Curly's Corner Shop, the blog!

Hot potato not wired weird edition.

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…whilst failing to control UK PSBN?

I guess David Cameron is taking the right approach in trying to dissuade other nations from continuing to “live on tick” and to get a grip on their own structural deficits, we have gone through one of the most irresponsible economic phases in the modern post war history of the world, there are so many with their heads buried in the sand refusing to see or hear the warnings that eventually when the chickens come home to roost there will be no more corn. One cannot expect nations to borrow excessively without any means of being able to repay the debts, only the most manic households run their family budget on this basis, but after Gordon Brown and Barack Obama badgered the rest of the free world to “invest” in their economies and borrow to bail out the banks following the financial collapse of 2008 it follows that the strain on financial systems will eventually cause a very severe and painful recession as the cash runs out. Hence the need for a false solution known as quantitative easing, to you and I this more easily understood as turning on the presses and printing more money, a historical cause of inflationary pressures leading to increasing interest rates! The writing is already on the wall in respect of the UK economy although the Bank of England is extremely reluctant to allow base rates to rise in fear of depressing the fragile economy even further.

The greatest worry that I have over David Cameron’s fine words in the “new world” is that his coalition government is not making sufficient headway in its own efforts to tackle the budget deficit left by Labour’s wholly incompetent handling of our money, the latest figures for the UK’s Public Sector Net Borrowing requirements showed a record £15.9bn borrowing for last month, an increase of£1.9bn over July signalling a likely inability to meet the full year target set by the Office for Budget Responsibility. Those who warned that austerity measures were going too far too fast were too hasty to judge, and the reality is that the UK’s public spending and national debt are still far from being under any strict control, the coalition government’s problems are massively compounded by the crisis in the Eurozone propelling further injections of our cash into foreign banks to prop up states that (a) followed Gordon Brown’s advice to spend their way out of recession, and (b) did far too little far too late when they realised that no growth equated to no cash. On top of this it has been revealed that the build up of (off balance sheet) debt accruing to the “investment portfolio” of PFI schemes rolled out by Labour in their last term grows with inflation and is likely to have crippling effects on public bodies such as the NHS and Local Authorities as they face up to thirty years of heavy mortgage payments to private companies as well as being tied in to massively expensive maintenance agreements, much as new schools and hospitals are welcomed the method of paying for them is a scary business. South Tyneside will not be immune from this either and I predict that the future costs of our new schools and clinics will lead to even tougher decisions having to be made on expenditure for other services in a painful reality check (if only John Major’s government had not had this bright idea of mortgaging our children eh?).

A reality check is needed from Cameron and Clegg too, it is right to get the Obamas and the profligate spenders of this world to mend their ways, especially if we want China to lead the world into growth, but the PM can only safely harangue them if he is comfortable with the financial stability within his own country first, and for now I don’t think that the coalition has really got to grips sufficiently with the debts left by the disastrous Mr. Brown. Furthermore, spending cuts and austerity measures do only half of the job, the other half requires a complete change of direction, and it was “change” which Cameron campaigned on during the last election, to produce a radical and credible growth policy which involves reform of the taxation system.  So far there have been very few signs that George Osborne wants to stimulate the economy with an effective plan that shifts the emphasis from public to private sector investment, the 50p tax rate needs to be abolished despite the howls of protest that will ensue, the Lib-Dem plan to take the low paid out of the taxation system needs to be enacted quickly, National Insurance contributions from start ups need to be reduced, and most importantly we need to re-adjust our relationship with the EU and throw off  the shackles of its financial and political strictures we need to get back to having a great trading market with Europe as it was originally envisaged. Osborne needs to be reminded that lower taxes have always resulted in higher tax revenues, and if coupled with lower public spending this will encourage consumers to have more confidence in their own budget planning and spending power and their decisions will help foster a return to controlled growth in the economy.

In short Cameron’s warnings may be right, but he must put his own house in order first before lecturing the world, his government will stand or fall on this one single issue.

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It explains my absence

I haven’t gone away and left you all alone, I’m just busy processing the almost 400 pictures that I shot on Sunday as the Great North Run made its way through South Shields. I always shoot RAW files, which I process myself, unlike .jpgs you have no idea what your picture looks like on your computer monitor until this is done. I won’t go down the road of explaining how the image on the back of your camera display is only a .jpg and not totally representative of your full 32 bit RAW file, however I will tell you that I am trying to tell a complete story of the Great North Run in South Shields Daily Pictures related in a “Polaroid ” style and hope to have about thirty days worth ready to show by next week.

Meanwhile, I have to say that I’m a little annoyed that Cllr. Potts chooses this place to carry out his incoherent arguments about public sector pensions, just as public sector legal teams are doing their utmost to make it easier for himself and three other plaintiffs to pursue litigation against a so far un-named Monkey, and to stoop to using personal insult against another of my readers here is pretty poor form. I’m sure Cllr. Potts knows that he is capable of a far higher standard of debate than this, as he has demonstrated in the past.

We should all know by now, that pensions provision for all of us, whether in the public or the private sector, is unlikely to be sustainable at current rates as the UK’s population gets forever older. We all need to understand that those of us working now, are working to provide the pensions of our children, our father’s generation worked to provide our pensions, and that we will all need to either contribute a higher annual amount to our pension pot, or work additional years to fill it up. Otherwise we face certain penury.

Still, I cannot see any point in striking or withdrawing labour over the issue, it won’t go away.

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Is South Shields conservative with a small C?

Yesterday Mrs. Curly and I celebrated our 23rd. wedding anniversary and a brief look back over those years reveals a time of relative contentment and steady, rather than radical, change in most things in life here in South Shields.

We were married in St. Mark and St. Cuthberts church in Quarry Lane a ten minute walk from Mrs. Curly’s parent’s house on JimmyForeman’s favourite estate, that estate has now been demolished and replaced with a pleasant mix of private and social housing, the in-laws now live only a five minute walk from the church where only the incumbent has changed, the gardens in Cleadon Park still look just as lovely in summer! The function room where we enjoyed our reception at The Nook is still there although under different ownership, the taxi firm who provided the wedding cars still operates out of South Shields town centre and we still live in our first home, although we started adding the first of two lovely children in 1997. I have since taken early retirement from the employer that I was with in 1988 after serving them for 23 years, they still operate from the same location in the town centre where I was fortunate enough to find a job in 1985 having been made redundant at a builder’s merchant a month previously. My father and brother still live in the same locations although sadly my mother has passed away, we have watched our children grow into young people attending the same schools that they started at, although one has been upgraded during the Building Schools for the Future project. Today I will go out and photograph the Great North Run just as I did 23 years ago, it has sort of grown in size like me!

In the past 23 years the approach to South Shields along the Western Approach dual carriageway has altered little at all until this last year, the Eureka is no longer there and a small house building scheme is under way, the old Plessey factory has at last disappeared and land has become available of redevelopment along the river frontage of Rekendyke. We still enjoy the facilities of Temple Park Centre, even though they are long past their “best before” date, and for other leisure pursuits the West Park and the two Marine Parks are still there, the South Marine Park looking rather better after its restoration. The rest of the sea front in South Shields will not be radically different until the swimming pool is erected and in use.

Things may have been different of course if certain schemes had been pushed through against some local opposition, if circumstances had allowed faster redevelopment of other projects, if recession had not provided a stumbling block, but I am perhaps becoming more mellow in my older years realising that although we have had a Labour council throughout that period many times their hands have been tied by outside influences and the Chancellors who have held the purse strings. However, until this year, they did manage to raise our council taxes every single year! To be fair  most of the visible changes in South Shields have occurred during the period of the current leadership of South Tyneside’s Labour council after many years of holding the ship as steady as possible.

Compare South Tyneside to any of our neighbours over the last 23 years and you just lose track of how swiftly Newcastle, Gateshead, North Tyneside, and Sunderland have change in appearance over that same period, we have put a small housing development and two larger buildings on the riverside beside our Market Place and both buildings ran into major opposition! I often wonder if part of the problem with the canny folks o’ Shields is that they don’t embrace change, at least not major change!

Are we inherently conservative with a small C in South Shields?

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Great news (for photographers) – Red Arrows will fly

Readers will be very aware that I’m a keen photographer and never miss many chances to promote South Shields and the north east of England with my images, particularly through my main photoblog South Shields Daily Pictures. The Great North Run with its 50000 entrants jogging down the 13.1 miles from Newcastle each year is one of those events that really has helped to put South Shields on the map with great TV coverage from the BBC and massive news coverage in the media over the Sunday and Monday each year. So it was with some concern that I viewed the possibility that the RAF Red Arrows might not have been able to fly at the event this year following the investigation into the tragic death of Flight Lieutenant Jon Egging who was killed at an air show in Dorset last month. However those fears have been allayed with the announcement that the famous Hawk trainer display team will complete all of their remaining engagements this year and will fly over the Tyne Bridge in the eight plane “missing man” formation, I am still unclear whether or not they will fly a full formation over South Shields as it is reported that the Red Arrows ground commander, Red 10 – also known as Graeme Bagnell – will be running the race himself, adding an extra poignancy to the display. The Red Arrows are expected above the finishing line in South Shields at 13:15 Sunday 18th. September.

Having seen the huge Great North Run village being steadily erected on The Leas over the past ten days, and the wreckage wrought by the remnants of hurricane Katia , it is indeed good news that the event will have its usual shape and compliment of attractions. As normal, hundreds of competitors will camp in South Shields over the weekend utilising the two caravan parks and the Bents Park, and many will also be staying in our few hotels and many guest houses, such a shame that we didn’t have sufficient facilities for many more of them to enjoy a full weekend here. The visiting competitors from around the UK create themselves a good party atmosphere from Friday afternoon through to Sunday evening, and for amateur photographers South Shields offers exceptional opportunities to add to your portfolio with celebrities, internationally known athletes, TV personalities, and the RAF Red Arrows all waiting to be snapped.

My best hints and tips include staying away from the finish line unless you are really familiar with the local layout, you will only get a few seconds worth of chances to photograph the winners, and find a way in to the inner part of the course before the runners reach South Shields. Getting around on the inside of the course is relatively easy with a few good positions granting ease of access for photographers. Try these to capture both the leading runners and/or the massed fun runners:

• Roundabout at the junction of John Reid Road (A1300) and Newcastle Road (A194)
• Roundabout at junction of John Reid Road and   Winskell Road
• Roundabout at junction of John Reid Road and Boldon Lane
• Junction of John Reid Road and McAnany Avenue
• Roundabout at junction of John Reid Road and King George Road (A1018)
• Roundabout at junction of Prince Edward Road and Sunderland Road – Harton Nook
• Roundabout at junction of Prince Edward Road and Marsden Lane (B1301) – Marsden Inn
• Foot of Redwell Lane at junction with Coast Road (A183)
• Blackberry Hills (accessed from Hertford Avenue at rear of Lincoln Road), please park considerately here it is residential.

From these locations, easily travelled by bicycle or car, you will get plenty of colour fill shots, good crowd shots, and excellent chances to get close to the athletes as they near the finish, you will also find other entertainment and side shows to fill your memory cards with, I’d suggest taking at least 2 X 2 Gb memory cards as you will fire a lot of frames.

Best positions for shooting the Red Arrows include Blackberry Hills (where I took the above shot from in 2009), or if you are on the “outside” of the course, Souter Lighthouse makes a great backdrop and gives a good chance to combine the Red Arrows with the piers at the mouth of the Tyne. Other good spots, particularly if you have a DSLR and a long lens, include the south pier looking towards Trow Rocks, top of the South Marine Park to catch the planes over the piers, and the top of the North Marine Park.

Some other hints and tips – look for the unusual, especially amongst the spectators and fans. Try and capture the whole feel of the environment, this is as much about feet and legs as it is about celebs, besides they pass so fast you might miss them! If you are using either a compact or a DSLR set your camera on aperture priority at around f16 and try and get some slower shutter speeds to introduce some motion blur to your shots, and if the weather happens to be bright and sunny remember to take a neutral density filter to cut down the light. Otherwise, set your camera to shutter priority mode at around 1/500th second or faster to freeze the action, or use a sports mode if you have one. Get your camera down to ground level now and then to capture a wider vista of massed runners on the road. If you are going to get down at the finish line don’t stop shooting just because the Red Arrows have finished their display, there are loads of opportunities to capture families reuniting with runners, tired and aching athletes and the elated looks of those with their T shirts and medals.

After the event be aware that there will be transport difficulties as thousands of competitors and visitors make their way out of the town, another good reason for hanging back and getting those extra valuable shots that tell the whole story. Be patient and don’t be in too much of a hurry to get back to your PC to process the pictures, and once you do make a start, don’t be afraid to try a few in black and white, it conveys the mood and the story possibly even better than colour.

If you are coming to South Shields for the Great North Run have a great entertaining time, be safe, and make the most of it, hope you all return again soon.

You can see my 2009 series of pictures starting from here, just keep clicking on the right hand arrow to move forward.

Happy shooting everyone!

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Motion to Strike found to be frivolous

South Tyneside Independent Alliance councillor Ahmed Khan continues to be in a running legal battle with four plaintiffs including three fellow South Tyneside councillors and a senior council officer. His Twitter account having been named in court papers  in California’s San Mateo District Court in an action designed to make social network site Twitter reveal details of posting activities to help in the investigation of the mystery blogger Mr. Monkey, Khan’s pro bono lawyers filed an anti-Slapp (strategic lawsuit against public participation) motion to try and “strike” out the case put forward by the plaintiffs. Khan’s defence team intended to pursue a route which claimed that the lawsuit was an attack on freedom of speech and expression under US law. Yesterday the presiding judge the honourable V. Raymond Swope ruled that Ahmed Khan “failed to meet his threshold burden of showing that his acts arose from protected activity”. He also stated that “the instant motion is FRIVOLOUS”, and EVEN MORE EGREGIOUS  than the filing to strike in a reference case used as precedent.

Having already launched a campaign of self publicity claiming that his freedom of speech, and that of his constituents, was being denied by the council’s legal action using social networking site Twitter and the help of a freelance former Shields Gazette journalist, Khan’s Twitter page is today benignly silent on the latest US legal action. The plaintiffs too are wisely keeping their counsel apart from stating that the case is ongoing.

It might help clear some misunderstandings amongst the public if the plaintiffs would release a statement telling us the general themes of their legal actions, the necessity for bring them, the reasoning for the use of public funding during this investigative stage, and their desired outcomes.

You can keep up to date with the US case here, searching  under “case number search” for case type “unlimited civil”, and case number 482779.

The plaintiffs are required to show their intent to press ahead with the case by the beginning of October.

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MacFool

Murdo Fraser is the hot favourite to be elected as leader of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party, and as part of his election campaign he is already promising to break away from the party in England and  Wales to form a new party of the right in Scotland, seeing the present associations with the Conservative Party as “toxic”.

He wants the present members of the Conservative Party to vote themselves out of existence and transfer all of their assets to a new party, as yet unnamed, a communal suicide pact such as has never been witnessed before in British politics  – or has it?

Fraser himself has not exactly set the world of Scottish politics alight, in the old North Tayside constituency he has progressively fallen further and further behind the SNP’s John Swinney over the past ten years, but amazingly becomes an MSP through the present regional list system used by Holyrood, and since the resignation of Annabel Goldie has set out on a course to try and reverse the fortunes of the centre right in Scotland. Having seen their representation in Westminster reduced to one seat Fraser sees the burning of the old party and a rebirth from the ashes as the only way out, rather than formulating new and attractive policies that counter the “Independence” argument with a free market alternative to the broadly socialist tendencies of all of his opponents.

There is a very strong traditionalist and Unionist tendency within the Scottish nation that does need to be re-awakened, I personally doubt that a referendum right now about Scottish Independence would be won on behalf of the SNP, there are many constituencies which retain the Shire like nature of their English counterparts, there are strong historical links to economists, historians, and politicians of the three major British parties that suggest that the appeal of the Union is still strong, besides a breakaway would lead to the end of the Lothian Agreement. This alone would force the hand of those without the experience of leadership and governance as much as the taxing problem of raising revenue and setting spending constraints every bit as tight as those felt in England and Wales. These are far more important issues for those of the centre right in Scotland to be concerned about rather than a re-branding exercise under a new banner, in what appears to be an act of appeasement towards the SNP.

Breaking away from the mother party has not been a fruitful exercise in recent history, as numbers of hopeful SDLP MPs found out when they were assimilated into the Liberal Democrats, they lacked the financial muscle to survive after the initial launch funding from some industrialists, and Murdo Fraser is about to run into the same brick wall as Sir Jack Harvie, who leads the Focus on Scotland group, is determined NOT to contribute any funding to Fraser’s breakaway party. Harvie’s group has donated over £1m to the Scottish Conservatives in the past three years, he is reported to have said:

“Focus on Scotland is the vehicle that currently provides the majority funding for the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party (SCUP).

“This funding arrangement would most certainly not apply to Mr Fraser’s breakaway party.”

“For having scandalised SCUP (Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party) by word and deed they would surely have no place within SCUP in the future!”

In other words any new re-branded party could immediately be scuppered!

Some MSPs see a name change as “radical” as the party continues to sink in Scotland, one in the BBC report even goes so far as to say:

“We haven’t even been treading water, we’ve been slowly sinking, there is a desperate need for a radical new agenda.”

My own view is that like some football teams in a very bad run of form, falling down the pyramid with successive relegations, the Scottish Tories have developed a losing mentality, and the reason that they are unable to even tread water is that many of their members don’t want to get their feet wet these days. We see the same tendency in areas of Tyneside after so many years of banging doors to garner just a few votes! What they need is an injection of confidence and youth, a set of modern policies openly formulated in a very transparent manner where party members feel as though they are part of the team playing for each other and not just for the manager or the board. A set of policies tailored to suit Scottish needs should not be a great issue for them, the Scottish Conservatives have always had their own identity and constitution within the broader party and they have produced some heavyweight politicians in recent decades to send to Westminster such as Teddy Taylor,  Michael Forsyth, and  Malcolm Rifkind.

The great lesson that members should remind Murdo Fraser of is this, re-branding simply has not worked in the past, it did not work for Labour’s “Gang of Four” and the SDLP, and David Cameron’s exercise in re-branding his party as “the heir to Blair” failed to win an outright election victory as recently as last year! It is ideals, ideas, and policies which meet modern aspirations that win elections not slogans and badges!

Mr. Fraser can sleep easy in his bed, despite the threatened lack of funds, he still has the whole hearted support of a South Tyneside man steeped in the history of recent Scottish politics, our very own “virtual councillor”.

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As close as possible to the impression

In my last post a Mr. MiCawber asked if it was possible to get pictures that compare the new BT South Tyneside HQ on Harton Staithes, South Shields with the artist’s impression published about four years ago at the time that proposals and consultations were getting underway. Another commenter asked if we could have some involvement from youngsters who would then feel more empowered about their own futures and how they can help shape South Shields. Well, a bit of good news on both fronts for you in a moment.

First of all, thanks to some readers, we have tracked down these pictures which you see today, the picture above shows the new BT building as it nears completion and below you can see the artist’s impression before the building project began, in this impression the BT building sits in a new Riverside Park designed to link the River Tyne with the Market Place and town centre, whilst providing the opportunities for people to enjoy walking by the river in a pleasant environment which provides the views to which they have become accustomed over the last few years.

One does NOT have to stretch the imagination too far to realise that this BT building is not going to be a blot on the landscape as suggested by many of the respondents to The Shields Gazette!

Just before the summer holidays began BT wrote to every head teacher in South Tyneside inviting their pupils to take part in an art competition to mark the opening of the new BT Building, the theme for the students to follow is what they think the riverside area will eventually look like after the regeneration and rebuilding processes are complete, this is future stakeholding at work tying in the imagination of youngsters and encouraging them to take a view of the future look of their town, it is to be applauded. Winners will see their work framed and mounted inside this new business centre and be taken on a tour of the building at the official opening event, their will also be cash prizes for the winning schools. I seem to recall that this was one of the first suggestions that I made to development officers at the first of their road shows in 2007, a good point here being that it is both important and rewarding to take some part in the consultation process rather than ignoring it.

This is a major redevelopment in South Shields and covers a huge area of riverside frontage from the Market area all the way along to the old Readhead’s shipyard (Aker McNulty as it is now) and so far there has been NO political objections in principle to the proposals and designs so far formulated, it would be an almighty shame now for some local councillors to start bawling and shouting now that the first major building is almost completed, they have had ample opportunity to make their views heard over the last four years, and if they had nothing to contribute over that period then it shows they were incapable of even looking at the horizon, let alone past it!`As for the respondents to articles in The Shields Gazette recently, they must be blinkered and completely ignorant of the plans that have slowly developed over recent years, and clearly they have NOT taken any interest in how those plans were arrived at, it worries me greatly that their pretty silly objections may gain some sort of credence through a wider online readership, I do NOT feel that they are representative of the majority of residents in South Shields or South Tyneside who, I believe, will come to like the new more modern ambience that our riverside will provide in due course.

Surely when it comes to riverside views they do not want to go back to the good old days of this?

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