No CL, I'm not an immigrant!  I'm British, and my documents clearly say "resident".  I'm not going to argue with that in any way at all. 

Quite unlike foreign residents from the EU who come to the UK, I don't get to tell my hosts how they should run their country, and that is how it should be.  I wasn't permitted to vote in the recent referendum on constitutional change, and I wouldn't have presumed to do this anyway, as at best I've only a lifetime interest.  If I'd been forced to vote I'd have agreed with the majority, and said "we don't trust the EUrophiles".  They are actually about to vote again, and I don't think you (or Brussels) will like the result.

7 hours ago, mercuryg said:

That's terrifying. Every time I see a Pakistani I hide. I'd suggest digging a bunker. 

We don't need to dig our own bunkers here as there are plenty of illegals who will dig anything for peanuts.  In fact Italy is now discovering the British lawn - formerly impossible due to the 24/7 labour intensive nurturing of real grass.

No, bunkers aren't necessary anywhere; though I would advise avoiding any public gatherings in a few years time when the sleeper jihadists are activated.

5 hours ago, Canny lass said:

Think medication!

If you can't see the core difference between someone who sneaks into a country flouting all the rules, and someone who goes through the proper immigration procedures and is accepted or rejected on their basic merits and value to another society, then I'm happy to pass on this medication to someone who is in far greater need - you!

Please tell us where this universal right to the product of other people's (and their ancestor's) labours ends?  With most socialists it seems to end at their own doorstep.  BTW I'm told that Happy was over the moon with his new bike and sent me his regards, but I think that he's still waiting for your address and phone number.  In view of the above you shouldn't have a problem with the fact that he (in common with the others, and on good sound advice) threw his temporary papers away.

Correction CL: you are a LEGAL immigrant! You're also someone who isn't lying about persecution, or even where they come from, in order to obtain economic advantage. I also doubt that you are in touch with fifty relatives who also want to sneak in without paperwork. And... if the Swedes say ENOUGH you probably won't call them racists for not wanting the major social problems that unlimited immigration causes.

Anyway, it's Spring here and all starting up again. The offer is still open: tell me how many you want and I will point them your way. Something even more worrying is that there are now significant numbers of Pakistanis in the boats.

I've just done a bike up for my Nigerian friend "Happy" so he can get from his hotel to the supermarket car park on the other side of town with less risk of being own down on these treacherous roads, and the way things are shaping up here this might not be a genuine accident. Happy - like all the Nigerians - is perfectly honest that he comes from what Trump quite correctly calls a s-hole country. He probably won't be quite so honest with officials though, as the network tells him exactly what he needs to say to gain max Merkel brownie points. He speaks far better English than most locals and has no intention of taking the brain dead German government up on their language lessons offer. Like all the others he'll be on his way before too long, and I hope he gets a good price for the bike to help him along.

P.S. Don't worry about your Sterling pension; another Eurozone crisis coming. The "more free stuff" EU will run out of other people's money in true socialist fashion before too long, and their friends the bankers need to move things around wildly at intervals in order to keep up their lifestyle. Think swings and roundabouts.

We must leave the EU completely in March 2019 - No transition period, No delay

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Theresa May is betraying the British people who voted to leave the EU by making the UK stay in until 2021 and paying billions of pounds to the EU while we stay. No immigration control, no border control, no sovereignty - an absolute betrayal of the 17 million voters who chose to leave.

Elizabeth Watson's petition is doing amazingly well: 27,147 signatures now and about 5000 up on when I signed it last night.  Actually... pretty disgusting that we should even need to petition so very long after the referendum. Vested interest walks the corridors of power in our country, and we've a long way to go to "drain the swamp".

Two f's in Rediffusion!   Which was the trading name of Broadcast Relay Service Ltd.

Last full owner was The British Electric Traction Company plc - them wot formerly operated the trams in many cities - demise of the whole thing around 1988 I think.

...and he added a bit at 2:40 just for Merc!

We seem to have two already, and only one of that two is me!  Here comes the rush!

2 hours ago, ex Bedlingtonian said:

Isn't Ashianas a bit further down the block, more to the right of the entrance to Foggans Yard. I think the TSB is on the corner where the fish shop was.

Keep clicking to enlarge.

Seems you've started something WT, and it's going to cost me!

14 hours ago, webtrekker said:

Sorry threegee, I fully understand how cash for clicks works, but I'm an intense user of the internet and enough is enough for me where advertising is concerned, I'd rather pay a yearly subscription just to avoid ads. 

If that could be arranged I'd be the first subscriber, but I'd happily be the second too.

3 hours ago, webtrekker said:

Adblock Plus works for me! 

Ah, don't do that!  Andy gets a tiny bit of revenue from them which helps to pay for the server and camera connection costs etc. Click on the ones that actually interest you, but don't artificially boost the revenue by clicking on ones that don't.  Every click through helps build a better bedlington.co.uk in a tiny way.

Well, go win one for me Eggy, as it's the only way I will ever acquire a vastly overpriced "Apple product".

I get bombarded with ads from the company we already have an internet connection with.  So much for Google's carefully targeted advertising!

1 hour ago, moe19 said:

This was hanging in the National Portrait Gallery she was the daughter of J. Todd Thompson of Hartford Hall, Bedlington, the founder of Thompson's Red Stamp Stores

Ah, yes, yet another nationally recognised family that was a representative of free enterprise and job creation that Bedlington has honoured with a street name or memorial - not!  When I mentioned the shameful treatment of the Gooch and Longridge legacy being the product of political myopia some while ago I was ridiculed.  I feel that the whole thing goes far deeper, and that our town is now very much poorer (and a lot more obscure) simply because of leftist political dogma.  If we are waiting for the teaching profession to rectify this then we are in for a very long wait!

4 hours ago, lesmes said:

Hello again Moe

Yes, down glebe road and would say around the Silverlink car show room spot, and they were the same company as Moore’s Stores that someone has mentioned.

Very good for their general groceries broken biscuits etc, but quite expensive to most.

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1971: Acquires the McColl confectionary chain of 422 shops, giving cashflow required for 14.5m takeover of major house-hold name Bovril, followed by Wright's Biscuits and Moore's stores and a controlling stake in Anglo-Continental

http://www.sirjamesgoldsmith.com/timeline/

Life is full of unappreciated connections! 

Sorry, I don't have any medicine to take, and the pretty young oncologist seemed quite happy when she looked over the medical tests on Monday morning.  Good for another year, subject to another MRI which is proving difficult due to funding problems here, was the verdict.  I might pay the clinic for it myself, but as we've just paid a wodge of income tax to help prop up yet another failing Eurozone economy, I was rather expecting a little of it back.

Have you read the Swedish government pamphlet delivered to your house about what to do when war breaks out between the EU and Russia?  "Duck and cover" is it?

I think the Carillion failure highlights a problem with HOW the contracts are awarded.  The government actually encourages shaky companies to underbid, as a large government contract provides them with cash flow to try to dig themselves out of trouble. 

The government is a monopoly buyer in these circumstances and could easily draft a contract which avoids this pitfall.  The contracts should require that when public funds are involved public money is placed in escrow in favour of subcontractors and their employees, any use of those funds to shore up the main contractors balance sheet should be declared fraudulent and therefore a criminal offence. The government could also dictate the maximum delay in paying subcontractor's invoices.  Superficially this would add to the cost of the contract, but in fact those costs wouldn't be anything like they first appear because it would give smaller subcontractors more incentive to enter the market and lower costs that way - I'm told that many subcontractors simply refused to deal with Carillion because of their ridiculously extended payment periods, and any sensible subcontractor would factor the finance costs into their bid.

The argument about public/private is all rather artificial, because at some point everything in government is furnished by privately controlled resources.  Blair's Labour government rightly recognised this, but as is usual with our politicos they went totally overboard in favour of what "seemed like a good idea at the time".  The government should be encouraged to carry out limited experiments with public funds, but these experiments shouldn't become general public policy until the results are in.  This, of course, doesn't suit the "I have all the answers" politicos.

Shallow thinking CL - the sort beloved by the left.  A club where membership requires you to hold two self-contradictory views in your head at the same time, and convince yourself that both accurately represent reality.

Amusing that Manfred Weber has stood up in the EU parliament in the last few days and deployed exactly the same spurious argument that you've deployed in the number plate debate.

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“The most drastic example for the lack of leadership is probably the debate about the colour of the passports in Great Britain. 

“Just before Christmas, Prime Minster May announced that after Brexit Britain would return to the blue passport. This would be to quote ‘an expression of the UK’s independence and sovereignty.   

“The first problem in this respect is about honesty. The whole story is a scam. 

“EU law does not say anything about passport colours. Croatia has navy blue passports for years already. You didn’t have to leave the union for that. So why do you not tell the people the truth?”

Needless to say the shallow Verhofstadt though this was another hilarious example of British stupidity. 

Yup, "the science is settled".  That's apart from the fact that anything that IS settled isn't science.  Strange days we live in!

I wonder what that flag is Merc?  No, actually I don't!

That's far from the case here.  But... to paraphrase Herr Juncker: The EU flag is losing its importance in Europe.

I  think CL needs to think a little more deeply on the matter: at least as deeply as those on the Brussels gravy train.

The creator of the petition simply wants the right to be British by default again, and not to have to jump through hoops to assert this.  To him/her being British is the default state, and so why should things be different?

In part it's generational, but by no means entirely.  I'm delighted that your flag is the same as mine, and that neither of us are "xenophobes"!

31 minutes ago, Canny lass said:

I can't understand why anybody feels that they must wait until March 2019, or have a petition calling for the right to do so, if they want the Union flag on their number plate. They can have it now if they wish:

I understand the EU flag it's pretty much imposed on you; but whatever, the petition is a signal to the government for when the law is redrafted to exclude EU diktats.  It's up to the level where the govt has to respond now, so we'll be able to read the response in a week or two.

At a practical level: in this part of the EU nothing much is enforced and Brits drive UK registered cars around for years - I will start looking closely but can't remember seeing a GB sticker.  I was using a UK driving licence for almost ten years before swapping it when renewal was required, and that's the norm in these parts.  Crash helmets and seat belts are pretty much optional, that's unless the mayor is struggling to pay the local police wages (which is increasingly the case these days).  They've been going through the old records to try to find property tax bills they've overlooked in previous years in a desperate attempt to keep the town solvent.  So, all the EU propaganda about an economic recovery is just that, and the true state of things is clear in so many other ways.  I don't think I'm going to be using Euros for very much longer!

Happy New Year CL+Pete_+Joe+All!  I'm not telling you what my resolutions are though CL! 

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Union Jack to appear on British number plates after March 2019.

Why is this important? For too long the unity of Britain has been allowed to be undermined and now is the time when we leave the EU to give everyone a sense of national pride once again.

SIGN THE PETITION

10,373 signatures as at 31st December 2017

Just when you were doing so well Ronnie!  You go and support the establishment, and badly damage the UK's negotiating position in the process.  What on earth were you thinking by supporting the Tory rebels, and voting against your constituent's best interests?

Come the next GE this will be remembered.  But, perhaps you've already decided to retire on your parliamentary pension and don't want to rock the boat.  Some answers please?