Curly's Corner Shop, the blog!

Public officials need some sort of protection from this behaviour!

When will Cllr. Khan and his South Tyneside Independent Alliance colleagues learn that this sort of behaviour is simply not acceptable!

They have had a penchant over the years for attacking public officials and now seem to think it is quite OK to link them to the Labour Party.

Well it is simply not OK!

The Chief Executive of South Tyneside District Council deserves a little more respect than this. This “tweet” is an abuse of the man and of his position, let me be quite clear (particularly as I am noted for not being the world’s biggest supporter of the Labour Party) that the position of Chief Executive, or an other Executive Director at the council, or even a lower ranking manager or official should always be regarded as apolitical, neutral, and out of the reach of party politics. They are public servants paid by us to administer the policies of the party that was democratically elected by the people of South Tyneside. I may not like Labour’s policies but fully accept that they have an overwhelming popular mandate here to enact them, I also understand fully that officers of the council would have to administer the policies of any other party should they be elected in the sort of numbers that Labour enjoy. Therefore it is no use having any sort of openly held political viewpoints if you are a paid public official.

Is there no way to protect our officials from these demeaning, denigrating, presumptuous and sniping tweets from this South Shields councillor? 

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Lindisfarne

How low can we go?

Let’s be honest there’s nothing like a good old moan is there?

South Shields has its fair share of moaners and ne’er-do-wells particularly when it comes to car parking, charges, visitors, and shopping, Jarrow of course is a safe haven for many in South Tyneside, but really are we beating a well worn path that leads to nowhere or are we justified in our protestations?

Yesterday the Curly family took a ride out into Northumberland for a little history and culture in the hope that it may provide some inspiration for “Junior” and “Missy”, learning something of how other councils treat their visitors can be an eye opener too and Northumberland County Council is not short of detractors! The 160 mile round trip took in stops at Alnwick, Berwick, and Lindisfarne Island with the first being an unplanned emergency toilet stop in the market town of Alnwick where I discovered that the local Morrisons supermarket did not have customer toilets and the £1 parking charge was only refunded after the purchase of £10 of produce, not the £5 limit that we have in South Shields. Furthermore after a hasty walk down to the market place we discovered that the public conveniences in Northumberland carry a 20p usage fee! Parking in charges in Berwick were £1.8o per hour and again the same 20p toilet ticket, so by time we’d taken lunch and made another natural relief visit I was already £5.40 out of pocket. On returning to the car I discovered that the Edinburgh family parked next to me were in a furious fighting mood having picked up a £60 fixed penalty notice because one of their tyres was more than six inches over the white line marking out the bay! I was pretty glad that I know how to park straight!

And so we returned south to visit Lindisfarne just in time to see the last of the sea retreating across the causeway leaving us almost as much time as we wanted to explore the island, charges at the visitor’s car park were £2.80 for up to three hours, which should be long enough for most people, so I happily filled the machine with more coins but blast it did not print a ticket! So I repeated the operation at another machine and took note of the minuscule telephone number and rang the County Council, alas the 0845 number rang and rang and rang! Another few pounds wasted and I’m now down by £11.00, and then to add insult to injury the kids got bored and Mrs. Curly was disappointed not to see any monks distilling the famed Lindisfarne Mead, not sure where she picked up that misconception, but we purchased a few bottles as gifts for the family. So after an hour and a half I reluctantly admitted that I have a family of Philistines lacking in any real education about the north-east and its cultural and religious history, perhaps its the education syllabus to blame, perhaps its the multi-religious approach of the schools, or more likely it was my own fault for not fully advising them in advance of what to expect. However, having to take a reluctant decision to leave after such a short time was pretty gnawing and I rightly or wrongly thought that once again my day had been marred by the British bureaucrats.

The important point about this Northumberland tale is that once you get away from South Tyneside you realise that our 1p a minute parking charges really are a reasonable amount to ask, the current charges at supermarkets are not “out of the box”, and we still have public conveniences that are clean, well maintained, and free! This does not negate the previous comments that I have made about a shoppers car parking scheme. Whether we think that these things are right or wrong is immaterial, the fact is that we are cheap,  how low can we go? Perhaps too cheap, and perhaps, as the picture illustrates, higher charges will not necessarily put off visitors, oh if only Bede had been brought up as a skyetender and built a monastery next to the Roman Fort on the Lawe Top!

Northumberland County Council’s parking charges work out at roughly about £1 per hour, but after the first few hours the charges ramp up steeply, I’m not saying that they have the correct formula for retaining visitors and encouraging trade and they have managed on more than one occasion to upset the traders in Morpeth, but seriously here in South Tyneside we probably have gone as far as possible now in setting reasonable charging rates for car parking.

Another important point to note  is if a place is worth visiting, if it has important historical artefacts, if it has a place in history, if it has something to entertain and amuse, it will attract visitors in droves without any real problems. Tourists do take a day out expecting to spend money!

Now, who bets that 25000 people would not have been willing to part with £10 to watch Joe McElderry? 

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Gilligan guns for Sovereign Strategy

Andrew Gilligan, the former BBC journalist who was at the genesis of the Blair/Campbell “sexed up document” story, had a right good go at Sovereign Strategy the lobbying company headed by former South Tyneside councillor and MEP Alan Donnelly and current council leader Iain Malcolm in yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph. In a curious article he exposed many of Sovereign Strategy’s tactics in raising cash and then passing on amounts of it to the Labour Party nationally and locally, the main two points of his piece are that (a) the lobbyist is working with the Hacked Off campaign to keep the phone hacking story in the news, and (b) that News International don’t like the firm and he repeats a whole string of allegations made by The Times and The Sunday Times over recent years.

I am just curious as to what Gillligan was hoping to prove or achieve:  so long as we have the type of democracy which involves close links between the press and politicians we will always have professional lobbying firms, and pressure groups working around the fringes or deep within the heart of politics beavering away at ensuring certain issues of interest are prominent in the minds of politicians. Presently, we expect and hope that the relationships between journalists of News International and leading politicians, from all parties, are kept under the closest possible scrutiny until Parliament and the courts have all reached the end of their deliberations. I assume that Gilligan also wants to see full transparency amongst those trading blows during this process, but there will be many other groups and companies similarly involved in gaining privileged access to government ministers who will fall below the radar, and some of these will undoubtedly be supporters and financiers of the Conservative Party.

I just wonder what the effect of articles such as this will be on the revenues of lobbying companies now being bleached by the sunlight, as businesses in the north-east discover that £5000 fees paid to the North-East Economic Forum, which is a very useful body for gathering opinion and strategic regeneration ideas,  is drip fed to the Labour Party to the tune of £160000 over the past nine years, with an additional £41000 personally coming from Alan Donnelly?

It would be interesting to hear either Alan Donnelly’s or Iain Malcolm’s opinion on Gilligan’s surgical excisions into their business. Are they well and truly Hacked Off?

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25000 stars on show!

It was a homecoming triumph for former X Factor winner and this year’s Pop Star to Opera Star winner Joe McElderry as he returned to say an emphatic thank you to his friends and family in South Shields. The Bents Park had never seen so many stars as “Tommy the Trumpeter” (aka Ray Spencer) reckoned that just over 25000 people turned up to the free concert which was part of the South Tyneside Summer Festival, I don’t think there had been such a turnout since Rolf Harris packed them in some years ago, space along the promenade of the north east coastal town was at an absolute premium as Metro bosses Nexus ran a full service on a day that was scheduled for engineering maintenance, visitors came from all over Tyneside and I spent the afternoon partly in the company of a nice little lady who had travelled down yesterday from Glasgow! The Dragon was completely covered by cars and streets in the town centre and beyond were choked with parked cars, those of us who lived locally could either walk or cycle on a very pleasant warm day when the sun came out to welcome our visitors.

I would normally be able to get a prime vantage point to photograph these events and let the world see them, but today I had to take my chances amidst the shoulder to shoulder crush of the crowd, but at least you get to meet and greet! The queues had perhaps began to form yesterday, I don’t know, but there were certainly some folks sitting outside the park at 7:30 this morning! With a line up of supporting acts McElderry was very familiar with, the afternoon was in full swing after Lauren Waine and Scooch had wound up the “glee factor”,  before the local hero made his entrance at around 3:10 for a set which lasted  almost ninety minutes. His immediate family was sat near the front directly below the stage and giant screen which South Tyneside Council had built up to help those further back get a decent view. We were treated to a full “journey” over the past two years featuring songs from his very first audition for ITV’s X Factor, through to his No. 1 single “The Climb”  including  numbers from his new forthcoming album and a soaring rendition of Nessun Dorma the moving aria from Puccini’s Turandot, . When Joe effortlessly reached those high notes the 25000 other stars roared with approval, it was a monumental success.

Many of our local councillors and officers were there to savour the event in a marquee reception for Joe McElderry’s family built to one side next to the main stage and a full civic reception was held after the event in the Town Hall, South Shields in recognition of the very favourable publicity that this young man has brought to his home town. In troubled times our representatives needed an outlet to celebrate some success that everyone could join in with, and without doubt today’s concert was probably one huge success that Joe will remember for many many years.

Next Sunday’s concert in the Bents Park will feature the Lightning Seeds and will compete against the Sunderland International Air Show for visitors, two great reasons for you to visit us!

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South Tyneside Independent Alliance councillor is Doe 1 in US court case!

Shields Gazette report today says of the anti-SLAPP  (Strategic Lawsuits against Public Participation) motion:

It claims that Coun Khan is the target of their 2009 lawsuit – despite there being no named defendants

The San Mateo District Court files say (search for case number CIV482779):

COMPLAINT FILED 04/06/2009 OF IAIN MALCOLM UPDATED TO ADD AHMED KHAN AS DOE-1 DEFENDANT.

MEMORANDUM OF POINTS AND AUTHORITIES FILED BY AHMED KHAN IN SUPPORT OF DEFENDANT DOE-1 (COUNCILLOR AHMED KAHNS) SPECIAL MOTION TO STRIKE

ATTORNEY ADDED FOR THE DEFENDANT(S)/RESPONDENT(S) AHMED KHAN. ATTORNEY: JOHN B BARRIAGE.

Developing….

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Careful Cllr. Malcolm, you might scare the kids!

My guess is that Cllr. Iain Malcolm leader of South Tyneside Council has a good nose for the public mood and understands when we are just about fed up with reading about phone hacking journalists,  penny plundering policemen, and Joe McElderry! (Get in there early by the way). In readiness for what remains of the South Tyneside Summer Festival he is donning his metaphorical costume of the story teller to enthrall us with tales of more shock and horror!

There’s nothing like a good thriller to keep the crowd on your side and worry the living daylights out of the kids! It all reminds me of the shock horror budget cuts of £35m which turned into a net growth in expenditure of £700000. I somehow fancy that this “cut” of £35m was not the difference between last year’s and this year’s expenditure, but the difference between what we have and what he would have wished to have. You might also remember the story of Jarrow constituency disappearing off the map, another one to frighten the poor folks up the river from South Shields, this one emanated from Liverpool University and NOT from any firm Boundaries Commission proposals. Hence we come to this week’s horror story, a good firm evidence based piece confirmed by official government statistics……err……..not quite.

Coun Malcolm’s concerns are based on new findings from Sigoma, a specialist interest group for municipal authorities.

Oh, another academic project, not something that the government has actually officially announced. There is a caveat however, for those who like to pay closer attention to the story:

The Government may put support in place to subsidise poorer authorities……..

Eric Pickles added:

“none would be worse off”

I guess the whole idea of this piece of “localism” is to get councils like South Tyneside to be innovative, creative, and imaginative in attracting and keeping local businesses within their areas, one particular facet of local government that will become far more important in the medium term future if and when the economy starts to show any significant growth. However, the Eurozone debt crisis may throw a huge spanner in the works and restrict credit even further as Britain gets dragged deeper into the business of bailing out other countries which followed the Gordon Brown economic model.

Cllr. Malcolm might like to consider, via his lobbying company, pressuring the government to change the rules about rates and levies on ports so that a definable rate can be charged upon them according to the value of land or property occupied within a local authority area. At present, for instance, the Port of Tyne pays a unified business rate to the Department of Transport which is then redistributed amongst a number of councils, wouldn’t it be better if that rate came directly to South Tyneside for the business that the port transacts in this borough?

It would make a better success story than the horror fiction that Cllr. Malcolm prefers to propagate. Can we get back to evidence and fact based reporting Iain?

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PM emerges bruised from the debate but not battered.

Haven’t done a “pea roast” for a while so I thought I’d throw a couple in today.

Apologies for the lack of posts recently, I’ve been doing a gargantuan research into the analytics of this blog which has now been running for six and a half years, a lot has changed over that time in terms of readership and demographics along with a huge increase in the amount of blogging, micro blogging, social networking,  and the platforms which carry such content. Suffice to say that this blog either needs to keep up with the pace of change or close completely in advance of a new offering. There certainly will be changes over the coming months, the first of which will be a total overhaul of the sidebar links, many of which are now dead, followed by a complete alteration to the style sheet and template. Sorry it has taken so much of my time but it has been a necessary journey.

I managed to catch the first hour and a half of yesterdays debate in the House of Commons and the Prime Minister’s statement about the phone hacking affair, a debate in which he was seen to come out fighting and defended himself reasonably well against MPs lined up to beat him into submission. This was no “humble pie” moment, but a tough fight, Cameron had his back against the ropes and had to take on all comers, he was expecting a heavyweight onslaught from Ed Miliband but the Opposition Leader appeared to have lost some weight, or focus, and only managed to pepper “Call me Dave” with middleweight shots to the midriff, however it was enough to strengthen the nerve of his corner who sent in wave after wave of bruisers to rough up the PM. Cameron didn’t hide away, he stood in the ring for what seemed like 38 rounds and after the fight was roundly applauded by his supporters, including what looked like a 13 year old schoolboy journalist Daniel Knowles.

So a success for David Cameron, but Ed Miliband is not too unhappy either. The Parliamentary Labour Party seems satisfied enough with the few hits he has landed over the past fortnight. In fact, I just spotted him in Strangers’ Bar with (I think) David Miliband with a broad grin on his face. So both leaders are going into recess as secure as they could reasonably hope to be. Everyone’s a winner – everyone but Rupert Murdoch anyway.

The South Shields MP David Miliband must have been pleased, nobody mentioned his partying with the Murdochs!

The party, held two weekends ago, reveals the extent of the couple’s connections on both sides of the Commons.

As a jazz band played in the landscaped gardens of the £6  million property, Mr Freud, who was wearing leather trousers, greeted guests, including Education Secretary Michael Gove and Culture Minister Ed Vaizey. They drank champagne in the company of former Labour Cabinet Ministers Peter Mandelson, David Miliband, James Purnell and Douglas Alexander.

He’d also be pleased in knowing that news of his other work for US corporations was well and truly buried by yesterday’s cream pie bun fight as he continues treading the path created by his mentor Tony Blair.

However it was good to be reminded by the PM that the vast majority of the phone hacking outrages happened some years ago whilst Blair, Brown, and Miliband were running the ship on to the rocks, as we recalled Rebekah Brooks statement the previous day that she’d been invited to Downing Street about six times a year by the last Prime Minister but so far not once by Cameron. The PM also got in a great right hook at Ed Miliband by reminding him that since Coulson is no longer in government employ, the only person with an ex News International hack working for them is the Leader of the Opposition!

As a “judgement day” fight it lived up to it’s billing, the referee had a great deal of work to do much of it in keeping the baying hoards quiet, some just wished that Bercow could manage to be a little more even handed and hush the Labour benches too. Miliband the middleweight could be judged to be both effective and dangerous in the opening rounds but he soon ran out of steam, the fact that he still has a former News International employee working in his corner will not have helped, but fortunately his troops ensured that Cameron took a number of body blows particularly about those conversations hinged around the BSkyB takeover, he kept ducking and diving to evade the shots whether they were “inappropriate” or not! One wonders why his corner men did not give him a better briefing on Labour’s tactic for this manoeuvre,  surely it would have been far better for him to tell the ringside spectators that yes it was inevitable that people came to him and discussed the proposed deal, that’s just what we expect major companies to do with Prime Ministers, but actually I listened and fobbed them off, I told them I have no say in the matter, go and see Jeremy Hunt instead! Instead he stood there trying to parry the blows to the ribs round after round after round until with the final shot he just let out an anguished sigh! It was an unedifying end to a long fight.

Many will judge this fight as a draw and look forward to a rematch after the summer recess, Cameron’s judgement is still under question today and he needs to reveal the name of the company employed to vet Coulson on behalf of the Conservative Party when in Opposition, Miliband needs to get on with publishing the long list of contacts between himself and executives on News Corporation and News International, he also needs to consider if he should continue employing former Times man Tom Baldwin. Cameron scored his best shots by reminding the House that the priority now is to clean up the mess and revarnish the reputation of British journalism (for surely the phone hacking scandal can not be exclusive to News International), and to weed out those corrupt police officers who have been allegedly prepared to take bribes in return for information. He was adamant that the police investigation and the judicial enquiry must be allowed to go wherever the evidence leads them.

Miliband may think his summer holiday will be a cool breeze but he needs to ensure that Labour’s time in The Sun doesn’t leave him with nasty burn marks, whilst Prime Minister Cameron will head off to the coast still in a sweat, but with a dark cloud continuing to hang over him.

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South Tyneside Summer Festival keeps fizzing despite the weather

Well the weather ensured that today’s concert in the Bents Park, South Shields did not exactly enjoy a record attendance (that will come next Sunday) but a big healthy crowd was there under the cover of umbrellas to enjoy the music today. Intermittent showers became heavier downpours as families dressed for the occasion in waterproofs and sturdy shoes, some made do with carrier bags and bin liners, all manner of invention was used to keep dry. Myself……..well I wore a plastic poncho from Bunnings Warehouse in Brisbane, Australia, a gift courtesy of one of my ex-pat readers originally from South Shields, thanks a bunch Andy it kept me dry all the way down to the knees but the camera still suffered.

The unusual thing about today’s free concert was the large amount of youngsters attending, around the twelve to sixteen age group, I quickly understood why when three piece boy band Twenty Twenty took to the stage, they obviously have a large screaming following around here! Unusually for a boy band they actually play their own instruments, and very well too! They have previously supported  JLS, McFly, Selena Gomez, the Sugababes and The Saturdays on their recent UK tours. Some of their sounds reminded me a bit of Green Day but without the over hard edge, anyway the young girls approved in a way I hadn’t heard since the Beatles hit RFK Stadium in Washington, I guess we’d better keep an eye on these young lads who did a great job in getting the crowd warmed up for the main act of the afternoon.

When Sophie Ellis Bextor arrived on stage she set the park alight, rather like a ray of sunshine which we all could have used, dressed in a couture yellow dress and black tights, she looked (to this writer) like the prettiest flower our parks had seen, her band had a tight sound as she bounced and flounced around the stage banging out her biggest hits. The 32 year old who hit the headlines first with a collaboration on Groovejet’s “If it ain’t love” showed no signs of suffering from any cold or throat infection as previously reported. After renditions of Get over you, Take me home, Music gets the best of me, Me and my imagination, and a few others we were treated to a complete Murder on the dance floor to send the soaked Sanddancers home. She made a real professional performance in the rain leaving everyone happy, I guess these events just wouldn’t have the same atmosphere if they were held indoors!

For those who might have been there “councillor spotting” to see who might have been enjoying refreshment at the public expense I can say that those who I saw were outside getting drenched working hard raising money for local charities, and that included Mayor Jim Sewell and his wife Rosemary, as well as Cllr. Faye Cunningham.

And so we move on to next Sunday’s big event when South Shields very own Joe McCelderry will perform in the Bents Park, I predict a record attendance for this free event whatever the weather, parking will be scarce and so will be space in the park, so get down to South Shields early making best use of public transport if you can! Gates open at 12:30 but you can be sure the queue will be huge hours before then, bring your chairs and tents and get ready for a spectacular in the Bents Park! I was told today that we got Joe at a bargain price because his star appeared to be waxing and waning at the time of his booking, that was long before the 2009 X Factor winner won ITV’s Popstar to Opera Star and signed a new record deal with one of Decca’s companies, so this may be the last opportunity for a long while to see Joe McCelderry perform for free on Tyneside.

ps – any photographers out there who could help me out? Whilst shooting the first batch of pictures today I had no problems at all, then after changing from the standard lens to the telephoto and shooting in aperture priority all of my shots were at least four stops under exposed and virtually unusable. Despite changing aperture a few times the problem persisted, and even reverting back to the first lens did not help. It looked to me as though the lens diaphragm was not opening and closing but the short shutter speed was correct. Was it possible that a raindrop on the body had got between the fitting and the lens contacts and prevented correct operation? When I got home and dried the camera, everything was back to normal.

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Was the Security Service involved in the hacking scandal?

As the story about Rupert Murdoch’s News International continues to evolve with more resignations and revelations one small written piece in Iain Dale’s latest platform seems to have evaded Fleet Street (for now) and it involves Gordon Brown’s lieutenant Tom Watson with his cleverly worded question to the Prime Minister earlier in the week. Former Tribune editor Mark Seddon writes:

So when earlier in the week, Watson asked the Prime Minister if the terms of the Inquiry into the Press would also include “rogue elements in the security services”, my ears pricked up. I have been wondering for some time how this level of serial criminality, this bugging and hacking from the Windsors to the Dowlers had seeming failed to register with our rather expensive intelligence services in MI5 and MI6. It seemed astonishing to me for instance that an officer in the Royal Protection Squad could happily flog private Royal contacts without anyone knowing. It also seemed surprising that no one seemed to know of the repeated attempts to access intensely private information on Gordon Brown. Some 4,000 people – probably far more – had their phones hacked, and no one knew what was going over in MI5?

So, apart from asking the Murdochs, Rebekah Brooks, Andy Coulson, various other journalists et al, perhaps the Commons Select Committee for Culture Media and Sport ought to request that Tom Watson appears before them next week. It would seem that he may have important information to share with them. If it is possible that members of MI5 or MI6 had helped journalists in their search for information to get a story at any cost then surely if it were proven, News International and News Corporation could not possibly pass any test that verifies them as a fit and proper organisation to hold a broadcast licence either here or abroad! They certainly ought not to be though of as fit and proper to take over BSkyB at any time in the future, irrespective of all the apologies offered this weekend.

If the Select Committee and the Judicial Enquiry find that this organisation has wormed its way into both the police forces of the UK and its Security Services, along with using its influence to manipulate politicians of all parties, then I’m pretty sure that public opprobrium would be so intense that shareholders might move to break up the company.

Although many will see Tom Watson’s moves as little more than “the revenge of Brown”, ultimately he may have done his country a great service.

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An open thread

For the first time in a number of years I am suffering from the dreaded “Blogger’s block”, a sustained period where I cannot find the inspiration to write, the mercury fails to rise, or there is no anger and indignation with the the world, so for now my verbosity is curtailed. Despite the continuing outpouring of revelations from News International where the focus is now more acutely on Murdoch and Brooks, and despite the promise of more jobs from BT South Tyneside, I cannot  yet feel that necessary burning desire to comment, perhaps it will all return to me in a few days or less.

In the meanwhile here’s a picture taken last weekend during the Mouth of the Tyne Festival in South Shields, perhaps you might like to suggest a caption for it, better still you can use this post as an open thread to discuss what you wish, if it has great relevance to South Tyneside or South Shields all the better.