Stourport upon Tesco?
8th August 2010
8th August 2010
News comes that Tesco are now allowed to go ahead with their plans to gridlock Stourport, through he building of their new supermaket, after the Co-op lost their case in the Court of Appeal last week. This means not only will we have traffic gridlock but that the High Street will become decimated. So however many jobs Tesco will claim they are bringing to the town, remember the ones we will be losing, particularly if the Co-op eventually closes down (which I think it will within 18 months of Tesco opening).
Now amongst this disastrous news for Stourport, Tesco seem to have one key champion on their side. Step forward Councillor Stephen Clee (Conservative) the Cabinet member for Planning, Economic and Regeneration. He welcomed the decision of the High Court saying “Plans can now go forward and we look forward to working with Tesco to bring new investment to the town”. I bet Tesco cannot believe it to have someone so high powered from Wyre Forest District Council backing them. Well done Stephen!
As he is the cabinet member for “Regeneration” I look forward to hearing how he will bring new investment to the High Street once all the small family run businesses pull out. More pound shops or charity ones perhaps? I am sure Stephen has the answers. One last thing though, I mentioned about the traffic chaos that will ensue when Tesco get here but is Stephen worried about this? Of course not, he lives down the road in Bewdley. Clever chap isn’t he? Oh, one last PS, he claimed approx. £40,000 last year in allowances for his work on Wyre Forest District Council and Worcestershire County Council, not bad work if you can get it?
8th August 2010
Also in the news this week, the story of the 19 year old sentenced to 5 years in prison after admitting nearly 600 offences, many of them burglaries. Many people, like myself, will have, at some time, had to deal with the traumatic affects of a burglary, from knowing someone was sneaking around your house, to dealing with the insurance company paperwork, followed by the inevitable insurance increase the following year. All for something that was not even your fault. This toe rag was spared prison by the same judge last year who allowed him to be rehabilitated in a rent-free flat.
It is at times like this you can see the attraction of Sharia law? By the time he got to 100 burglaries he might perhaps have had only one hand and by 200 burglaries perhaps no hands. This might have distressed him a bit but it would have stopped the distress to 600 people who were victims of this one man crime wave. This might seem a little harsh on my part, but I wonder how much it has cost in police time, court time, solicitors fees, benefits, his free rent etc (which we all pay for) for this toe rags crime spree? Not forgetting the cost of work time lost for vistims who have had to deal with the effects of his crime spree.
8th August 2010
As an avid Gloucester rugby supporter, along with around another 5,000 season ticket holders I am still waiting for our season tickets to be delivered, even though our first friendly match of the season is next Saturday. What annoys me about the way the management of Gloucester Rugby Ltd treat their supporters is that the money for the season ticket was taken off my card nearly 3 months ago, on May 9th.
Now do the maths, 5,000 season tickets at average cost of say £250 x 3% interest etc etc. Not a bad sum of money for the rugby club. I did e-mail them on Thursday to ask where my season ticket was, but am still awaiting a reply. I’m not surprised by their silence though, I am only a supporter.
8th August 2010
It was recently in the news that Leicestershire police spent £124,000 after officers crashed 453 police vehicles in two years. Of this 20% involved them hitting “stationary objects” such as walls, bollards and kerbs. I wonder how many of these officers were charged with driving with “undue care and attantion”? On a serious note they ought to look at sponsorship to recoup the £124,000 spent, why don’t they give Specsavers a call?
18th July 2010
My wife and I have recently spent another brilliant week in Woolacombe, just walking the beach and headlands and basically chilling out.
Although I have put a few photos on my website that I have taken previously in Woolacombe, I have many more that I would like to share with you. I also want to share some of our favourite places with you, so with this in mind, along with Chris Morris from www.chrismorriswebdesign.co.uk we will be launching a new Woolacombe based website. More on this at a later date.
18th July 2010
Which one do I read first? As I mentioned in May I couldn’t wait for the political bloodletting to start, with all the old Labour politicians writing their biographies, all spilling the beans about the worst kept secret in politics, namely that Blair and Brown didn’t actually get on. I mentioned that Alastair Campbell was first out of the blocks with his diaries being re-published and updated. Now we have the Peter Mandelson book released now, just before Blair’s own book is released in September.
Mandelson is one of those totally self-serving politicians who was not even liked by the majority of the Labour party or even ministers that served with him (who can forget the sight of of John Prescott with a crab in a jar that he called Peter). He had to resign as a cabinet minister twice, yet instead of being disgraced, ended up in the EU as one of our two commissioners (great salary, £182,000 a year with lots of perks, brilliant pension etc).
When he resigned from the commission in October 2008. although he had only served 4 years (of a normal 5 year term) he was entitled to claim approx. £78,000 a year for three years (up to 2011) as ” transitional payments” (to help him cope in the real world to you and me). When he is 65 he will be entitled to a EU pension of around £31,000 a year. But guess who picks up the tab for all this, you’ve got it, you and me. Not bad for being a failure!
Interestingly, such was the previous animosity between Gordon Brown and Peter Mandelson that when GB became Prime Minister Mandelson let it slip that he was considering not standing for a second term as Commissioner, which many people thought was to save him being sacked by Brown. Then everything changes and he is brought back to Britain given a peerage (you can imagine him totally made up being called a Lord all day) and another £104,000 a year to sit in the Cabinet. Now his book is out called “The Third Man-Life at the Heart of New Labour” with a RRP of £25. I am sure he is expecting it to be a best seller but I notice that Amazon have it for sale at £11.25 a whopping 55% discount. Might just wait till it sells for a couple of pounds as a paperback in one of those cheap book shops you see on the high street.
18th July 2010
On 20th March I posted a comment about Lord Taylor of Warwick and the way he appeared to be claiming expenses on a house in Oxfordshire owned by his nephew, while he actually lived in London. This came on top of an earlier allegation that he claimed expenses on his mother’s house even after she had died and the house was sold.
I went on to say that this total nobody smugly claimed that the police had investigated him and he was exonerated of any wrongdoing (Though the police were investigating him again). So you can imagine my delight when this week it was announced that he was to be charged with 6 counts of false accounting over sums totalling £11,000.
Taylor has resigned from the Conservative Party (and it looks like his page on their website has been cut as well). I am sure he will need to spend all his time now on working out who to blame for this administrative error! As a last resort I suppose he could play the “racism” card. But IF he is found guilty I am sure he will be asked to pay the money back (if he doesn’t already do this before the case starts), but if found guilty should he really be able to stay in the House of Lords and continue to milk the system as he appears to have done over the last few years?
16th May 2010
One of the best things to look forward to with Grim reaper Brown’s demise will be the rush for ex ministers and staff to write their “honest” accounts of life working with, or around Gordon Brown.
Very cleverly, first from the traps last week was Alastair Campbell who, while on programmes discussing the outgoing/incoming government, managed to plug his “updated” diaries to be published next month. These will obviously go more into the Brown-Blair relationship and Brown’s character flaws, than his previous book.
Just wonder if the timing of Campbell’s book was to steal the thunder from St Blair, whose own book is due out in September? Well, I suppose it gives Blair a few more months to update his book as well, with what really happened behind the scenes.
Who will be next, I don’t know, but I cannot wait to see everyone reveal what we most probably already knew (plus a lot of what we don’t know) about Britain’s longest serving Chancellor and Britain’s shortest (and worst) serving Prime Minister.
16th May 2010
It has been a very exciting week seeing the demise of Grim Reaper Brown and the start of a new coaltion government. I am still slightly worried though that George Osborne isn’t really up to the job of Chancellor. However, the Governor of the Bank of England seems impressed with him so lets see what happens when he produces his emergency budget in a few eeks time.
While wishing the best to David Cameron and Cleggy (anything has got to be better than another 5 years of the Grim Reaper) I wonder if Cameron has paid too high a price for the LIb Dems support? Considering the Conservatives got 306 seats (up 97) while the LIb Dems got only 57 (down 5 seats on last election) to give the Lib Dems 5 Cabinet seats, with Cleggy as Deputy Prime Minister seems more than they could have ever hoped for. It will be interesting to see how long the honeymoon lasts!
I was at Sixways yesterday to watch Worcester v Gloucester in our last match of the season. Gloucester narrowly won the game 23-22 after Willie Walker’s last shot hit the posts and missed. As you would expect from a local derby Worcester gave it all they had. I have to say that even though they are relegated thay have some fantastic supporters, Sixways was full yesterday to see this final game of the season. I am sorry to see Worcester relegated from the Guinness Premiership but hope that they bounce back up next year. I hope they do as, though I am a Gloucester season ticket holder, I still bought a Worcester rugby shirt yesterday. No, it doesn’t mean I am changing my allegiances (even if I live in Worcestershire and am married to a Worcestershire lass).
Another nice thing about yesterday’s game was that Chris Latham (one of Australia’s great rugby players) who played his last game yesterday before returning to Australia, spent over an hour going around the ground shaking hands with supporters (including me) signing shirts and autographs and having his photo taken. A true sporting hero!