So it’s that time of year again. The New Year honours. Various smiling individuals crowd our screens. Assorted lefties decry an elitist process based upon a notional myth of empire. But deep within the endless lists of the lucky, there perhaps lie some deeper truths. I’d like to say congratulations to the Blackpool winners –
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Sitting at the start of midnight mass yesterday, the choir struck up at the beginning with a highly discordant introductory piece. Such discordance has marked the day. As I sat in church, several thousand miles further east, troops in Afghanistan were waking up to the start of their Christmas Day. They were also waking up
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It is a common comment I hear about the recession: “It’ll be good for the charities with all their shops”. But it isn’t good for charities at the moment. The squeeze is affecting their funds, and forcing many to start to close services down. Financial investments have fallen sharply in value. Corporate donations have ‘fallen
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The Gazette is reporting an increase of 18% in Blackpool’s unemployment in the past quarter – an indication that things are going to get worse before they get better. Economists have been pointing out that job losses take time to filter through usually, and that we see them later on in a recession. They’re hitting
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A 50th anniversary passed by almost unnoticed last week. For many of us, what the anniversary commemmorates is something we give precious little thought to – but which we also use every day of our lives almost. The humble Preston by-pass – now the M6 – was 50 last week. Opened with pomp and circumstance
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I’ve always been a fan of Angela Merkel. But I never thought I would be in agreement with her Social Democrat colleague and finance minister Peer Steinbruck. His criticism of Gordon Brown’s spending-splurge must have produced torrents of range in Downing Street. How dare anyone criticise the man who claims to have ‘saved the world’.
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I had a very rewarding two and a half hour session with the Cabinet Member (Don Clapham) and Director (David Lund) of Children’s Services here in Blackpool yesterday, alongside David’s Assistant Directors. We had a fascinating, wide-ranging discussion that encompassed not just education but the wide range of ways in which services to children now
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I am sure most people were as shocked as I was that some £30,000 could be spent on a party for NHS staff – all they had to pay was a voluntary donation of just £5. I would be the last person to decry the efforts of front-line staff, from which I have personally benefitted,
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So it looks as though – just – Woolworths stores might be saved from closure. Staff at the Cleveleys branch and the two in Blackpool will be breathing a sigh of relief – for the moment. I am sure everyone has memories of some sort of Woolworths – buying your first single maybe, or the delights
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