Balanced Question Time panel tonight - of course not! VOL 2
Discussion
techiedave said:
Funnily enough I applied for tickets on that programme.
It was broadcast from what was Highfield School South Shore Blackpool. Highfield was a perfectly serviceable school a little old fashioned in design. It was all knocked down and rebuilt and is now ultra modern.
Just after the rebuild it was sold to a foundation .
A lot of locals think a lot of money was spent unnecessarily.
The problems Blackpool has were only touched upon but its in a hell of a mess. Its councillors (many of whom are family members) are quite hopeless and between them Tory and Labour they have managed decline the town. Sure a lots been spent on the prom but it's made getting from a to b very difficult. Perfectly good road layouts were ripped up , made one way and totally unnecessary and hardly used cycle lanes were inflicted across the town, These were done because a senior figure in the council loved cycling and he thought it would add benefits. It hasn't
Talking of cycles a fortune was spent buying in bikes for hire and erecting cycle racks with bikes at various points over the town. These were not popular, hardly used and scrapped and sold on. Then the council opened a gym. It had state of the art very expensive bought on finance kit. It was nearly always empty apart from council staff who used it at discounted rates of up to 75%. No real attempt was made to market it. It failed and the equipment was sold off . This happened and shortly after a gym opened across the road which IS popular and is busy.
Then the council realising that their jewel in the crown - their new shopping centre (its just opposite the train station) was empty decided to do something constructive. They formed an arms reach company and opened a coffee shop. Its always empty apart from a few council staff who use it at heavily discounted rates. That's not enough to stop the council who know best. So now they have decided to take on another empty unit and open up another coffee shop.
The amount of sheer wasted money that Blackpool Council have wasted is unreal. It's council leader has spent the last year trying to big himself up as the prospective mayor of all Lancashire as he tries to get a large local body set up. He is so busy doing this he hardly spends any time actually looking after Blackpool. All he ever does is say "tory cuts" "central government forced this upon us" etc etc. He actively plays politics with peoples lives. He tries it on every year by not cutting the grass in the local cemeteries or grass verges and blames it on the cuts. He has tried this every year for the last five.
Blackpool council s
ts on its residents. If you own your own home you are a cash cow to them. Blackpool Council sts on local businesses with some of the highest business rates around. Its business rates are unfathomable to some as to what they charge for seemingly similar units.
On the main Talbot Road you will see a large car park. Its full of work wagons involved in the railway refurbishment/ electrification project. A few years ago the council bought the land and decided it would be a jolly good idea to make it into a big open air car park. All their staff working from their new offices would use it. It did involve a 10-15 minute walk to the offices. No one used it. It was lucky if it had 3 cars in it. For a while the council would refuse to give figures on its use but eventually they did and they were shamed into admitting it just wasn't being used.
Then there was the Talbot Road multi storey car park debacle. There are 550 odd spaces. It was all refurbished as part of the improvements a new fascia was put on it and very nice it looks too. The entrance/ exit was by rolling shutter. Unfortunately as the shutters were down people didn't know it was open. A member of the public took it upon himself to photograph the various floors and counted less than a dozen vehicles there. He took pictures and contacted the local paper who published it. The response from the council was comedy gold. They initially claimed not to know then to dispute then admit that maybe the shutters were a barrier.
Central government/ Tory scum whatever could throw extra millions at this place and the council would piss it up the wall. Its pretty scandalous the way the place is run.
But if your a councillor its ok your allowances are more than generous
Run for officeIt was broadcast from what was Highfield School South Shore Blackpool. Highfield was a perfectly serviceable school a little old fashioned in design. It was all knocked down and rebuilt and is now ultra modern.
Just after the rebuild it was sold to a foundation .
A lot of locals think a lot of money was spent unnecessarily.
The problems Blackpool has were only touched upon but its in a hell of a mess. Its councillors (many of whom are family members) are quite hopeless and between them Tory and Labour they have managed decline the town. Sure a lots been spent on the prom but it's made getting from a to b very difficult. Perfectly good road layouts were ripped up , made one way and totally unnecessary and hardly used cycle lanes were inflicted across the town, These were done because a senior figure in the council loved cycling and he thought it would add benefits. It hasn't
Talking of cycles a fortune was spent buying in bikes for hire and erecting cycle racks with bikes at various points over the town. These were not popular, hardly used and scrapped and sold on. Then the council opened a gym. It had state of the art very expensive bought on finance kit. It was nearly always empty apart from council staff who used it at discounted rates of up to 75%. No real attempt was made to market it. It failed and the equipment was sold off . This happened and shortly after a gym opened across the road which IS popular and is busy.
Then the council realising that their jewel in the crown - their new shopping centre (its just opposite the train station) was empty decided to do something constructive. They formed an arms reach company and opened a coffee shop. Its always empty apart from a few council staff who use it at heavily discounted rates. That's not enough to stop the council who know best. So now they have decided to take on another empty unit and open up another coffee shop.
The amount of sheer wasted money that Blackpool Council have wasted is unreal. It's council leader has spent the last year trying to big himself up as the prospective mayor of all Lancashire as he tries to get a large local body set up. He is so busy doing this he hardly spends any time actually looking after Blackpool. All he ever does is say "tory cuts" "central government forced this upon us" etc etc. He actively plays politics with peoples lives. He tries it on every year by not cutting the grass in the local cemeteries or grass verges and blames it on the cuts. He has tried this every year for the last five.
Blackpool council s
ts on its residents. If you own your own home you are a cash cow to them. Blackpool Council sts on local businesses with some of the highest business rates around. Its business rates are unfathomable to some as to what they charge for seemingly similar units.On the main Talbot Road you will see a large car park. Its full of work wagons involved in the railway refurbishment/ electrification project. A few years ago the council bought the land and decided it would be a jolly good idea to make it into a big open air car park. All their staff working from their new offices would use it. It did involve a 10-15 minute walk to the offices. No one used it. It was lucky if it had 3 cars in it. For a while the council would refuse to give figures on its use but eventually they did and they were shamed into admitting it just wasn't being used.
Then there was the Talbot Road multi storey car park debacle. There are 550 odd spaces. It was all refurbished as part of the improvements a new fascia was put on it and very nice it looks too. The entrance/ exit was by rolling shutter. Unfortunately as the shutters were down people didn't know it was open. A member of the public took it upon himself to photograph the various floors and counted less than a dozen vehicles there. He took pictures and contacted the local paper who published it. The response from the council was comedy gold. They initially claimed not to know then to dispute then admit that maybe the shutters were a barrier.
Central government/ Tory scum whatever could throw extra millions at this place and the council would piss it up the wall. Its pretty scandalous the way the place is run.
But if your a councillor its ok your allowances are more than generous
Didnt realise you were another Blackpool boy dave.
The decline of home is more and more apparent every time I go back up there. Its painful to see.
The only one who spoke any sense last night was the 1 bloke in the audience who was stating the blindingly obvious that they need to get the fracking going ASAP and bring some bloody money into the place.
I won't even waste my breath on the council. They have been making the prom worse and worse to actually use since I used to shlep up and down it school every day back in the 80s & 90s !
The decline of home is more and more apparent every time I go back up there. Its painful to see.
The only one who spoke any sense last night was the 1 bloke in the audience who was stating the blindingly obvious that they need to get the fracking going ASAP and bring some bloody money into the place.
I won't even waste my breath on the council. They have been making the prom worse and worse to actually use since I used to shlep up and down it school every day back in the 80s & 90s !
DeejRC said:
Didnt realise you were another Blackpool boy dave.
The decline of home is more and more apparent every time I go back up there. Its painful to see.
The only one who spoke any sense last night was the 1 bloke in the audience who was stating the blindingly obvious that they need to get the fracking going ASAP and bring some bloody money into the place.
I won't even waste my breath on the council. They have been making the prom worse and worse to actually use since I used to shlep up and down it school every day back in the 80s & 90s !
Yep grew up there, went to infant/ Junior School there in there from 67 then left to come to Brum. Back there high school from 76 to 79 then back to Brum mid 80s. Have brother there lives in Poulton.The decline of home is more and more apparent every time I go back up there. Its painful to see.
The only one who spoke any sense last night was the 1 bloke in the audience who was stating the blindingly obvious that they need to get the fracking going ASAP and bring some bloody money into the place.
I won't even waste my breath on the council. They have been making the prom worse and worse to actually use since I used to shlep up and down it school every day back in the 80s & 90s !
DeejRC said:
Its genius tonight 
The segment by Starkey and the discussion from it really should be explored more.
This is a little why I get a bit "ho hum" over Eddie Jordan Peterson. Starkey has nailed the issue immediately because he is a historian and already knows all the back story of the politics, history and philosophies that underpin Western society, not just having to re-package the whole thing to sell to a new audience.
It took a few mins but I think Liz, Brillo & Miranda started to get his point towards the end. Its not The Revolution per se or even if there has been a revolution or how far along it is, but that from any historical perspective, whenever you have a revolution - you then get very messy fallout and what are we going to do about it or think about it?
Well hurrah, we now have a real debate kicked off by a bloke with a cpl of braincells and an actual understanding of historical reality! Britain does not do revolutions, we do not like revolutions. We actively avoid revolutions! Why - because we tried one and realised it was a great big giant clusterfk and have no sodding wish to go down that route again! Consequently British politics, society, culture and democracy in general since always tries to find the evolutionary path.
Starkey hits an absolute nail when he touched on the disruptive aspect of the Net (and Miranda picked up on it) that it now allows an immediate import of idea and volume of idea dumped onto British society. Wow, boom, suddenly you do have exactly the conditions of an immediate culture war! Brillo mentioned a 50yr flip in ideas, but I think he actually missed a trick...in the 40yrs between the 50s and end of the Century, we moved from relative restrictive Puritan ideas to liberalism. In the last 10yrs we ARE being hit almost with a new Puritanism due to the lack of tolerance for debating ideas, etc as outlined by Starkey. Thats a triple flip flop! Britain is not used to that, we are inherently historically not used to that level of change. And instinctively we dont like it!! What the positions are is almost irrelevant, its the pace of the change and impact we dont like.
I am somewhat on the Brillo side of the fence here...I do not think we have had a full revolution yet. I think Starkey is almost certainly correct though in that there is a disruptive schism in British culture currently fuelled by the mechanisms and social systematic structures of the net that may well have serious consequences for British society.
Oh yes, and...GORDON'S ALIVE!!!!
Agreed. But most people haven't noticed because they don't live in the University system or local or national government departments, or they just see all this stuff on the TV or internet and think its just the medja bubble or a social medja groupthink bubble or something similar that one can ignore so it gets ignored. The segment by Starkey and the discussion from it really should be explored more.
This is a little why I get a bit "ho hum" over Eddie Jordan Peterson. Starkey has nailed the issue immediately because he is a historian and already knows all the back story of the politics, history and philosophies that underpin Western society, not just having to re-package the whole thing to sell to a new audience.
It took a few mins but I think Liz, Brillo & Miranda started to get his point towards the end. Its not The Revolution per se or even if there has been a revolution or how far along it is, but that from any historical perspective, whenever you have a revolution - you then get very messy fallout and what are we going to do about it or think about it?
Well hurrah, we now have a real debate kicked off by a bloke with a cpl of braincells and an actual understanding of historical reality! Britain does not do revolutions, we do not like revolutions. We actively avoid revolutions! Why - because we tried one and realised it was a great big giant clusterf
k and have no sodding wish to go down that route again! Consequently British politics, society, culture and democracy in general since always tries to find the evolutionary path.Starkey hits an absolute nail when he touched on the disruptive aspect of the Net (and Miranda picked up on it) that it now allows an immediate import of idea and volume of idea dumped onto British society. Wow, boom, suddenly you do have exactly the conditions of an immediate culture war! Brillo mentioned a 50yr flip in ideas, but I think he actually missed a trick...in the 40yrs between the 50s and end of the Century, we moved from relative restrictive Puritan ideas to liberalism. In the last 10yrs we ARE being hit almost with a new Puritanism due to the lack of tolerance for debating ideas, etc as outlined by Starkey. Thats a triple flip flop! Britain is not used to that, we are inherently historically not used to that level of change. And instinctively we dont like it!! What the positions are is almost irrelevant, its the pace of the change and impact we dont like.
I am somewhat on the Brillo side of the fence here...I do not think we have had a full revolution yet. I think Starkey is almost certainly correct though in that there is a disruptive schism in British culture currently fuelled by the mechanisms and social systematic structures of the net that may well have serious consequences for British society.
Oh yes, and...GORDON'S ALIVE!!!!
Fundamentally we haven't got to grips yet with the fact that places like this whilst not representing our real world of corporeal interaction is a real world nonetheless.
techiedave said:
Funnily enough I applied for tickets on that programme.
It was broadcast from what was Highfield School South Shore Blackpool. Highfield was a perfectly serviceable school a little old fashioned in design. It was all knocked down and rebuilt and is now ultra modern.
Just after the rebuild it was sold to a foundation .
A lot of locals think a lot of money was spent unnecessarily.
The problems Blackpool has were only touched upon but its in a hell of a mess. Its councillors (many of whom are family members) are quite hopeless and between them Tory and Labour they have managed decline the town. Sure a lots been spent on the prom but it's made getting from a to b very difficult. Perfectly good road layouts were ripped up , made one way and totally unnecessary and hardly used cycle lanes were inflicted across the town, These were done because a senior figure in the council loved cycling and he thought it would add benefits. It hasn't
Talking of cycles a fortune was spent buying in bikes for hire and erecting cycle racks with bikes at various points over the town. These were not popular, hardly used and scrapped and sold on. Then the council opened a gym. It had state of the art very expensive bought on finance kit. It was nearly always empty apart from council staff who used it at discounted rates of up to 75%. No real attempt was made to market it. It failed and the equipment was sold off . This happened and shortly after a gym opened across the road which IS popular and is busy.
Then the council realising that their jewel in the crown - their new shopping centre (its just opposite the train station) was empty decided to do something constructive. They formed an arms reach company and opened a coffee shop. Its always empty apart from a few council staff who use it at heavily discounted rates. That's not enough to stop the council who know best. So now they have decided to take on another empty unit and open up another coffee shop.
The amount of sheer wasted money that Blackpool Council have wasted is unreal. It's council leader has spent the last year trying to big himself up as the prospective mayor of all Lancashire as he tries to get a large local body set up. He is so busy doing this he hardly spends any time actually looking after Blackpool. All he ever does is say "tory cuts" "central government forced this upon us" etc etc. He actively plays politics with peoples lives. He tries it on every year by not cutting the grass in the local cemeteries or grass verges and blames it on the cuts. He has tried this every year for the last five.
Blackpool council sts on its residents. If you own your own home you are a cash cow to them. Blackpool Council sts on local businesses with some of the highest business rates around. Its business rates are unfathomable to some as to what they charge for seemingly similar units.
On the main Talbot Road you will see a large car park. Its full of work wagons involved in the railway refurbishment/ electrification project. A few years ago the council bought the land and decided it would be a jolly good idea to make it into a big open air car park. All their staff working from their new offices would use it. It did involve a 10-15 minute walk to the offices. No one used it. It was lucky if it had 3 cars in it. For a while the council would refuse to give figures on its use but eventually they did and they were shamed into admitting it just wasn't being used.
Then there was the Talbot Road multi storey car park debacle. There are 550 odd spaces. It was all refurbished as part of the improvements a new fascia was put on it and very nice it looks too. The entrance/ exit was by rolling shutter. Unfortunately as the shutters were down people didn't know it was open. A member of the public took it upon himself to photograph the various floors and counted less than a dozen vehicles there. He took pictures and contacted the local paper who published it. The response from the council was comedy gold. They initially claimed not to know then to dispute then admit that maybe the shutters were a barrier.
Central government/ Tory scum whatever could throw extra millions at this place and the council would piss it up the wall. Its pretty scandalous the way the place is run.
But if your a councillor its ok your allowances are more than generous
Not to mention the loss of TVR, couldn’t they afford a bung to the new generation TVR?It was broadcast from what was Highfield School South Shore Blackpool. Highfield was a perfectly serviceable school a little old fashioned in design. It was all knocked down and rebuilt and is now ultra modern.
Just after the rebuild it was sold to a foundation .
A lot of locals think a lot of money was spent unnecessarily.
The problems Blackpool has were only touched upon but its in a hell of a mess. Its councillors (many of whom are family members) are quite hopeless and between them Tory and Labour they have managed decline the town. Sure a lots been spent on the prom but it's made getting from a to b very difficult. Perfectly good road layouts were ripped up , made one way and totally unnecessary and hardly used cycle lanes were inflicted across the town, These were done because a senior figure in the council loved cycling and he thought it would add benefits. It hasn't
Talking of cycles a fortune was spent buying in bikes for hire and erecting cycle racks with bikes at various points over the town. These were not popular, hardly used and scrapped and sold on. Then the council opened a gym. It had state of the art very expensive bought on finance kit. It was nearly always empty apart from council staff who used it at discounted rates of up to 75%. No real attempt was made to market it. It failed and the equipment was sold off . This happened and shortly after a gym opened across the road which IS popular and is busy.
Then the council realising that their jewel in the crown - their new shopping centre (its just opposite the train station) was empty decided to do something constructive. They formed an arms reach company and opened a coffee shop. Its always empty apart from a few council staff who use it at heavily discounted rates. That's not enough to stop the council who know best. So now they have decided to take on another empty unit and open up another coffee shop.
The amount of sheer wasted money that Blackpool Council have wasted is unreal. It's council leader has spent the last year trying to big himself up as the prospective mayor of all Lancashire as he tries to get a large local body set up. He is so busy doing this he hardly spends any time actually looking after Blackpool. All he ever does is say "tory cuts" "central government forced this upon us" etc etc. He actively plays politics with peoples lives. He tries it on every year by not cutting the grass in the local cemeteries or grass verges and blames it on the cuts. He has tried this every year for the last five.
Blackpool council s
ts on its residents. If you own your own home you are a cash cow to them. Blackpool Council sts on local businesses with some of the highest business rates around. Its business rates are unfathomable to some as to what they charge for seemingly similar units.On the main Talbot Road you will see a large car park. Its full of work wagons involved in the railway refurbishment/ electrification project. A few years ago the council bought the land and decided it would be a jolly good idea to make it into a big open air car park. All their staff working from their new offices would use it. It did involve a 10-15 minute walk to the offices. No one used it. It was lucky if it had 3 cars in it. For a while the council would refuse to give figures on its use but eventually they did and they were shamed into admitting it just wasn't being used.
Then there was the Talbot Road multi storey car park debacle. There are 550 odd spaces. It was all refurbished as part of the improvements a new fascia was put on it and very nice it looks too. The entrance/ exit was by rolling shutter. Unfortunately as the shutters were down people didn't know it was open. A member of the public took it upon himself to photograph the various floors and counted less than a dozen vehicles there. He took pictures and contacted the local paper who published it. The response from the council was comedy gold. They initially claimed not to know then to dispute then admit that maybe the shutters were a barrier.
Central government/ Tory scum whatever could throw extra millions at this place and the council would piss it up the wall. Its pretty scandalous the way the place is run.
But if your a councillor its ok your allowances are more than generous
Ready made workforce as well.
http://www.lancashirelep.co.uk/lep-priorities/blac...
Interesting, so is the local economy gearing up to be the Aberdeen of Lancashire or will that opportunity be turned down? (assuming its as real as some claim).
Interesting, so is the local economy gearing up to be the Aberdeen of Lancashire or will that opportunity be turned down? (assuming its as real as some claim).
NJH said:
http://www.lancashirelep.co.uk/lep-priorities/blac...
Interesting, so is the local economy gearing up to be the Aberdeen of Lancashire or will that opportunity be turned down? (assuming its as real as some claim).
The council are pushing this like mad. Only problem is some of the existing businesses on other parks are simply relocating thereInteresting, so is the local economy gearing up to be the Aberdeen of Lancashire or will that opportunity be turned down? (assuming its as real as some claim).
Faraday Way is starting to look like ghost town as a result.
DeejRC said:
I don’t get Mx5 post. Was it in relation to QT or TW after?
Yes, Blackpool is a pro Brexit town, but the panel last night was split with 2 heavyweights either side, a businesswoman/reality person who was largely leave but heavily on the side of democracy. A counterpoint to her in a media chap who was largely remain but heavily pro democracy. And the Labour guy who was confused as per his party stance. That’s pretty balanced to me.
What I did think was telling though:
Farage remains a political street fighter par excellance, vastly above most of his contemporaries.
Ken C is a very classy Parliamentarian with rock solid principles, however, is in grave danger of making himself appear obsolete and elitist to the population and so find himself a hindrance to his argument. He is an intellectual heavyweight and has genuine gravitas but his manner of delivering the message in such an almost patrician manner is not an asset at times.
Yes. Ken was a looking a lot older too. That’s the trouble with getting older Yes, Blackpool is a pro Brexit town, but the panel last night was split with 2 heavyweights either side, a businesswoman/reality person who was largely leave but heavily on the side of democracy. A counterpoint to her in a media chap who was largely remain but heavily pro democracy. And the Labour guy who was confused as per his party stance. That’s pretty balanced to me.
What I did think was telling though:
Farage remains a political street fighter par excellance, vastly above most of his contemporaries.
Ken C is a very classy Parliamentarian with rock solid principles, however, is in grave danger of making himself appear obsolete and elitist to the population and so find himself a hindrance to his argument. He is an intellectual heavyweight and has genuine gravitas but his manner of delivering the message in such an almost patrician manner is not an asset at times.
The one thing I hate about brexit is that it’s turning me against people I’ve always admired. Ken Clarke, John Major. I think I need to be more circumspect.
Jockman said:
DeejRC said:
I don’t get Mx5 post. Was it in relation to QT or TW after?
Yes, Blackpool is a pro Brexit town, but the panel last night was split with 2 heavyweights either side, a businesswoman/reality person who was largely leave but heavily on the side of democracy. A counterpoint to her in a media chap who was largely remain but heavily pro democracy. And the Labour guy who was confused as per his party stance. That’s pretty balanced to me.
What I did think was telling though:
Farage remains a political street fighter par excellance, vastly above most of his contemporaries.
Ken C is a very classy Parliamentarian with rock solid principles, however, is in grave danger of making himself appear obsolete and elitist to the population and so find himself a hindrance to his argument. He is an intellectual heavyweight and has genuine gravitas but his manner of delivering the message in such an almost patrician manner is not an asset at times.
Yes. Ken was a looking a lot older too. That’s the trouble with getting older Yes, Blackpool is a pro Brexit town, but the panel last night was split with 2 heavyweights either side, a businesswoman/reality person who was largely leave but heavily on the side of democracy. A counterpoint to her in a media chap who was largely remain but heavily pro democracy. And the Labour guy who was confused as per his party stance. That’s pretty balanced to me.
What I did think was telling though:
Farage remains a political street fighter par excellance, vastly above most of his contemporaries.
Ken C is a very classy Parliamentarian with rock solid principles, however, is in grave danger of making himself appear obsolete and elitist to the population and so find himself a hindrance to his argument. He is an intellectual heavyweight and has genuine gravitas but his manner of delivering the message in such an almost patrician manner is not an asset at times.
The one thing I hate about brexit is that it’s turning me against people I’ve always admired. Ken Clarke, John Major. I think I need to be more circumspect.
![](https://thumbsnap.com/sc/9L6NxG5z.jpg[/img]</a> <a href="https://thumbsnap.com/9L6NxG5z" Target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[img]https://thumbsnap.com/sc/9L6NxG5z.jpg)
David Dimbleby chairs debate from Westminster. On the panel are secretary of state for international trade Liam Fox,
Shadow minister for labour Laura Pidcock,
Restaurateur, writer and Great British Bake Off judge Prue Leith,
Roma Agrawal, structural engineer who worked on the Shard and diversity campaigner for women in engineering
And George the Poet.
Is it wrong to get a certain feeling about George the poets contribution before screening ?
Laura Pidcoocks a feminist Geordie
She expresses herself with her hands
It could get really awkward tonight
If George gawps at her mammary glands
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ND5Gjli8JSI
She expresses herself with her hands
It could get really awkward tonight
If George gawps at her mammary glands
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ND5Gjli8JSI
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