A gaffe is when a politician tells the truth.
Michael Kinsley
As world leaders meet in Glasgow, a question.
If heat pumps and solar panels are the way forward, why isn’t every new build house fitted with these? Surely this would have a much more instantaneous impact than retrofitting.
Or might that dent the bottom lines of the developers?
When You Know You Are Old
The recent spate of horrendous spiking incidents of young women leaves ordinary people scratching heads. Outraged, students decided to boycott nightclubs and so declared a mass boycott…on a Wednesday night?
Denial
The following is a You Tube video of a recent House of Commons debate on grooming gangs. Attended by a sparse number of Tory MPs, look at the opposition benches.
Searching for words to express my anger, The Yorkshire Post did it far better in their editorial last Saturday.
The response of Bradford Council to damning criticism over his handling of CSE cases risks doing a disservice to victims of child sexual exploitation. In rejecting calls from Tory MPs Robbie Moore and Philip Davies for a Rotherham-style inquiry, the council says services are “stretched” and the priority is “front-line protection of children now”.
…such a stance neglects the suffering of CSE and grooming victims that Ann Cryer, the then MP for Keighley, was highlighting over 20 years ago…Bradford needs to instigate its own ‘lessons learned’ inquiry.
The benefits are significant – it will offer some solace to the abused, help the council shape future policies and, hopefully, give confidence to all victims of sexual violence to come forward.
However this will not occur if Bradford’s chief executive Kersten England and council leader Susan Hinchcliffe…do not respond more robustly to the very serious criticisms made against them in the Commons.
And, while it is for Bradford’s three Labour MPs to justify their non-participation, let them – and Bradford Council – be left in no doubt about the strength of Deputy Speaker Dame Eleanor Laing’s closing remarks: “The whole House clearly wants action to occur now. It is not often that we are all in such agreement.”
I have written to my MP asking for his position here though he is not known for his ability to reply.
Meanwhile, the grandly titled Executive met this week at City Hall to pat each other on the back. Hapless reminded me of the character Young Mr Grace in the sitcom Are You Being Served with his daily address to minions “you’re all doing very well!”
Every agency under the sun was there; it was toe-curling.
More Denial
You may remember my discovery that several expensive non-turf-pitches (ntps) laid at enormous expense to serve an apparently insatiable appetite for cricket in certain parts of Bradford had turned out a costly disaster – as I predicted.
Cue denial from both the English Cricket Board (ECB) who paid for these and Bradford Council who, presumably, advised them where to put them. For three months now they have wriggled like rotten fish on a hook only to concede the truth.
The ECB basically called me a liar, having taken thirteen weeks to respond; here is Bradford Council’s response. In short, they plan to waste yet more money.
….work is ongoing and will be completed as soon as possible, unfortunately, we have experienced delays in securing the service of NTP’s specialists during the pandemic which is still impacting in regards to their availability for maintenance and replacement works, which is due to the material supply, labour availability and transport issues the sector is itself experiencing.
The contractors are however on site next week to replace the damaged beyond repair wicket at Sunnybank Lane Recreation Ground and will be inspecting and repairing and replacing other NTP’s as their availability allows.
This was from Phil Barker, Assistant Director of Sport & Culture. Mr Barker would do well to get off his salaried backside and see for himself the idiotic locations for these pitches. Instead, he buries his head in a pot of council taxpayers’ money.
Yorkshire CCC
Had the board of YCCC any backbone, the club would not now be facing financial armageddon. With net debt at £18m+ in the last accounts (12/19), the subsequent effects of the pandemic, a wholesale exodus of sponsors and removal from staging international matches, it is in a dire position.
The only likely beneficiaries from all of this will be the lawyers. Explain that to the kids who will not see their heroes next summer? Or the community coaches facing redundancy?
As for the ECB, CEO Tom Harrison claimed he had not read the report; he should resign too.
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