Curly's Corner Shop, the blog!

Glaring omission in Queen’s Speech

Not that many of us will be able to remember much at all about it in a week’s time, but the Queen’s Speech yesterday was a spectacular failure of opportunity. Gordon Brown’s government has not announced that they are to bring forward any measures or Bills to help clean up the expenses mess in Parliament, it was a glaring and obvious omission. As The Daily Telegraph points out this morning that six peers and MPs are to have the files on the police investigation into their expense claims passed to the CPS and Guido indicates that others still face the possibility of private prosecutions being brought by the Sunlight Centre and/or the Taxpayers’ Alliance (supported by the Daily Mail).

It is glaringly obvious why Gordon Brown’s Labour government, (which only has 70 days left before it must call an election), was quite happy to leave the issue alone and allow a new administration to deal with it – a pretty spineless way to govern and a hopeless way of trying to reconnect or rediscover the trust that must bind public and politicians together!

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

South Tyneside Homes runs Christmas competition for tenants

Over recent years I’ve often been impressed by the lengths that some folks in South Tyneside go to when decorating their houses at Christmas time, there are some areas of the borough where it would be worth organising bus tours because the amount and array of illuminations are akin to the sea front at Blackpool. So it’s great fun to see that South Tyneside Homes is getting into the right spirit and helping to inject a little fun whilst encouraging their tenants to brighten their local environment and neighbourhood, they are running a competition this year and offering £100 of shopping vouchers to find the best decorated council home in the borough.

The great thing is, as I found out four years ago, that more and more of the decorations that are now in use are of the low voltage and low wattage LED type which is far more environmentally acceptable and apparently helps to lower carbon emissions too. They also look far more attractive than the older filament bulb types and offer much greater variation in their use. In South Shields I always enjoy seeing places like Copley Avenue and Jesmond Gardens all lit up for Christmas, so I hope this competition goes down well with tenants.

Having got Christmas out of the way I’d love to see the ALMO (Arms Length Management Organisation) encouraged to promote a “best garden” competition in the summer months perhaps with some shiny new mowers,  strimmers, hedge trimmers, or garden vacs offered as prizes, I’m sure local retailers would be happy to help promote the event and be associated with it, and it would be yet another way to help tenants enjoy their gardens and share in the pride that comes with competing to win.

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

South Shields star in charity raising bid

Local lad Joe McElderry somehow found time to squeeze in a visit to his home town South Shields and I know where he buys his pies and pasties, but I’m keeping it a secret. In between his TV recording sessions for ITV’s “The X Factor” Joe has also been recording a single along with the other contestants in a gallant bid to raise funds for the Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity, we all know how much good work they do on behalf of children in very difficult circumstances. Retailers including W H Smith, Tesco,and  Sainsbury’s in the town are donating their profits from the sale of the single, a cover of Michael Jackson’s “You are not alone” to the charity, and on all other sales £1 from each single will go to Great Ormond Street. Here’s the official video featuring South Shields’ Joe McElderry:

[YouTube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86cPad8EidI&fmt=]

It would be great, not only for Joe and the town, but also for the hospital charity to see the single go to No. 1 in the UK chart this week and stay there for Christmas, so come on South Shields folks put your hand in your pocket or purse and get down into the town and buy a copy now. If getting to the shops is a bit of a problem you can also buy it online here.

Like to keep up to date with how the charity and the single are doing? Well that’s nice and simple too they have a blog here, and you can also support and follow them on Twitter too.

I might have found a bone to pick with the Westoe pub recently about the posters in the window on Remembrance Sunday but I’m sure everyone will want to get behind this initiative and I’m more than happy to support their efforts. My thanks go to Jess Holland at PassitonMedia for kindly supplying these pictures of Joe McElderry visiting sick children at the Great Ormond Street Hospital, he always looks happy to oblige too!

Naturally all of us in South Shields are all hoping that Joe wins “The X Factor”.

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

There seems to be a difference of opinion

The South Shields MP and Foreign Secretary David Miliband has a few column inches to his name again today primarily caused by one Hilary Roddam Clinton the American Secretary of State wedded to the former President Bill Clinton.

Now old Bill we remember for his well publicised tete a tetes with Monica Lewinski so perhaps we shouldn’t be over surprised if his wife had any imagined intentions of getting one over on him from time to time.

So I’m not hugely surprised that she comes out with a little frankness and departure from the diplomatic routines in this US interview reported by The Sun and others today:

When Mr Miliband’s name was mentioned, she said: “Oh my God!” The female interviewer then admitted she too had a soft spot for Mr Miliband after talking to him on the phone. Mrs Clinton excitedly told the Vogue journalist: “Well, if you saw him it would be a big crush. I mean, he is so vibrant, vital, attractive, smart. He’s a really good guy – and he is so young!”

You must understand that I’ve only chosen The Sun’s report because apparently the newspaper is no longer flavour of the month with Gordon Brown’s team, but Hilary did rather gush, and David acknowledges that the old girl is a bit of a tease! Not all women share the same feelings for Mr. Miliband of course, indeed there is a profound gaping gulf of opinion as Sub Rosa eloquently illustrates:

Listening to Mr Miliband reminds me of my school’s debating society, maybe because he looks like an overgrown schoolboy, or maybe it’s because his demeanour conveys a lack of stature and a certain amount of immaturity for the position he holds……………but, it’s not his boyish looks that bother me it’s his boyish behaviour. Somehow he doesn’t fill me with confidence about our foreign policy.

Of course, one might have hoped that a lady who had spent so much time trying to pull her husband’s strings in the White House might prove to be a little more savvy when it comes to European politicians, but I prefer the reasoned voice of the Scots lass any day. Let’s be honest when Miliband was talking within the last 48 hours of a campaign “that is not war without end” in Afghanistan, and that it needs a political dimension linked to a military objective before we could safely withdraw our troops, one had hoped that those with some common sense might see it for what it is – electoral window dressing and nothing more. Talking of withdrawal of our troops is probably just what we want to hear, but it isn’t remotely going to happen next year and Miliband knows it.

In other Miliband news and comment David Jones the MP for Clwyd West says after returning from Brussels yesterday:

The generally accepted view is that Tony Blair is out of the running for president and that the Belgian Prime Minister, Herman Van Rompuy, is the hot favourite.

Surprisingly enough, however, and more interestingly, there is a considerable body of opinion that David Miliband is still very much in the running for the possibly more powerful position of High Representative, notwithstanding the protestations of both the Foreign Secretary and his brother that he has ruled himself out.  Given that Van Rompuy is a centre right politician from a small country, the theory is that the High Rep position must go to a centre left candidate from a big country and that Miliband is the most obvious candidate.

If that happens, it will be fascinating to see the response from within the Labour party.

Oh well Mr. Jones will not be getting an invite to Coleman’s for fish and chips (yet it would not surprise me at all if Miliband deserts Labour in opposition), as for Hilary Clinton, well you never know she might just turn up in South Shields for a final hurrah and a late flurry of teasing before Miliband bows out of government.

Hope Hilary can tell the difference between cod and haddock or mushy peas and guacamole.

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

The Queen’s Speech may as well not happen

Danny Finkelstein is absolutely right of course, I’ll wager that the majority of people in South Shields and South Tyneside don’t even realise that today is the day that the Queen will read out the package of measures that this lifeless Labour government has no intention of getting through Parliament before the next election. I doubt if more than two hundred of us even know that the State Opening of Parliament is about to happen this afternoon, and less than 100 of us will remember next month just what Gordon Brown’s government proposed today, there may be a slight recollection when the election comes around and these “dividing lines” are shoved under our noses day in day out in the newspapers and on radio and television, there may be more of a reaction to the rise in petrol prices over the coming months but no one will recall the day that Alistair Darling announced further rises in the fuel duty escalator. That’s the way it is with politics, until the measures hit us in the pocket they register just about zero on the Richter Scale with most electors.

There is still a huge disconnect between the average voter and the man or women who represents them, political life is just that for the political classes, an all consuming attitude that encompasses everything that they do, designed to prosper their career on the greasy pole that has led to a comfortable existence mainly at our expense. It is only during the moments and days that the mailbag is full of complaints, the email boxes bulge with bile and anger, the letters pages of newspapers scream out indignation and radio phone in programmes become an ordeal rather than a chore, that MPs, MEPs, or local councillors realise that they have said or done something which has touched a raw nerve with the general public. During the rest of their time legislating on our behalf they may as well sit back and relax in the comfort that most of us just don’t care.

This, of course, is a sad reflection on our modern democracy, but the past year with it’s revelations over MPs expenses and broken promises over allowances by local councillors has served to widen the gulf between electors and politicians, the trust has all but disappeared and the majority of us no longer care less what they say or do, until we get the chance to have them removed and replaced with a new bunch who we hope will operate in a more responsive and sanitised environment. It is often said that oppositions do not win elections, but that governing parties manage to lose them, next year’s will only be slightly different if David Cameron’s re-marketed brand of Conservatism looks as though it will be intent on cleaning up the political process and determined to make MPs where hair shirts, otherwise we can look back and firmly assert that Gordon Brown’s bloodless coup in taking the leadership of the Labour Party after “reminding” Tony Blair of the “Granito arrangement” was the point at where the discontent started. There is little doubt that the British electorate see something of a popularity contest going on between our political leaders, how they look, how they talk, how they sound, how they listen, and how they come across on TV is probably far more important than what they mean, what they stand for, and what their policies are. Gordon Brown has just failed miserably to shine for Labour and has dragged their popularity so far down that it is unlikely to recover whilst he is in charge of the country. Another sad, but true, reflection.

The aura of the political world means little at all to the average unemployed person in Simonside or Cleadon Park, hence at local elections less than one in three will help elect a councillor, at general elections less than six in ten will elect an MP, so today most will be benignly blind to the fact that the Queen’s Speech will tell us a load of old nonsense about this Bill or that Bill, and that most Bills will run out of time and running space before the election comes along. The folks on the street are far more bothered about how much petrol they can afford to put in the car this week, how much can they afford to spend on Christmas presents this year, how long before a job might come along, or will it be possible at all to take the family away on holiday next year. Your MPs will probably not be having these concerns, after all their salaries and expenses, which we provided them with, will ensure that they have little to worry about (at least for those considered to be occupying safe seats).

So Gordon Brown and David Cameron can lead their parties through the lobbies this afternoon to stand at the entrance to the House of Lords and listen to Her Majesty making pronouncements on behalf of the beleaguered Brown, but I will have other things to do (I’ll be at the gym as part of my cardiac rehabilitation regime) and most of the rest of us in South Shields will give it a miss too, after all we aren’t that bothered if this rump Parliament gets through next to no work in the next few months are we?

Of course not, so long as they get through it quickly and quietly, because I believe there may be a little more interest than usual from Mr. and Mrs. Average at the next election, because then it matters, and I believe it matters more that the people elect many new representatives to replace the old, tired, self serving, greedy, pocket lining , wasteful, arrogant, lying, cheating, and probably criminal types that have inhabited this Parliament!

So Danny is right, today’s Queen’s Speech is little more than a sideshow before the main event.

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Resources channelled towards survival of the few

This is interesting, the Labour Party (if this is all true) have already given up on the idea of trying to win the next general election, they’d rather concentrate their dwindling resources on ensuring the survival of MPs where they have a majority greater than 3000.

Kind of typical of how they’ve ran the country over the past few years, all arse to face, if I’d been in their position I’d have concentrated my resources on limiting the damage in the marginals, after all that’s where the election will be won or lost, the safer seats can take care of themselves.

Oh well, best get the farewell flags ready.

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Herman Van Rompuy wants EU wide tax rises

With the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty comes a ratcheting up of the wholesale costs of running the great big federalist machinery, and the new front runner for the EU Presidency Herman Van Rompuy, the Belgian Prime Minister, has discussed at the secretive Bilderberg group the notion of applying additional EU wide taxes to pay for the growth. It is bad enough that he should have the idea that the EU ought to be able to directly raise taxation at all but to raise the matter in such a fashion within a reclusive group of politicians and international businessmen outside of the representative loop of elected representatives is even worse. Little wonder that the secretive group becomes the source of all sorts of conspiracy theories about world government!

Mr Van Rompuy’s Bilderberg intervention will alarm non-federalist countries such as Britain and Denmark, which have long opposed giving the EU tax-raising powers and breaking the link with national funding.

Newer member states, already angry at the opaque process of choosing a president, are unlikely to be impressed at the secretive forum used by Mr Van Rompuy to talk about his European vision.

William Hague, the Shadow Foreign Secretary, said:

“Britain would not be the only EU country that would find a proposal to give the EU tax-raising powers totally unacceptable. Advocacy of such a policy is not a fruitful use of anyone’s time.”

When initiatives such as these are discussed by high powered operators in a secretive climate, one can only assume that there were good reasons why so many countries did not hold a referendum to test public opinion about the new EU Constitution Lisbon Treaty.

Which makes the new campaign organised by The Tax Payers’ Alliance to promote a Great EU Debate and also to sell the new book by Dr. Lee Rotherman “Ten Years On, Britain Without the European Union”, just appear to be two years or so too late – but better late than never!

I doubt that the people of South Shields and South Tyneside will be comfortable with the idea of additional taxation forced upon them from outside of the UK as we face the next few years of Britain battling to reduce it’s huge budget deficit and national debt, which may include some home grown tax rises as a result of Gordon Brown’s profligate spend, spend, spend splurge!

The TPA have booked a massive slice of screen time in UK cinemas to add to their campaign and this will be the first video that pop corn munchers and horror addicts will see:

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

Clegg calls for a rethink

Gordon Brown knows that whatever he puts in the Queen’s Speech will be a dress rehearsal for Labour’s election manifesto and that very few of his proposed ‘populist’ Bills will make it on to the Statute Book, the Lib-Dem Leader Nick Clegg today makes the call for this ‘rump Parliament’ to spend it’s time cleaning up the old house prior to new tenants moving in – he has a very good point!

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

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

Dan Hannan MEP discusses the UK’s future with the EU

This is part of a series of videos being produced by The Taxpayers’ Alliance who have booked slots in cinemas as an additional way to get their message out as part of the Great EU Debate campaign.

How do people in South Tyneside view our relationship with Europe over the next decade?

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::

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

:: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: :: ::