Malcolm Robinson

Now hey, nothing wrong with Mr Pratchett I started reading his books before he got other people to write them and anyone who can wear a hat of such proportions to hide a bald head cannot be all bad!

I was reading a new book last night, by a bestselling American novelist (Clive Custler), and he had to “ground” one of the characters in Newcastle upon Tyne. He did that my mentioning the guy was 20 miles from Bedlington! So my question is, does that make Bedlington more internationally famous than Newcastle? Guess I know the answer on this forum! I have come across references to Bedlington in another novel I read but can’t remember the title? Anyone else come across the Town in this way?

Take a wild guess Wanderer!

Liked that one as well Swalnalla and don't knock on my door in the AM as I will be sacrificing a goat to the unholy deighty that is WDC!

Excellent CK!

Lets not catagorise anyone. That way lies total boredom and no chance of learning something new and interesting. Please don't attempt to shape this site to meet rigid requirements. Otherwise you will find life very dull, boring, and lonly. Joe Don't think that will happen in this site Joe, if anything the moderators let too much through! I agree you need knowledge to make the decisions pertinent to your own life and mixing with others who are not of the same mind can only be benificial as you see and hear other ideas. Of course that depends on someone having an open mind and willing to explore other ways of doing things. The problem seems to be that it is that very "openess" which allows the zealots in, and not just religious ones! I presume it is hoped that society is educated enough to recognise these extreamists for what they are and disregard their teachings because the only other option is to have a closed society and that is somethign we like to think we will fight against. Recent global events and their "local" repercussions would tend to make me wonder if we are now on a knife edge between the two states or indeed if a Totaliterian state dosn't already exist in the UK?

I am with you on that one Joe, come the revolution brother they will be the first ones against the wall!

A couple of thousand years of death and destruction all in the name of a benign religion!

Saw that CK but one thing puzzels me, if the subject matter is religion, which is really a belief in something which grounds it, then does it not transpire that 666 is indeed the numeral of the beast as it has been belived in by people over millennia or was their core belief just wrong? For me 50 is far more scarrier than 666! We now know where threegee moonlights, making up questions for QI!

It wasn't the Xmas lights, per say, Denzil it was what they represented, ie, WDC's commitment to Bedlington. As a fully PAID UP third partner in the unholy alliance which is WDC, shouldn't Bedlington have got a third share?

That will be Homo sapiens confined to xenophobic genocide then, will it?

Denzel, you could get a job for Bush in his foreign affairs office with views like that!

[ Where else on Earth would pass up such a tourist revenue opportunity? Well - I'll tell you where - the completely unsung Town that invented the railways that now span the Earth, and for good measure was also the birthplace on the guy who engineered the very first transcontinental communications cable. Both of the inventions which have completely transformed the World over the last century and a half. There is, of course, a well-visited museum to these great engineering achievements. Err... no! So.. welcome to the Town that's had it's identity stolen in more ways than one. The famous Town which is head and shoulders over very other Town in the World in the total and utter lack of enterprise stakes! Who is to blame for this? Well, it's a long story, and not too many people come out Persil white. Maybe I will get around to documenting a bit of it before too long. Like that one Threegee! Couple more for the pot; Documented history from around 900AD. Links to the spread of christanity. "Shire" status awarded. (Maybe someone can dig out when, where and why?) "Invented" iron rail tracks. Built most of the first steam locos. Sir Danial Gouch. "Chartist" movement. First penny black posted here. All in all a rich tapistry of history, certainly during the early part of the industrial revolution of the country, and as you say worthy of at least a visitor centre celebrating a World Heritage site!

Seriously, it should be pointed out that those on the buildings have once again been fitted and funded by the Bedlington Forum, and not W.D.C. We are all grateful to Mr. Brian Oliver for the hard work he unselfishly puts in organising the Bedlington Town Forum. Hear Hear! Once again the Bedlingtonshire Chamber of Trade is putting, time, effort and money into lighting St Cuthberts Church Yard - which overlooks the Town Center. To give them credit, I'm told that dear old Wansbeck District Council is putting on a much better display on the lamp posts etc. this year. (Could some of the public critisim here have been heeded?) The cameras will be out shortly to test this hypothesis. It still smarts to think that almost 15 grand of Bedlington's publicly donated money was usurped by WDC and we saw lighting displays which "WE" had bought up in the likes of Ashington! They might be putting a bit more into Bedlington now but they have a long long way to go!

Looks like they need Thunderbirds on standby when they try that!

Are we really going to see all the closed pits reopened? If you belive they were closed for purely economic reasons then the price of coal nowadays is reason enough to see them opened up again without considering that link! If China is bringing online a "dirty" coal fired power station very couple of weeks we are really pittling in the ocean!

Sorry Pete it was the American mid terms, I was just interested to know if anyone thought the results might have a bearing on domestic policies. For my money it looks like they already have as we now see a scramble to have a timed withdrawl from Iraq. Also if the people knocking on your door ask you to vote in a local election, for a national political party, then then their policies must be questioned locally. I know at least two "sons of Bedlington" who have been over there fighting for......well....er....hmm....the oil interests of the USA, Saddam apart of course! If we now justify the war by saying the removal of a dictator was the reason for it and that in itself is a good enough reason to go in then when do we invade North Korea et al, or do we now just accept the hypocracy clearly on show?

I suppose this is to Threegee but since the site overhaul there is a page popping up just before the first page of this site. It is only for a split second and I have seen "Bedlington" on it, what is it?

I am in the same boat Pete, all this is as clear as mud; Bellamy's stuff looks like common sense to me though? Having said that just looking around you can see the impact we have had on this planet of ours and because of that I would tend to err on the side of the environmentalists. The truth will probably lie in the middle ground somewhere. Somebody must have the answer. Once again I would put the onus on the politicians. They are backed by banks of quangos and comittees who's sole aim is to get to the bottom of whatever they are charged with investigating. They then have a duty to report back to their electorate, the people who pay for everything, to keep us informed and so able to make rational decisions, not the least being where to put a cross on a ballot paper! That would seem another part of the political process which has been short circuted as we see the big guns coming out spouting what they think, or whatever party line is to be used, and the back benchers unable to speak as the whips have effectivley stuck their lips together all in the name of party unity. Some issues are way above party politics, I would suggest this is one!

As I said for every expert who says climate change it our fault there are others who say....... http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml...MC-new_05112006

So PN would you advocate PR as a way of redressing the balance or does that produce inneffectual Gov? I have to agree with your sentiments, Labour take the area for granted and needn't do anything to sweeten electors and the Tories get very very few seats in the area so why bother. One thing I stumbled across recently which might make the Labour bit slightly askew is that something like 55% of new jobs created in the NE over the last number of years are civil servant jobs. If that is the case at worse then it looks like an unholy burden on local ratepayers in the years to come given the texts of recent postings and at best a kickback for all the safe seats they have! I still find it strange that an MP who is supposed to represent an electorate never canvasses public opinion from that same electorate? The only people who get in to see them are the vocal minorities who they seem to cater for at the expense of the vast majority!

Looked at the link but couldn't that expedential forecast for gas generating be substantially reduced by renewables? If there are a new barrage of "green" taxes etc they would have to go into the costings of all forms of power generation making renewables a much safer bet (financially). It has to be a mix of renewables as the only one which is always available is tidal. Saying that if there is no wind it is usually a sunny day (solar) and if it is inclement weather there would normally be a wind which would seem to suggest some type of natural synergy?

I am a bit lost when I hear the Gov talk about adopting "green" power. Isn't this the same jokers who privatised (albeit in different coloured ties!) the nation's power supplies? How can any gov dictate to a private business how it should develope? Yes they might be able to give grants and sweetners but to dictate a policy? Same goes for the transport and water industries. They are either nationally owned and the elected Gov can then say what goes or they are privatley owned in which case a small board of directors have the final say. Or are we talking about the Gov starting it's own brand new "green"power companies in which case maybe the people who bought out the old ones might have something to say? I may have missed something, like does the Gov retain a 51% shareholding in whatever it privatised and therefore has a contolling interest in which case anyone who bought into the whole privatising scheme has been misled! Listening to the latest offering off our elected "betters" the proposed scheme at present is to tax inefficient users and the money goes to.........well err.... back to the people they are taking it off in one guise or another. Don't these people talk amongst themselves? I would be all for wind and wave power because you must factor in the detrimental effects and their costings any other way of power production causes. And to all those people who do not want a wind turbine in close proximity to them or think they spoil a view maybe they should consider taking Miliband's radiactive waste!

I agree with what you are saying especially about holding politicians to account but the wheels of power move to slowly for the solution to be put in place, They will still be debating this issue next year. Pete, I know all about those dammed wheels of power moving too slowly! And yes the ploliticians will be talking endlessly and most of the time aimlessly, why, because that seems to be their job these days! They will say they are held to account every 4 years or so but that is Bxxxxxxs! Let us not forget they are only there to REPRESENT OUR views, that being the true sense of our democratic model. Somehow that has been lost and we now find we are being told what to do and how to behave by people who you wouldn't let your dog take for a walk! Next time you see a politician on TV sidetrack or refuse to answer a specific question ask why they are on the show if they are not going to give straight answers! If I was the interviewer I would refuse them anymore airtime! My biggest fear is for my Grandchildren and what future they will have, could they be looking at a scorched Earth? That would be my concern as well! Being of a certain age, it should be encumbent on my generation to leave something better than we found for future generations, as it is my generation who are the power brokers at present!

Malcolm Have we got a true Green party? Surly if we went 100% green we would have to get rid of all the cars, buses, trains and anything else that spews out carbon including industry. We would have to go back hundreds of years to the days we hunted rabbits and lived off the land (not a bad thought by the way or maybe not we would probably have to pay tax with carrots and rabbit skins). Pete, I do not really know the answer to that one but if we look at things sensibley, Nature is a carbon user so that must mean there is an equalibrium we can arrive at. The problem seems to be the way we have over developed "dirty" industry so we produce more than Nature can accomodate. With only the bottom line to think about business has ignored this effect in the persuit of profits, and to give consumers what they demand, lets not forget! I have no doubt business can clean up its act as long as consumers will take the hit for the extra costings. Some look as if they are already doing that but China and India have a lot of catching up to do before they take on board this type of business model, can we really blame them and do we have the right to pontificate? I know this is a serious issue that has been debated for many years now but nothing seems to happen, no government to date has really done anything about this issue, it’s been talk, talk and more talk with no results. That is why it is so important to hold politicians to account! How serious do other countries take this issue, I have watched three different news channels this morning, two of these channels played heavily on this issue the third didn’t even mention this issue at all needless to say it was an American news channel, if there not interested can GB do it alone? Of course we cannot, GB's pollution is a drop in the ocean compared to others ( I wonder if Maggie was a closet Green and that was why she decimated manufacturing in the UK!) but we do seem to be pretty good at inventing solutions. As a mature economy he have a requirement to try and redress the polution we have caused in its development even if it is just to show others it can be done and show developing economies how it can be done!