Hillary Clinton on Heather Mills

Don’t you just love a women of good judgement

Hillary talking about Heather

The Honourable Mr. Justice Bennett talking about Heather

33. The wife accepted that had she had £2m to £3m in the bank in 1999 she is most likely to have put such a sum into an account earning interest. But the tax returns do not disclose any bank interest earned or only very small sums which are not consistent with holding £2m-£3m in a bank or banks. Moreover her tax returns disclose no charitable giving at all.

Priceless.

Lottery lifeline for women

Whist (Womens Health In South Tyneside) gets £1/2m grant

One has to say well done and congratulations to the good people at WHIST (Womens Health in South Tyneside) who have received £500,000 from the Big Lottery Fund. South Shields MP and Foreign Secretary David Miliband said;

“This is great news for Whist. Instead of living from hand to mouth, they will be able to go from strength to strength now.

“I’ve watched how its services have extended over the last six and a half years. The place has a fantastic spirit about it - even when things were not going so well, everyone was always upbeat.

This is a lot of money to operate a creche and counselling services, but hey they filled the forms in, done them correctly, got them sent away on time, made the right presentation and came out on top.

Which begs the question, if money is available from this and other sources how come The West Harton Churches Action Station on Boldon Lane, South Shields has failed to secure a slice for itself. I’m sure 25,000 service users with debt problems, court cases approaching, and counsellors facing redundancy must think that baby sitting is suddenly the flavour of the month. There is a pressing need to point these people in the right direction NOW!

Related posts

• Closure for West Harton Churches Action Station?
• Action Station - silence is deafening 
• Sometimes I am glad that I do this 

Action Station - silence is deafening

What actions will be taken over threatened closure?

Following my post two days ago about the dire situation at the West Harton Churches Action Station in Boldon Lane, South Shields, there has been a flurry of activity, but so far no relpies to my request for comments from the three Labour ward councillors.

In a further indication of the seriousness of the plight of service users there, I can reveal that the specialist debt advice worker has been giving her time voluntarily over the past few months because of the size of her case loads. She has been unable to deal with all of the requests for assistance within the allotted hours for her job, and as a consequence has been working additional hours and days without payment. Outrageously, she has been asked to carry on doing this, despite having been given her redundancy notice! What an extraordinary way to reward commitment! It must be remembered that someone else will have to pick up the pieces from the enormous amount of cases she is dealing with, be it the CAB, or South Tyneside’s Welfare Rights Service, or others, they will be inundated with additional work, should this centre close.

Despite hurried visits from Cllr. Olive Punchion and a delegation from Biddick Hall Residents Association, there have, as yet, been no public indications as to what the next moves will be, or whether channels have been opened with a view to finding emergency funding from other sources. Their plight could really do with wider publicity, because, as they might admit themselves, one of their problems is that they have “hid their light under a bushel” for too long.

The Shields Gazette has been investigating the story, but one hopes that any reactions have not curtailed their ability to publish the story, or interfered with the” freedom of the press”. There is no doubt that a newspaper article could bring this business to the eyes and ears of others who may be able to suggest avenues, or open doors, people who would not necessarily read blogs!

It is in the public interest to help find a knight in shining armour, specialist advice in securing funding, help in restructuring the service, and a longer term commitment, this does not necessarily have to come from the public purse of course.

A deafening silence is not in anyone’s best interest, particularly the 25,000 odd who rely on the West Harton Churches Action Station, or the six professional staff.

Inspirational South Shields woman

Debra Slesser in cheque handover

I’d like you to join me in congratulating Debra Slesser of Westoe, South Shields who is an absolutely remarkable and inspirational woman. Debra and her husband are regular readers of this blog and join in the chat on mt message board too.

Debra has suffered from breast cancer and never once has she allowed it get her down, what’s worse is the fact that she knows her daughter Jessica carries the same risks of contracting the disease when she is older. Debra has had a double mastectomy and breast reconstruction surgery, and spends so much of her own spare time raising money for breast cancer awareness charities, she’s also recently completed the BUPA Great North Run in just over three hours, when she raised £1000 for Cancer Connections which helps cancer patients and their families. She handed over the cheque in the company of the Deputy Mayor of South Tyneside Alex Donaldson.

Just to typify the courage and big heart that she has, the 2007 Spirit of South Tyneside Award winner has just returned from a well earned family break in Dubai, and what did she do on holiday? Take part in a Pink Walkathon to raise even more money for cancer sufferers, a remarkable commitment in the stifling desert heat I’m sure you will agree.

Well done Debra!

“Respect” Agenda under attack

Charity critical.

Amazing isn’t it, we called for something to be done, residents on estates were virtually screaming for action, councillors and policing partners were pulling their hair out, all because of anti-social behaviour on our streets mainly from youngsters. So the government eventually introduced it’s “Respect Agenda” whereby a mix of contracts, instructions, parenting classes, and ASBO’s are used as part of an overall mix of measures to bring back some sanity to the streets. Councils all around the North East have been doing their bit (including South Tyneside where 91 parenting orders were issued since 2000), local communities have been working with Northumbria Police to build dossiers of evidence against the worst offenders, things were starting to look up.

Now we have a charity Parentline Plus criticising this approach saying that the exercise of “finger pointing” doesn’t help and it makes some people worry that they might be seen as “bad parents”, that support should have been available earlier!

Don’t listen to this nonsense, designed only as a cry for funding help no doubt, yes these people are bad parents, that is why they are being targeted by councils, police, and courts in an effort to get them to improve and change their ways. The advice support and help that they couldn’t be bothered to seek in the past was always there. It’s called parents, friends, neighbours, relatives, schools, social services, or Northumbria Police. The first phase in the chain of help is the acceptance of personal responsibility and the acceptance that you are trying to control your children, but things are not working out. Trouble is, some of these people are desperately short of personal pride and responsibility, their lives revolve too much around themselves, they don’t feel sufficiently “connected” to the rest of society, therefore it’s all our fault rather than theirs.

Sorry, but I think that Parentline Plus cannot see beyond the end of their noses, there is an abundance of help, support, and advice about good parenting methods, widely and freely available to those that really want to find it, so if the “finger pointing” needs to continue then so be it!

Curly is coffin dodgin’ today

I struggle with new lottery sign!

Curly has a few jobs to do this morning in the town centre, so he’s left me in charge of the shop and asked me to post this in his blog, I think I can just about manage this keyboard (I’ll have to tell him to stop dumping sacks of potatoes round the back here, the dust is making my fingernails manky!).Before he left he was having a right old moan about how the work in the South Marine Park was going on and Mrs. Baggit from next door was in whinging and whining about never winning anything for the last three years on the lottery, Curly upset her by letting her know that her favourite causes were going to suffer shortly, but she couldn’t get her head round it all poor bugger.

He’d left me this parcel to unwrap and put into the stand outside, something else for the customers to trip over I imagine, oh well I’d better get it done before he gets back.

Posted by Madge (yay I done it!)

Free Fawkes (just in case)

Guido in jail threat!

Fellow blogger Guido Fawkes is under threat of jail in a letter from the Charity Commission over the documents that Guido has received from whistle blowers about the Smith Institute and it’s links to Gordon Brown. The Charities Commission is reminding him that Section 8(3) of the Charities Act 1993, asks for “documents in your custody or under your control relating to political activity by the Smith Institute”. If he fails to provide the information, the letter warns that he “may be held in contempt of court and liable to imprisonment or fined or your assets may be seized”.

A Charity Commission spokesman said: “We have the power to legally require those who we believe may have information pertinent to our investigation to submit it to us.”

Guido apparently is only too willing to submit the papers, which may ultimately result in Gordon’s pals losing their charitable status, but he is devilishly keen to protect his sources first and foremost.

Hat tip for graphic to Theo Spark

Toddy’s ride to Paris

Reminder

Toddy and Quinny are now 60% towards their initial target to raise funds for the Rainbow Trust, remind yourself of this Shields lad’s quest - here.

It would be great if one or two more could donate, say, just a tenner to help them reach that initial target, Now I know we have one or two local business people reading this blog, so, please think about those families looking after children with terminal illnesses and perhaps put yourself in their shoes. Can you donate a little to help them out?

Toddy has a secure online donation form - here.