Curly's Corner Shop, the blog!

Ten things we may not know about the South Shields MP

• 1. David went to state comprehensive schools in Leeds and London - No mention of Corpus Christi College, University of Oxford or his S.M. degree in Political Science at MIT, nor his frequent visits to Mortimer Community College in South Shields. Surely he isn’t trying to hide his geek credentials?
• 2. David was Secretary to the Commission on Social Justice, set up by John Smith, which led to Labour’s minimum wage and better rights for families. – Shame then that the gap between rich and poor got wider under a Labour government that he was so prominent in.
• 3. As Environment Secretary, David spearheaded the Climate Change Bill – setting the world’s first legally binding framework for cutting emissions. – Pity that there is still no real consensus on the science, well to be honest there seems to be greater doubts,  nor much criticism of the shameful actions at the University of East Anglia.
• 4. David was behind ‘Building Schools for the Future’ a programme to rebuild and refurbish every secondary school in the country and he helped introduce thousands of new teaching assistants to the classroom – Thanks for giving us the plethora of PFIs and adding to the nation’s massive debt problem, it didn’t improve discipline at school either, in fact things are so great in the new schools that some favoured head teachers, who can get themselves promoted on MIliband’s leaflets, introduce sloppy uniforms in response to pupils’ untidy dress standards, go figure!
• 5. As Foreign Secretary David has stood up for human rights in Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Middle East and spoke out against the invasion of Lebanon by Israel – Yet he fails to defend the human rights of British people incarcerated in Guantanamo Bay without good evidence, and where there is any evidence he prefers that judges don’t see it just in case we might think there was any collusion in torture! Oh and then there is the problem of the displaced Chagossians, what happened to their rights?
• 6. David was a major contributor to Labour’s manifesto for the 1997 General Election which brought the party to power after 18 years in opposition – Well at least we know who to blame now!
• 7. David was the first Foreign Secretary to write a blog - Wow! Did you ever read it? Inspiring eh?
• 8. As a supporter of Arsenal FC David’s favourite player of all time is Dennis Bergkamp - Bergkamp was design with nose like Pinnochio’s, it would suit many a politician, but the revelation that he enjoyed the sensation of watching a foreign born footballer earning a small fortune in the Premiership is not enough to sway me into thinking that Miliband ought to be Leader of the Opposition.
• 9. David’s favourite book is the Gruffalo and his favourite poem is Roots and Wings – Err…right……kids stuff, but we all knew it wasn’t the Green Book detailing Parliamentarian’s allowable expense claims.
• 10. David’s snack of choice is a Twirl – Ha, and we thought it was a banana!

Emphasis/fisk is mine

From Miliband major’s latest new campaign website (he has a lot of time on his hands these days to set up new websites). His kid brother is a bit more cleaner cut, but surely we’d prefer to see Ed Balls running the show eh?

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

ID Card scheme to be scrapped within 100 days

Many in South Shields may not be bothered one way or another but this news is a huge relief to the few of us around here who have held the flag of liberty, freedom, and civil liberties over the years, even though we may have waived it around in differing directions. It is good to see the Conservative and Liberal Democrat partners in government moving ahead with projects to roll back the state and save our cash with such incredible speed and determination.

I note from the lack of howling protests coming from the left (ah yes, silence is golden) that apparently the whole idea wasn’t all that popular with them after all, just a pity that they couldn’t have called upon their principles and beliefs to prevent Blair, Brown, Straw, Clarke, Blunkett, Smith, Johnson et al from inflicting such a monumental infringement of our privacy and liberties upon us, and that’s without raising the issues of the horrendous costs and unproven effectiveness.

The BBC reports that:

Some £250m was spent on developing the national ID programme over eight years and its abolition will mean the government will avoid spending a further £800m over a decade.

If you were stupid enough to buy one of the National ID Cards then I’m afraid that this government will not be offering you a refund of the £30 you recklessly thought would save you from international terrorism. If you are desperate to get the cash back then can I suggest that you write to Unite the union who are the principle bankrollers of the Labour Party, I’m sure they’ll find the time to consider your request after they have finished their attempt to crash British Airways.

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

Did South Shields take a bribe from opposing striker?

I’ve never come across this one before, so thought it was worth sharing, especially as it involves a former Sunderland player.

Barney Travers, the Fulham centre-forward, was banned for life for allegedly being involved in the fixing of the  South Shields v Fulham match. He had joined Fulham in 1921 from Sunderland having in three seasons he had scored 52 goals in 104 matches for Sunderland.  His transfer to Fulham was for £3,000, equalling the British record transfer fee at the time.

Travers scored 28 goals in 45 appearances for Fulham, but was banned for life by the FA in April 1922 after it was alleged that he had offered a bribe to a South Shields player to ’throw’ a Second Division match at Horsley Hill.

I don’t suppose any of my readers will be old enough to go back that far, but some historian of The Mariners, now playing at Filtrona Park, South Shields, may be able to shed a little more light on this.

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

How a working class lad from South Shields failed to like Labour.

I write this mainly for Bill Cannon, the former South Shields’ man now living in Stockton on Tees, who seems terribly interested in the personal minutiae of myself and my family.

My political journey began, I suppose in the early 1960s when as a child I can remember the appointment of Douglas Home as Prime Minister and his subsequent loss to Labour’s Harold Wilson in the general election of 1964. I was born in South Shields in 1956 in John Williamson Street one of those “long streets” that Catherine Cookson eulogised over in her novels, into a community that consisted mainly of shipyard workers, railwaymen, and miners, with a sprinkling of “professionals” thrown into the mix. I was born into a family that had deep roots in this tightly knit community, and there were many relatives at close hand who had lived on the riverside for most of their lives.

I attended Barnes Road Infant and Junior schools before passing the exam to gain entry to South Shields Grammar and Technical School for Boys, located in a part of South Shields that I had never previously known existed! Much of my thoughts on my early years were recorded here and also here. Life back then, up to 1973, was very much as Cookson described in her books, and retelling tales to those who would listen in my later years often drew looks of incredulity from my listeners. It seemed to me that people living on the estates came from a completely different world, their world did not have cobbled streets, nor did it have outdoor toilets sharing the back yards with coal houses and washing houses, they could not comprehend how people could possibly wash their clothes in tubs with poss sticks and wring them with mangles, they had indoor bathrooms with running hot water, they had washing machines, fridges, and even gas fired central heating in some cases. Not for us such luxuries, and not wishing this post to sound like the old Monty Python Yorkshiremen sketch, but it is true that for some years we had a “black range” in the sitting room, a 12″ square stone sink in the scullery, a small gas stove, and a tiny gas water heater that provided hot water at about 2 litres per hour to fill a galvanized zinc bath in front of the fire! We had ice on the inside of the windows in winter and the whole family shared two bedrooms and a small sitting room, we had  gas powered street lights, tea, pop, fish, and vegetables were often delivered by horse and cart, and a man made a racket at 04:30 each morning as he tramped up and down the streets rapping on doors with a big stick to ensure that the men at Readhead’s shipyard were out of bed in time for their shift.

You have to remember that South Shields by the late 1960s had already enjoyed many years of Labour control over the County Borough Council, and that in 1945 Major Dennis Healey (later to become a Labour Chancellor) had promised to build “a land fit for returning heroes”, yet here we were living in Catherine Cookson land more than thirty years later existing in properties so tightly bound together that even a rabbit warren might have been viewed as more spacious. Yes, the majority of these properties were privately rented from virtually absentee landlords, but as more and more developments continued to grow on the outskirts of the town it seemed that the riverside area of Rekendyke and the streets around Mile End Road, and behind Westoe Road in the town centre, had been overlooked as Labour went on a spending spree of council house building. Don’t get me wrong, moving into a council house nearer the town centre was a boon, but why had it taken over thirty years to fulfill Healey’s promise?

In the final period in John Williamson Street we had reached the stage where the miners had decided to challenge Ted Heath’s government, the oil crisis had hit, so they moved against the democratically elected executive at a very vulnerable stage, we were into the three day week and it wasn’t long before our electricity was rationed. Parts of South Shields were allocated slots during the daytime or evenings when the electricity would be switched on, so on top of the normal privations of life we found ourselves walking the winter streets in pitch darkness – I had learned by now that Socialism was a system for switching off the lights!

I was by now a teenager with a thirst for knowledge and an ability to independently think for myself, when Wilson was returned to power and the country was almost bankrupted under the Chancellorship of Dennis Healey (Britain had to go cap in hand to the IMF for a bailout loan), I discovered that he was only following a line of Labour Chancellors who had ran out of cash. I had already determined that the Labour Party cared more about power and position than it did about the plight of its core supporters, I had witnessed first hand the neglect shown to large communities in South Shields, but the party cared only for the occasional vote at local or national elections. I had also determined by then that the Conservative Party had a track record for putting right the financial and economic recklessness of previous Labour administrations, my mind was already forming my first strong opinions ready to use when my first chance to vote came along.

In later years I joined the Conservative Party for a time, as detailed in one the posts which I linked to above, I found no middle class or upper class “toffs” apart from a doctor and an accountant who were both as nice as ninepence, the rest of the local association was made of people who were just like you and I, working class – but independently minded. Just people who believed in different values, personal responsibility, the benefits of free enterprise and capitalism, the ability to grow yourself, your family, or your business without the interference of the state. Even now today, the members of the South Shields Conservative Association who I met during this year’s election campaign are the just the same as you or I Mr. Cannon. I can guarantee there are no old Etonians or old Harrovians in this town!

I have endured two periods in my life when I have been out of work (and I have been fortunate to be able to find work on both occasions), both during the years of Labour governments and both during deep recessions caused by budget deficits and profligate spending and borrowing, Labour just never learned how to manage other people’s money – but it was after all, other people’s, not their own! I still live in exactly the same type of terraced housing that I was used to down by the riverside, I do not have huge aspirations, I am still true to my roots, I love this town and I love the people who live here. I have many friends in the Labour Party and trades unions who have remained warm with me ever since those days of playing football on cobbled stones, they know that I have not deserted my roots. They also know my views, that the Labour Party for too many years after the last war took it’s voters in the north east for granted, it used us as little more than voting fodder to feed their ambitions, but left us with little tangible change until recently. The Blair years brought the whole of British politics onto the middle ground, you call it the centre right, Brown and Cameron continued this journey, so it should be no surprise that it aligns with my own political views, although admittedly mine are a little further to the right than Cameron’s.

Now, having read a little more about my background, perhaps you can start to accept that I am actually just a normal working class bloke (and I hate using these “class” analogies because I don’t see myself as being “tribal”), and that people with “professions” actually do some useful work for all of us, and that sometimes you will find someone who doesn’t feel the need to blindly vote according to tradition or custom and can think for himself. The fact that I believe in a different free market political philosophy is all that you really ought or need to know. I have not abandoned my roots at all, they are growing firmly under my feet, but the Labour Party was never the right gardener for me.

If you don’t mind, please try to steer clear of delving deeper into my private family life, otherwise I will close the comments to this post.

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

A bi product of a long weekend without internet access or television, thank you Virgin media you were so unkind, especially as we were looking forward to the UEFA Champion’s League Final. On the plus side the Medieval Fayre and day out at Bede’s World in Jarrow was exceptionally good and really well attended. Got my myself a bag full of shots of some very tasty looking birds, I’ll get some posted up on the photoblog over the next few days.

Anyway, enjoy the thought of the South Shields MP, David Miliband, enjoying his ice cream as we bake in this rather nice weather!

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

What should we do with this magnificent building?

Superb riverside development, with one previous owner, 47000 sq. feet of prime office space, fully kitted out with the latest telecommunications equipment, car parking adjoining, now redundant and available from administrators Pricewaterhouse-Cooper.

We need to remember that for now the call centre on Wapping Street/Long Row, South Shields is assumed to be a fixed asset of C J Garlands now in administration, and ultimately it is for the administrator to realise the value of this asset on behalf of Garland’s creditors. Assuming that Pricewaterhouse-Cooper finds a new owner for the building any change of use would need to be approved by the local planning authority after suitable consultation with local residents.

Cllr. Ahmed Khan and other have suggested, very reasonably, that it might make a good home for BT South Tyneside rather than having to expend £30m of tax payer’s cash on a purpose built site at Harton Staithes, however BT have said they are not interested in taking over the former Garland’s site. They would prefer to go ahead and cause some upset by erecting a building that will reduce our relatively new found views of the River Tyne.

Conversion to a hotel/conference facility is also probably an option but because of the design of the buildings with large open areas and huge windows facing on to the river, conversion costs would be huge.

So the question remains, what would we, the people of South Shields like to see this building used as?

It could be well suited for educational or training purposes with minimal adjustments and would help to add skills needed for future employers, or it could be readily adapted for commercial letting of office space on the upper floors with a high quality restaurant on the ground floor, or even a small restaurant and shop units on the ground floor. Another idea that I had was to house a Museum for Maritime Heritage bringing together many of the collections related to the River Tyne which are currently held in various locations by the Tyne Wear Museum service (although this would be another consumer of cash, rather than a cash generator in tough economic times).

What ideas do you have?

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

“The free bar will clear the gallery”….

said South Tyneside Independent Alliance Cllr. Ahmed Khan

Click the picture for the full story.

A strange coalition party/not a party of Independents who cannot agree on what to do.

I imagine that this is how the council chamber South Shields Town Hall looked after the Annual Meeting.

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

Just don’t complain about the weather!

Via our Greek friend, and David Thompson.

This was filmed on Sunday 16th. May in Oklahoma City, let’s just pray that the weather in Jarrow this coming weekend will not be anything like as bad.

Largely sunny and warm on Saturday and Sunday but with a risk of an isolated thundery shower.

From the Met Office forecast for the north-east this morning.

I mention this because our new South Tyneside Mayor Cllr. Tom Piggott gets his first big public outing of the year at the Medieval Fayre which is part of the Jarrow Festival on Sunday from 10:00 am till 4:00 pm. This free event is really worth a visit, and for those of you who have a big interest in photography you will find plenty of opportunities as the majority of stall holders and participants will be dressed in period costume and partaking in battle re-enactments, cooking, crafts, weaponry, falconry, and all sorts of other things to entertain. The event is usually held in Druitt’s Park (Charlie’s Park) opposite St. Paul’s Church in Jarrow, and you will also have a good opportunity to have a wander around Bede’s World Museum, which features free entry for the day!

Be warned, if you are travelling from South Shields, Hebburn, or Cleadon and the Boldons, car parking will be at an absolute premium and you may be better off using public transport.

It’s an event that I never miss with my camera! (Is the top one Jim Sewell in his Sunday best?)

However, I’d like to know where all of the Jarrow councillors get to, I cannot say I’ve ever seen any of them there (unless of course they were disguised as serfs).

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

Parents of under fives face having their homes vetted by inspectors.

By God we have some jumped up numpties and Stasi types working in the Department of Health:

Parents of children under five are to get home checks to ensure they are keeping their youngsters safe.

Inspectors will check whether families have installed smoke alarms, stair gates, locks on medicine cupboards, windows and ovens, and fitted temperature controls to stop bath water getting too hot.

Guidelines for inspections have been drawn up on the instructions of the Department of Health in a bid to prevent injuries among under-15s in the home.

For heavens’ sake allow me to have my own bloody accidents, allow me to calculate risk, and allow my children the freedom to grow and learn without state interference!

I would have to ask if this is seriously for real? Come on, it isn’t made up at all is it?

Well you never know, I refuse to link to these articles for a long while yet, seeing as they belong to a newspaper which appears to have seriously undermined England’s efforts to host the 2018 World Cup! (Three cheers and three lions for Gary “big ears” Lineker please).

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

There must be some red faces somewhere

This particular Garland is not exactly smelling of roses today, having built a “small call centre” on the banks of the River Tyne in South Shields (so small that it competes with the flats on River Drive), and having promised an explosion in much needed employment, they threw all two or three eggs into the one basket, and tried to deliver a business model fashioned in Mumbai, using the labour of young impressionable people in South Tyneside at very low cost.

I wonder just how much has the local taxpayer contributed towards the setting up of the call centre at Market Dock/Wapping Street, how much cash was stumped up by development agencies, central government, or even the EU? How much did C.J. Garlands invest?

The reported stories of the poor lads and lasses who were summarily thrown on the scrap heap reveal much when read between the lines. Obviously not a company that prided itself on stakeholder involvement, nor one that encouraged bottom up communication or 360 degree business appraisals, nor by the looks of things (and I may be wrong) was there any recognised trades union representation.

Somebody would have had a good handle on their business methods before they were given permission to locate in South Shields, so the question has to be: must some of our local politicians share the responsibility for wrecking these young lives and selling the illusion of long term sustainable economic regeneration?

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