“Power-lust is a weed that grows only in the vacant lots of an abandoned mind.”
Ayn Rand
Rejoice! There is no chance of Hapless Hinchcliffe becoming West Yorkshire Mayor. Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds and Wakefield can all relax albeit Labour have chosen an actress as their candidate.
Sadly, Bradford is stuck with Hapless to blow more money on cycle lanes, useless letters and expensive leases – see later. Devolution is a blob of foundation on a dodgy big spot. It was rejected decisively in 2012; consider the public’s appetite now.
The unelected West Yorkshire Combined Authority claimed great support from a public consultation in the summer with some 4,000 respondents. That’s around 0.2% of the population; who said spin was dead?
In the turnout by Labour members to choose a candidate, the actress polled 4,389 votes out of 8,665 cast. Even party members, those most committed to politics, could only muster a 43% turnout.
The money promised – £1.8bn over thirty years – is peanuts for monkeys to play with.
The Northern Poorhouse
We poor Northerners can wail all we like at the privileged Old Etonian Club but in a two-party state the party that has failed the ordinary man above all is the Labour Party. There is no more London-centric party than Labour.
And considering the mediocre dross it offers us further North, wail all you like. Strangely, the best option for the North to get a real voice would be to abolish the two-party system along more European lines.
The End of a Legend
It has been a long time since I watched my hometown club, Bradford City; I suspect there will be many like me. Equally, many will feel genuinely sad following the news that manager Stuart McCall has been sacked for the third and certainly last time.
When you paid your money to watch a City side with McCall playing in it, win or lose, rarely were you short-changed. He played with passion and fire in his heart and the team followed him most days. That was enough for me be it a short hop home or another motorway slog.
The events last weekend had a ring of inevitability. A few weeks ago McCall, when asked if his players were likely to be watching a major club game that night, remarked that they would probably be on social media. Those words struck me.
A Yorkshire Post feature last weekend – “What’s gone wrong at Bradford City? – will need rewriting. The club is in a dangerous downward spiral compounded by the bizarre choice of a vastly inexperienced CEO.
But sport has changed, beyond what many of my age recognise; the money men rule from top to bottom and the soul has been sucked dry. Little escapes the clutches of the media men and many sports are being dumbed down. To fully understand, you have to play.
You have to have passion too, there are no half measures. Perhaps McCall found himself surrounded by many that simply did not care enough.
He should comfort himself that few get to choose the timing of their exit; even those who do rarely get to write the script. When you find yourself surrounded by those who could never understand what it really means, it is time to go.
Life is short and a sporting life still shorter. Should you read this and still have that fire, don’t waste it.
Thanks for the great memories Stuart.
Another Tale of Two Cities
Two stories from the local paper illustrated, yet again, what a shambles Bradford planning is and how there is a different set of rules operating in certain parts.
This story suggests the Council operated with good reason, albeit the man in question was scathing on social media as to the accuracy of the journalism.
A Bradford man has spoken of his frustration after his new food truck business was branded an “accident hazard” and forced to relocate by the Council.
But follow me across town, to the land of make it up according to the great book of Retrospective Planning written by They Can’t Touch Us.
Here a retrospective planning application for a cafe that has been operating for months has been submitted to Bradford Council.
The cafe is a converted metal container with a canopy in the front.
In a city where you can still find some of the most beautiful architecture in England, we are reduced to shanty town status. It has apparently been operating since May and will have been under “construction” before that.
What are we doing as a City to allow this kind of two-fingered approach to rules and regulations?
And Finally
Try as I might, I admit to not understanding where the billions we have borrowed have come from nor how long it will take to pay back.
A constant feature of lockdown has been local politicians using everyday lives as bargaining chips to extract more money. And yet they continue to squander it faster than Boris can give to his chums.
You might remember the £89k letter, a thinly disguised PR exercise by Hapless a few weeks ago. Councillors finally reacted last week, on the ball as ever. And consider this.
Yes you read that correctly and the clowns have signed a ten-year lease. There are several of you regular readers here who are well versed in property matters; what could you buy in Bradford city centre for around £4m?
The £420,000 annual rent had been a huge strain on the library budget, but last year the Council revealed that the lease costs had been moved to other Council budget pots, and would no longer weigh down the stretched library budget.
Remember stories of local libraries closing? Just how many were sacrificed because the numbnuts struck this appalling deal?
For the last time this year I make the point that these people are inept at best, far worse most probably. The next time they cite austerity as a cause of any of Bradford’s issues and the looming 5% hike in Council Tax, consider the above will only be two examples of many.
Happy Christmas to you all…see you in the New Year.
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