The Bohemian Cafe

Could a Tyne & wear council work?

2012-02-18T17:43:00.000Z

As reported in the Gazette leader of South Tyneside council, Ian Malcolm, would like to see a single authority for Tyne and Wear. I absolutely agree a single authority rather than umpteen authorities using up valuable tax payers money all over Tyne & Wear, would cause great savings, strip down bureaucracy and mean the whole of Tyne & Wear got a say where money went, rather than having cash divvied up between minor towns.

At the moment the cost of Town Hall running and maintenance alone must be exponentially crippling, add to that all the staff employed, all the bureaucracy, expenses, the list goes on. I am fully in support of a stripped down council, streamlined and focused on what is right for the North East as a Whole, rather than focusing on short term, quick fix, sticking plasters for local towns and cities in seclusion.

We can bring the greatest minds of our councils under one roof (Don't laugh) and maybe transform the North East to better and bigger progression. If this can be done while saving tax payers cash and creating a more dynamic and pro-active council structure, I personally can not see the problem.

Do we need a dangerous dog owners act?

2012-02-09T15:31:00.000Z

John McLachlan writing in the Shields Gazette today advocates scrapping the Dangerous dogs act and replacing it with a dangerous dog-owners act. I feel he does have a valid point for three reasons:

Most dogs are dangerous because they are not trained properly.
Many people buy dogs for their kids who haven't the capacity to give a dog the attention and care required.
In some cases dogs are bought as trophy's so they can be 'hardmen'.

If dogs including the one pictured above, a Staffordshire bull terrier, are trained correctly from puppy years, they can be loyal animals, placid around children and loving to their owners without the aggression they are often labelled with. Unfortunately many do not know the correct way to train a dog and cant be bothered to go to a qualified dog trainer.

Another problem is kids love puppies, great for Christmas and birthdays. But children, especially very young soon grow bored of puppies as they grow out of their cute small stage and it is left to the parents to care for the animals. Dogs require a lot of care, attention and expensive vet treatments. To put it politely many dogs are unwanted and are their under sufferance, so is it any wonder some get aggressive or are thrown on the streets to walk themselves and end up attacking people and other animals.

Finally we have the trophy dog, bought for it's classification as a 'danger dog'. These are used, mainly by chav's but it takes all sorts, as an animal to strike fear in to people, working off the back of the reputation of these animals in tabloid newspapers. This is thankfully the minority, but does nothing for the reputation of these dogs and for good dog owners.

My solution to the problem is to treat a dog as a weapon of the owner. If the dog is vicious and attacks a person, yes the dog may need to be put down, but the owner must accept full responsibility for the actions of the dog and the courts must punish the owners as they see fit.

A preventative measure would be to re-instate dog licences. You can not buy a dog without showing a licence first and if you are out with your dog, a police officer, dog warden or any other authority can demand to see your licence. If you can not produce your dog licence you will be requested to show it to police within the week or face prosecution for illegal dog ownership. A licence alone will deter many irresponsible owners and those that want dogs for nefarious purposes will no doubt come a cropper as they are found to be lacking a licence, have their dog seized and face prosecution.

Can King street make a come back?

2012-02-08T20:54:00.000Z

In the North East the average retail unit vacancy rate stands at 16 percent. In King street it stands at 15.9 percent at end of 2011. So South Shields stands at the average vacancy rate, but what bothers me is the choice in South Shields. We have Greggs, Dickson, Mobile phone stores, charity shops and pound shops.

South Shields used to attract people from all over the North East of England, clean, great shops, fantastic beach. We have seen a steady erosion, market going down hill, the main shopping street now looking more like Laygate on a good day, we may have an average vacancy rate, but when we look at choice we see almost none.

If South Tyneside's Labour lead council wants to grow South Shields economically, it needs to encourage a variety of shops, not the same old bland mix of 'cheap' stores. You don't need research, statistics and study, look around and ask the people, it's not even the parking fees as such crippling the town it is pure lack of choice!

Lollipop men fear the reaper

2012-02-07T17:30:00.000Z

Due to South Shields cost cutting exercise that are looking to remove even more lollipop patrols, putting our children at even greater risk. They have already slashed the number from 80 to 13 and want to cut a further two posts as part of a £20m cost cutting exercise.

However under the same breath, South Shields council want to start paying it's part time councillors, they mainly all have full time jobs, a pension. This is on top of any remuneration packages they are already in receipt of. Add to this the profligate spending of our cash by our missing 'wheres wally' representative, David Miliband, I can categorically say I would rather retire half the councillors, along with David Miliband and reinstate all the lollipop men and women!

Believe me that action alone will ensure the safety of thousands of children every year while also saving a tidy sum. Surely Labour council can not object to that policy?

Moral and responsible capitalism?

2012-01-25T14:07:00.000Z

About a week ago I was musing over the possibility of writing an article covering a more moralistic Capitalism. It seems Dr Eamonn Butler over on the Adam Smith Institute blog, beat me to it. Read his article here,

Moral and responsible capitalism.

Benefits cap not punishing people?

2012-01-25T13:35:00.000Z

Iain Duncan Smith

Government would like to see a £26,000 benefits cap on families, that's equivalent to being given £35,000 per annum in benefits. The mood up North and I am sure in many areas is that the vast majority of working class do not earn £26,000 after tax and they are sick of benefit scroungers and immigrants coming to this country, claiming benefits that far outstrip anything they earn.

However many children's charities have pointed out that by not removing child benefit from the cap, this move has the potential to push thousands of children in to statistical poverty. So we have the battle of making it pay to work on one hand, while protecting the most vulnerable on the other.

Child benefit is not that much, about £20 per week the first child, £13 per week any further children and whether working or not, everyone currently gets the same amount of benefit, this is not a means tested benefit, though maybe it should be.

It is for this reason I agree with Labour peers who say they fully support the benefits cap, the benefits system is out of control and for many they are better off on benefits than working for a living, however the child benefit should be excluded from the cap. That money can pay for school dinners, currently £10 per week in South Tyneside and travel costs, to and from school, uniforms etc.

I feel on grounds of morality as child benefit is not means tested it would be grossly unfair for someone on high wages, such as a premier league footballer, to be given full child benefit, while those even temporarily out of work due to recessionary pressures, find they can not get child benefit due to a cap being placed on benefits.

It is true there is no 'fairness' in economics, but this is politics and real peoples lives. With great power comes great responsibility and Governments of all stripes need to study ethics and morality before being given such power to destroy children's lives.

Police commissioner elections to be held in November

2012-01-20T15:16:00.001Z

Reading the Richard Moss blog today, I found that we will be given the opportunity of voting in November for police commissioners, for the very first time.

I have to say I am in two minds over this issue of the public vote for a commissioner.

It is a good thing that local people have more voting power to decide what goes on in their local regions and voting is a Democratic right.
In constrained financial times I have to enquire why we are cutting finance to the police, then immediately spending that saving on election costs.
I have a distinct lack of information. How am I as a voter supposed to know who would be most suitable as a police commissioner. I assume the person with the best rhetoric will win most votes, but surely the most qualified, with the most up to date and relevant experience for the job should be given that position.
Also at least regionally we have seen crime falling across the board, so if it ain't broke, why try to fix it?

For my liking it seems an Ill conceived, badly timed and wrongheaded decision to allow something as important as Police Commissioner position to be left to a Democratic vote of people that in the main will have little to no interest and no idea of who the best suited candidate would be for the job. Time to go back to the drawing board on that one Cameron.

YFJ spouting false beliefs yet again.

2012-01-19T14:24:00.000Z

Youth Fight for Jobs organiser Peter Callanan is spouting his extreme left political 'beliefs' yet again, flying in the face of economic facts. I realise it makes a person feel warm and fuzzy when they organise piddling marches and spout leftist beliefs so they can get their face in the local paper; but it is a bit silly when it flies in the face of economic convention and even the Leader of his beloved Labour party Ed Miliband and Ed Balls has stated clearly and publicly that they also would have made public sector cuts and will NOT reverse the cuts if his party regains power.

Even Stephen Hepburn MP for Jarrow has weighed in supporting Callanan and his scraggly bunch of uneducated students in a civil war against his own parties Leadership. I personally am not a fan of Big Government, which is why I wholeheartedly support the cuts to the bloated public sector, which seems to be doing just fine despite all the hoohaa from the left. However if Red Ed can't even get his own party members to toe the political line, how can we give people like Callanan any real credibility?

Truth is the Labour party members don't know their own manifesto, the Jarrow MP is slating the very comments his own leader has made publicly and would rather support a non-entity such as Callanan rather than Ed Miliband. The Labour party should re-brand itself as that once famous 'Monster raving loony party'.

Labour councillor complains he can't check lotto numbers!

2012-01-18T21:15:00.000Z

Labour councillor for Hebburn South, Eddie McAtominey, has made a complaint about South Tyneside's computer system as 'an unmitigated disaster' because he can't check his lottery numbers online during working hours on spanking new laptops paid by the real tax payers of South Tyneside.

I say Eddie McAtominey is an unmitigated disaster as someone working for the Labour party, supposedly representing the working class, attempting to steal time from his employers, the tax payers of South Tyneside.

It's about time these councillors were held accountable for their actions! In the private sector if you went to the Gazette and publicly told them you were unhappy youir works computer would not allow you to check your Lottery numbers, you would be facing disciplinary action. It seems if you are a Labour councillor in South Tyneside, this behaviour is to be expected.

I want to see a public apology in the Gazette from Coun McAtominey and an explanation of what disciplinary action will and/or has been taken against him for theft of public services. Work laptops, lucky Labour, are provided for work, not personal frippery. Councillors are public servants, their employers are the private sector tax payers, something they tend to forget when servicing their own needs instead of that of their constituency.

Tenancy cheats face jail!

2012-01-16T21:10:00.000Z

In todays Gazette the headline runs Tenancy cheats could go to jail. Reading the article I felt a tingle down my spine and a cold sweat on my brow. While most would say a good thing, most would completely miss the one line in the article that is scarier than reading Orwell's '1984'.

Local authorities would also get stronger powers to investigate fraud, including easier access to data from banks and utility companies.

That sentence out of the whole article scares the heck out of me because that one sentence clear as day states we are heading towards a controlled state, a fascist country where we already have C.C.T.V. on almost every corner of every street. Inside shops, banks, everywhere but our homes. We have C.C.T.V. vehicles patrolling the streets, Google earth peering in to our gardens, all to protect us, the honest public, from the encroaching threat of the 'bad guys' both real and imagined.

We have Uber security at airports to protect against the terrorist threat. Cameras everywhere to catch criminals, debit and credit card ransactions can track where we are at any given time via purchases as well as our spending appetites for some Government psych team to analyse us. We are being monitored 24/7, calls randomly tapped for 'key words' and if picked up, routed to human operators to listen in, just in case.

The Labour Government of Britain attempted to force us all to have identity cards so we could be tracked constantly, to fight the imaginary terrorist threat. Conservatives quashed that, but only so they can use stealth tactics to make us beg for more restraints on our liberty; and they will give us what we ask for.

I can't trust my local council with paperwork they ask me to fill in so no, I will not be supportive of greater snooping powers for local councils or Governments to peek in to my private affairs.

Hayek famously wrote 'The road to serfdom'. We are already living it in Britain and we are slowly being duped in to asking Government to remove even more of our civil liberties and freedoms, we are on 'The road to fascism'!

Jarrow MP spotted outside South Shields police station.

2012-01-14T16:58:00.005Z

Source: Shields Gazette.

Chief Supt Peter Dawes and Jarrow Labour MP Stephen Hepburn were spotted chatting outside South Shields central police station. This, their first meeting, was to discuss among other things their shared love of football and the benefits the local teams bring to their regions.

I wonder if Stephen Hepburn discussed his assault of fellow MP Ian Malcolm. Mr Hepburn was fined £75 for that, which makes you wonder what two non - M.P.s would have received.

Which reminds me, why is our South Shields representative David Miliband not pictured at South Shields police station instead of a Jarrow MP, strange times indeed.