Don’t Believe the Hype

There have been plenty of claims and counter-claims over the last year about Ahmed Khan’s election petition. If you are interested in the truth rather than the party political spin you can read it here in the transcript of the court proceedings and judgement. The comments from the Judge make fascinating reading.

…Act Locally.

12

It hardly seems like five minutes ago since I was blogging about my first five mile run of the year. Easter Monday took me out on my first twelve miler.

After the embarrassing ‘incident’ on Saturday night* when I almost ran off the cliff into Trow quarry, I decided it would be wise to be home well before dusk. So far so good! The only problem was that meant having to leave home in the middle of a snow flurry.

The route took in most of South Shields and a little bit of Jarrow. I bumped into Rossinisbird Junior at the eight mile point and I suspect he’s still traumatised by the deranged looking man that spoke to him. He doesn’t know how lucky he is I didn’t mug him for those sweets!

I think I might also have seen Curly on the Leas taking photos of the waves? Not sure though, my brain had stopped functioning by then apart from making sure I kept putting one foot in front of the other.

The last three miles hurt but I’m back on target for running the Two Breweries later in the year. It’s great to be alive; and nothing reminds you of that more than a twelve mile run in the snow.

*Note to self: Buy head torch.

50

You Drive Me Ape.

Rossinisbird has been bashing the bishop again. As you may be aware, I tend not to be too harsh on Rowan Williams. I think he’s essentially a pretty decent bloke, struggling to prevent his church being taken over by a bunch of homophobic fundamentalists. At least that’s what I thought until I read his quote on evolution.

The Archbishop reckons of evolution “It's a limited theory about certain limited phenomena which is very plausible as far as it goes but it's not a complete philosophy."

Would he come out with this sort of critique of the Laws of Planetary Motion or the greenhouse effect? Who knows, maybe he would now that he appears to be trying to appease the anti-Darwin fanatics!

Rowan Williams is an intelligent man. But I hope he will use his vast intellect to oppose those anti-knowledge religious extremists who want to force us back into a pre Copernican world.

Human Rights – Political Wrongs

Curly is right to highlight the abysmal treatment of the Gurkhas by New Labour; I remember when Phil Shiner, the lawyer who has represented me in environmental legal action, brought a human rights case against the Labour Government on behalf of the Gurkhas. But it isn’t just Blair and Brown that have trampled over the Gurkhas human rights to be treated with decency and equality.

When I was living in Germany I recall hearing on BFBS radio of an incident where an army officer alleged he had been assaulted by a member of the Gurkha riffles. He didn’t know who, and he couldn’t identify them. A whole company of Gurkhas was threatened with dishonourable discharge from the army if they didn’t reveal the culprit. – They didn’t and they all lost their jobs and pensions.

Not only does this go against the principle of ‘innocent until proven guilty’ it is the sort of collective punishment that would be more usually associated with totalitarian despotic regimes rather than British justice. Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister at the time.

…Two in the Boosh

I’m not the world’s biggest telly fan and I’ve managed to survive huge chunks of my adult life without owning one, but it looks like the BBC is putting temptation in my way on Saturday night. Das Boot on BBC Two and The Mighty Boosh night on BBC Three …Too much choice can be bad thing!

Hurt

Seasons Greetings

Happy Vernal Equinox! The sun has crossed the plane of the equator so we can all look forward to enjoying the summer (presuming you are reading this in the northern hemisphere). That must be why I could see horizontal rain blowing past my window!

Leon Greenman

The Anti-BNP campaigner and Auschwitz survivor Leon Greenman died earlier this month. You can read his obituary here and here.

Losing Your Bottle

The decision to do away with reusable milk bottles in South Tyneside primary schools is not only bad for the environment; it’s bad for the pocket too.

Re-using a glass milk bottle is a far greener option than single use milk cartons, in terms of both waste management and carbon emissions. The waste hierarchy is Reduce, Reuse and then only as a last resort Recycle.

Getting rid of the bottle is a backward step at a time when South Tyneside Council should be championing best environmental practice and progressing towards zero waste.

To add insult to injury, the new cartons are more expensive than glass bottles. So by not insisting on the best environmental choice, the council have landed us in a ‘lose, lose’ situation.

Nice ‘n’ Easy Does It

I’m back running and the decision to take a few days off was a wise one. Next week is a recovery week in my training plan, with just three gentle 5 milers to fit in. Sounds good to me!

CLARITY

I had an odd conversation with someone the other day; odd in the sense that they were under the impression that I supported the hotel development at Gypsies Green. Apparently they came to this conclusion after seeing a letter I had published in the Gazette last year. I thought at the time it was unambiguous, but to clarify any misunderstandings I have published the original unedited letter below:

Dear Sir,

I am not totally opposed to development of the Gypsies Green site, and if the Council were proposing a first-class sports facility for the people of the town I would certainly be supporting it. I am however opposed to the current proposal for a hotel development which epitomises the lack of ambition that has blighted the borough for decades.

On Thursday the 25th of October I attended the Ridgeway community centre to lend my support to the campaigners opposing the hotel development, and whilst the majority of them were principled objectors I was sickened by the views and behaviour of a vocal minority. A young mother who was collecting her child from the centre was berated by one of the protesters for daring to say she supported the proposal.

Some protesters resorted to homophobic comments about individual councillors and racist remarks about potential hotel employees. A friend of mine who went along to support the campaign vowed never to do so again.

Opposing the privatisation of public space is a cause to which I remain committed but let’s hope the protest organisers rein in some of their more extreme elements or they will rapidly lose public support and the campaign.

Yours sincerely,

Bryan Atkinson
Tyne Dock

A Stitch in Time…

I’m on a downer today! No it’s not the weather, not even the budget. I aggravated an old running injury when I was doing an LSD training session on Monday. I probably could manage a 3 mile hobble but have decided to rest and give it more time to recover properly. Still frustrating though!

Make Love, Not Tedious Car Journeys.

As a nation we are wealthier and have more material possessions than ever before. Despite this, we are no happier as a society than we were half a century ago. A damning condemnation of an economic system that has ‘eternal growth’ as its one and only objective.

Happiness is a far more valuable aim in life than the constant striving to amass more cash and crappy disposable gadgets we never use anyway. As an old nursing colleague used to remind me “Shrouds don’t have pockets”.

It’s pretty well established what actually makes people happy and what makes them miserable. One thing that consistently tops research findings for making people happy is sex. On the gloomy end of the scale is commuting. Hardly any great surprises there, but it is interesting that the policy of ‘economic growth’ is increasing the time and distance people need to travel to work. A bad idea for the planet and our spirits.

In the North East, New Labour’s policy of pursuing endless economic growth relies heavily on building more and more industrial estates on Greenfield sites on the A19 corridor. At ever-increasing distances from where people actually live. I’m not suggesting that Paul Waggott, Iain Malcolm and co. have got together and said “right, lets come up with a strategy that will make the plebs existence even more miserable” but that is the inevitable outcome of their flawed plan. I’m not sure what New Labour’s policy is on sex in the North East, but I’m praying they don’t put Ruth Kelly in charge!

Don’t Make Me Laugh!

Iain Malcolm is claiming on Curly’s blog that New Labour is “centre-left, with policies to match.” I can only presume Iain has invented a machine capable of travelling back in time several decades to come up with that one.

A slightly more objective view is given by the Political Compass which places New Labour on the right in an almost identical position to the Tories!

More Destruction of Public Open Space

I was saddened at the weekend to see that the trees at the edge of the playing field on the Epinay estate have now been chopped down. At a time when the Government fakes concern over childhood obesity the playing field, the only one young children on the Epinay estate have access to, is being bulldozed to make way for a road junction for the new Tyne road tunnel. More loss of public open space for private profiteering.

Rossinisbird exposes some of the shameful techniques that were used by the road supporters on his blog. Shame on all those who supported this socially divisive and polluting scheme; "sorry Phil" but that does include the Lib Dems.

Prince of Wails!

I know that we are all supposed to support the wars now, especially since that nice Prince Harry has morphed into Rambo and almost defeated the Mujahideen single handed. If only he’d been allowed to see out his tour of duty; it would have all been over by Christmas! But I don’t and won’t support imperialist wars.

What surprised me though, and I’m still not sure I can believe I heard this right, was Harry going on about how much he hates England! Talk about biting the hand that feeds you.

It’s a bit like Roy Keane saying on Match of the Day
“I’m proud of how the lads performed on the pitch today but I can’t stand them Mackem Bastards on the terraces.”

He wouldn’t be in the job very long if he did; and considering the soldier prince relies on the ‘English’ taxpayer for his meal ticket it is hardly the wisest thing he has ever said.