Malcolm Robinson

Question GGG, do you know the origin of ‘Nu Labour” as a name? There seems to be several claims for the origin of “New Labour”, even Lord Owen claims it was his brainchild in a report in the Independent, but I cannot find the first reference to Nu Labour as a name. Public sector spending will have to come under pressure soon as the money runs out for the Keynesian economic route the current Gov are taking. This may well have a knock on effect locally as a lot of jobs have been created in the NE in the public sector, a disproportionate amount but maybe viewed as a sort of payback for political allegiance. I would also expect to see things like public sector pensions etc come under pressure especially if Bootsie and Smudge get in at the next election. As for electing police chiefs locally it sounds good but may be one of these things where the practice is out of kilter with the theory? I think I would prefer to let coppers be coppers, not apprentice politicians, and still have the elected executive overseeing them.

The Market Place costings were always an enigma. WDC never answered the question as to how much it had cost????? (How do you produce an audited set of accounts?) The rest of the footpath up Front Street was about 90K+40K over 2 years if I remember correctly. This included the bollards. I talked to the lads laying these slabs who said they are patio slabs not paving slabs and they expected to be back relaying them quite often as they were not for heavy footfalls! So ideal for domestic use then, even shed bases!

I think they have realised "you can fool some of the people some of the time but......"

Never Argue with a Woman One morning the husband returns after several hours of fishing and decides to take a nap. Although not familiar with the lake, the wife decides to take the boat out. She motors out a short distance, anchors, and reads her book. Along comes a Game Warden in his boat. He pulls up alongside the woman and says, 'Good morning, Ma'am. What are you doing?' 'Reading a book,' she replies, (thinking, 'isn't that obvious?') 'You're in a Restricted Fishing Area,' he informs her. 'I'm sorry, officer, but I'm not fishing. I'm reading' 'Yes, but you have all the equipment. For all I know you could start at any moment. I'll have to take you in and write you up.' 'For reading a book,' she replies, 'You're in a Restricted Fishing Area,' he informs her again, 'I'm sorry, officer, but I'm not fishing. I'm reading' 'Yes, but you have all the equipment. For all I know you could start at any moment. I'll have to take you in and write you up.' 'If you do that, I'll have to charge you with sexual assault,' says the woman.. 'But I haven't even touched you,' says the game warden. 'That's true, but you have all the equipment. For all I know you could start at any moment.' 'Have a nice day ma'am,' and he left. MORAL: Never argue with a woman who reads. It's likely she can also think.

A 98 year old woman wrote this to her bank. The bank manager thought it amusing enough to have it published . Dear Sir, I am writing to thank you for bouncing my cheque with which I endeavoured to pay my plumber last month. By my calculations, three 'nanoseconds' must have elapsed between his presenting the cheque and the arrival in my account of the funds needed to honour it. I refer, of course, to the automatic monthly deposit of my Pension, an arrangement which, I admit, has been in place for only eight years. You are to be commended for seizing that brief window of opportunity, and also for debiting my account £30 by way of penalty for the inconvenience caused to your bank. My thankfulness springs from the manner in which this incident has caused me to rethink my errant financial ways. I noticed that whereas I personally attend to your telephone calls and letters, when I try to contact you, I am confronted by the impersonal, overcharging, pre-recorded, faceless entity which your bank has become. From now on, I, like you, choose only to deal with a flesh-and-blood person. My mortgage and loan payments will therefore and hereafter no longer be automatic, but will arrive at your bank by cheque, addressed personally and confidentially to an employee at your bank whom you must nominate. Be aware that it is an offence under the Postal Act for any other person to open such an envelope. Please find attached an Application Contact Status which I require your chosen employee to complete. I am sorry it runs to eight pages, but in order that I know as much about him or her as your bank knows about me, there is no alternative. Please note that all copies of his or her medical history must be countersigned by a Solicitor, and the mandatory details of his/her financial situation (income, debts, assets and liabilities) must be accompanied by documented proof. In due course, I will issue your employee with a PIN number which he/she must quote in dealings with me. I regret that it cannot be shorter than 28 digits but, again, I have modelled it on the number of button presses required of me to access my account balance on your phone bank service. As they say, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. Let me level the playing field even further. When you call me, press buttons as follows: 1-- To make an appointment to see me. 2-- To query a missing payment. 3-- To transfer the call to my living room in case I am there. 4-- To transfer the call to my bedroom in case I am sleeping. 5-- To transfer the call to my toilet in case I am attending to nature. 6-- To transfer the call to my mobile phone if I am not at home. 7-- To leave a message on my computer (a password to access my computer is required. A password will be communicated to you at a later date (to the Authorized Contact.) 8-- To return to the main menu and to listen to options 1 through 8 9-- To make a general complaint or inquiry, the contact will then be put on hold, pending the attention of my automated answering service. While this may, on occasion, involve a lengthy wait, uplifting music will play for the duration of the call. Regrettably, but again following your example, I must also levy an establishment fee to cover the setting up of this new arrangement May I wish you a happy, if ever so slightly less prosperous, New Year. Your Humble Client (Remember: This was written by a 98 year old woman; DOESN'T SHE MAKE YOU PROUD!!?)

Felicitations for the day Joe.

A fine oxymoron for a thread title there mrsvic! If there is any ‘proof’ of trying to get this sorted out before anyone receives a ‘court’ letter I would be tempted to counter sue for aggravation, stress etc due to NCC incompetence. In fact it is starting to look like a class action! It does show just how the seamless changeover everyone was promised was always going to be hot air. If the whole idea was to bring local government closer to the people it serves and make it more accountable having remote offices and fewer representatives would seem strictly at odds with that scenario? At the end of the day we own a local council office, its half way up Front Street and perfectly suitable to oversee the Bedlingtonshire area! Please post an address where we can send the cakes with the files and hacksaws!

Maybe if they got back into matrimonial work instead of conveyancing....... I think the niche retailers are exactly what Bedders needs. There is already the largest retailer in the country and one of the most discounted ones who between them should be able to supply the staple goods for the immediate population. To get people to come and shop/spend a day in the town other attractions are needed. (Keeping a large FREE car park would be one!) Instead of throwing cash at multi millionaires maybe offering help at the sharp end might be a more productive way of getting out of this recession. Help with business rates and negotiating progressive rent increases so people could at least try their business ideas out and not end up in hock would be my preferred route as that may give the time needed to establish stand alone businesses. A uniform business rate for the country is crazy when applied to places like Bedders! I don't believe empty shops are indicative of a lack of entrepreneurial flair in the district, rather they suggest a cost/possible reward equation as being too far biased one way. Some real help to address that bias might even produce some sustainable local jobs, as well as giving people the chance to try out their ambitions. There has to be a cohesive commercial strategy agreed for the town, with ALL sides involved, or we continue with the ad hoc arrangements we have now which leaves Bedlington at a complete disadvantage to other towns in the area who have business development managers/town centre managers etc. (We already have a much too commercially underused asset, this web site!) I say all this knowing that one of the commercial units to be built at the side of the new Tesco's will be one which supposedly looks after this sort of thing in the district. However staffed by ex WDC grandees who have consistently failed the needs of Bedlington for 30 years I see no reason to be optimistic as to their future input!

They didn't ditch him when they needed to and now their seats are at risk. Let's just cling on in the hope that something will turn up and sod the country! I think half the front bench could easily loose their seats at the next election. The problem is that we could replace ‘Oc and Ik’ with “Bootsie and Smudge’ another less than desirable double act! If the general population have to get their sleeves rolled up and dig their way out of this mess it would be nice to see that reflected in our political leadership. This budget seems to be unravelling almost hour by hour. The figures are terrible but the cure looks even worse. 20-30 years of debt repayments just to get back to a PSD requirement we had a few years ago and which itself was pretty bad, especially at a time of record tax receipts. Its unbelievable and sheer mismanagement on a grand scale. To paraphrase, they are morally bankrupt, financially bankrupt and intellectually bankrupt with no real ideas of how to get out of the mess of their own making.

Its maybe more about league tables and performance targets these days......

I was shocked and dismayed listening the Darling’s pre budget report in November, which I think was overwritten by Gordo, but the budget of yesterday was even worse as it included at least some figures. If there was such a thing as GB LTD and this was its accounts would you buy into the company? If not how is the gov going to get its bond issues away to provide the capital needed? Ah yes you can always print more of the stuff! Dear me we are really in the crapper. The massive debt overhang will draw down any, much heralded, recovery and mean everyone will have less and less disposable income as any and all taxes have to go up to try and repay this debt. Interesting to hear Darling say basic rates of income tax will not go up for the next year or two but afterwards “we will all have to make a contribution!” The headline grabbing rise to 50% for anyone earning over 150K might produce about 10 billion over the next few years, as long as those people don’t pay tax avoidance lawyers, while the gov increases PSD by 750 billion. Anyone want to guess who will have to pick up the shortfall of 740 billion and that doesn’t include what has been thrown at the problem already. Its not about politics anymore its about survival!

Sadly no exclusive interview with OBL, but just having a potter down Borneo way to hang out with some monkeys. Far be it from me to say such a thing but you didn’t have to go all that way............

I think the ‘perfect’ alignment with the centre of our universe, rebalancing our planets ‘wobble’, the inversion of the poles due to solar storms and the plant’s orbital path might just throw some of those calculations out monsta! Nice political side swipe Mrsvic! By 2012 the basic rate of tax will be 50% and rent and rates will be astronomic even just to keep the pension differentials enjoyed by some ex local authority bods!

http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/risk/a99942.html

This is all very interesting, and merits greater investigation. Meanwhile, I'm strapping myself to my desk for all of 2012, in case the increased gravitational pull of Jupiter sucks me out of the window. LOL. Winter solstice 2012 to be, more or less, exact! (And I thought Aquarius was supposed to being in a new age of free love or was that just the songs?)

Maybe it a sign of a government too long in power, just as the last Tory one was. Morals and ethics seem to be discarded in an attempt to retain that power or it might just be down to plain old arrogance? Whatever it is we are seeing a carbon copy of the last few years of Major's government. Will any political party dare to assume the mantle of cleaning up political life this time?

Like most economic variants it's cyclical (pub closures) and probably due to reasons beyond the managements immediate control. Some will survive and they will offer their customers what they want in their preferred surroundings and at a price they are comfortable with. Wetherspoons has been talked about in Bedlington for many years but obviously the town doesn't fit the potential business criteria in their business models. Had the opportunity been taken years ago to make the town a retail destination by exploiting its pivotal geographic location within SE Northumberland that may have been different. Maybe Tesco's, if they ever do get on with it, can start to address that perception, time will tell but it gets harder not easier as other towns fight to make their own way up the pecking order. Whatever else it needs Bedlington does need a commercial plan for development or it will face the very real prospect of becoming just another dormitory town with a less than salubrious retail heart.

That would scar anyone for life.............

GGGG, where did you get that pic of wor lasses bloomers? GGG, I don’t know which way I lean on the current global warming issue but I do believe that all the pollution in man’s recent history, since the industrial revolution say, must be having an effect. You cannot expect a natural balance to remain when you pump synthetic pollutants out so something has to give; I just don’t know what yet. One thing is for sure, Nature has its own ways of dealing with excess and that normally means a drastic cull of the offending predator! On an esoteric side issue I am fascinated by the Mayan calendar and the soon to be astrological alignments which I think will have a bearing on our more mundane way of life. In fact, if you want a prediction, I think that celestial bodies and their gravitational and magnetic influences will soon become topics of interest, in much the same way global warming has, as we start to understand the universe better or maybe more accurately, start to feel their effects.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbys...-downgrade.html

Just because you have nothing to hide doesn't mean you have nothing to fear! It is all about control and by a gov so out of control! I know it is excused by the term "security" but what exactly are we trying to protect. If our normal way of life is curtailed by these sorts of measures don't the terrorists win by default? As GGG says it has everything to do with the way remarks are interpreted and the people doing the interpreting!

Once again ironic timing , in a week when Gov are now legally able to read everyone's private e-mails the very same Gov are in trouble because of an e-mail!

Ah ha, now we know who writes those Obama speeches! Nice use of classic literary and oratory skills Sym! As for the other, sobriety refrains me from mentioning anyone who might have their lips GGG bound!

GGG, I wouldn’t have exactly baled them out but I would have taken them into state control once things had run its course. With considerable high street presence they could be used to deliver what is needed, and maybe one set for toxic assets, instead of all that cash disappearing into a black hole to maintain them in the private sector. You can’t allow them to all go bust, unless you advocate returning to a bartering system? The moral hazard is now the likes of NR, RBS etc repossessing houses and putting people on the streets, with government control now it is Gordo who is actually throwing these people out and refusing lines of credit for erstwhile profitable small companies while at the same time lending vast amounts overseas. It is a mess of his own doing. Darling’s budget is going to be a corker; I wonder how much he will admit to getting wrong even in the pre budget report a matter of months ago. Sym, I think your are mixing ‘metaphors’! I mentioned the corner shop brigade only by way of extolling their financial acumen as against the distinct lack shown by the treasury team. I think you will find GGG has Bedlington running through him like a stick of Blackpool rock! Monsta, I hope that is an ironic smiley!

But where is Sym going to buy his toffs rags? Are we only going to show individually in slight colour changes to the same shell suits? Speaking of shoes there is one thing which has baffled me (I know that’s easy monsta!) but where does the older generation buy their shoes, coz they all wear the same ones, and I have never seen them for sale anywhere? Maybe this shop had the market cornered and that was they it stayed open for so long?