| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Tombstone Blues |
Posted - 30/03/2007 : 10:46:59
So whaddya think? Who will be the winners and losers? |
| 30 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| Control Panel |
Posted - 20/07/2007 : 21:52:10
May 2007? Three months is an even longer time in politics. All that lot can seem a distant memory. Caravans move on (unless they are travellers of course). |
| Infinite Poppadum |
Posted - 27/05/2007 : 20:04:39
Perhaps the Argus needs to replace that old fellow it has outside Smith's at Brighton station in the mornings with - well, a bevy of.... I leave the rest to your imaginations to create a vision, of high-steppin', short-skirted... circulation-boostin'... stops typin', falls off chair. |
| Anubis |
Posted - 27/05/2007 : 19:13:41
I don't follow local politics, and I realize the "mayor" is just a figurehead, but has the new 'figurehead' a history in Brighton & Hove (apart from as the wife of G Theobald)? I remember in the 1960s she was one of the glamorous(?) "Argus Girls"; there were a number of them, dressed in red jackets and short skirts, usually appeared as a group, on the streets and involved in roadside "events" to publicize the "Evening Argus". Like all young men (as I was in those days!), I always found time to 'look at' the Argus girls whenever they appeared and remember, at the time, being amazed how increasingly it was Carol Ann Bull (I think that was then her name) that was given most of the publicity and extra photo opportunities; it surprised me as I had thought the other girls were the more attractive. (I appreciate this sort of "sex talk" is nowadays perceived as demeaning to women and therefore 'socially unacceptable'!) I have no recollections of "Miss Brighton" contests, referred to in the weekend Argus. |
| Control Panel |
Posted - 27/05/2007 : 16:30:05
Latest information is that Sue john was "elected" to Seeda for four years, and so she could still be on it despite recently resuming "civilian" status. |
| Miriam Binder |
Posted - 26/05/2007 : 10:52:11
quote:
Originally posted by Control Panel
The Argus has now reported on the proposed change in set-up of the Council. It is good sense to have a finance committee.
http://www.theargus.co.uk/display.var.1406052.0.new_council_body_to_scrutinise_major_projects.php
More money down the drain and increased bureaucracy ... Great start Oxley. |
| Control Panel |
Posted - 26/05/2007 : 10:02:58
It is not only Brighton and Hove, Around the world there is no overall control.
A hung Parliament is increasingly likely. |
| Control Panel |
Posted - 17/05/2007 : 11:50:43
The Argus has now reported on the proposed change in set-up of the Council. It is good sense to have a finance committee.
http://www.theargus.co.uk/display.var.1406052.0.new_council_body_to_scrutinise_major_projects.php |
| nightbird |
Posted - 17/05/2007 : 11:36:09
http://www.theargus.co.uk/display.var.1399425.0.0.php
Mr Burgess still doesn't get it, but then the executive have never had their finger on the pulse of public opinion have they...... |
| nightbird |
Posted - 17/05/2007 : 09:45:48
quote:
Originally posted by Control Panel
Word is that there could be quite a shake-up in the way the Council is run. More transparency. Next week's council meeting might spring the surprises.
More mirrors you mean.... |
| Miriam Binder |
Posted - 17/05/2007 : 09:20:56
More transparency? Sheesh almighty can we take anymore transparency I wonder. What I would love to see is an executive that is held accountable to the people that employ them. I would like a council chamber that is going to stop jumping whenever the exec says jump and start demanding that the exec does as it is told ... like any good employee should ... I want to see a council chamber that is full of eager beaver councillors who are not going to take the first report the exec produces as gospel and will apply common sense to the flights of cosmopolitan fancy. |
| Control Panel |
Posted - 17/05/2007 : 08:44:14
Word is that there could be quite a shake-up in the way the Council is run. More transparency. Next week's council meeting might spring the surprises. |
| Pogmothoin |
Posted - 16/05/2007 : 22:25:12
"Blair cost him his Job."
What a cretin - what cost him his job was the lies promulgated on the Councils website and the so called chief executive. Hopefull the new folk will do better.
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| Joe Bloggs |
Posted - 16/05/2007 : 14:24:38
Ah, bless him. How will he survive. No computer, mobile phone or allowance. He's hit rock bottom. He'll have to actually earn a living like the rest of us. |
| Captain Hawkeye |
Posted - 16/05/2007 : 12:54:31
A late entry for April 1st ?
http://www.theargus.co.uk/display.var.1402807.0.call_for_ousted_politicians_to_get_parachute_money.php |
| flaming pie |
Posted - 15/05/2007 : 23:07:34
Should have boosted his vote, moving to Portslade. |
| Infinite Poppadum |
Posted - 15/05/2007 : 22:13:21
No, Simon Burgess cost Simon Burgess his job.
He could have taken an anti-Blair tack rather than do as bidden.
It also cannot have gone down very well in Queen's Park that he had moved over this Portslade way. |
| long time no see |
Posted - 15/05/2007 : 14:56:34
Blair cost him
his Job.
You don't say.
Sign Of The Times. |
| Miriam Binder |
Posted - 14/05/2007 : 23:21:44
I was more thinking along the lines of 'unemployment' but ... hey hop |
| flaming pie |
Posted - 14/05/2007 : 23:17:21
quote:
Originally posted by Miriam Binder
I want to know if we are going to see any changes in the exec.
Empoyment rights! |
| birdy |
Posted - 14/05/2007 : 22:54:23
Anubus that was a great piece,well worth tuning into this forum for. |
| Miriam Binder |
Posted - 14/05/2007 : 20:53:47
I want to know if we are going to see any changes in the exec. |
| Control Panel |
Posted - 14/05/2007 : 20:48:42
The new Council is now taking shape, and could prove interesting as it is announced which Councillors are in charge of what - perhaps different from what is expected. |
| Control Panel |
Posted - 12/05/2007 : 10:10:46
Isn't Strick's movie of the novel just a bit of a curiosity rather than any cinematic masterpiece? |
| Anubis |
Posted - 11/05/2007 : 20:33:52
DO THINGS EVER "GET BETTER" vis-a-vis the Council ..... or are things "just different"?
I saw the Brighton & Hove Leader last week (normally not delivered to us!) and the Adam Trimingham article inspired me to comment on it. My remarks are wide of the topics we discuss today on "Livewire" ... but older readers will probably remember previous battles and younger readers will possibly find it of interest?! Adam probably won't print what I've sent him ... so if you're into "James Joyce" and "Council censorship", come with me into the past:
When James Joyce’s “Ulysses” was doused
by Brighton’s Fire Brigade!
Reading Adam Trimingham’s “Those Were the Days” in Brighton & Hove Leader (May 4, 2007) and his reference to Dorothy Stringer, “a mayor of Brighton who served on the education committee for half a century”, revived memories of Brighton as it was in the mid-1960s, when my wife and I first lived here.
In 1967, Brighton’s ratepayers learned they would not be permitted to view the uncut film version of Joyce’s "Ulysses", recently released but refused a certificate by four members of the Council’s "Fire Brigade Committee". As an enthusiastic admirer of Joyce’s work and as a new resident of Brighton, I was intrigued enough to do a little sleuthing to discover something about the workings of the Council’s "Watch Committee".
The "1965 Police Act", necessitated re-organization; in Brighton the "Fire Brigade Committee", a sub-committee of the "Watch Committee", became a main committee. There was also need for a new ‘Licensing Committee’, to vet films not passed by the Board of Film Censors; the Council decided that as the duties of the "Fire Brigade Committee" included visiting cinemas to check fire precautions -- the functioning of safety curtains, width of gangways and positioning of exits -- the same committee could view films and decide whether or not they were ‘suitable’ for general exhibition.
Three councillors, the Chief Constable, Chief Fire Officer and Committee Chair, Jim Taylor, attended the viewing; the “fire officer” was not a committee member, but “wanted to see the film” – of the three councillors who voted to “ban” it in Brighton, I visited two of them in their homes; George Baldwin and Dorothy Stringer.
Ex-mayor, Alderman George Baldwin, had been a councillor for 17 years and was serving on the "Police Council of Great Britain" and the Home Secretary’s "Policy Advisory Board". To demonstrate the committee’s “broad-mindedness”, he mentioned they had passed “nude films” the previous year; also a film where a rape occurred. However, "Ulysses" was quite unacceptable – “this woman lies on a bed and talks about what men have in their trousers and how she “had it” four times in one night. It would be bad enough if it were a man describing these things, but to have these things being said by a woman ……! What would any normal and decent person do if they saw a dog and bitch performing in the street and a bucket of water was nearby? And they are only animals and don’t know any better!” “It was my duty to stop this film”, he concluded; in an afterthought he added several scenes were “blasphemous”.
I visited Miss Dorothy Stringer OBE, Chair of the "Watch Committee" and member of the "Fire Brigade Committee", at her home in Dyke Road – she had lived there for 72 years. Her father had “always” been deeply involved in local affairs, had been Mayor and so on. Dorothy had left school at eighteen and with a guaranteed private income there was never a need to go job hunting. She decided to devote herself to “social work”; in 1923 she was co-opted onto the "Education Committee" “because she thought it might be interesting”. Ten years later she was elected a councillor. She served as Mayor 1952-53, a secondary school was under construction, so it was decided (as no name had been suggested) to call it the "Dorothy Stringer Secondary School". In 1960 she received the OBE, although, she told me, she never really understood why; she was pleased to be called to Buckingham Palace, but had been there twice before, with her father!
Miss Stringer didn’t attend the viewing of the film as she “had rather a lot of work to do”. She had read the synopsis and was quite satisfied it provided her with all the information she needed to know she would not have approved of the film being shown to the public. I claimed to be very ignorant about the subject and asked her what the film was all about and why it was so disgusting.
“I only glanced at the synopsis”, she now confessed, “but I think there was a divorce in it -- I know some people think divorce is OK these days -- and I think there was a murder or something. Oh! …. I don’t know!” She emphasized how important it was that Council’s have the right to judge films that were “questionable”.
As I left, Miss Stringer mentioned that when she was my age (mid-thirties) people didn’t just visit as I had just done. “They called at four and left their cards”, she explained. I felt a little stung – after all, I had put on a tie, especially for the occasion.
[this is an abbreviated article I wrote for several rank and file journals at the time, including "Brighton Voice"]
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| Infinite Poppadum |
Posted - 11/05/2007 : 19:49:06
The Forum seems to have been a little quiet of late.
Perhaps this means that the place is in for a quiet time now that the Council has been thrown out? |
| Infinite Poppadum |
Posted - 11/05/2007 : 19:47:08
The Forum seems to have been a little quiet of late.
Perhaps this means that the place is in for a quiet time not that the Council has been thrown out? |
| Control Panel |
Posted - 10/05/2007 : 20:17:38
Gill Mitchell is certainly aware about the discontent with Jenny Rowlands, director of environment.
Labour's decision not to form any alliance with opposition parties springs from its trying to distance itself from the fate of New Labour officers. |
| Joe Bloggs |
Posted - 10/05/2007 : 20:03:08
Let's hope that rumour is accurate then. If the new council is to have any credibility it needs to bring in new execs for schools, children and families and Environment as well, at the very least.
On the positive side, I saw a road sweeper today for the first time since last summer. |
| Miriam Binder |
Posted - 10/05/2007 : 19:50:59
Well, there is a whisper that his P45 is on its way but I'm afraid that we need a whole cultural change in the exec for the removal of one man to make any difference. |
| Joe Bloggs |
Posted - 10/05/2007 : 19:48:07
That's the fool. Allowed his executive to completely and fraudulently i'll add, mislead the public over the WTS and then pushed it through planning. Amongst some other things. |
