechargeable batteries, (mainly ni-mh around 2500 mAh), my Pentax camera has a fairly high drain when shooting huge RAW files and if I make great use of the LCD screen on the rear then even more juice is consumed. So I have an almost constant supply of freshly charged AA batteries to carry around in the bag. Trouble is, and you may have noted the same downfall with your camera, .mp3 player, or other portable device, ni-mhs tend to  lose some their charge before you come to use them. In fact seeing as they develop a memory effect, you may charge some today and try to use them on Wednesday and find that the voltage has dropped below a critical 1.1v and discover that your device won’t work with such a poor set of batteries. This is because one of the other downfalls with ni-mh batteries is their ability to “self drain” while sat around doing nothing, in other words from a freshly fully charged state they will gradually lose voltage all on their own!

I had heard that a new type of ni-mh battery had found it’s way on to the UK market, known as a low self drain rechargeable, and Sanyo seemed to be the market leader with it’s Eneloop battery. It’s advantages are that the batteries are bought ready charged and can be used straight away, the other big claim is that a freshly charged battery will maintain it’s voltage for many months whilst not in use, in other words the voltage does not drain away. Naturally I was interested so I put out this tweet on Twitter and someone pointed me to Asda in Boldon where I bought a pack of four AAs for a tenner, and sure enough they performed straight out of the pack, but it’s a fair way to go to get a set of batteries.

This is where the plug and the praise comes in, I received an email from South Shields businessman Eddie Czestochowski who owns and runs Cell Pack Solutions on the Tedco estate on Station Road. Eddie had seen my tweat and responded by letting me know that he has a stock of German Ansmann low self drain ni-mh rechargeables which he thought were a good alternative to the Sanyo Eneloop, indeed the 2500 mAh rating suggests that they may do more work than Sanyo’s 2000 mAh cells. So I went down to meet Eddie and decided to take a four pack of the Ansmann Accu MaxE AAs to evaluate alongside the Sanyos. Keep in mind Eddie had no need to email me, he didn’t know me, and he could have ignored the call over a measly four pack of AAs, but his attention to the needs of a potential customer impressed me, you don’t get that good of a service from large multi nationals so it was refreshing to find a local businessman fighting to win new customers for his company.

Eddie was very personable and pleasant and certainly has his buttons on when it comes to batteries (of all kinds), so his company’s reputation may be at stake whilst I evaluate the product but I’m confident that he will have found a new customer, his own confidence in the product, and his knowledge, were very encouraging signs to start with.

We are in the middle of a long and painful recession and it is great to note that some young South Shields companies are fighting hard to gain customers and expand their markets, key to this is service, good products, and attractive pricing, and so long as people like Ed Czestochowski are setting these examples then we can be confident that local businesses will prosper and flourish as we find recovery and return to economic growth.

I’ll report my findings on the batteries when both sets have been exhausted and been through a full discharge/recharge cycle.

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Yesterday’s game had strangest ever goal seen at The Stadium of Light…..

………but Darren Bent won’t be too bothered.

A  few referees have been on the radio since yesterday afternoon declaring that the goal ought not to have counted, and the game should have been stopped and restarted with a drop ball on the six yard line. At the end of the day match referee Mr. Jones consulted his assistant referee (linesman) and came to a decision – the referee’s decision is final (that’s another rule).

What did you think of it? Video from BBC’s Match of the Day.

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South Tyneside Council may get tedious on Thursday

The Independent Alliance group of councillors have tabled no fewer than six notices of motion for next Thursday’s meeting of South Tyneside Council at South Shields Town Hall. If you’d like to go along the meeting starts at 3:00 pm, and by the looks of things may not finish by 6:00 pm, the Alliance have also tabled a question on the agenda, and that is before they start to speak to or ask questions on the reports of cabinet or select committees.

One notice of motion is on car parking charges (despite the council being in the midst of a consultation), another calls for the council to join some climate change campaign headed by a newspaper, another even calls for guarantees that the Westovians be rehoused in any sea front developments (a commitment that I’m sure has already been given) another calls for the old Asda car park to be made available for public use (even though it is now owned by a private developer not the council), they also call for the council to do everything possible to ensure that the Metro system is not privatised (the council of course has no power to prevent it), and finally they make a sensible call for councils to be able to retain the power and ability to set and retain business rates in their areas.

I’m not going to criticise their apparent moves to look busy and purposeful as Cllr. Allen Branley returns to the council chamber, but I will say that such an injudicious use of these notices of motion may cause the council meeting to time out, thus causing unnecessary expense in the calling of a second meeting to finish the business. Perhaps they could in future choose one big burning issue and concentrate on that?

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Independent Alliance calls for free parking

It’s a bit of a vexed question at the moment with all sorts of letters having been recently published in the local newspaper bemoaning the fact that our town centre appears to be dying on its feet during the recession with a collective view that parking charges are driving customers away. There can be bo doubt that the development of out of town shopping centres (which NEVER charge their customers to park) have had an effect over the past couple of decades, with places such as the Metro Centre, the Royal Quays, Washington Galleries, and Dalton Park all encouraging us to jump into the car and enjoy the benefits of varied shopping with free parking, but it is still true that many prefer the more individual characteristics of the traditional high street shopping experience.

The removal of parking charges in South Shields town centre may just encourage more to shop in King Street but it isn’t guaranteed, what would make a greater difference would be the introduction of more retailers to fill the empty premises and offer more choice and variety. Removal of parking charges would also be costly to South Tyneside Borough Council with a loss of revenue, which goes some way towards paying for the maintenance of car parks, it would also encourage the clogging up of parking bays by commuters and others who want to park all day long, thus reducing the number of spaces available to shoppers. The issue is being considered by the council and there is a public consultation exercise going on to gather our views, and at Thursday’s meeting of the Borough Council in South Shields Town Hall the Independent Alliance group of councillors is proposing a notice of motion which calls upon the council to introduce free parking throughout the borough. Now this seems odd for a couple of reasons (a) the council is already committed to reviewing car parking charges and is expending money, energy, and time in trying to find a solution, and (b) in another notice of motion the Alliance wants the council to sign up to the Guardian’s latest 10:10 campaign to reduce carbon footprints (free car parking would surely encourage a much greater use of the car at the expense of public transport) – they cannot have it both ways!

I am not in favour of a general free parking regime throughout the borough, indeed I am not in favour of free parking in South Shields town centre either, but I am in favour of free parking for shoppers and tourists at the appropriate time and in the appropriate places. I favour a system which ties retailers into a partnership with the council and shares parking revenues on a short term basis and provides for free parking for those shoppers spending cash at the retailers within the scheme. I have argued the case before many times in this blog and the main details can be found here.

Such a scheme for shoppers ought to prove popular whilst still discouraging the bay hoggers who want to park all day for free, for retailers it provides guaranteed sales, for shoppers it provides free parking if they spend £5 (or cheap parking if they stay less than two hours), and for the council it still guarantees a revenue from car parks. All round it is far better than what we have and only needs a redesign of tickets and a small administrative change to make it work.

The other matter of car parking at the sea front needs to be re-addressed, perhaps we could go back to free parking in the winter months without seeing a huge loss of revenue, I saw no real reason to change other than to try and maximise car parking revenue.

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Excellent policy decision from South Tyneside Council…..

“The amendment seeks to both reduce under-occupation of family housing and reward excellent tenants. It also sets to reduce the average re-let time of council housing.

Adoption of the policy amendment has no direct financial implication, other than the appropriate amount of compensation in each case, but will contribute towards ensuring the delivery of an efficient, value for money service to tenants.”

……..but these are hardly the words you’d expect to be hearing freely flowing from the lips of Labour councillor Bill Brady from Whiteleas, South Shields are they?

So how much of our council tax revenue is being spent on bag carriers, briefers, marketeers, and spin doctors for Labour’s Lead Members who cannot speak up for themselves?

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South Shields Tory candidate highlights Europe problem

I know that I haven’t been spending as much time as usual at this keyboard nor looking after this blog (the new photoblog has found a lot of interest and new photo editing techniques have attracted my time, additionally I am in the middle of a lot of work at home). However I found a little time to look at Karen Allen’s post of last weekend and bumped into a phrase which had me pricking up my ears and peeling back my eyelids:

“There was an elephant in the room of course though during the speech – which surely cannot be left unmentioned.”

She was alluding to the not to be discussed question of Europe and the Lisbon Treaty I guessed, as she continued talking about her encounter with Ken Clarke:

“There are fewer than 20% of laws and regulations actually passed by Westminster. The overwhelming majority of our laws are passed in Brussels and which, really, we have very little control or affect over.”

One gets the feeling,  like many other average folks in South Shields, that the Karen Allen isn’t too keen on the prospect of ceding more powers to a nameless faceless bureaucrat in Brussels should the Lisbon Treaty be finally and fully ratified by member states. She is to be commended for highlighting a concern that many people have at the back of their minds particularly during a conference that necessarily set out to deal with far bigger issues, the economy, the budget deficit, the national debt, and the need to create wealth and new jobs are all higher priorities for the Conservative Party to be thinking of as the election approaches. But there is a lot of scepticism amongst average folks about some areas in national politics, the three greatest appearing to be the credibility of politicians in general after the expenses scandals, the move towards environmental taxation issues after the global warming scare, and the EU with it’s ever growing hunger for greater powers over own national legislatures.

The biggest of these above issues that the Conservatives may face, should the expected fall of Labour occur next year, will be Lisbon if the Czechs ratify before they come to power, David Cameron and William Hague have still not formulated a clear intention of how Britain will react and have so far failed to tell us exactly what the phrase “not letting matters rest” means in terms of national policy. As a candidate seeking our approval at the next general election in South Shields I am hoping that she will devote a little time in her campaign to let us all know exactly where she stands on the issue of a referendum that was denied to us by Gordon Brown, and what she would like a Conservative government to do should that referendum be deemed impractical if the Constitution treaty is ratified before election day.

Perhaps she found time to let Kenneth Clarke have her views in Manchester (although I feel they probably spoke more on her concerns for the future of British pubs which she is campaigning for) and perhaps she may also have dropped a word in the ear of George Osborne, you never know, but let’s hear it from her in South Shields, where surprisingly there are people who moan and groan about Europe deciding far too much on our behalf, and I’ll have to put with it tonight!

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Legg Before Wicked

I’ve just about had it with these conniving MPs and the expenses scandal, it has dragged on too long, they have filibustered and gathered in cabals and even now it seems that groups of them don’t want to hand back our cash, they truly are a wicked scheming lot trying to live off the backs of others while genuine claimants of Incapacity Benefits and Disability Living Allowance face a freeze on their benefits next year. How about a total freeze on MPs salaries and benefits!

Legg has bowled them a googly and they cannot cope with it, that’s because they’ve never learned to play with a straight bat and would rather angle one to the back pocket instead of just defending with a forward push. I feel enraged at times by their behaviour, I couldn’t give a monkey’s toss about retrospective rules over “reasonable expenses” but I do feel that at least the party leaders understand the politics of the whole business. The public is not happy with them, the public will be much happier seeing them pay back some cash, the public will be happier still if one or two of them ended up in front of a court and were sent to jail for fiddling, get my drift?

If you really want to know how I feel get yourself along to the Devil’s place, here, and here, he articulates it far more eloquently than I ever could.

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Carswell’s Ten Minute Rule Bill proposes added risks for MPs

Via Conservative Home

At four of the last five general elections, fewer than one in 10 parliamentary constituencies changed hands. The fifth of those was, of course, the Labour landslide of 1997, but even then, more than 70 per cent. of seats were held by the parties that already controlled them.

Consider that again slowly, even at times when there is a massive swing against the ruling party, at the times of a landslide election wins, only around 30% of seats actually change hands and around 70% of seats remain with the party that had them in the first place. Now you wonder why MPs are kicking and screaming to hang on to a few pounds rifled from our pockets after Legg has told them to hand it back? They have become so inured to criticism from outside and so used to writing their own rules safe in the knowledge that for the most part they are made for life (or as long as the party puts up with them).

This cannot be good for democracy and I fully support the ideas proposed by Conservative MP Douglas Carswell in at least opening up the selection procedure for candidates. Imagine, as we did yesterday, that South Shields MP David Miliband gave up his seat to go the EU, someone else (who is chosen by the Labour Party, not us) would inherit a safe seat to occupy as they please, this is plainly not right in an age of greater accountability. An open primary would at least give us some say in which candidates we would like to choose from to represent their parties in an election, imagine too that if for some reason your MP transgresses normal acceptable behaviour in the Commons that we would have the right (if sufficient people called for it) to demand that our MP resigns his seat and causes a new election in the constituency. That Member of Parliament would at least know that he/she was fully accountable to the people of South Shields throughout the lifetime of a Parliament, not just at the beginning and end of it.

Of course many of these ideas would be strengthened by a review from the Boundaries Commission which might lessen the number of probable safe seats in the first place, such a review is long overdue and the total number of seats is also probably too large now, we could do with losing at least 10% of the current constituencies just to reduce the cost of our politics.

Open primaries, exceptional recall, and a reduction in safe seats can only be good for our democracy and would help restore some of the trust that has been eroded between electorates and those charged with representing them.

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Famous brew exported to Yorkshire.

Well that’s it then the top brass at Scottish and Newcastle have decided that the region’s favourite exported ale is to be exported permanently by shifting production from Dunston, Gateshead, to the John Smith brewery in Tadcaster, Yorkshire. Broon will no longer be regarded as the regions  best bottled beer and it will be viewed with suspicion having been exported out of the region, it will become as authentic as Guinness (which, you may guess, tastes entirely different when it is actually produced in Ireland).

The old dog will no longer be brewed by Geordies, and some were already upset that production was killed off in Newcastle a few years ago, and a tradition that goes back to 1927 will die along with the skills required to make the “newcy broon” on Tyneside. It is probably only a question of time before the next major decision is taken by the board of Scottish and Newcastle whether or not to hang on to the former Federation Brewery at Dunston and concentrate it’s production in larger plants more centrally located for logistical reasons.

I can best remember, many years ago, some Cornish lads, big Cornish lads who played rugger, coming up to South Shields to stay for a week and they couldn’t wait to try and destroy the reputation of Newcastle Brown Ale, considering it a poor rival to their “scrumpy” cider. We headed to the hospital social club in Harton Lane, South Shields and after only three bottles each, these strapping 17 stone plus giants were bundled away completely legless in a taxi to spend the next 48 hours recovering!

I’m not sure if, back in 1925, Col. Porter knew exactly what he had created when he first brewed “broon” but it’s reputation as a strong ale became so strong that I guess that S&N’s decision (which may have been influenced by their owners Heineken) might just spark a wave of unpopular dissent up in “the toon”.

Now if only I could persuade them to export their football team to South Yorkshire.

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