A mind at the end of its tether with BREXIT!

Brightened my day a little pic.twitter.com/r75FYp53XH

— carol summers (@carolsummers1st) 5 September 2019

Frustration with the Brexit process is getting to many of us, even if it isn't totally clear what BREXIT is, or if a BREXIT exit deal, which involves us remaining in the customs union or single market, really means we have left at all. I've always thought the BREXIT is not doable. People were simply asked if they wanted to stay or leave and no explanation was proffered by the government as to what this might entail. Anyway, this video is an amusing slant on the BREXIT issue.

ROCHDALE: THE LAST RITES*

 Is this the end for Rochdale Market?
by Trevor Hoyle

MY ten pen’orth, Brian, for what it’s worth, is that we’re decades too late to do anything about reviving Rochdale’s market. I have fond memories from the 50s of both outdoor and indoor markets — the latter especially where I used to buy ninepenny SF paperbacks from the book stall. A very warm and welcoming place, especially on a winter’s day.  Somebody told me that Todmorden’s market is very much how ours used to be, and that it’s a pleasure to visit. We tore it down and ripped out the heart of the town.

For some reason Bury has kept its market going over the years and even has coach parties coming from places like Stoke and  towns in Yorkshire to spend a day there. Any hopes that Rochdale can emulate that is pure fairyland.  When the council boasted that the Metro would bring in floods of eager visitors, my immediate thought was that the Metro would make it easier for Rochdale folk to escape to Manchester and Oldham. 

A few wind- and rainswept stalls on the Butts was never going to succeed, any fool could see that. A town centre that can’t sustain a McDonalds is on a hiding to nothing.  When I say I don’t know what the answer is, I’m really saying there is no answer.  We’re building, for god’s sake, another shopping centre when we have two that are half-empty to begin with — so then we’ll have THREE half-empty shopping centres (more like threequarters empty) which the rate-payers will be paying for for the next forty years. It’s madness. 

Over ten years ago (when I was involved with saving Touchstones from being massively underfunded by Link4Life) I put forward a strategy for the town based on its heritage of the Co-op, cotton and Gracie Fields. The idea was to turn our magnificent town hall into a cultural heritage centre with exhibits telling the story of cotton and the industrial revolution. Included would be a Gracie Fields Experience showing off all  the artefacts held in the museum archives of Gracie’s stage costumes, films, original recordings and her life story (like the one already in Touchstones but on a much grander scale). Also there would be a smaller John Bright display showing the furniture and books we have in the archive.

Alongside this you’d have the Pioneers store on Toad Lane — but greatly enlarged to include several shops and stalls done up as they were in the 1800s with shopkeepers dressed in costume.  The idea would be to focus on the cultural and historical romance of Rochdale’s past and let the commercial side take care of itself. If people started coming to experience it — via advertising and word-of-mouth — this would quickly feed through to shops and cafes opening up to cater for the visitors. The point here is not to build the shopping centre first — there are shopping centres everywhere — but to launch a genuine attraction that people want to visit and then tell their friends about.

Someone asked me if enough people would be interested in such a venture. I pointed out that the ‘grey’ pound of pensioners and retired folk amounts to billions in this country, and just such a historical heritage of cotton mills and Gracie Fields would appeal to that generation.  But it would have to be on a grand scale, worth the visit, designed and staged by a professional company, and not just a few tatty exhibits inside dusty glass cases. 

Anyway, it’s probably too late now to try this idea, we should have done it 10 or 15 years ago when I first suggested it.        

* Last rites - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Last_rites

The last rites, in Roman Catholicism, are the last prayers and ministrations given to an individual of the faith, when possible, shortly before death. The last rites go by various names. They may be administered to those awaiting execution, mortally injured, or terminally ill.

‎Roman Catholic Church · ‎Orthodox and Eastern ...

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A Northern Spin Town!

by  Andrew Wastling

THIS year's Empty Homes Week (23rd September 2019 - 29th September 2019) has raised national awareness of the latest Government data showing that over 216,000 homes in England have been empty for over six months. In all, over 600,000 homes are currently vacant. We of course all know that we live in the midst of a local and national affordable housing and homelessness crisis. The report ‘Empty Homes in England’ the 2019 edition was published on Monday September 23rd without a solitary mention in our local media outlets.   That in itself tells it's own story of the Mainstream Medias reluctance to speak truth to power or even to maintain the pretence of investigative journalism free of editorial compromise or content filtering at the behest of their advertisers corporate sponsors & invested vested interests.   I could go on but am sure I don't need to especially to readers of Northern Voices.

For those who might have missed it in the local Press the  latest public statistics for Rochdale showing  that there were in 2017 858 long term empty properties.

In 2018 there were 854 long term empty properties , a reduction of just six in twelve months out of a total of available 93,986 properties .

I would just like to ask Rochdale Council how long these properties are likely to remain empty before they are brought back into use to meet the chronic housing need for local families waiting to be re-housed but feel almost certain a reply will not be sent anytime soon. In fact in Rochdale there is not even a mandatory time period for local councillors to reply to a question from their constituents. This tells you all that is needed about local democratic accountability  - There isn't any!

The local housing crisis has got steadily worse and yet those councillors tasked with standing up for their constituents have never been held to account for their serial failures to address the chronic housing shortage . This despite , most reasonable people would think have thought, having a roof over ones head, being a basic expectation from the voters of their council representatives ?

Currently if all of the people currently on Rochdale Councils waiting lists stood one person per step on St.Chads 122 stone steps they would now go up and down our towns historic landmark almost 54 times! That's a total failure of housing policy in my book.

Where precisely are Rochdale Councils priorities in spending over £250 million on town centre regeneration which is supposed to produce a 'magic trickle' down effect to our local citizens many of whom are reliant on food banks to simply ward of malnutrition or becoming increasingly dependent on GP prescribed opiates disparagingly referred to in some quarters as ' hillbilly heroin to numb the pain and blur them into a sense of false well-being?

We are seeing all around us the collapsing failed experiment of Neo Liberalism begun in the 1980's under Thatcher & Regan & transformed under Cameron, May , & Johnson into the kind insane Kamikaze turbo charged disaster capitalism of the present.

Proof, if proof be needed that this spectacularly and repeatedly spun fake regeneration is little more than insidious creeping regeneration is found in the latest publication this week of the indices of deprivation which placed Rochdale as the twentieth in the UK for poverty. It is no accident surely that a staggering 19 out of 20 of local authorities with the highest proportion of neighbourhoods among the most deprived in England are based in the north of the country. Little was made in out local media of the fact that despite millions spent on Rochdale by succeeding councils that The English Indices of Deprivation report, compiled by the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, assessed the level to which local authorities lack income, employment, education, and adequate housing, as well as the level of crime and services in across the UK and found Rochdale sadly languishing behind once again.

Were Rochdale a state and not a town it would be difficult not to describe it as a 'Failed State' using Chomsky's definition: they suffer from a serious 'democratic deficit' that deprives their formal democratic institutions of real substance. One of the hardest tasks that anyone can undertake, and among the most important, is to look honestly in the mirror.  If we allow ourselves to do so, we should have little difficulty in finding the characteristics of 'failed states' right at home.'

Sound familiar? It does to me. This is a town where many things  people and institutions are quite simply broken.

Fot the official recorded the top twenty areas with the most deprived neighbourhoods in England are:

1. Middlesbrough 2. Liverpool 3. Knowsley 4. Kingston upon Hull 5. Manchester 6. Blackpool 7. Birmingham 8. Burnley 9. Blackburn with Darwen 10. Hartlepool 11. Bradford 12. Stoke-on-Trent 13. Halton 14. Pendle 15. Nottingham 16. Oldham 17. North East Lincolnshire 18. Hastings 19. Salford

20. Rochdale.

These are deeply inconvenient facts for our councillors who would much rather they were discreetly wept under the carpet along with the beggars on our streets who are a glaring testimony to their abject failure as policy makers in our town each and every time one of them engages in conversation with a local voter or shopper.  They all of course as do we all have background stories.  Stories which when you trouble to listen do not paint our council who implemented Tory Austerity though the back door of our Town Hall without even token resistance or our councillors who capitulated without dissent, then voted through cuts to essential front line services  without any real understanding of how those closed local services would eventually impact on community cohesion.  They after all would in most cases not be personally dependent on such public services, be on the receiving end of such hatchet jobs to the social infrastructure and were in any case financially cushioned from penury by over the odds publicly subsidised councillor expenses.  Indeed whilst voting in harsh cuts for the rest of us one  of their first steps to protect themselves in the hard times they knew were coming was to feather their own nests and vote in an inflation busting pay rise in their councillor expenses for themselves. Nice work if you can get it comrades !

Many of our street beggars however were on  the receiving end of over a decade of tory austerity.  Its no surprise they are there on our pavements to anyone who has been follow political and economic events since the corporate elites crashed the economy and then paid off their cocaine bills and balanced their accounts on the backs of the poor .

Whilst  vital Public Services being butchered we simultaneously witness  expensively financed utopian shopping units intrude into the Rochdale skyline ad nauseum across the town centre  clearly someone has found a magic Money tree?  We also see  or more accurately those who bother to look can see  , dystopian near Victorian poverty & homelessness levels increase locally and people in despair frozen like zombies on the new psychoactive substances  (or 'Spice' ) hidden away in the  ginnels alleyways and shadows where the Council spin merchants never go or more to the point don't even know exist . 

A  Freedom of Information Request showed that in 2017 know Rochdale Council recorded 945 homelessness presentations ,205 homelessness advice presentations from people age 16-25yrs for the same period. Whilst in the last quarter the Council recorded 65 homelessness presentations from people aged 16-25yrs. 

We also know that the number of people waiting on the current waiting list for Social Housing is in 2017 now 6,374 households  - this is a crisis that is getting steadily worse , not better. It can not be logical , morally justifiable , or economically viable to have so many properties remain unused for so long,  or to have highly controversial proposals to demolish at least four of the College Bank Tower Blocks whilst we still have so many local families waiting to be housed languishing on waiting list for years.   This simply does not make any kind of sense.

It does however make economic  and environmental sense to bring empty properties into public use since creating homes from empty properties saves substantial amounts of material compared to building new homes, minimises the amount of land used for development and avoids wasting embedded carbon; helping to combat climate change and providing a proactive step our council can take immediately to give some credibility to their recent declaration of a Climate Emergency at the Town Hall. 

Another immediate proactive step our Council could take could take would be  to restore the Council Environmental Sustainability Team they axed due to Austerity measures , retain some of the largest solar panels in the North of England currently on top of the Seven Sisters instead of demolition them and finally recognise and admit publicly that one of the worlds largest & most toxic asbestos dumps in the world on our doorstep should  have alone merited the calling of an environmental emergency in Rochdale several decades ago.

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378 GM councillors didn't open emails from GM Fire & Rescue about £12.8m cuts!

Letter by Andrew Wastling

A recent consultation designed to inform constituents [1] regarding Proposals for £12.8million in cuts to the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service, including reductions of fire engines, crew numbers and fire stations, has  quite understandably been the subject of controversy due to a woeful lack of participation from our elected representatives from elected Councillors  a across Greater Manchester .

The consultation report notes that 'Updates were sent to councillors from across Greater Manchester through the consultation, to encourage them to respond and spread the information out to their local constituents. The email update was sent to 637 Councillors and 259 opened the email'.

This means that 378 Greater Manchester Councillors did not open this email . I just wonder if a spokesperson for Rochdale Council would like to write in to ' Viewpoints ' and let readers know exactly how many Rochdale Borough Councillors bothered to opened this email and contributed to the consultation ?

I'd also be interested to know exactly how many   if any , local voters  received an email from their local ward councillor cascading information to them regarding the proposals to cut the Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue Service by £12. million and asking for their opinions to feedback to the Public Consultation ?

McDonnell promises a 4-day working week and affordable homes - so why is Labour unpopular?

John McDonnell - Labour Shadow Chancellor

DESPITE having a British Conservative government that is led by a pathological liar - who even misled the Queen - a chancer, and someone who is clearly out of his depth and unfit to be the Prime Minister of the UK, some opinion polls have given the Tories a 15-point lead over Labour. One opinion poll went so far as saying that Jeremy Corbyn was the "most unpopular opposition leader of the past 45 years." 

The survey by Ipsos MORI, for the Evening Standard, gave the Labour leader a net satisfaction rating of -60, with just 16% of voters pleased with him and 76% unhappy. According to the Evening Standard, Corbyn is now more unpopular than the former Labour leader Michael Foot.

This weeks shambolic Labour conference, is unlikely to boost Corbyn's ratings with the electorate. At various times the Labour Party conference has descended into chaos, as Unison hack, Wendy Nichols, the Labour NEC chair, struggled to maintain order. Delegates were furious when a motion supporting 'Remain' was rejected on a show of hands and Nichols refused to hold a full paper ballot. She initially thought the motion to 'Remain' had been carried until she was corrected by Labour's general secretary Jennie Formby, who insisted it hadn't been carried. Earlier in the Week, Nichols had provoked  a row when she remitted a motion back, in spite of delegates saying they hadn't a clue what the motion was about because it wasn't on the order papers.


I almost  pissed myself laughing when Labour's Shadow Chancellor, John McDonnell, referred to Labour's Shadow Economic Secretary, 'Blairite', Jonathan Reynolds - a protégé of both Lord Mandelson and 'work-for-your- dole', James Purnell - as "taking socialism into the heart of the city." Yet, McDonnell outlined a range of Labour policies that one would have thought would have been hugely popular with the working people:-


A £10 minimum wage from 16-up; a ban on zero hour contracts; a 32-hour, 4-day working week within the next decade, without loss of pay; 20% of company shares to be held by workers; restoration of trade union rights; workers right to take effect from day one; stop the roll-out of Universal Credit - not abolish it; personal care free at the point of use in England; build a million affordable homes and give free prescriptions.

Why Labour is flagging in the opinion polls is indeed curious given that a paper like the Financial Times, recently warned that Labour wanted to pick the pockets of the rich and to put it into the pocket of the workers. Likewise, the Tories are in complete disarray over Europe, and up shit creek without a paddle. Many of Labour's policies like re-nationalizing the railways and utilities are extremely popular with the electorate and not many of us are going to lose much sleep over public schools losing their charitable status, as they aren't charities  or even public schools, as most of the public couldn't afford to get in. However, one suspects that Labour may have promised far too much and if we leave the EU, many of their policies might not be affordable because of the negative impact leaving would have on the British economy. 

Not all the blame is solely down to Jeremy Corbyn - an ardent Brexiteer - who has never enjoyed the support of many of the Labour 'Blairite' right in Parliament, who have sought to bring him down from day one and would much rather have a Conservative government than a Labour one led by  Corbyn.

None of this in-fighting and intrigue plays well with the voters, even if some of Labour's policies are popular.  I suspect that if there was an election tomorrow, the Tories under Boris Johnson, could get re-elected but possibly without a working majority. Johnson, a cad and scoundrel, will position himself as the saviour of Britain who wants to implement the will of the majority of British people who want to leave the EU. The next General Election will fought on the basis of the people versus an intransigent parliament.

Although most people haven't a clue what Brexit means, Boris Johnson does have a clue. It is about cutting taxes for the rich and turning British workers into doormats for billionaires. It is about a race to the bottom and having a bonfire of regulations that cover such things as employment rights,  food standards, health and safety, the environment and even the NHS.

Thomas Cook crisis: The Liberal explanation

Thomas Cook latest airline to fall foul of Brexit uncertainty betraying British industries

The Liberal Democrats have warned that Brexit uncertainty is sealing the fate of British industries already under pressure following the collapse of three major airlines since 2016. 

Thomas Cook's collapse follows UK airlines Monarch and flybmi who also ceased operations.

In a joint statement, Liberal Democrat MEP Jane Brophy and Manchester Lib Dem Leader John Leech said:

“As with other fallen airlines like Monarch and flybmi, Thomas Cook has been struggling for months against a backdrop of Brexit uncertainty. Clearly there are other issues that have played a part in these airlines' collapse. But can Government officials honestly say that Brexit did not play a part in this, or that they themselves couldn’t have acted sooner?

“The Civil Aviation Authority is clearly working hard to get people home in the short-term, and they should be supported and congratulated for those efforts.

“But the real tragedy here is the nearly 22,000 jobs, and 3,000 in Greater Manchester alone that have been lost. The knock-on effects of that are devastating. Hard-working people who have dedicated their working lives to this company deserve answers and reassurance that lessons will be learnt to prevent this from happening again."

Ends

Jigsaw II by Louis Macneice

IN April 2004, someone had posted a request on a blog asking

for poems on the Influences of Technology.  I already knew 

about the Louis Macneice Jigsaw II from A level in the 1960.

It strikes me that this is relevant to our time now with Greta  

 Thunberg addressing the UK today.  People are so easily dazzled

by technology.   In the 19th century, John Ruskin and William 
Morris wanted us to bring nature into our homes.  
And yet, people today prefer to inflict technology upon themselves. 

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Posted by: Johnny (---.nasd.k12.pa.us)

Date: April 22, 2004  Hi,
I'm looking for poems reflecting on the influences of technology on culture.
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How about Jigsaw II by Louis Macneice?

Property! Property! Let us extend
Soul and body without end:
A box to live in, with airs and graces,
A box on wheels that shows its paces,
A box that talks or that makes faces,
And curtains and fences as good as the neighbours'
To keep out the neighbours and keep us immured
Enjoying the cold canned fruit of our labours
In a sterilised cell, unshaved, insured.

Property! Property! When will it end
When will the poltergeist ascend
Out of the sewer with chopper and squib
To burn the mink and the baby's bib
And cut the tattling wire to town
And smash all the plastics, clowning and clouting
And stop all the boxes shouting and pouting
And wreck the house from the aerial down
And give these ingrown souls an outing?

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Youth speaks out on climate change

 Sent to NV by John Wilkins (BOLD group)
ON Friday, 20 th. September thousands of young people gathered around the world to protest for climate justice.  Inspired by Greta Thunberg but powerful in their own right and in their collective unity, this movement is part of wider circles that ripple out in ways we can not imagine...


In Manchester, many of of us shared our voices in speeches, poems and songs.  It was an inspiring space to be and spurred Bridget Holtom, a poet and storyteller from Yorkshire living in Scotland, to stand and share a piece of spoken word written in response to burn out in activism.  To find out more, you can listen to Bridget Holtom speak to other activists about what sustains them in their fight for basic rights or while in solidarity in social and environmental justice movements at www.sustenanceradio.com and most podcast platforms. 


Only when...
Only when climate justice is done,
Only when all of the battles are won,
Only when freedom is for everyone,
Only then will all of our work be done.
Only when...
Borders are open,
Children have spoken,
New leaders are chosen,
Racist myths are broken
...only then
Only when women can say what they wish,
Say it without being burned as a witch,
Say it without being blamed as a bitch,
Only then will we be able to switch...
Off our brains and find peace, without losing sleep, 
while we worry that there's something we might have all missed.
It was only when...
Broader trauma
Border drama
Only then did I ask to take a break,
...survival was at stake.
Only when...
I took a year
Far far away from here
Finally to face my fears

Only then...
Did I realise why I felt so defeated,
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