A BIT OF A WHINGE THIS WEEK!
Posted: 05 Feb 2026, 02:54
A BIT OF A WHINGE THIS WEEK!
26 October 2000
We’ve a bit of tidying up to do this week. First thing is the mistake I made when I was talking about Kelbrook in ‘Open All Hours’, I referred to the landlord of the Craven Heifer as Ted Talbot, it should of course have been Jimmy Talbot. This was brought to my attention by Dobbin Berry’s son who rang to thank me for the mention of his dad. He told me that I was right about Dobbin and Charlie Lancaster, they are buried feet to feet in Kelbrook churchyard, I like that! Dobbin’s son asked me why I had called Jimmy Talbot Ted, I didn’t have to think long about that one, I had a company sergeant major in the army called Ted Talbot and it’s obvious he had a greater effect on me than I thought! Do you think I can claim off someone for traumatic stress?
Right, let’s have a bit of a whinge! Traumatic stress, everybody seems to be getting it nowadays. If a bloke drops a hammer on his foot at work he’s wheeled off for counselling. An American student asked me this year what sort of counselling we had during the war when as small children we were exposed to bombing and sudden death. I had to break the news to her that it didn’t exist, we were just left to get on with it. How much harm, if any, did this do to us? Funnily enough I read an article not long ago about a study which has been done on the outcome of counselling and the conclusion was that possibly the worst thing you can do is get someone to relive moments of extreme stress. Far better to let time heal and the memory slowly fade. I’ll buy this one, basically it’s what we had to do, get on with life and develop some scar tissue.
I don’t know whether you saw any of them but Channel 4 have been running some interesting programmes on medical mistakes. The basic point they were making was that in many cases the error is not the fault of the individual but a bad system. Drugs in dispensaries not clearly labelled, bad work practices that invite mistakes, all these can and do play a part. However, because we live in a blame culture and the blame travels downhill, the individual is punished and the management and the system live to kill another day. We’ve got a perfect example of this in Railtrack as I write, nobody is examining a system that suddenly decides that half the lines in the country have to be closed and examined. Personally, I think they’ve just lost the paperwork and can’t prove they have inspected the track so all they can do is go out and do it all again.
These examples got me to thinking about other systems that have been put in place and we just have to live with them. Voice mail is one of my pet hates. You ring your insurance company or the Labour Party and what do you get? A long list of recorded options that lead you to even more button pushing and mounting frustration. The first thing to say is that there is a way of getting round all this. In most cases, if you do nothing and press no buttons a human being will miraculously appear and actually talk to you. Try it, I promise that nine times out of ten it works! But, to get back to the system, who decided to adopt such an impersonal method of dealing with clients? Answer, the bean counters, the accountants, they proved that by doing this money could be saved and profits raised. Quite right, but where was the cost shifted to? The client of course, sat on the other end of the line. A man called Ivan Illich pointed this out 40 years ago when he said that in any study of the cost of motor transport, the cost of the time of people who had to wait to cross the road should be taken into account.
Another curiosity for you. I think that by now you know what my opinion is about the impact of out of town shopping on Barlick. I don’t know whether you’ve noticed but one of the results has been a free variety show on Rainhall Road. I can remember a time when you could walk down the street confident in the knowledge that you knew what each shop was selling. This is no longer the case, you’ve really got to keep your wits about you as certain shops change from one business to another overnight. It keeps us on our toes but doesn’t say a lot for the condition of profit margins in the town. Once we lose our established town centre businesses we lose the heart of the town so support your local retailers or suffer the consequences!
Another matter came to my attention the other night when I attended a meeting to look at the possibility of setting up a history trail in the town. The residents, quite rightly, raised the matter of groups of young people gathering in open spaces in the town and causing a certain amount of disruption because of noise and experimental activities in secluded corners. The interesting thing was that nobody blamed the kids, everybody understood that the main problem was that they had nowhere else to gather together, in fact one resident commented on how polite the majority of them were when approached.
I asked why we couldn’t take an example from Northfield, the town in Minnesota where I spend quite a lot of time. They don’t have this problem, largely because they are about twenty years behind us in ditching religion, family discipline and curbing the freedom of the police to administer a swift clip round the lughole if warranted. I’m not advocating a complete revolution in our society, that’s impossible, but Northfield does have one simple strategy that would work well over here. They have a Municipal Liquor Store which is the equivalent of our off-licence. They charge very reasonable prices, carry an excellent range and make a thumping profit which is used to finance initiatives designed to keep youngsters away from bars and vandalism. Just think of the amount that’s spent on booze in Barlick in a week! Suppose we did the same and used the profits to convert what used to be the Paradise Isle under the Majestic into a seven day a week subsidised coffee bar and internet café for the kids. Is anybody going to argue that it wouldn’t work?
As I write this I can hear the rustling in the dovecote down at Pendle and the thought processes that result in statements like ‘We couldn’t possibly compete with local traders!’ Just think about that one and ask yourself how much of the profit from booze actually stays in the town? I suspect that if someone did a proper analysis you would find that it’s remarkably small. It certainly wouldn’t damage the clubs and most of the pubs. In Northfield the local privately owned liquor stores are quite happy competing with the ‘Muni’, why not here?
As we seem to be doing a public service column this week I’d like to raise another matter. Recently I was given what I considered to be a very bad deal by a national government agency. What they had done was within the rules but grossly unfair. I pursued the matter and I’m happy to report that logic has prevailed and my case is going to be adjudicated by an independent tribunal with quite a good chance of redress. During this process I became aware of the number of people who have had equally raw deals, or even worse, were missing out on benefits because they didn’t know they were entitled. The message is quite clear, just out of curiosity, use your local Citizen’s Advice Bureau and make a claim for benefit. They will soon tell you if you aren’t eligible but I am certain there are many people, particularly pensioners, in the town who just need a bit of help to trigger them off. If you know anyone like that, ask them whether they have ever thought about claiming and give them a bit of help. My attitude used to be very backward in these matters but then it was pointed out to me that after 47 years of tax and contributions I had rights and should pursue them, go forth and do likewise!
Well, I think that’s enough serious whingeing for one week. Let’s finish on a brighter note. I had a phone call the other day from a bloke called Fred Inman who was a tackler at Bancroft when I was engine tenter there. I couldn’t believe it when I realise who it was because I know he was seventy years old in 1978! He’s 92 now and he was telling me that he agreed with me about the atmosphere working at Bancroft, he said it was the most comfortable shop he had ever worked in. I shall go down to Earby and see him and we will sit and reminisce about the old days and it will be great! It isn’t the easiest thing in the world to knock out 2000 words a week for the View but it’s so rewarding when it triggers off contacts like that.
One last goodie that surfaced in the research this week and this is going to astound my younger readers. The Calf Hall Shed Company had a bit of a problem in January 1902 when they had a request from their tenants to run the engines to Post Office time and not Railway time as there was a five minute difference between them. The problem was that there were two systems of national time transmitted by telegraph, one used by the Post Office and one by the railway, unfortunately they were different! The workers set their clocks and watches by the Post Office clock, the mills took theirs from the railway clock, it was important for them to work to railway time because the Manchester Man, the representative on the Cotton Exchange at Manchester, had to be on time to catch his train each morning. This is definitely one problem we don’t have nowadays but, like so many things in history, it was different then. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons why it fascinates me so much.
Thanks to all who have stopped me on the street to talk about these articles and to those of you who give me a call. It’s nice to know that so many of you appreciate the stuff I throw at you! I think some serious history is called for in the next few weeks, I’ve cleared my whingeing cupboard out for a while!
UPDATE ON EDDIE SPENCER.
Friends of Eddie will remember me asking for information about the lady who gave him the bacon butty in 1940. You’ll be pleased to know that Eddie is out of hospital after a serious operation. He’s back at home in Holyhead and I spoke to him this morning, he tells me he is making a good recovery and will be visiting Barlick soon. I couldn’t find out what happened to his benefactress, it appears she left the town in the forties but Eddie tells me he’ll leave a bunch of flowers for her at Gill Church, he thinks she will know he left them and said thank you after all those years.
26 October 2000
26 October 2000
We’ve a bit of tidying up to do this week. First thing is the mistake I made when I was talking about Kelbrook in ‘Open All Hours’, I referred to the landlord of the Craven Heifer as Ted Talbot, it should of course have been Jimmy Talbot. This was brought to my attention by Dobbin Berry’s son who rang to thank me for the mention of his dad. He told me that I was right about Dobbin and Charlie Lancaster, they are buried feet to feet in Kelbrook churchyard, I like that! Dobbin’s son asked me why I had called Jimmy Talbot Ted, I didn’t have to think long about that one, I had a company sergeant major in the army called Ted Talbot and it’s obvious he had a greater effect on me than I thought! Do you think I can claim off someone for traumatic stress?
Right, let’s have a bit of a whinge! Traumatic stress, everybody seems to be getting it nowadays. If a bloke drops a hammer on his foot at work he’s wheeled off for counselling. An American student asked me this year what sort of counselling we had during the war when as small children we were exposed to bombing and sudden death. I had to break the news to her that it didn’t exist, we were just left to get on with it. How much harm, if any, did this do to us? Funnily enough I read an article not long ago about a study which has been done on the outcome of counselling and the conclusion was that possibly the worst thing you can do is get someone to relive moments of extreme stress. Far better to let time heal and the memory slowly fade. I’ll buy this one, basically it’s what we had to do, get on with life and develop some scar tissue.
I don’t know whether you saw any of them but Channel 4 have been running some interesting programmes on medical mistakes. The basic point they were making was that in many cases the error is not the fault of the individual but a bad system. Drugs in dispensaries not clearly labelled, bad work practices that invite mistakes, all these can and do play a part. However, because we live in a blame culture and the blame travels downhill, the individual is punished and the management and the system live to kill another day. We’ve got a perfect example of this in Railtrack as I write, nobody is examining a system that suddenly decides that half the lines in the country have to be closed and examined. Personally, I think they’ve just lost the paperwork and can’t prove they have inspected the track so all they can do is go out and do it all again.
These examples got me to thinking about other systems that have been put in place and we just have to live with them. Voice mail is one of my pet hates. You ring your insurance company or the Labour Party and what do you get? A long list of recorded options that lead you to even more button pushing and mounting frustration. The first thing to say is that there is a way of getting round all this. In most cases, if you do nothing and press no buttons a human being will miraculously appear and actually talk to you. Try it, I promise that nine times out of ten it works! But, to get back to the system, who decided to adopt such an impersonal method of dealing with clients? Answer, the bean counters, the accountants, they proved that by doing this money could be saved and profits raised. Quite right, but where was the cost shifted to? The client of course, sat on the other end of the line. A man called Ivan Illich pointed this out 40 years ago when he said that in any study of the cost of motor transport, the cost of the time of people who had to wait to cross the road should be taken into account.
Another curiosity for you. I think that by now you know what my opinion is about the impact of out of town shopping on Barlick. I don’t know whether you’ve noticed but one of the results has been a free variety show on Rainhall Road. I can remember a time when you could walk down the street confident in the knowledge that you knew what each shop was selling. This is no longer the case, you’ve really got to keep your wits about you as certain shops change from one business to another overnight. It keeps us on our toes but doesn’t say a lot for the condition of profit margins in the town. Once we lose our established town centre businesses we lose the heart of the town so support your local retailers or suffer the consequences!
Another matter came to my attention the other night when I attended a meeting to look at the possibility of setting up a history trail in the town. The residents, quite rightly, raised the matter of groups of young people gathering in open spaces in the town and causing a certain amount of disruption because of noise and experimental activities in secluded corners. The interesting thing was that nobody blamed the kids, everybody understood that the main problem was that they had nowhere else to gather together, in fact one resident commented on how polite the majority of them were when approached.
I asked why we couldn’t take an example from Northfield, the town in Minnesota where I spend quite a lot of time. They don’t have this problem, largely because they are about twenty years behind us in ditching religion, family discipline and curbing the freedom of the police to administer a swift clip round the lughole if warranted. I’m not advocating a complete revolution in our society, that’s impossible, but Northfield does have one simple strategy that would work well over here. They have a Municipal Liquor Store which is the equivalent of our off-licence. They charge very reasonable prices, carry an excellent range and make a thumping profit which is used to finance initiatives designed to keep youngsters away from bars and vandalism. Just think of the amount that’s spent on booze in Barlick in a week! Suppose we did the same and used the profits to convert what used to be the Paradise Isle under the Majestic into a seven day a week subsidised coffee bar and internet café for the kids. Is anybody going to argue that it wouldn’t work?
As I write this I can hear the rustling in the dovecote down at Pendle and the thought processes that result in statements like ‘We couldn’t possibly compete with local traders!’ Just think about that one and ask yourself how much of the profit from booze actually stays in the town? I suspect that if someone did a proper analysis you would find that it’s remarkably small. It certainly wouldn’t damage the clubs and most of the pubs. In Northfield the local privately owned liquor stores are quite happy competing with the ‘Muni’, why not here?
As we seem to be doing a public service column this week I’d like to raise another matter. Recently I was given what I considered to be a very bad deal by a national government agency. What they had done was within the rules but grossly unfair. I pursued the matter and I’m happy to report that logic has prevailed and my case is going to be adjudicated by an independent tribunal with quite a good chance of redress. During this process I became aware of the number of people who have had equally raw deals, or even worse, were missing out on benefits because they didn’t know they were entitled. The message is quite clear, just out of curiosity, use your local Citizen’s Advice Bureau and make a claim for benefit. They will soon tell you if you aren’t eligible but I am certain there are many people, particularly pensioners, in the town who just need a bit of help to trigger them off. If you know anyone like that, ask them whether they have ever thought about claiming and give them a bit of help. My attitude used to be very backward in these matters but then it was pointed out to me that after 47 years of tax and contributions I had rights and should pursue them, go forth and do likewise!
Well, I think that’s enough serious whingeing for one week. Let’s finish on a brighter note. I had a phone call the other day from a bloke called Fred Inman who was a tackler at Bancroft when I was engine tenter there. I couldn’t believe it when I realise who it was because I know he was seventy years old in 1978! He’s 92 now and he was telling me that he agreed with me about the atmosphere working at Bancroft, he said it was the most comfortable shop he had ever worked in. I shall go down to Earby and see him and we will sit and reminisce about the old days and it will be great! It isn’t the easiest thing in the world to knock out 2000 words a week for the View but it’s so rewarding when it triggers off contacts like that.
One last goodie that surfaced in the research this week and this is going to astound my younger readers. The Calf Hall Shed Company had a bit of a problem in January 1902 when they had a request from their tenants to run the engines to Post Office time and not Railway time as there was a five minute difference between them. The problem was that there were two systems of national time transmitted by telegraph, one used by the Post Office and one by the railway, unfortunately they were different! The workers set their clocks and watches by the Post Office clock, the mills took theirs from the railway clock, it was important for them to work to railway time because the Manchester Man, the representative on the Cotton Exchange at Manchester, had to be on time to catch his train each morning. This is definitely one problem we don’t have nowadays but, like so many things in history, it was different then. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons why it fascinates me so much.
Thanks to all who have stopped me on the street to talk about these articles and to those of you who give me a call. It’s nice to know that so many of you appreciate the stuff I throw at you! I think some serious history is called for in the next few weeks, I’ve cleared my whingeing cupboard out for a while!
UPDATE ON EDDIE SPENCER.
Friends of Eddie will remember me asking for information about the lady who gave him the bacon butty in 1940. You’ll be pleased to know that Eddie is out of hospital after a serious operation. He’s back at home in Holyhead and I spoke to him this morning, he tells me he is making a good recovery and will be visiting Barlick soon. I couldn’t find out what happened to his benefactress, it appears she left the town in the forties but Eddie tells me he’ll leave a bunch of flowers for her at Gill Church, he thinks she will know he left them and said thank you after all those years.
26 October 2000