Curly's Corner Shop, the blog!

The big question is (especially after his wife decided she wanted to become a Labour councillor) whether or not he can hang on to his constituency seat in Buckingham, where he will face a very strong challenge from Nigel Farage, the former UKIP leader!

Bercow, of course, only won the Speaker’s job after a campaign by backbench Labour MPs in a pique after the ousting of Michael Martin following the expenses scandal, and back in June Tim Montgomery at Conservative Home was calling for him to be given a chance and opining that moves to remove him after the election would “devalue an already devalued Speaker’s office still further”. However, having dipped into the public purse to refurbish Speaker’s House to the tune of over £20,000 with new sofas and a playroom for the children, I wonder if Montgomery still holds the same opinion?

It’s all well and good talking of this issue  being a test of David Cameron’s leadership, but Bercow appears to have two seats wobbling under him between now and the election! If the first falls, will there be sighs of relief, or tears in CCHQ?

Click the picture for full story.

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Cllr. Jeff Milburn gives mixed message

We are all used to seeing CCTV cameras on our streets and in our shops.  They are a valuable tool in the fight against crime.  Council CCTV cameras have trebled in number over the past ten years. However,  the Government’s own research shows eighty per cent of CCTV footage can’t be used to prosecute criminals.  A Conservative government would ensure CCTV is fit for purpose – with appropriate safeguards and sanctions to prevent misuse.

So says Conservative Cleadon Village Cllr. Jeff Milburn, who is to represent the party in the  Jarrow constituency of  South Tyneside at the next election. I’m not sure what he is trying to tell us that the Conservative Party would actually do about the explosion of these near to useless snooping devices that councils and privateers are erecting all over our towns and cities in the UK, he acknowledges that their numbers have increased threefold over the past ten years and then claims that they are a valuable tool in the fight against crime.

Well I beg to differ Jeff, I have a near to useless CCTV looking camera overlooking the place where I park my car, kindly left by an old neighbour, it keeps some people mollified and happy, but not me. It seems to me that research and facts prove that CCTV cameras are not that useful as a tool against crime at all, certainly not in London, the crime capital of the UK, where just this year it has been proved that less than three percent of crimes are successfully solved using CCTV imagery and that in reality only about one in a thousand crimes are solved by this means. The Evening Standard had quite an enlightening article at the time. available here.

According to Detective Chief Inspector Mick Neville, who heads the Metropolitan Police’s Met’s Visual Images, Identifications and Detections Office (Viido), billions of pounds have been spent with almost no results to show. Only three percent of crimes have been solved using CCTV footage, and offenders aren’t afraid of being caught on video. Det. Chief Inspector Neville, speaking to The Guardian, described the system as an “utter fiasco” and that “no thought” had gone into implementation. Other issues, beyond the lack of success standing up in court, include the tedium of police officers spending hours trawling through footage, and often a failure to contact private CCTV operators (such as cameras located on private buildings etc) to request footage.

Yet Labour politicians still believe that more snooping, more prying into family life, more early intervention, more databases, more innocent children having DNA sampled, more ID Cards, and more biometrics, are the answer to crime problem that probably isn’t quite as large as the average Daily Mail reader imagines.

It seems that Cllr. Milburn is NOT telling us that Conservatives would introduce a little more libertarian spirit to the statute book by ordering the removal of thousands of CCTV cameras and the destruction of ridiculously expensive databases that will want to record every minutiae of life from the moment of free captive birth, but more that they intend to make these things work better, improve them, or modernise them! Jeff says a Conservative government would ensure CCTV is fit for purpose, but what exactly is the purpose? Surely the purpose of CCTV is to watch, monitor, and record? Surely it would be better (and cheaper) if you or I did that and reported our findings to the police.

What the Conservative Party and others need to understand is that Neighbourhood policing is what needs to work better, we need to reverse the lack of trust between the citizen and the police, we need to go back to the days of knowing that the policeman/woman is your friend, and that the guy around the corner who mugs your granny is most certainly not! Only by rebuilding this trust will we see more and more people willing to freely give statements, and freely finger their neighbours as community spirit returns to neighbourhoods. Front line police time needs to be freed up, bureaucratic form filling needs to be radically cut away from the job, people need to see police on the streets, not behind desks. Once we become more accustomed to having a two way dialogue with our local police, we will see that the criminals will start to fear their own neighbours (instead of the other way round), because at present too many people have this naive idea that they needn’t bother getting involved – after all, they’ll have it on camera, won’t they?

And another thing, once we feel that the state isn’t prying and snooping into our lives all of the time in an effort to socially engineer our behaviour, then we will feel that much more comfortable about cooperating with the agencies of the state. Freedom and liberty can work wonders when we allowed to help look after our own property and our neighbourhoods.

As far as I am aware, nothing works better in a court than a witness, a human witness, standing up and saying “yes, it was him/her”

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A frustrating Christmas

Hope you all had an enjoyable Christmas and did what you could to get rid of the extra calorific intake, although Christmas day was very enjoyable for the family there has been a fair amount of frustration mixed in too. Walking around some parts of South Shields is still a challenge with hard packed ice still clinging to the pavements twelve days after the snow fell, but it has given the opportunity to collect some new pictures which will be shown shortly on my photoblog.

The next frustration has been watching Sunderland AFC failing to put the opposition to the sword after games against Everton and Blackburn, both of which had to be considered as winnable, and after yesterday’s match I predict at least a couple of players will be leaving during the January window, one of whom may come as a shock to most Sunderland fans (Steve Bruce refused to talk about any of the missing players yesterday, preferring to praise the younger replacements.)

However the biggest frustration, so far, has been my inability to connect “Junior’s” PS3 and PSP to the internet via an Edimax BR-6226n wireless broadband router! It will only be a matter of time before he’s screaming at me to get it sorted. Both devices see and recognise the SSID and are successfully assigned an IP address but neither connects to the internet, so today I’ll have to try and see if the PS3 will connect to the internet directly via the Motorola Surfboard cable modem with an ethernet cable. If this works, I’ll have to go back to the router settings and perhaps remove the Mac address filtering, I also need to test the router with a wifi enabled laptop. The other possible problem might lie in the system settings of the PS3 and the PSP, I note that he has the internet browser facility switched off (and he cannot remember the four digit password, doh!). So I’ll have to find ways of resetting to the factory default and probably losing his saved game data! Then there may be firewall issues to look at too.

So it looks like the frustration will carry on for a little while yet.

Go configure!

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Why has Cllr. Khan wiped his Twitter account clean?

Even at this unearthly time of day, it’s a complete mystery why the Deputy Leader of the South Tyneside Independent Alliance has wiped his Twitter page clean of the thousands of posts vilifying his opponents and posting links to local “attack blogs” . I know he has been the subject of a recent investigation by the Standards Board for England and Wales but surely there must be another explanation to why he has decided to wipe the slate clean?

He originally decided to use Twitter to be the first South Tyneside councillor to “connect” with his constituents, but it descended into a rather childish bun fight with the Conservative councillor for Cleadon Village and East Boldon, David Potts, (which reminds me – who will be the next Independent Alliance councillor to leave the sinking ship?) hopefully Cllr. Khan will now use his time on Twitter to promote the work he is doing in his own ward, rather like the now defunct blog once used by Earnest Gibson and Bill Brady the two Labour councillors for Whiteleas in South Shields (another that fell by the wayside after a lack of deference and political nous in the face of commenters’ attacks, or even a lack of time by the authors.)

At least I won’t miss Khan’s even handed comments on Sunderland or Newcastle’s football games.

However, those with an inquisitive mind might like to ponder why this site has had it’s title changed?

Update

It hasn’t taken long for Cllr. Khan to stop prying eyes from seeing what he is Twittering on about, now you have to request to be a follower. Open government, transparent democracy and all that.

Update 2

Cllr. Khan explains that he made his Twitter page temporarily disappear in order to introduce a new wallpaper, or background, and then went on to introduce a new Twitter account, so he is now on Twitter here, and here, (in case you wish to follow him).  Why go to the bother of having two Twitter pages when one should surely suffice?

It all seems quite odd to me.

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Cancer charity connects in the chill – picture special.

Hundreds turned out at Littlehaven Beach, South Shields, this morning as the temperature gauge refused to rise above zero Celsius in what has now become an annual Boxing Day tradition, threatening to rival the other local “dip” in Sunderland. Having consumed far too much food yesterday I took a healthy walk down to the beach and back to record these scenes for you, and to allow our ex-pat Geordies abroad to appreciate the fact that Sanddancer hospitality and charitable good works continue on strongly.

As the crowds gathered in the “grassy” car park next to the Littlehaven Hotel, and having raised hundreds of pounds of sponsorship  for the privilege of splashing around in the freezing cold North Sea, there were three surprises in store, (a) folks stripping off in cars and walking out into the chilly morning air, (b) the salt laden sands on the beach were frozen solid and iced over, and (c) the Mayor of South Tyneside Cllr. John Anglin was mingling with the crowds dressed in swimming shorts and a flimsy T-shirt – you cannot accuse him of being short of “bottle”.

Shields Gazette reporter Johnny Wilson was his usual zany self, trying the goods in any story before writing about it, he must be the joker in the pack at Chapter Row, and probably the first on their list when party invitations are handed out, although their “snapper” cannot have been pleased (after following Johnny about, the waves gave his canvass shoes a good wash!).  I also bumped into fellow Curly’s Corner Shop Message Board members Mr. Angry, Party Girl, and Sless, along with his good wife Deborah who is Westoe’s cancer charity fund raising champion in her own right, then there was former Mayor’s Secretary Fay Cunningham and her partner along with folks from the Missions to Seamen doing their bit to help out after their recent salvation.

At 11:00 the chilled congregation raised the temperature by rushing past me in their bid to become the first to enter the sea, and Cancer Connections, the South Shields based support charity beamed a huge sigh as they neared the target amount needed to provide a respite care facility. Arms and legs and other body parts covered in fancy dress thrashed about in frenzied motions, some even went for the full body immersion and swim, but before long they were out to get quickly dried and changed into warmer clothing as cups of hot tea and coffee were offered along with warming lentil soup!

I tip my hat to the Mayor, I was not expecting him to plunge into the icy waters, and as somebody commented to me on Twitter, as an adopted outsider he certainly displays a lot of passion for this area! Wouldn’t it be great if a few more of our local politicians decided to join in next year and washed away their sins! I congratulate all those who turned out this morning to provide us with this spectacle and to raise money for such a worthwhile local cause.

Well done to all of them!

Here’s a quick video that I shot when I was down there (trying to use two cameras at once wasn’t easy!)

Click the thumbnails to enlarge.

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Brown will not face Chilcott until after the next election

Gordon Brown will be spared the embarrassment of giving evidence to the Iraq Inquiry until after the next election, it emerged today.

The Prime Minister, David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, and Douglas Alexander, the Development Secretary, have all been excused because the inquiry wants to remain “firmly outside party politics”.

Commenting on the news Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague said:

“Everyone will want to know whether this decision of the Inquiry was influenced by Ministers in any way. The public will rightly ask why it is that numerous officials have given evidence to the Inquiry about their role in carrying out the Government’s policy on Iraq, but not a single Minister has had to face questioning.

“It is becoming clearer and clearer why Gordon Brown delayed setting up the Inquiry for so long after it should have begun its work. His intention throughout has been to ensure that the Inquiry won’t report until after the coming General Election. Now we have the added effect of Ministers not having to give evidence at all before the election. Gordon Brown’s efforts to delay the inquiry have been the very opposite of open and accountable government.”

So, it looks as though they have managed to do a Basil Fawlty then, goose stepping around the stage screaming “don’t mention the war” – at least not before the election!

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Have Carswell and Hannan started to put “The Plan” into operation?

Douglas Carswell the Conservative MP has already published a Bill calling for a referendum on continued membership of the EU, and in this post Conservative MEP Dan Hannan sets out ten reasons for leaving the EU, not to be outdone Liberal Conspiracy attempts a rebuttal.

The real fun is in the comments.

Looks like “The Plan” is getting a pre Christmas trial run!

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Auschwitz sign found

Big up to David Forward at Tractor Stats

(Yes, I know, updates have been light of late, the kids are off school and we are all fighting to get some time on this desktop PC, things should improve after Christmas when the new wi-fi network is up and running.)

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BNP on verge of another massive split

Via Harry’s Place

I am grateful to Edmund Standing writing in Harry’s Place about the disbandment of the BNP’s “Reform Group” who are now breaking away and encouraging as many of the 9000 other crackpot BNP members to join them in a reformed National Front. The basis for this schism is the apparent changes to the BNP’s constitution forced upon the white supremacists by the courts, opening up membership to all and sundry.

They are also narked that their leader Nick Griffin MEP is seen to be too dictatorial and in an all too powerful position which the new constitution does little to curtail, they are also less than pleased that Griffin holds the purse strings of the party and that no accounts have been published by the Trafalgar Club which raises cash to directly support the leader.

Well, well,……. oh how they praise democracy when a tiny percentage of the vote propels two of them into the European Parliament, but take a different view on how to run their own organisation.

Edmund pokes some very ironic fun by ending his piece as follows:

A neo-fascist party being led by a ‘dictator’ whose removal is ‘virtually impossible’. Surely not!

I’ve never chuckled so much since Santa got stuck up the chimney! Yes, I know I often call for more tolerance and diversity, but everyone has their limits,

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Joe McElderry fails to get No.1 Christmas spot.

So South Shileds’ lad Joe McElderry has failed in his bid to become the No. 1 selling artist in the Christmas singles chart, and Rage against the Machine have won the battle after thousands of their fans seemed to turn the mantra on it’s head (F*** You, I won’t do what you tell me), they consequently did by following the strictures of the Facebook campaign.

But we should shed no tears, either for McElderry, nor cheer to the rafters for the anti Christmas hype campaign of Killing in the Name, there is of course one big winner who will be laughing all the way to the bank, Simon Cowell and his company Syco have a large financial interest in the label (Epic a subsidiary of Sony) which promotes both singles, and he also has Susan Boyle’s album sitting comfortably at the head of the album charts. Which makes one wonder if there were any outside influences in the origins of the Facebook campaign which literally did get people to do what they are told, so successful was the campaign that Jon and Tracy Morter have been offered jobs by Cowell who has a strong appreciation for mass marketing techniques.

Zack de la Rocha and Tom Morello  were probably not wholly surprised that one of the first congratulatory phone calls they took yesterday was from Simon Cowell, as they prepare for a free UK gig for their fans and the handing over of a nice fat cheque to the UK charity Shelter.

Cowell will lose no sleep as his earnings rise exponentially over the Christmas period, so well is he doing, that while South Shields fans of McElderry dab away their tears they can be cheered by the news that the fledgling plaything of Cowell pop star will whisked away with his entire extended family on a £20000 skiing holiday of a lifetime in a millionaire’s chalet in the Austrian Alps, all financed by Simon Cowell. They will be flying out immediately after Christmas. After that Joe will be off to the States where Cowell appears to have engineered a very lucrative deal for the South Shields lad to try and break into the US teen film market, The Daily Mirror reports:

He is now on the books of Creative Artists Agency, whose A-list super-clients include Steven Spielberg, Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Oprah Winfrey.

Bosses are convinced clean-cut Joe has the looks and charm needed to crack the huge US teen market.
And they are already in talks with casting bosses at Disney to find a movie role for Joe – tipped to be the next pin-up like High School Musical’s Zac Efron. A source said: “CAA think Joe can be massive in America.”

I bet Cowell cannot wait for the scripts to come in!

It’s wonderful of course to enjoy the fact Joe McElderry’s singing talents were nurtured here in South Shields and that the lad who played a lead role in Harton Technology College’s production of “Grease” may one day be a Disney star, the singing can speak for itself, but the rest is in the hands of Cowell.

The battle between Joe McElderry and Rage against the machine has also captivated my old friend His Grace Archbishop Cranmer who has declared:

One wonders why the people can be so organised about something as trivial as the Christmas No1, but not quite so passionately strategic in their politics.

Perhaps the reason lies in the concealed reality behind this chart battle. For the supreme irony is that both Joe McElderry and Rage Against the Machine are signed to Epic Records, which is part of Sony BMG.

As far as the recording colossus is concerned, they win either way.

So if your motive in downloading Rage Against The Machine was to humble the Sony behemoth, you have failed.

And seeking to wipe the smile off Simon Cowell’s face or deprive Joe McElderry of an instant Number One is indeed a little spiteful.

Perhaps this is why the people cannot be bothered to protest, rise up, and democratise their politics. Sony is a metaphor for the European Union: its tentacles are everywhere, its fingers are in every pie and all roads lead to Rome.

Or should that be Mr. Cowell’s bank account Your Grace?

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