Save the pigeon cree!
North East MP calls for pigeon cree to be saved!
Frazer Kemp MP for Houghton and Washington East has tabled the following Early Day Motion, and I kid you not!
That this House supports the campaign by the Ryhope Allotment Holders to maintain and protect their environment which includes the world’s only listed pigeon cree; calls upon the owners of Worktalent Ltd to withdraw their notice to terminate the lease; and believes that these historic allotments should be held in trust by the community and provide facilities for local children to enjoy and understand horticulture and the care of pigeons.
Yes, that’s what they spend some of their time in Parliament doing, launching campaigns to save pigeon crees! Good grief, it’s even a “listed” cree, what type of list that it’s on is not clear, but what certainly is clear is that folks like to criticise the North East for being a little insular and backwards looking at times, in contrast to the efforts of politicians that I witnessed yesterday. Frazer Kemp does little to promote the best interests of North East regeneration with motions such as these. The pigeon cree may well deserve to be relocated (the birds would take some time to reaccustom their inbuilt GPS systems, for sure), but it’s hardly the most pressing matter for the region.
Curly's Corner Shop, the blog! 
I don’t understand why you have a problem with that. If it keeps them busy they won’t have time to do any real damage. I think I might ask my MP to initiate a debate in our (Canada) parliament to protect pigeon crees.
Joel Klebanoff
November 16, 2007 at 4:18 pm
How many times do we say the little Man & Woman don’t matter. So here we have someone prepared to raise at the highest level a concern to some of his constituents.
Yes i am angry about other issues,I wish I could debate with the judiciary, why a young man can crash a car, kill four in a family, leaving a child relying on the extended family, no father mother brother sister.
Why can two drive a car kill a grandfather both blame each other, then the judiciary say we can’t prosecute we don’t know which was driving. Posecute both then you’ll se the truth come out.
Why should we read on a regular basis of sentences, that don’t fit the crime, of people in society let down by authority, left to face the bad elements on their own.
You may think this is an overreaction, but are some in this borough not fighting to save green grass, visa v a hotel on the sea front.
We all think our issues are important our space is sacred.
Long may those in positions of resposibility watch out for the little people.
Grafter
November 16, 2007 at 5:20 pm
I agree with Grafter. What do Worktalent want to put in place of the crees anyway? I don’t get the assumption that regeneration is somehow inherently preferable to preservation: lots of our culture, football for example, could be described as insular and backwards looking. Are you suggesting that MPs should only concentrate on issues that concern the majority? I thought they were there to represent all their constituents’ interests, no matter how small or insignificant they seem to others. And if we’re talking about wasting money on EDMs, how about Stephen Hepburn’s congratulating Sunderland on their promotion to the Premier League? What exactly did that achieve?
Well done Frazer Kemp.
Michael Hudson
November 16, 2007 at 6:08 pm
Aha, more housing of course. And the allotment holders have only been offered £2,000 to relocate, when they estimate the true cost would be around five times that. I guess retired working men can be insular and backwards looking, but there’d be nowt much to regenerate in this region if it wasn’t for their efforts in the first place.
Michael Hudson
November 16, 2007 at 6:15 pm
Grafter’s final sentence is profoundly in tune with my libertarian views, but is this really a matter for Parliament. Something which cannot be solved at local level by the little people.
I seem to have a knack of finding controversial subjects!
curly
November 16, 2007 at 6:47 pm
But as you yourself must know Curly, not everything at local level can be solved by the little people, especially that magic word development is concerned. That’s when they need some help from a decent, hard-working MP.
It’s not as if Parliament is going to be convening an emergency debate on the issue. All that’s happened is that one member has raised the concerns of a group of constituents. Politicians are meant to be the servants of the people after all.
Michael Hudson
November 17, 2007 at 11:57 am