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Showing content with the highest reputation on 24/01/10 in all areas

  1. Now look Miss Vic, Camille whatever your now name is . I tell you what, the next time it snows I'll round up all the unfortunate people on housing benefit or any benefits for that matter and we'll beat a track to your door,and tugging our forelocks bowing and scraping we'll clear your drive and roads wherever you want to go, since its real money you pay! Snobby B***H. What goes round comes round! Some day you will appreciate the benefit system. I don't wish it on anybody but, to you lady I hope it comes round and quick!
    3 points
  2. 15 years ago I had a letter in the News Post leader proposing passport controls on Stakeford Bridge and people thought I was daft! We now need then on the Morpeth road to County Hall! This whole 'Unitary Authority' thingamajig has handicapped us even further and not just for the reason's Merlin mentions. It is supposed to bring decision making closer to the localities but in reality it has made an Authority which has always been described as being too remote by government inspectors even more so. It would be easier to find the 'Holy Grail' than it is to access officers! I wouldn't care but just over 50,000 people voted for this option, single tier, while over 60,000 people voted for a 2 tier system, what did we get, oh yes the democratic option, single tier???????? This has been imposed by central government against the wishes of the majority of the people who took part in the referendum so the noun to be used does begin with a 'D' but it isn't democracy! We have lost a whole swathe of our elected representatives, maybe not a bad thing considering the costs involved but, and seen services centralised in what for my money is little to do with service delivery but more to do with county balancing its own deplorable budget state. We now have a handful of parish councils who oversee the flotsam and jetsam of services councils provide. Anything with a real budget has disappeared into the hallowed halls of county. As an example we have just seen the decision to close our libraries deferred (that word again!) yet at the same time a new state of the art library opened in Haltwhistle? It would seem cuts in services in one part of the county are paying towards upgrades in another, hardly the level playing field we have been promised even just considering the population figures of each! Another example is in the area of leisure facilities. I know the hard work and dedication it took to get the money for this feasibility study into recreational facilities in Bedlington yet we see Ashington is to get one handed to them on a plate. The cynic in me would suggest mass demonstrations just before an election might just be a lesson we need to learn! Could we have had something else, yes. We should have reintroduced the old Shire boundaries and ran along the lines of the old BUDC, one council for the whole Shire. We have the infrastructure in place, we own, or did own, the council offices on Front Street, no need to use the community centre Merlin we have a bespoke suite of offices. We could have contracted the major services off county, health, education, fire, police etc, yet kept most of the day to day stuff and made our own decisions about the way we would like to see our own area develop. Local decisions made by locally accountable people not by faceless autocrats in the warrens of county hall! Come the revolution brothers and sisters, first against the wall.............
    2 points
  3. It's terrifying. It isn't just the debt, it's the budget deficit - £20 million an hour being spent that we don't have. Or to put it another way I reckon it's about 36p on top of the basic rate of income tax. So if the next government is to achieve the target of halving the deficit in four years, it will have to make huge cuts in public spending and no doubt big tax rises too... and even if successful then the debt will still be going up by £90 billion a year.
    1 point
  4. Merlin, I agree and that's why I think threads like this are so important, they throw up off the wall stuff, some of which could hold some of the answers/suggestions we need to go forward. What is certain is that we need the debate which produces a consensus and then an open partnership with all parties involved in an effort to get the town moving in the right direction. If we are forceful and united enough to do that we will see change, if we don't get together on the issues the status quo continues............ As for the community centre its future seems a bit more rosy than of late.....time will tell.
    1 point
  5. My dog which is a BITCH is called !*!@#(D.I.C.K) and will willingly give you a helping hand! Your swear catcher is not 100% Pity help anyone who is called D.I.C.K when trying to sign up
    1 point
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