“Power is okay, and stupidity is usually harmless. Power and stupidity together are dangerous”.”
Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind
Or Bradford Council’s new motto?
More of them later…
As I strummed my way back from the gym the other day to Glenn Campbell, free from dismayed glances from Tuna Man who’d opted out of Pensioners Pilates, I glanced a traffic cop hot on my tail.
Was I was strumming too fast or maybe he’d caught the tune on the breeze and wanted to borrow the CD?
Funny how, even if you have done nothing wrong and the only illegal substance you’ve had all day is a second Mars Bar, the sight of a cop car behind you focuses the mind.
And then I saw the reassuring sight of Big Nick from C5’s All New Traffic Cops arm in arm, so to speak, with a local scroat. From the lad’s body language, Big Nick was definitely leading the dance, so to speak.
Predictably, the scroat had two mates in tow, both of whom seemed to think it fair game to taunt the guy charged with keeping normal people safe. Oh just club all three of them I silently prayed.
Abandoned alongside them was an expensive VW Golf – the Bradford knobhead’s car of choice – driven up onto the pavement.
The cop behind me was back-up and I felt like cheering from my car and punching the roof as the Sports Direct clad local filth were led away to collect more community hours from some senile old judge like non-redeemable Co-Op stamps.
Wriggling as if he possessed some Houdini like powers of escape, chief scroat cussed as he was placed in the cop car and those of us in the traffic queue smiled a contented smile.
A minor victory if only to lock away one nonentity for a few hours peace afforded to the rest of us. Between the three of them their combined brains would probably not light up the cell bulb.
More worryingly is how on Earth they end up behind the wheel of a car expensive enough to stretch anybody with a decent job. Strange days indeed.
Eighteen Years And Counting
In 1999 they shut the doors on the old Odeon cinema and since then a long campaign has been waged firstly to save the building and, more recently, to restore it to former glories and also provide Bradford with a top class live music venue. I first wrote about the Odeon in 2012.
A few weeks ago I mentioned the Government tossing a few spare coppers – £15m – for the whole of the North of England to scrap over. Thankfully, Bradford appears to have put its hat in the ring as far as the Odeon is concerned.
In this puff piece in the local rag, our invisible leader Hapless Hinchcliffe is now seemingly aboard as the chances of a positive outcome appear stronger.
The bid is in the region of £4m, the same amount the Council have just paid for a city centre car-park, having already earmarked land close by, initially purchased for a swimming pool, for the same purpose.
How many car parks does a city with no attractions need? Is it me or do you sense the politicians queuing up to claim some credit here after two decades of ineptitude?
One Hundred Years Ago
More news of the seemingly endless carnage over in Europe and beyond here – the names have a ring to any of us who know these parts.
Location, Location, Location
An interesting though not surprising piece here from the local rag on the affordability of property in our city.
There are several obvious conclusions here and none of them are rocket science. However, just in case any councillors are reading this I will go slowly.
The most obvious is that premium city centre living is a myth where Bradford is concerned. New apartment blocks are merely modern day social housing. How the developers, apparently keen to build yet more, do their sums is anybody’s guess.
It may work in Leeds, London and Manchester but the fact is that opportunities are both far more rewarding and diverse than Bradford in attracting young professionals wishing to experience city centre living.
Hapless Hinchcliffe likes to bleat on about Bradford being one of the youngest populations in the UK so cheap city centre living should be a plus?
Not so if there is a daily exodus to work in Leeds and stay there because the nightlife is simply far more attractive. You may as well pitch tents.
The T&A begrudgingly includes Ilkley which, like a middle-aged whore, masks its cracks with the mascara of an LS postcode. It remains under the control of Hapless and her clueless cronies, like it or not.
Finally, the concreting of certain areas reflects their value in tax take to Hapless – see The Great Housebuilding Gold Rush – politicians and their so called principles often roll over to Mr Pimp the developer.
To become a city centre that attracts people other than winos and dossers to live you need to have vibrancy, quality attractions and a secure feel. Sadly we have very few.
Lies, Lies, Lies
It’s been a busy week for the Deception Dept down at City hall – see here – and, once again, they’ve been caught with their Speedos down.
In anybody’s language this is sheer deceit; the whole swimming pool project displays much of the dishonesty, double-dealing and downright incompetence that define this Council who will eventually drown in the deep end.
Here’s the story so far starting with a grand plan for a city centre pool in the middle of nowhere now a vacant piece of land because the Council could not do the sums.
Moving on and the Richard Dunn sports centre across is to be flattened with the dosh paying for two new pools; a paddling pool down the road from the wrecking ball and a nice new one in an area where political expediency might cause one to smell something other than chlorine.
To achieve this we have to believe the Council has done its maths and see two established community pools shut – Bingley & Queensbury – once again believing the Council. Why shut these pools; surely not because nobody votes for Hapless here?
Reading the article suggests trust in either being told the truth or the Council’s basic business competencies to manage a multi-million pound project – setting aside the dirty politics here – is well misplaced.
Once again the muppets are out of their depth.
Coming Soon
Those of you who are on Facebook may have seen postings from The Eccleshill Mechanics Institute’s Action Group.
Whilst we still live in tough financial times, it is easy to lay all the blame at the door of the Government. However, those sweet liberal, loony lefties that wail foul at every available opportunity are far from squeaky clean.
I hope to bring you this tale of dirty goings on next week as a community facility under financial pressure suddenly becomes very attractive to a group best described as a quango.
“Power is okay, and stupidity is usually harmless. Power and stupidity together are dangerous”.”
Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind
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