WHAT ATTRACTED YOUR ATTENTION TODAY?

[Wendyf]

No vehicle tax discs from the 1st October. I knew it was coming but it still seems weird to pay your money and not get anything in return!

[Thomo]

Trawling the net for local info on VE Day, I came across a site with comments about Barnoldswick from people who live (exist) in such places as Bradford, Burnley and Nelson. From Burnley: it is the arsehole of the world, from Nelson: it is a Sh****le, and from Bradford: I would rather die than live there! These comments probable echo my sentiments about the three named places.

[plaques]

Thomo. Nothing wrong with the places, just the people who post this type of message. Thank god we can enjoy a more civilized site.

[PanBiker]

Came across this which is being shared on Facebook.

From: The last person to enter parliament with honest intentions was Guy Fawkes.

Confused by what is going on in the Middle East? Let me explain.

We support the Iraqi Government in the fight against the Islamic state. We don't like IS but IS is supported by Saudi Arabia whom we do like. We don't like President Assad in Syria, we support the fight against him, but not IS which is also fighting against him. We don't like Iran but Iran support the Iraqi government against IS. So some of our friends support our enemies, some of our enemies are our friends and some of our enemies are fighting against our other enemies whom we want to lose, but we don't want our enemies who are fighting our enemies to win.

If the people we want to lose are defeated, they might be replaced by people we like even less and all this was started by us invading a country to drive out terrorists who weren't actually there until we went in to drive them out.

Do you understand now?

[Thomo]

If only it was that simple.

[plaques]

Yes but Syria is supported by Russia in the fight against the bad rebels. They are also allies of Iran who are considered bad guys by supporting Syria and threatening us with potential nuclear weapons but still worth talking to. Had Russia not invaded Ukraine, who we like, although they are not in the EU and whose conflict should have nothing to do with us, we could have possibly talked to them as well. Turkey is trying to please everyone but if they join us to defeat the bad guys then the Kurds will declare independence and claim some of their land which won’t do at all.
All this reminds me of a time when I got lost in London. In a cry for help I got the reply ‘ I wouldn’t start from here!’

[Stanley]

"Nothing wrong with the places, just the people who post this type of message. Thank god we can enjoy a more civilized site."
Spot on P and what's the point in re-posting them?
The Facebook quote is actually factually accurate and as P says, it's very confusing. I've been studying the Middle East and our involvement for years and even I can't follow all the labyrinthine twists. My version is to cut it down to the root, we have a bunch of evil men seeking power over Islam and employing horrific tactics to gain their ends. Exactly the situation with Hitler in 1939 but not directed specifically at us. Question is do we stand aside and do nothing?
What grabbed me yesterday was a lovely visit from daughter Susan. I fed her lunch, we slagged off the other daughters and she pulled my leg because a book I gave her as a present was one I had borrowed off her.... Collapse of stout party!
The Queen's horse being disqualified from second place after a drug test. How fortunate that, yet again (this isn't the first time), it was 'contaminated feed'.

[Big Kev]

Had a look at the ongoing building works at Vicarage Motors this morning. The old building is being converted to smaller 'units' for rent. Word on the street is a Harley motorcycle specialist has one of them and, a cloth supplier, curtain maker and curtain retailer have their eye on 3 of them. Should be an interesting complex once it's all done.

[Tizer]

Syria, Iraq, Saudi etc...yes, I agree with all that - but you haven't mentioned Israel in the middle of it all!

Queen's horse and 'contaminated feed'...it all gets a bit silly now because the racehorse testing laboratories are capable of finding `contamination' in just about anything at as low a level as you can imagine. They are equipped with the most sensitive and sophisticated instrumentation in the world and could just as well be detecting life on Mars. And the reason is simple, there's a lot of money in horse racing. But it means you begin to detect `illegal' drug molecules that might be there because they're now present in all our water, food, feed etc at low levels.

A Harley-Davidson shop in Barlick? Oh no, Stanley will be going in and asking for the biggest, most powerful one available, no pockets in a shroud!

[Bruff]

Probably one of the best articles to appear on the shower we have in Government at the moment - in the analysis (in my view) and in the prose which is quite superb (as I imagine everyone would agree)

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre ... f-comments

Richard Broughton

[Thomo]

Despite living in the shadow of such excellence of thought and scholastic knowledge on all matters local and global. some of us who live here, and are striving to lift this small town out of the pit of its current situation may have a different opinion. We may be less skilled in the art of politics and its impact on this Country, yet in our midst there are they who have seen much more of life than the inhabitants of a comfortable existence. The old WW1 saying comes to mind "if you know of a better ole".

[Stanley]

The better 'ole at the moment is Scotland....
Richard, brilliant article and he hits all my nails on the head but of course better written! I agree with that lady because I too saw what the Atlee 1945 Labour government did with a worse financial situation than we have now. Of course, in a way he was lucky because he and his government had the support of a nation welded together by war and determined that something better would come out of it. I have always said that despite all its faults, the Institution of the NHS and the Welfare State as we know it now was the best political intervention in society we have ever seen. And that includes the much over-hyped Magna Carta.
"A Harley-Davidson shop in Barlick? Oh no, Stanley will be going in and asking for the biggest, most powerful one available, no pockets in a shroud!" Rest easy Tiz.... no chance! And anyway, if I did it, would be a Vincent Black Shadow!
Just heard the news that the little lad getting Proton Radiation treatment for a brain tumour is to be funded by the NHS. A brilliant decision!
Brief power outage at 06:13 knocked everything out. Bad switch on the network?

[Tizer]

I'm not sure what `children's homes' have come to now but it seems like any small house can be turned into one and then you end up with the children scattered everywhere and with more chance of poor care. Two such small `children's homes' have now been closed by Somerset County Council "due to poor management, sub-standard care and concerns over safeguarding" (the SCC's own words). It means rehousing 5 children in total. One of the homes is located in a small village (a hamlet) and comprises a little old cottage which the SCC bought in 2009 to house four `troubled youngsters'. At the time the local residents objected to it but the SCC said it would be "staffed by at least two specialist care workers at all times". I can't find any reference to who was responsible for the failures in management, care and safeguarding, and whether it was the Council, private company or an individual.

[plaques]

if I did it, would be a Vincent Black Shadow!

I came across this one at the Bancroft Heritage open day. Slightly modified to cope with today's traffic. Better bakes.
Get the keys out for your piggy bank you should be able to get one for the top side of 30 grand.

[Nolic]

Tiz, a number of comments in respect of your post on children's homes.

Guidance under the 1989 Children and Young Person's Act is clear that normally children's home should be indistinguishable from ordinary family residences......hence anyone wanting to operate such a home should thankfully look away from the 50+ bed institutions like the old Blackburn Orphanage on Whalley Road in Wilpshire. Current guidance similarly demands that local authorities should be placing young people within a 25 mile radius of their home area - problem is that there may not be any homes within such an area, lack of vacancies or choice of specialist homes. If SCC has closed the homes then they must have been run by the council themselves as otherwise local authorities have no power of closure which is invested in Ofsted - through the courts if necessary. It seems strange them criticising safeguarding, management and staffing as they would be responsible for the total operation of the homes.

Planning permission is a touchy area as generally homes of less than 5 young people do not require planning permission and it is no coincidence that the vast majority of homes that have opened in the past 10 years or so are for less than 5 youngsters. In my experience smaller homes generally operate to higher degree's of care and control and are invariably more successful at supporting young people than larger homes that are less personal and require more variations in staffing. I would be concerned at staffing of 5 to 2 which is woefully insufficient to provide proper oversight care and attention.

One problem at present is that various agencies, particularly the police, seem to have a downer on children's homes and they do end up getting a generally bad and inaccurate press. The reporting of the Rochdale CSE scandal would have us believe that the majority of victims were from children's homes ......fact is that one child from one children's home was involved with the vast majority of victims living with their families (Rochdale LSCB "The Overview Report of the Serious Case Review in respect of Child Sexual Exploitation in Rochdale")

I would be interested to hear more from you if anything else emerges about these homes.Nolic

[Tizer]

Thanks for that detailed and thoughtful response, Nolic. I'll see if I can find out anything more tomorrow.
Cheers, Tizer

[Stanley]

Comrade, I was talking to Susan about that orphanage only the other day when we were talking about Mick. I used to pass it regularly in my driving days and it always struck me as a forbidding place, like a small prison. I never saw a child about or any other activity. Looked like a good building, has it been re-used?

[Nolic]

Comrade, part of The Orphanage remained as a children's home for about 10 youngsters until the mid 1980's and it was a good place for younger children who needed a lot of love and affection. Despite its appearance it was a good and caring place in my experience. The trust that operated it under the will of James Dixon remains and the building is now used as offices/training suite for Child Action Northwest and thankfully the sign above the door announcing its origins was removed some time ago. The NSPCC used to operate and interview suite there as well but I'm not sure that its still operational.

Have a look at CANW website to see what they do. http://www.childactionnorthwest.org.uk/new/ Nolic

[Stanley]

Good, apart from anything else, a fine building and I'm glad it is still being used actively.

[Marilyn]

Just got back from the Chippy where hubby ordered " a dozen prawns please"
Spotty faced six foot tall young lad that served him looked quite confused and replied " A dozen? That is twelve isn't it?"
( I almost jumped in and said " unless you are a baker", but thought better of it)
The world is doomed.

[LizG]

Oh dear.

[Thomo]

I did 5 trips to old Blackburn Orphanage in Wilpshire in 2 days before Christmas 2012, ferrying large amounts of unwanted toys from a single donor. Although the place was in good order and clean and appeared to be well run, it does remind you of just how lucky we are not to have been an incumbent.

[Tizer]

I too passed Blackburn Orphanage frequently, it was our route out of Blackburn to the countryside. The back windows must have a wonderful view across the Ribble valley and I hope the children were able to take advantage of it.

Nolic, I've found a more informative report on the children's home closures on the web site of the Western Daily Express. Judging from this I think they were the Council's responsibility.
http://www.westerndailypress.co.uk/Coun ... story.html

[Stanley]

Maz, try ordering a gill of beer in a pub these days and you always have to explain.... The precise definition is a quarter of a pint but it was always used in pubs to signify half a pint.

[Nolic]

Tiz, it seems stange that SCC are so open about their culpability in relation to management and safeguarding in the homes. The "political" way out would have been to argue closure in terms of costs as in order to keep homes meeting the highest level of the national minimum standards and Ofsted's outstanding judgement is very expensive - public liability insurance as an example would be around £12,000 pa for a small children's home, factor in all running costs and the bottom line is that to run a 5 bedded home you need about £300,000 pa operating costs. Placement oid young people is expensive but if local authorities want the best they have to pay for it. The homes I work with charge high fee's but produce exceptional results for young people. Nolic