Curly's Corner Shop, the blog!

Progress on the ground still slow in South Tyneside

The Leader of South Tyneside Council, Labour’s Iain Malcolm had a piece published in The Shields Gazette setting out his “vision for the future”, which contained this remarkable phrase:

The loss of our traditional manufacturing base, such as coalmines and shipbuilding, hit our local economy hard, In many respects we are still coming to terms with that decline.

Incredible! It is over thirty years since Margaret Thatcher was elected by a thumping majority to institute real change in the British economy and the Labour Party is still blaming that era for their own shortcomings and using it as an excuse for a further increase in council tax. Let us not forget that during the whole of the intervening period we have had a Labour controlled council in South Tyneside thoroughly capable of making their own decisions about the direction of our local economy and regeneration, we have also endured thirteen years of Labour government with Gordon Brown stewarding the national economy. Yet there is no hesitancy on blaming slow progress not on the Labour years of financial incompetence, but on that regular whipping post that they turn to year after year – Margaret Thatcher!

As I survey the massive redevelopment of Sunderland City centre, the totally transformed Gateshead Quays area, the whole new frontage of Newcastle’s Quayside, and the almost total transformation of North Tyneside’s physical and economic landscape, I can’t help wonder why those councils took a “can do” attitude and got on with the job! Not something that we could easily accuse South Tyneside Council of, but at least there have been houses built in Jarrow in the past couple of years on land adjacent to Grange Road which has probably lain vacant since the last war , so things are starting to move.

Really we ought to be glad that Martin Swales, the man responsible for driving the change north of the Tyne, is the new Chief Executive of South Tyneside Council, now he just needs some urgency from Labour’s Cabinet in setting firm faster moving policies for regeneration so that he can play catch up with our neighbours.

However, we could do with less of the finger pointing of blame Cllr. Malcolm, every time you point that finger remember that three fingers point back at yourself.

It does make you wonder if it’s our local Labour Party that is preventing us from breaking free of the past.

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Vic Thompson not to seek re-election in Westoe

The South Tyneside Alliance deputy leader Cllr. Ahmend Khan has quietly announced that his colleague Cllr. Victor Thompson will not be seeking re-election to South Tyneside Council following his one term as a member for the Westoe ward in South Shields.

Cllr. Thompson, a man of few reported words, said:

“Being a councillor is quite time consuming and I have now decided to give it up to concentrate on running my business.”

Cllr. Khan thanked Victor Thompson for his contribution adding:

“We all wish him well and although he has taken the difficult decision to stand down, I am certain that Victor will remain an active member of the Alliance for many years to come.”

The Independent Alliance have been swift to appoint a candidate who hopes to win the ward for the Independent Alliance group at the May elections, he is David McBride (apparently not related to the Labour arch spinner Damien)

David has lived in the ward for over thirty years and attended local schools and South Tyneside College before leaving to work in Liverpool and Ibiza. His occupational background is in the construction industry and he is currently taking a part time course to become a trainer in construction skills. David is the proud father of Jack and they both share a passion for football watching both Newcastle and Sunderland at home.

Now, watching just one of these teams play at home isn’t a cheap pursuit when taking children along, but to watch both must be a financially crippling way of getting splinters in the backside from your fence sitting!

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More housing for Hebburn

Another area of South Tyneside which has lain fallow for many years is to be redeveloped for housing. Hebburn’s School Street  village green (see this Google Map), the South Tyneside Council owned land will be developed by a consortium of  Rok plc and the Four Housing Group.

The plans, for the easterly half of the site, include the construction of 71 houses ranging from two-bedroom bungalows to four-bedroom houses.

And, subject to planning permission and a successful bid for social housing grant from the Homes and Communities Agency, works are due to start this summer.

This small area of land was held dear in the hearts of many who grew up by the banks of the Tyne in Hebburn and whilst progress and change are an inevitable part of life, so is reminiscing and holding on to good memories, a local Facebook group has been set up by Carol Unwin, Celebrating School Street Village Green, Hebburn, and she would like you to help provide a gallery of photographs and memories. So, if you can help her out, you know where to go, it will be like a cyber museum for this transient urban common.

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BNP thwarted by additional candidates in Jarrow by election

Last night’s by election for the vacant seat in the Primrose ward of South Tyneside Council produced one of those “squeaky bum” moments for Labour as they narrowly fought off the attempts of the BNP to take their first council seat in the north-east. Labour’s Ken Stephenson held the seat, declared vacant after the untimely death of Barrie Scorer, against a strong challenge from Pete Hodgkinson for the BNP.

Primrose result

Ken Stephenson (Labour) 854
Pete Hodgkinson (British National Party) 566
Aaron Luke (Independent) 213
David Alan Rice (Independent) 174
Anthony James Lanaghan (Conservative) 124
Susan Heather Troupe (Liberal Democrat) 100

Hodgkinson has now come close twice in Primrose, having taken second place to Labour’s Jim Perry in 2008, the BNP saw their vote fall slightly following the introduction of two independent candidates and the Liberal Democrats, in 2008 there were only three candidates for the seat. Turnout yesterday was 32.25% quite close to the norm and only slightly down on the 33% who turned out to vote in 2008.

It appears from yesterday’s vote that Labour’s position was weakened and the BNP’s just about the same as it was last time, the biggest losers were the Conservative Party whose weak base vote became split between themselves, the Lib-Dems and the two Independent candidates. Unfortunately insufficient BNP votes were soaked up by the minor parties and as a result Pete Webber and Pete Hodgkinson are likely to see their efforts as a success and hang around for the next election in May, which, if held on the same day as a general election, could see Labour facing another uphill task to hold this seat as a mood for change affects core Labour voters.

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If the EU decides Darling’s budget, then why even bother having a Parliament?

God their lack of real democracy does my head in, the issue (about cigarette and tobacco duties) is neither here nor there, the principle is paramount. No taxation without representation!

The decision was taken without discussion.

So nice of them!

The Commission appears to decide the Laws, administers the Laws, and in some cases judges the Laws, the Parliament spews hot air about the Laws and the Council rubber stamps everything, the President gets paid more than Barack Obama and we get the bloody bill.

If such laws are to be used as community wide regulations then what is the point of having nation states where Parliaments are nothing more than a branch office of the EU? Why bother electing a government if every law that it makes needs to satisfy the EU? Why bother having a Cabinet, why bother having a Chancellor to produce a budget if half of it is predetermined in Brussels?

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“Authorities” issue another stop and desist to north-east photographer

Before I make a start local readers may be interested to know that Rossinisbird hasn’t quite disappeared but his quirky, interesting, acerbic, anti-religionist, green, climate change, freedom loving, and gaming blog has moved. Brian is now writing at Brian Paget where he relates the tale of two Accrington photographers who were stopped for being …..err…..well…photographers really.

Taking photographs at Christmas events must be a fairly common activity across the country, but the police decided to give these two unfortunate victims of our growing paranoid state a really bad time, and left one of them with a punitive arrest and criminal record, and DNA on file for as long as the police see fit.

Their crime is becoming all too common – reasonably expecting that the police justify their demands for the hapless snappers’ name and addresses, and perhaps give a little respect and use a little common sense at the same time.

It seems that photography must now be on the terms of the police, not the citizenry they are supposed to serve.

Too damn right Brian, it seems all you have to do these days to be thought of as a terrorist or a paedophile is to be male and walk around with a high ticket black bodied DSLR slung around your neck preferably with a large lens poking from the front. The fact that these incidents still happen is perhaps a reflection on the politics of police forces, there have been occasions when the Metroplitan Police have issued guidance to officers with strict reminders that photography in and from a public place is perfectly legal (in general) within the UK, but it seems that countless other forces don’t feel obliged to read or even follow the Met’s guidlines, whilst on the other hand it seems perfectly acceptable (to the police) to harass individuals by repeatedly photographing them in public or attempt to use (illegally) UAVs as Brian points out.

Which brings me to this incident a few days ago when Kevin Shewan was apprehended by Frank just a few miles from South Shields when he was shopping in The Bridges in Sunderland, his “crime” was to photograph his own son on a Thomas the Tank ride with his camera phone. According to Boing Boing:

At this point, a Bridges security guard (that will be Frank) came by and ordered him to stop taking pictures. He said that it was mall policy, and implied that Kevin was taking pictures because he was a paedophile. Kevin told him that this was ridiculous and took his son to find his wife and get out of the mall. He also took a picture of the security guard “so that if I later wanted to make a complaint to the centre I would be able to identify him.” Outside of the mall, Kevin was stopped by a police constable who had received a complaint from mall security that a suspicious potential paedophile had been taking pictures on its premises. The PC threatened to arrest Kevin “for creating a public disturbance” and ordered him to delete the photo of his son. The PC also averred that the Bridges Shopping Centre is a hotbed of paedophile assaults.

I would have liked to report Kevin’s own words but his weblog appears to be snowed under with requests, having featured at Doctorow’s place. Oh well perhaps it will recover in a few days time, I know how it can be after my story appeared in Boing Boing back in 2008. The silliness of these situations begs all sorts of questions about what type of society we are becoming as anti-terror laws introduced in the Blair/Brown years alter the very fabric of our life and have led to a paranoia about paedophiles, Muslims, and Photographers, but not necessarily in any given order. Heaven help anyone with olive skin walking through a busy shopping centre holding their little daughter’s hand with a camera around the neck! We have fast become a nation of stereotypes, pigeon holed into little boxes, profiled and categorised according to risk.

It really is time to snap out of it and realise that we are allowing the actions of some of the smallest minorities in life to dictate the authoritarian colour of our laws without regard to the well being, freedom, and civil liberties of the vast majority. What irks me more is the fact that the north-east, not particularly noted for high incidents of either paedophilia or terrorism, is as much mixed up in this Orwellian madness as London and other major conurbations – “bansturbation” has crept up on us with only a select few raising any real objections, even here in South Shields.

Related posts

• Sex pictures shock
• Miliband on Photography
• An open letter
• Banned, pictures of children
• Great North Cheerless
• The war on photographers
• The role of the camera
• Photographer detained in Middlesbrough
• Times journo prevented from taking photograph
• Arrested for being almost six feet tall
• Sir Paul Stephenson
• Policing the public gaze
• Photographers not allowed to find out where they cannot go
• Terror laws threaten photographers again
• Terrorist laws go off the rails
• Photography and terror laws
• Why I took a stand

There are other such posts in this blog, just do a search for “photography”, in the meanwhile you might also want to take a look at I’m a photographer not a terrorist.

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Brown denies ordering “forces of hell” on to Darling

Cor blimey this is becoming like an epic blockbuster movie as the wicked captain lashes his officers and men into shape on SS Great Britain, the ship that had the best design in the world, and was ready to face the turmoil and tribulations of a debt induced storm of a recession.

Just as some of his swarthy seamen were thinking the worst of the stormy waters had been navigated the boat starts to rock again and another area of deep depression changed the mood back to darkness as this new storm raged about them for four days or more, now the Chief Officer has complained that “the forces of hell” were unleashed against him after revealing that the weather forecast was not too grand, other officers had been sniggering behind his back, knives had been sharpened and his job on the forecastle was in dire danger! Captain Brown denied having any hand in the whispering campaign, but we can be sure that if this ship reaches a safe port Chief Officer Darling will probably be demoted.

Midshipman Woolas put his foot in the slops bucket and rocked the ship further by calling a charitable citizen a “prat” just as the storm seemed to be abating, other crewmen decided that the problems were political, caused by the crew of another ship, it had nowt to do with the leadership of their captain!

But lo what words do we hear from an embedded correspondent with a finely tuned ear listening to the crew in the lower decks? Part of the Captain’s Log had perhaps been altered and possibly by deckhand with previous form for helping his boss in tricky situations, it seemed possible that they had prior knowledge of the breaking storm and that the other ship was not to blame at all.

The rumors above and below decks about the Captain’s behaviour cannot be allowed to spread on this turbulent ship, and the Captain needs to get to dry land in a freshly pressed uniform ready to face an enquiry!

Get and and buy your copy of “Master and Commandline” now, before stocks run out, this epic tale of a ship heading for the rocks will have you gripping the edge of your seats.

Meanwhile Dizzy Thinks has discovered that that the news of this troubled ship and it’s highly strung Captain has reached Taiwan, where it has been reported with some hilarity!

[YouTube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxJoMIFDTSs]

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Councillors – please just register!

Email sent to Cllrs. Allen Branley, Jane Branley (Leader), Geraldine White, George Waddle, Gordon Finch, John Hodgson, Victor Thompson, and Ahmed Khan (deputy leader) – otherwise referred to as the South Tyneside Independent Alliance group of councillors.

I wrote to you in September of 2008 with a simple request regarding your party’s status and it’s absence from the register kept by The Electoral Commission, I did not receive any reply either from yourself or any of your colleagues.

Every party represented by more than one councillor on South Tyneside Metropolitan Borough is registered with the Electoral Commission, either directly through it’s national headquarters organisation or in the case of the South Tyneside Progressives through their local representatives. As a member of the public I am able to access party details through the Electoral Commission’s website and find information about officials, contact telephone numbers, and an annual statement of accounts to help aid transparency in seeing how these organisations are financed.

As you approach a by election which may result in an additional member to your ranks on South Tyneside Council, and during a campaign that most of you have assisted in with common purpose, can you  tell me:

a) Why none of your representatives were able to reply to my email in September 2008?

b) If your beliefs in transparency and accountability, as expressed in your literature, extend to allowing public scrutiny of your  party’s finances.

c.) Does the South Tyneside Independent Alliance have any intention of joining hundreds of other independent councillor groupings around England and Wales by registering yourselves with The Electoral Commission?

I hope I don’t wait another eighteen months before having to chase this one up.

Update 2:25 pm

I must thank the deputy leader of the South Tyneside Alliance for this prompt reply, which I am sure local readers will appreciate:

I am in receipt of your e-mail the dated 22/2/10 the contents of which have been noted.

As you seem to have a number of issues concerning the financial transparency, status and structure of the Independent Alliance I am inviting you to put them in person at our next monthly meeting which will be held on Monday 8th March at the Old Ship on Sunderland Rd at 7pm. The majority of Independent Alliance councillors will be present at that meeting and I am sure they will be more than happy to answer any questions you may have in person.

If you are unable to attend our next meeting you have an open invitation (like every resident in South Tyneside) to attend any of our monthly meetings which are always open to the public (unlike other political groupings). These are held on the 2nd Monday of every month at the Old Ship at 7pm.

We look forward to seeing you in due course.

Regards
Cllr Ahmed Khan

This is a start, but unfortunately it is not heading in the right direction, my email is noted but the requested action does not appear to have been taken, and so I needed to reply, thus:

Thank you for your prompt reply,

however my questions are not for my own personal benefit but for the many throughout the borough who may, for a variety of reasons be unable to attend such meetings, perhaps because of work and family commitments or failing health etc. It would be far more beneficial for these people to be able to access this information online, with the same ease as they could for say The South Tyneside Progressive Association or the East Cleveland Independents, if they were so inclined or interested.

I find it peculiar that the South Tyneside Independent Alliance should de facto require people to attend your meetings and listen to superfluous matters when it would be far easier to register your party with the Electoral Commission and make the necessary information available there. Why should our interested electors be made to climb hurdles and jump through hoops just to obtain details of your funding?

Is the process of registering at The Electoral Commission so difficult for a group of councillors to manage?

Update 9:05 pm

A further exchange of emails between Cllr. Khan and myself, first a second reply from Cllr. Khan:

Thanks for your e-mail once again.
I obviously misunderstood the motives behind your e-mail, I thought for a moment you were compiling another piece about the Independent Alliance for your blog. Whatever your reasons our offer remains on the table should you wish to avail yourself of it and I’m sure that if you or anyone else did attend our meetings we could set asdie the “superfluous” stuff to answer any questions at the begining of the meeting.

Alternatively if you or indeed any member of the public wishes to discuss the Independent Alliance please feel free to attend any of my Advice Surgeries or if you prefer, I can make a home visit at a time convenient to you.

Finally, please bookmark our website www.achanceforchange.co.uk this will ensure that you are kept up to speed with any new developments concerning the Independent Alliance.

He’s getting like a seasoned professional politician now, not much different at all to the others! Notice how he completely evades the issue and refuses to go near it?

My reply:

I am sorry to say, but despite your offers of assistance at meetings that may not be suitable for many people, and the extending of an offer of home visits, you have quite firmly side stepped and evaded the issue before you, like a seasoned politician if I may say so.

Does your party have some difficulty in matching the behaviour of the South Tyneside Progressive Association, the Lib-Dems, the Labour Party, and the Conservatives, and applying for registration with The Electoral Commission?

If not, then why not go ahead and do it? I am given to understand that it is a simple enough procedure.

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After thirteen years, do we really need to?

Gordon Brown is as disconnected from reality as he  is from his mobile phones, printers, PCs, monitors, and apparently his trousers too!

The snag is that, after 13 years, they have looked at the party all too often, and have had enough. The bitter truth Gordon fails to grasp is this: it’s the “second look” that is the problem.

Matthew d’Ancona – The Sunday Telegraph, click the picture for full story.

Asked if Mr Brown had ever hit at him, Lord Mandelson’s answer was a classic of arch Mandy comedy:

“I think history records we’ve had our moments, but I would like to think that I took my medicine like a man.”

The mind boggles.

James Kirkup – The Telegraph

• Gordon Brown’s Top Tantrums – Iain Dale’s Diary
• Time for a second look, and a fifth listen – Capitalists at work
• If oaf Brown doesn’t sue, it’s all true – Raedwald
• Stop workplace bullying – The Lakelander’s View

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,,,,,,,which somehow I missed

Judging by the rubbish that he now routinely spouts – whether lies or delusion I do not know – he should be forced to produce a certificate proving his sound state of mental health before being allowed to stand for election: as should anyone who intends to vote for him.

Simon Heffer on Gordon Brown

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