Malcolm Robinson

Perchance it is the same the world over?

Better or worse Brian? I don't see how moving the decision makers even further away from the public can bring local Gov closer to the people it serves?

I understand what you are saying sizsells and agree but WE also have a responsibilty.........making sure the people we elect stick to their mandates! I for one would be keen to see just how a councillor is going to impliment the above or was it just another empty jingoism! Can't see it being anything else really.

So Bedders now has 2 Lib Dem councillors out of the 3. That is a shcok in itself!

An elderly couple had been dating for some time. Finally they decided it might be time for marriage. Before tying the knot, they went out for a heart to heart talk over dinner about whether it would really work out. They discussed finances, living arrangements, snoring, and so on. Finally, the gentleman decided it was time to broach the subject of their 'physical' relationship. 'How do you feel about sex?' he asked, rather trustingly. 'Well,' she said, responding very carefully, 'I'd have to say that I would like it infrequently.' The old gentleman sat quietly for a moment. Then looking over his glasses, he casually asked; 'Was that one word or two?

Pity none will come on here, we could have debated their policies!

I think Doughpee has a valid point but at the moment, no, school is not about teaching life preparation. It is more about being able to repeat parrot fashion things which you have been taught. With a lot of parents abdicating their parental responsibilities it my well be a good idea to have lessons along these lines?

Felicitations of the day Mr. Rooney.

A man walks into a bar and asks for a beer. After drinking it, he looks in his shirt pocket and asks for another beer. After drinking that one, he looks in his shirt pocket again and asks for another beer. This happens about another seven times before the bartender asks him, 'Why do you keep looking in your pocket?' The man replies, 'I have a picture of my wife in there. When she looks good enough, I'll go home.'

Mick was in court for a double murder and the judge said, 'You are charged with beating your wife to death with a spanner.' A voice at the back of the courtroom yelled out, 'You b*stard!' The judge continued, 'You are also charged with beating your daughter to death with a spanner.' Again, the voice at the back of the courtroom yelled out, 'You ****ing b*stard!!!' The judge stopped, looked at the man in the back of the courtroom, and said, 'Paddy, I can understand your anger and frustration at this crime, but I will not have any more of these outbursts from you or I shall charge you with contempt! Now what is the problem?' Paddy, at the back of the court stood up and responded, 'For fifteen years I lived next door to that b*stard. And every time I asked to borrow a *****ing spanner, he said he didn't have one!'

Before everyone gets carried away and makes Kev a God, lets see what happens why they play teams at the upper end of tthe table! Sour grapes, Moi, jamais!

Sussing, frussing, cussing!!!!!

Howay the Macems!!!!!!!!

2-1 to the Macems today!

Love him or hate him, he sure hits the nail on the head with this! Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world. Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it! Rule 2 : The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself. Rule 3 : You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both. Rule 4 : If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss. Rule 5 : Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: they called it opportunity. Rule 6: If you mess up,it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them. Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room. Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life. Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time. Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs. Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one. If you agree, pass it on. If you can read this - Thank a teacher!

What do you mean by that monsta? Have you not noticed some councillors coming out into the open expounding great development plans for Bedlington of late? A cynic out there might even venture there is an election about to occur!

Concise as ever Monsta!

Quite agree ex-B but we could/should have been able to exploit those numbers! Now there is no chance!

The democratic process should start with the first rung on the ladder of elections, ie, local ward councilors. You would see them for anything to do with your local council. Next step would be county councillors and like wise they are there to represent your views on a county level. MPs are next for a variety of things but essentially when you need to access central government. Lets not mention EMP seeing as most poeple do not even know who their EMP is! Someone (?) has decided to change this time honoured formula and we are about to loose 200+ ward councillors. It looks very much like centralising democratic power, certainly at a local base. The real problem I have with this change is that Bedlingtonshire returns 17 ward councilors to sit in WDC, and I think there is 40 or 42 in total for WDC, we will now have 2 or 3 to sit in what is really the old SE county area. Any influence we had having nearly half the total of councillors sitting locally is about to be lost completely. The proposed changes, which are imminent, make provision for the likes of parish councils but in reality we have lost control over most of the important layers of local government and these are replaced with the likes of cleaning streets and public spaces. The likes of economic and social regeneration policy instead of being decided by local people directly effected by it are now decided by a much more remote body and one in which we have very little by way of influence to respond to indigenous problems. We need Merlin's wall now more than ever! For anyone who thinks my political cynicism unfounded, are you being spied on, http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/news/main.jh...MC-new_12042008

There is one further question on local politics............ If Northumberland is going to be a twin unitary authority and the councillor numbers will be decimated, will that mean there will be less MP's needed as well? Locally Wansbeck is to dissappear as is Blyth Valley so will we see Big Ron and Dennis at fisticuffs to see who will remain MP for the new area?

I think Brown has missed his chance to go to the country for his mandate. When he has to call an election it looks likely there will be financial carnage in the economy and people will just vote for someone else! Slick boy Cameron looks about as oily as the last teflon coated leader we had and may well pull if off by default if nothing else! As you say GGG it would be nice to see someone with the guts to stick to their beliefs and not pander to media interest but in this day and age...........

So why is there great tracts of ice shelf breaking off into the sea, glaciers melting etc? Certainly looks to me like we have increased the natural flow of the planet's climate. Changes which took centurys now take decades or even less years. Like religions until its 'nailed', no pun intended, it is a religion, belief beased on faith........

Looks like Kev has his bunch of second raters playing for a change! With Sunderland digging themselves out of the relegation black hole all we need now is for the Boro to do the same and we might have three NE teams playing premiership football again next season. Hope so..........