AN ERA OF SERIOUS LEADERS NEEDED

To get rid of Johnson

 “is not enough”

 Former MP Rory Stewart (pictured) has given his answer to those of his former constituents  who say that he has largely disappeared from the political scene. He has written an article in the Financial Times about Boris Johnson and his current problems.

The article is  headed “Brian needs an era of serious leaders”

 

 The article says:”To get rid of Johnson and promote new policies is not enough.

“A better British politics will will require politicians who take their vocations seriously and govern responsibly and well.We don`t just deserve better than Johnson, we deserve better than the culture and the system that produced him”.

Mr Stewart was MP for Penrith and the Border. He is now is a senior fellow at Yale University`s Jackson Institute for Global Affairs and is on the Advisory Board of the Britain Project, a cross-party a cross-party political collaboration seeking to build a broad coalition in the centre ground, that puts hope, decency and integrity at the heart of our politics.

  Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation publishes this blog. Information about the Federation is available on 01228 52227

 

THE PARSNIPS STARTED TO FROTH...

A liquid

lunch-

Fairy

Liquid !

A couple of my Christmas cards have just  arrived , nearly three weeks late. A black mark for the Post Office, sure, but no different from  other hold ups at  Christmas and New Year.

Like the parsnip hold up on Christmas Day when I was cooking the dinner.It happened when the newly scraped and washed parsnips were to be doused with olive oil and put in the oven to cook.

 

I reached out for what I thought was the olive oil  bottle and covered them. To my consternation the parsnips started to froth.

The bottle I had reached for was not olive oil.

It was Fairy Liquid.

Parsnips, of course. are not alone in frothing at Christmas. Human beings froth too…  frothing with fury, sometimes.  Like a young local mother I heard about through a letter requesting help  .

This is what she wrote:

 “I have  just spent the most infuriating Christmas with my mother-in-law. We had my husband’s parents and brother over for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and not only did she pass remarks on how I raise my children and how my tree looked `very stylish but not very festive`, she brought her own stuffing, pudding and gravy, even though I made it clear that I didn’t need anything.

“And before you say she may have been trying to help, she just brought enough for herself and her husband because he can `only eat food with really good ingredients`.

“ My husband thinks the whole thing is hilarious, as does his brother, and in a way I agree. I get great mileage telling my friends about her, but it is coming to the stage where I can’t be in the same room as her. How can I get my husband to stop treating his parents as the deciders of how we spend holidays and to stand up for me?”

 

THEY CALL IT MELLOW YELLOW

 

Councillors make

a moot

point

Many people  will agree with Appleby in Westmorland councillor Hugh Potts  in his opposition to  the plan to  change to mellow yellow the colour of the town`s Moot Hall (pictured below) .

 

  A similar plan a few years ago by the National Trust for its Wordsworth House  in Cockermouth(below)  was opposed by those local people who, like Councillor Potts, preferred the black and white that had existed for as long as people remembered.

But the opposition came to nothing and mellow yellow  went ahead.The changes  in both towns  appear to have originated in some woke urge from a trendy group many miles away to change the colour of the buildings to the politically correct colour i.e. the colour they buildings were  when they were  built centuries ago.

 If that is the case, it is certainly very difficult  to see  the Appleby change as  “a novel look to the future of the town”, the view of Mayor Gareth Hayes.

Many people will much prefer Councillor Potts` view:“Not to my taste… and not right too”.

 

THE BIG ALSTON ROBBERY

 

 

 

Why did politicians

fail

this town?

Alston resident Trevor Reed  in a letter to the Cumberland and Westmorland Herald  newspaper launches an attack against the way the town has been robbed of  its essential services. The Cumbria town,1,000 feet up in the Pennines, claims to be the highest market town in England.

 The Big Alston Robbery which you could call it, is a shocking tale . Some might say it portrayed Alston as one of those deprived northern places in need of Boris Johnson`s current cure-all he calls “levelling up”.

 Alston however has a long way to go before any“levelling up” can be tackled, let alone   achieved. Loss of essential services spanning half a century has left a gap that seems impossible to fill and make “level”.

 Surprisingly, Mr Reed`s  blast failed  to include one other  robbed essential service which he might  add to his list …rail and bus links…  the cottage hospital,… the medical centre… three banks…shops and pubs …and now the ambulance.

That other  robbed essential service is Alston Rural District Council which was based in the  Town Hall, pictured.

 

 The council  was abolished in 1974, the same year that Mr Reed arrived at Alston and the same year that both Cumberland and Westmorland  were also abolished.

It was all part of  prime minister Edward Heath`s massive, but much criticised local government reorganisation.

How much has Alston missed its rural council? My guess is  that it has been missed a great deal. It was a  link with Whitehall and an on the spot forum. It was also an on the spot centre for a staff of local government professionals.

Eden District Council which took over from the rural council  is a poor substitute. An even poorer substitute is on its way for Alston. The town will soon be  included  in a new local government area alongside   a town as different as you can get, and as far away in Cumbria as you can get.

That new area is the planned Westmorland half  of what will then be the former county of Cumbria which apparently will disappear. Alston in Westmorland will be  alongside the shipbuilding town of Barrow, 71 miles away and also in Westmorland.

On the face of it, this seems a deplorable situation, just as deplorable  as the uncaring  attitude of the politicians to the loss of  Alston`s services.

Mr Reed rightly castigates these politicians and singles out one of them for special mention.That politician is his MP, Dr. Neil Hudson (Penrith and the Border), who, says Mr Reed,  has failed to reply to his emails.

Perhaps Dr. Hudson might now like to reply . He might also enclose full details of Boris Johnson`s “levelling up” plan and let us see if there is anything in it for Alston.

It might help.

But based on past form, it won`t.

 Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation publishes this blog. Information about the Federation is available on 01228 52227

 

 

HALT THE MERCILESS SLICING OF CUMBRIA

 

Now let us restore

our ancient counties

 Spare a thought for our dear old Cumbria, as the merciless slicing of the county goes on and on.

Not only the government, but now two well-known newspaper correspondents, Jeremy Godwin and very surprisingly, Nick Elgey are busily hacking away.

 The goverment of course, with its planned local authority changes believes in vertical slicing: one  slice between the  six district councils and hey presto, the county is halved. Job done.

 

 Mr Godwin believes in kingdom separation...the West Cumbria kingdom and the East Cumbria kingdom. 

Mr Elgey, an estate agent, reports that property  market forces are  at work doing the slicing which means that property purchasers, probably for the first time, are favouring north Cumbria rather than the south.

County slicing, of course, is nothing new. Usually it goes  with  democracy and goodwill.

Those of us who remember the ancient counties of Cumberland and Westmorland also remember the democratic goodwill which today, sadly, seems to have been replaced by party politics, a much more inferior way of doing things and which frequently is not democratic.

Those people will recall that in Cumberland the county council  was always conscious of, and prepared to  cater for  the competing  claims  of West Cumbria( the Whitehaven and Workington districts) and   North Cumbria (the Carlisle and Penrith districts).

 In Westmorland the same goodwill applied and its county council regularly each 

year     alternated a north Westmorland chairman to adequately cater for the the needs 

of   the Appleby and Kirkby Stephen districts with a south Westmorland chairman   for the needs of Kendal and Windermere districts.

In both counties the goodwill systems worked very well until 1974 when Prime Minister Edward Heath decided  that ancient counties were not for him. 

And  the name of the new county, Cumbria, emerged from God knows where.(Some people swear that  Mr.Heath craftily  grabbed the name from a local  magazine publisher!)

It seems to me, and I think lots of people, that the goodwill  and democracy that existed in the two counties in the years  prior to Mr Heath is still there.

Therefore let us put an end  to the  current intolerable slicing of our county. Let us restore all that democratic goodwill.

Then let us restore  our ancient counties.

 

 Carlisle Tenants` and Residents` Federation publishes this blog. Information about the Federation is available on 01228 52227