An Inspired Comparison

Ah, the wonders of Google! Just when you're searching for something else, it throws up a priceless artefact which not even Channel 4's Time Team could uncover.
PR Week is not normally on my reading list, for obvious reasons, but it featured the Oldham Echo at the back end of 2007 (http://www.prweek.com/uk/news/search/771515/MEDIA-ANALYSIS-pays-listen-carefully-Echo/ ).
It began memorably:
"It is the Scousers' answer to The Sun. Large-type headlines leap out from each page of the Liverpool [sic] Echo, announcing the latest news and celebrity gossip from Liverpool and Merseyside."
Some testimonial, eh?
The piece spoke of the Echo's two daily editions flying off the newsstands. Well, this is PR Week, after all.
And there's more. Consider this delightful snippet:
"The Echo's readership is, as editor Alastair Machray puts it, 'the broad rump of ordinary people who are making a living for themselves'. "
Broad rump? Charming, Alastair.
The piece gave a revealing glimpse into the world of press releases masquerading as news, how to approach certain Echo scribes with a glorified ad & the cosy arrangement between hacks & celebrities' agents.
The penultimate paragraph of the PR Week article cautioned:
"A final obvious, but crucial, point to remember is that the Echo focuses on the local angle. 'We purge national and generic stories from the paper. We may find a place for a really big national story, but it would not go on the front page,' says Machray. 'If people want national news, they will go to national papers.' "
Clearly, Oldham Hall Street is somewhat confused about the role of its publication. After all, it was only a year-and-a-half later that it announced the Echo would be appearing in the mornings from October of this year in order to "compete with the nationals", as a Trinity Mirror suit put it (http://condensedthoughts.blogspot.com/2009/07/fading-echos.html ).
Still, at least it can now take a bow, having demonstrated to the PR luvvies its similarity to Murdoch's rag. It's some accolade, isn't it, Alastair?

Junk Journalism

No one would deny Jacqui Janes' fury & grief over the death of her son in Afghanistan; her wider point regarding both the shortage of equipment & the long-term mission in Afganistan are unarguable (http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/nov/10/transcript-jacqui-janes-gordon-brown ). However, her grief & understandable rage have been manipulated by The Sun. The rag that spewed its repellent lies about Hillsborough now wishes to trade on her anguish in a sickening attempt to boost its flagging circulation.
Steve Bell gets it spot-on in today's Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/theguardian/cartoon/2009/nov/10/steve-bell-gordon-brown-sun ).

Uncanny Echoes

When not breaking "exclusive" stories which were already known to the local cognoscenti -- prior to yesterday's splash (http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2009/11/09/liverpool-mp-jane-kennedy-to-quit-at-next-general-election-100252-25121715/ ) it was strongly rumoured around Liverpool that the Telegraphed MP for Wavertree wouldn't serve beyond this parliament --the Daily Ghost & Oldham Echo proceed on their merry way, recycling PR releases, claiming credit for saving endangered buildings (http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/views/our-view/2009/11/06/time-to-celebrate-another-of-the-echo-s-stop-the-rot-successes-toxteth-s-former-welsh-church-100252-25102977 ) & glamourising small-time local hoodlums.
A timely reminder of the role & function of many local papers, including those churned out at Oldham, is provided by George Monbiot on the Guardian's Comment is Free pages (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/nov/09/local-newspapers-democracy ).
Monbiot states, " For many years the local press has been one of Britain's most potent threats to democracy, championing the overdog, misrepresenting democratic choices, defending business, the police and local elites from those who seek to challenge them."
Think that's over the top? Think again, as Monbiot relates a tale about his local rag which raises uncanny parallels with the papers which claim to serve Merseyside:
"I'm prompted to write this by a remarkable episode in my home town, Machynlleth, which illustrates the problem everywhere. A battle has been raging here over Tesco's attempt to build a superstore on the edge of town. Its application received 685 letters of objection and five letters of support, but the town council, which appears to believe everything Tesco says, supports the scheme. The local paper, the Cambrian News, appears in turn to believe everything the council tells it."
Monbiot goes on to assert: "Most local papers exist to amplify the voices of their proprietors and advertisers and other powerful people with whom they wish to stay on good terms. In this respect they scarcely differ from most of the national media. But they also contribute to what in Mexico is called cacquisimo: the entrenched power of local elites."
As the 17 editorial positions are axed, to use an Echo term, & the final salary pension scheme is no more, those remaining on Oldham Hall Street would do well to read Monbiot's piece; it will drive home the reality of the nature of their employer.

9.50 UPDATE: Ronnie was there before me in a comment he left on my post from last Thursday.

Happy In The Haze Of A Drunken Hour?

There's nothing particularly unusual about idiotic acts at concerts, unfortunately, & Liverpool has seen more than its fair share of those (the Beastie Boys at the Royal Court in 87 immediately springs to mind).
However, the object thrown at Morrissey at the Echo Arena yesterday evening (conflicting reports describe it as either a bottle or a glass), resulting in the abrupt & premature end of the concert (http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/nov/08/morrissey-storms-off-liverpool & http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/merseyside/8349102.stm ) is indicative of an all-too common pattern at that venue; several incidents have occurred there with different acts & it seems to date from the venue's inception (http://condensedthoughts.blogspot.com/2008/07/brand-awareness.html ).
The Arena appears to be the only major indoor venue which allows the sale of alcohol during concerts. Its level of security & stewarding also leaves more than something to be desired; a friend of mine went to see Bob Dylan at the venue earlier this year & expressed both his amazement & exasperation at the ease with which people already the worse for wear could return to the bar time after time.
The management of the Arena have offered a limp statement, citing their faith in CCTV to identify the culprit. However, they, too, should accept culpability for last night's incident, in that they preside over a venue in which the standard rules of procedure are blithely suspended.
And what of the venue's sponsors, our old, beseiged friends on Oldham Hall Street? Well, to their credit, they did report the event on their website yesterday evening (some might say they had no option). However, it is telling that the guiding, emaciated hand of desperate PR ensured that both the news report & the follow-up story featuring reaction quotes appeared to imply that Morrissey was a bit of a wimp for not tolerating the odd missile or two (http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2009/11/08/former-smiths-frontman-morrissey-leaves-liverpool-s-echo-arena-stage-after-being-hit-by-drink-thrown-from-crowd-100252-25116788/ & http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2009/11/08/morrissey-storms-off-liverpool-s-echo-arena-stage-after-being-hit-by-drink-fans-reactions-100252-25116893/ ).
Memo to the remaining hacks on Oldham Hall Street: it's called zero tolerance, it's of a piece with your manufactured "campaigns" & "crusades"; think ASBOs, guys, then you might get the message.

Sara's Sayings

With one apparent Oldham Hall Street insider commenting on Liverpool Confidential's treament of its travails that a meeting of staff was called on Friday evening to announce the end of the final salary pension scheme (http://www.liverpoolconfidential.com/index.asp?Sessionx=IpqiNwEiNwEoKWy6IHqjNwB6IA ), attention has been paid to the role played by Sara Wilde, managing director of Trinity Mirror Regional North West and Wales. It's interesting to recall her words from September of last year when the last major round of job losses took place (http://condensedthoughts.blogspot.com/2008/09/closing-time.html ).
Does Ms Wilde's gift for bollockese know no bounds?

Will The Last Person Left On Oldham Hall Street Please Switch Off The Lights?

As I write, the rockets & fireworks soar & explode in the local night sky. There'll be a few more fireworks being ignited around Oldham Hall Street at the news that Trinity Mirror is seeking 17 editorial job losses at its Merseyside titles (http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/nov/05/trinity-mirror-axe-jobs-merseyside ).
The Guardian piece reports that Trinity Mirror "would seek to make the cuts....through voluntary redundancy where possible."
I like the "where possible" bit, don't you? It gives the impression that management on Oldham Hall Street are "flexible" & "reasonable", & that they hate having to do this. It's also nice to know that Sara Wilde, managing director of Trinity Mirror Regional North West and Wales, hasn't lost the ability to talk fluent management bollockese: "It is vital that we continue to make and take these difficult decisions and I believe these changes will ensure we have a viable, robust and thriving business which continues to provides jobs and media services to the communities we serve."
Not buying it? Nope, me neither. Nor, too, isthe NUJ branch on Oldham Hall Street, leading it to make noises unusual for the NUJ, ie., threaten industrial action (http://www.how-do.co.uk/north-west-media-news/north-west-publishing/unions-threaten-industrial-action-following-liverpool-cuts-200911056741/ ).
How-Do quotes NUJ assistant organiser Lawrence Shaw:
"The relentless cuts on Merseyside are damaging the quality of the papers and websites, and the local economy. They also lead to stress and other health and safety issues for the journalists left behind".
[You've only just noticed the declining quality of the paper & website, Lawrence?]
Hold The Front Page's take on the jobs bonfire alludes to the impending demise of the Daily Ghost (http://www.holdthefrontpage.co.uk/news/091104morejobs.shtml ):
"Although the company has not spelled out the nature of the changes in detail, it is understood that most of the job losses will be at the Liverpool Daily Post and will span a number of editorial functions."
What's more, here's another comment which encapsulates the concerns felt by staff, stating that "workers would be right to seek reassurances regarding their futures and a clear mapping-out of the company's long-term strategy."
Fine words, spoken by...the Oldham Echo in today's editorial about GM's decision to rescind the sale of its European operations to Magna & what it means for the Vauxhall plant at Ellesmere Port (http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/views/our-view/2009/11/05/yes-general-motors-but-what-s-next-100252-25094567/ ).
Still, it's the right sentiment, isn't it? Pity Trinity Mirror doesn't practice what it preaches, eh?

Public Money To Pay For Port's Plan

Raising my head above the parapet in the Liverpool-Southampton port wars (& still nursing a broken heart after David Bartlett dropped the link to this blog on his Dale Street Blues site, oh, how fickle & thin-skinned they are on Oldham Hall Street, you can forget about that Christmas card this year, David!), I see that local Hampshire MP & prominent Lib Dem Chris Huhne has written to the European Competition Commissioner (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/hampshire/8335506.stm ).
As has been pointed out too many times for the liking of vested local interests, Southampton has a case for raising concerns about the cruise liner terminal. The BBC report that the government "must approve the plan because a £9m EU grant helped pay for Liverpool's £20m cruise liner terminal, whereas Southampton is commercially-funded."
Business being business, the notion that public money should subsidise nearly half the amount needed to fund such a development on the Mersey is risible. Regular readers of this blog will know that I'm no apologist for free market capitalism, but the inconvenient reality for the usual local suspects is that having established an operation under its own steam, so to speak, Southampton has every right to highlight this absurdity.
The report quotes Cllr Gary Millar, executive member on the city council for enterprise & tourism: "We believe that the creation of a full turnaround facility at Liverpool will benefit the cruise liner industry in the UK, as the city is uniquely positioned to attract business from outside of Europe.
"The application to the DfT [Department for Transport] has been made in response to calls from the industry and passengers and the city is keen to build on the success of the facility so far."
I recall Wayne pointing Cllr Millar out to me at the PR stunt for One Parked Here Without Our Say-So (http://condensedthoughts.blogspot.com/2009/08/hugs-from-mugs.html ). Pespiring visibly, Cllr Millar clasped a mobile in one hand while wearing what can be best described as a harrassed look on his face as the kids were bussed in for the photo-op; it's no surprise to observe that his attempts with syntax are as clumsy as his hamfisted PR technique.
The substance, if you can call it that, of Cllr Millar's puff-piece is more hole-ridden than Swiss cheese. Contending that a facility at Liverpool will "benefit the cruise liner industry in the UK" is arrant nonsense & an all too transparent bid to hoodwink a larger audience outside Merseyside. In addition, what's this garbage about Liverpool being "uniquely positioned" to capture & secure a non-Europen market? Is it merely because Liverpool is a westward-facing port? If so, you could make the same argument for Plymouth, Bristol, Cardiff or Glasgow.
It is of no surprise that Oldham Hall Street hasn't yet formulated a response to latest developments (still waiting for a press release to be issued by Peel Holdings, I suspect). However, if --or when-- it does, will it also mention that Chris Huhne was once a humble scribe for the Daily Ghost?

Result

A precedent has been set: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/oct/30/councillors-resign-en-masse-blogger ).

150,000 Hits & Rising

I hadn't seen this goal since the night itself back in 1985 when my brother & I were part of a swaying, raucous, cascading Kop. Must have travelled a good ten feet down the old terrace when Molby's rocket hit the back of the net. Memories are made of this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AOkZOcMjBe4 .

Oldham Hall Street's Sage Advice

These are dark times for journalism. The web has pulverised beyond recognition what was once a secure business model; the dead tree press could once control not just the dissemination of news, but the news agenda itself. No more. Blogs (guilty, m'lud!), Facebook & Twitter have changed all that.
It's not exactly a bowl of cherries at the BBC either. Whilst the likes of the Daily Mail won't be happy until the Beeb ceases to exist & we have to rely on the likes of said rag & a Foxed Sky News, some of the Corporation's travails have been self-inflicted.
So who will step forward to dispense some words of wisdom to Auntie?
The Oldham Echo.
Yes, the Oldham Echo (http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/views/our-view/2009/10/30/bbc-needs-to-concentrate-on-quality-not-ratings-100252-25047949/).
The editorial applauds the recent decision to cut the number of senior management staff & reduce the wage bill. It goes on helpfully:
"Now, we suggest, it's time for director general Mark Thompson to turn his attentions to the broadcaster's planning strategy.
"The ECHO still values the BBC as a trustworthy brand and reliable provider of news and information, but its role as a public service broadcaster needs to extend to providing more content which is simply not assessed on a commercial basis."
The Echo editorial refers to "reality" TV & the usual Saturday evening fodder, stating that the commercial & cable channels should produce such output, not the BBC. It concludes reproachfully:
"The BBC, through the licence fee, is provided with so much public money but, in return, it isn't providing the public with enough quality."
Ah, yes, quite right. Quality, that's the key consideration, isn't it?
Moreover, the Oldham Echo should be commended for highlighting the need for quality in the media; indeed, a case in point was provided by its editorial earlier this week which reminded us of the truly cerebral concerns we should think of: (http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/views/our-view/2009/10/26/katie-and-andre-it-s-too-much-100252-25012775/ ).
It may hearten the aesthetes & classicists on Oldham Hall Street to know that the Beeb's more considered & challenging output is gaining a new audience (http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/oct/29/radio-4-10-year-listener-high ).
It's nice to know that the Oldham Echo's "truth project" & "positivity programme", now a year old (http://condensedthoughts.blogspot.com/2008/10/jjonah-jamison-speaks-out.html ) are yielding a burgeoning consciousness of higher thoughts.
Of course, let us not forget that Oldham Hall Street once tried its hand at broadcasting via its Channel One network. It was a true beacon of public service broadcasting, focusing on those aspects of cultural discourse normally the preserve of Radios 3 & 4.
Here's an example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k6HycML1Tc .
Peerless, simply peerless.

Hotel Reservation

I rather suspect that when the weather improves in the spring of next year, another group hug may be called for down at the waterfront. Just a short carbuncle away from One Parked Here Without Our Say-So, the new Hilton Hotel is taking shape as the new addition to the waterfront's Botoxification. And, guess what, Oldham Hall Street is very much on board to ask the hard, searching questions that a news organisation should ask; their reporters will be on hand to buttonhole those behind this latest scene of civic disfigurement in Paxmanesque fashion.
Don't believe me, do you?
Thought not. OK, OK, here's the squalid reality, both the Daily Ghost & Oldham Echo print pretty much the same PR blurb which seeks to convince the gullible that hotel rooms costing in excess of £800 per night lie at the heart of a city's, erm, renaissance (http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2009/10/22/liverpool-s-history-is-threaded-through-new-hilton-hotel-92534-24987236/ & http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2009/10/22/liverpool-one-s-new-hilton-hotel-a-priceless-view-but-the-room-will-cost-you-859-a-night-100252-24988707/ ).
Featuring a small picture of the view afforded by the most expensive suite in the hotel, the Echo version swoons:
"This is the view that will cost visitors to Liverpool £859 a night.
"The Presidential Suite - described by Hilton Liverpool's general manager Marcus Magee as the hotel's 'piece de resistance' - will be the most expensive room in the city when the hotel opens its doors on November 17.
"Guests who want that extra luxury will be able to get an extra package that will include butler service and a provision of a top of the range car."
What immaculate timing, just perfect for the end of Liverpool's year of the environment (http://www.ourcityourplanet.org.uk/ ).
The PR piece, which would look just right in its natural habitat of glossy brochures, & which Wayne has already held up for some well-warranted derision (http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/10/liverpool-hilton-opens.html ), goes on to enthuse brightly:
"The 215-room hotel, built on the site of the old Customs house and overlooking Chavasse Park, has been designed to reflect the city's trading and maritime history."
Ah, yes, the port's importance to the city, how could anyone forget that....which is why they've built the hotel on the site not just of the old Customs house (a real architectural gem long since sadly lost), but also the original dock system briefly uncovered by Channel 4's Time Team during The Big Dig. Oh, & could we finally dispense with the risible piece of fiction which contends that the small elevated patch of greenery adjacent to One Parked Here Without Our Say-So is Chavasse Park? Why? Because, you see, it isn't. Chavasse Park was bulldozed away & lost while Oldham Hall Street proclaimed a bright new dawn for the waterfront.
Think that's bad enough for squandering as well as misrepresenting the port's past?
Think again:
"The importance of cotton is captured in the Pima bar - named after the high-grade American cotton - with cotton displayed in glass wall panels. The lights also resemble cotton buds."
All involved in this farrago of deception, self-congratulation & sanitised local history seem to display a crass ignorance worthy of an aggressive ale-head in Concert Square at 3am.
The cotton trade was bound up with the slave trade. Fact. I wonder if the hotel will mention that? While the monstrosity that will be the new museum at the Pier Head appears to include a section holding all Scousers, past & present, responsible for the worst chapter in the port's history, the Hilton will go in entirely the opposite direction, lauding a trade which necessarily involved the enslavement of human beings (http://www.breakingthechains.co.uk/news.jsp?newsID=3 )
There may no longer be "six in a bed by the old Pier Head", as the "Liverpool Town" song put it, but the theme & pattern of missed chances & squalid circumstances still apply.

The Last Post?

With the Oldham Echo now established as a morning red-top, it's inevitable that its sickly sister the Daily Ghost, limping along on a horribly thin sub 10,000 circulation figure, will be coldly scrutinsed for its relevance & viability in the Trinity Mirror empire.

The word from many newsagents in the city is that they've been informed it won't be for this world much longer, an early 2010 closure being widely expected.

Anatomy Of A Meltdown

Given the company they keep & the contacts they have to maintain, financial journalists can speak fluent jargon without realising that they alienate most people. Credit, therefore, to Gillian Tett (http://www.ft.com/columnists/gilliantett ), assistant editor of the Financial Times, for delivering an account of the banking crisis which, if anything, engaged & involved her audience at the Bluecoat on Saturday afternoon.
Basing her account on her recently published book*, she related the tale as one of risk-taking gone mad, spurred on by a combination of hubris & denial on the part of a fairly small group of young bankers in the early 90s. Explaining in plain English the meaning of terms such as Credit Default Swaps & CDOs, Tett calmly, yet damningly laid bare the decisions taken over the course of a decade or more which ultimately led to last year's meltdown & what many would regard as socialism for the rich in the ensuing bail-outs.
Tett outlined three stages of the period when bankers were feted as masters of the universe: innovation (devising the "bundling" of debt to be shared & thus lessened for those concerned), perversion (the continuation of such practices in spite of the fact they couldn't continue) & disaster (when the banks on both sides of the Atlantic, with the exception of Lehman Brothers, looked to the taxpayer for relief, & got it, when the proverbial hit the fan).
In stark terms, Tett assessed the global outlook in the light of last year's crash & expressed her amazement when answering questions later that the issue of bankers' bonuses hadn't engendered anywhere near the same level of outrage caused by MP's expenses. She's spot-on; the expenses issue rightly remains a hot issue. However, what was & is being perpetrated on the world's markets affects the average person in a way which still hasn't been grasped.
Given her position at the FT, Tett was never going to present the sequence of events as a damning indictment of capitalism. That said, however, she did not demur when several in the audience raised the issues of accountability (or the complete absence of it), regulation & even nationalisation of the banks.
I look forward to reading the book.

* "Fool's Gold", Gillian Tett, published by Little, Brown, 2009.

Striking Out Against The Stereotypes

Recommended reading: a piece by Peter Lazenby, NUJ rep at the Yorkshire Post, on the Guardian's Comment is Free pages, putting the case for the postal workers (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/oct/16/postal-workers-strike ).
Lazenby, whom I met during the Writing on the Wall festival in Liverpool earlier this year, summarises the real cause of the dispute, a macho management which isn't content just to administer a business, but also to rub the staff's noses in the brown matter. He also tackles the myth of the average union member as strike-happy:
"Working people do not take strike action lightly. They do so when every other door has been slammed in their faces. Striking is an act of desperation. It isn't fun. It's hard. It's financially punishing. At Christmas it's going to be even harder on the strikers and their families than on people whose delivery from Amazon is late, and even for the little old lady whose Christmas card won't be delivered."
Unsurprisingly, Lazenby's piece has attracted the usual comments from those who excoriate the postal staff. One wonders what such individuals would do if faced with a management equally bone-headed or worse at their workplace. Perhaps they already do work in an environment under such managers & meekly keep their heads down while berating those who have the temerity to stand up & be counted. It wouldn't surprise me.

Oldham Echo: Fight Arranger-Round Two

Some people just don't know when to stop, do they? To take a typically cringeworthy pun employed by the Oldham Echo in relation to Flo Clucas' "Long & Winding Road" suggestion from Whitechapel to Matthew Street [more of A Short Walk Round The Corner, if you ask me], it simply isn't possible for some to Let It Be [sorry].
David Bartlett clearly wishes to resurrect the playground spat between Liverpool & Southampton (http://blogs.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/dalestreetblues/2009/10/latest-missive-in-the-cruise-w.html ):
"I have been criticised in some quarters for responding to Gareth Lewis from the Southern Daily Echo after he suggested that Liverpool wanted to steal Southampton's cruise trade.
"I wrote a defence of Liverpool and pointed out Liverpool's achievements compared to Southampton.
"This was taken as me acting as some sort of stirrer or agent provocateur in the so-called 'cruise wars' between Liverpool and Southampton."
Criticism from "some quarters", David? I presume you're referring to this blog & Wayne's, whose response to your post decisively disabuses you of any illusion that your comments command unanimous local assent (http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/10/cruise-wars-scouse-wedding-on-sea.html ).
Furthermore, what you posted could hardly be described as "a defence of Liverpool", the "achievements" you cite relating to football (irrelevant to the matter in hand) &, yes, of course, The Beatles (equally irrelevant to this topic). Instead, it reminded me of a playground rant from a peeved primary school pupil, as I noted at the time (http://condensedthoughts.blogspot.com/2009/09/oldham-echo-fight-arranger.html ).
In addition, I did not accuse you of being a "stirrer or agent provacateur", I levelled that charge at your employer on Oldham Hall Street, & given the enthusiasm with which both the Daily Ghost & Oldham Echo have returned to this story recently, I see no reason to withdraw it.
You can hardly be surprised that a local columnist in Southampton has reacted by trotting out all the old Scouse stereotypes, nor should you feign offence taken at it; every town & city has its local propagandists whose egos are in inverse proportion to their IQ, Southampton is no exception.
In Liverpool's case, David, they tend to be fellow employees of yours.
You conclude your post by asking:
"So what form should a response take?"
The answer, David, is that there should be no response, as Ronnie de Ramper comments on your post. Acknowledge the fact that Oldham Hall Street deliberately engineered a confrontation via its reporting & headlines when the issue first arose, & augmented it with pathetically parochial editorials once the flames had been kindled.
It would be refreshing if Oldham Hall Street posed some pertinent journalistic enquiries on the role of Peel Holdings & held its record up to a sufficiently rigorous level of scrutiny. How about it, David?
Or are you just going to Let It Be?

Message Marred

Despite her naive middle-class outlook, there was something quite laudable about Martha Lane Fox's interview with Jonathan Charles on the BBC Hardtalk programme about her role as a "champion of digital inclusion", a tag she acknowledged as clumsy (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/hardtalk/8303522.stm ).
She was entirely right to stress that the future is increasingly online, but that a dangerous digital divide is opening up between those with web access & those without.
It was therefore regrettable that she referred to "unpleasant areas" & "horrible council estates" towards the end of her interview. Delivering those phrases in a cut-glass voice, it reeked of naked class prejudice & potentially undermined her message about digital inclusion.

A New Liverpool Sound

Given Oldham Hall Street's wish to wallow in nostalgia for a band which split up 40 years ago, it's up to others to highlight the fact that there is a healthy & vibrant music scene in Liverpool, unencumbered by gratuitous mentions of you-know-who.

One of the unexpected gems I came across at the bombed-out church on August Bank Holiday Monday was a short acoustic set by The Mono LPs. They were far more entertaining & original than the entire dreary procession of "tribute" acts around Matthew Street itself. Enjoy: http://www.myspace.com/themonolps .

Disclaimer: Following recent articles in the press about bloggers & product plugging, I would like to state that I am not a band member, nor am I their manager. In fact, I don't even know them.

Believe It Or Not, This Band Came From Liverpool

Culture year was great, wasn't it? We had the Beatles, erm, the Phil, the Everyman, erm the Beatles, the Playhouse, erm, the Beatles........oh, yes, Macca's gig at Anfield, you know, the one which was meant to be at the Salthouse Dock with the dock drained of water & the fish humanely stunned by the city council before they realised it wasn't feasible, a conclusion arrived at via a six-figure "feasibility" study.

Well, now the council have realised that we don't celebrate the Beatles enough in Liverpool. After all, you have to admit that a casual stroll around the city centre wouldn't even indicate that they came from here. Would it? (http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2009/10/13/council-plans-beatle-trail-through-liverpool-92534-24914002/ ).

Marc Waddington's article is typically sketchy with the word "could" being used in such a way as to mean "will" to the casual peruser, a tried & tested trick on Oldham Hall Street. It also goes over Beatle history in Liverpool (just in case anyone is still in the dark about the group's local origins).

Waddington's piece breathlessly gasps:

"Councillors will discuss the possibility of teaming up with record label Apple and Peter Blake, the artist responsible for the front cover of Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."

You can imagine the reaction in Apple's offices as they receive yet another cringe-inducing approach from the council, can't you? A sigh, a few comments to the effect that these people need to start living in the twenty-first century & a patronising reply which trots out the old cliches about the 60s.

The gimmick, sorry, idea will take the form of a motion at the city council tomorrow, proposed by deputy council leader Flo Clucas. Yes, the same Flo Clucas who remarked back in 2005 that the demolition of Ringo Starr's birthplace in Madryn Street, alongside that of the other houses in the neighbourhood down in the Dingle, was justified because he spent only the first few years of his life there. Besides, the Lib Dems wanted to indulge in a little social cleansing to preserve their ruinous grip on the city.

But back to today & the Bread & Circus tactic beloved by Bradley, Storey, Clucas & co. is wheeled out with Waddington's piece acting as the cheerleader:

"It is hoped the project would be completed by next May, the 40th anniversary of the release of the Beatles' final album, Let It Be.

"In the run-up to the Capital of Culture year, some were keen to stress that Liverpool had more offer than just The Beatles.

"But Cllr Clucas said she believed there was more to be made of Liverpool's Beatle history.

"She added: 'From my point of view, The Beatles are big business, whatever you think about their music - which I happen to love.

" 'Look at the classic performers like Elvis Presley, and Graceland, his home in Memphis - their home towns exploit it to the full.' "

There's so much to get my teeth into here, it's a veritable feast. Firstly, the thought that anyone would want to make a meal of the band's worst album 40 years after it apologetically slipped out is bizarre; oh, & it wasn't the group's "final album", Abbey Road was recorded later.

Moreover, those of us who stressed that there was more to the city's culture than the Fabs were either ignored or derided throughout last year. As for Cllr Clucas' contention that the Beatles are "big business", it's telling that she puts this consideration ahead of their musical legacy. The Elvis Presley parallel is one which makes discerning observers here wince; the Matthew Street festival is bad enough, a mawkish, backward-looking nostalgia fest, it's well on the way to aping the Graceland "experience" & homage to the original Burger King.

Do such caveats & reservations permeate the thinking of the intellectuals who put together what passes for the editorial in the Oldham Echo? Put it this way, there's more chance of McCartney having a pint with Pete Best, Mark Chapman & Heather Mills in The Grapes (http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/views/our-view/2009/10/13/why-liverpool-should-keep-flying-the-flag-for-the-beatles-100252-24912534/ ):

"IT'S a debate which Liverpool has with itself all the time - do we make too much or too little of The Beatles?"

And, of course, the Oldham Echo has never been reluctant to reflect such a debate in its pages. Has it?

The, erm, editorial goes on to trumpet: "We're not just talking about a good thing, but the biggest and best thing and biggest and best band to have ever come out of Liverpool."

Hang on, are we suddenly talking about Professor Chucklebutty & his Diddymen? Oh, sorry, my mistake:

"Critics may continue to carp and complain that Liverpool is living in the past. They may say we should now 'Let It Be'. "

See what they've done there? Clever, eh? Like I said, they're all intellectuals in the Oldham Echo editorial department.

Panoramic Port

Away from the civic disfigurement of the city's waterfront, it's sadly easy to overlook the view from the roof of the Anglican Cathedral; the climb up the steps is forgotten when you take in the truly breathtaking view from the top.
Kudos to those behind the Liverpool Photographer website (http://www.digitalrelish.net ) for ascending the steps & providing this impressive time lapse film of the waterfront as evening arrives & the sun goes down (http://www.flickr.com/photos/69511026@N00/3995967487/ ).
What's the betting on the council agreeing to the building of another bloody big skyscraper this time directly blocking the view from the cathedral roof?

It's All In The Letter

Dinosaurs due for extinction. A relic of a bygone age. A reminder of a dark past. All the usual phrases have been trotted out over the airwaves, in print & online about the postal workers in their dispute (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/07/royal-mail-amazon-postal-strikes ).
Time for just a scintilla of the reality & reasons behind the dispute, courtesy of a postal worker who writes a letter in today's Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2009/oct/10/royal-mail-strike-amazon ):
"Why have I become a Mail Militant? Consider the fact that delivery office managers (DOMs) will get £8,000 each for making improvements in their office. Section managers, however, only receive £2,000 each. The postmen who have been 'encouraged' to help make things work will receive £0. As an added thank-you we will not be receiving a pay rise - a kind of 'stick and stick approach', as they can't afford carrots. In addition the chairman is to have £145,000 paid to top up his pension fund at a time when there is insufficient money available from the huge recently announced profits to alleviate the Royal Mail pension fund that is allegedly a little short. Obviously the £2m bonus he got in the past was insufficient."
There'll be a lot more black propaganda employed against the postal staff in the coming days & weeks, be assured of that. However, what won't be mentioned is the context in which staff feel that industrial action is their only option. That context begins to be conveyed in this letter.
Remember that the next time even the BBC talks of "misery" at the disruption of the mail service.

Blair For Bootle?

The comments on a post by David Bartlett regarding odds offered by Ladbrokes for a handful of local seats at the next election (http://blogs.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/dalestreetblues/2009/10/ladbrokes-odds-for-five-mersey.html ) were suddenly enlivened by a contribution from Cressington Lib Dem councillor Paula Keaveney (http://www.paulakeaveney.blogspot.com/ ).
In response to a gripe that the bookmaker wasn't offering odds on the Bootle constituency, Cllr Keaveney asked, "Wasn't there a rumour that Cherie Blair was going to be parachuted into Bootle [at the next election]?"
Cue a series of frenetic Facebook comments, astonished emails & urgent text & Twitter missives.
I phoned a couple of people whose antipathy to New Labour guaranteed a euphoric reaction to the very suggestion; the thought of a war criminal's wife & her minders being surrounded on Stanley Road by demonstrators was one they relished.
It's still a rumour. I spoke to a local Labour councillor today & raised the story with him. He rolled his eyes, said he knew nothing about it & declared that if there's any substance to the story, she'll be the candidate over his dead body.
Though hailing from Crosby (http://condensedthoughts.blogspot.com/2008/05/in-her-liverpool-home.html ), Blair could be sold to the local party as a local girl made good (yes, I know) with the Oldham Echo weighing in on her behalf for good measure. There would, of course, be no shortage of local opposition to her candidacy, not least from Walton's Peter Kilfoyle (http://condensedthoughts.blogspot.com/2008/07/true-fiction.html ).
Counterbalancing such talk, however, is the financial factor; as a QC, Blair currently earns at least four times the basic salary of an MP. Given her penchant for the trappings of wealth, would she really wish to take a considerable salary reduction?
Fuelling the rumour is the knowledge that sitting MP Joe Benton has yet to declare his intentions, leading some in the local party to speculate that the 72 year-old will hang on until after the election & then call it quits, allowing local councillor Peter Dowd to be anointed (the verb is intentional, given the long-standing stranglehold the old Labour Catholic Right has had on the seat going back to Simon Mahon in the 60s & 70s), the minor inconvenience of a by-election notwithstanding.
What can be stated with any certainty is that if the rumour solidifies into reality, the media circus will descend on Bootle in a way never seen before & every step of her supposedly regal procession through the seat on to Westminster will be punctuated frequently by many who rightly view her as, at best, a shallow interloper.

Know Your Place

"People who send their children to private school have been so stigmatised that they have been made to feel their decision is 'tantamount to treason', a leading headteacher claimed last night.
"Andrew Grant, chair of the Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference, said politicians and other critics of the fee-paying system should be grateful for the money parents are saving for the state sector.
"And he added that without them 'Britain would not have enough officers to lead its army.' "
(http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/oct/06/private-schools-stigmatised-chief-says )

And they say the old class divisions no longer apply.
BTW, the conference is taking place in Liverpool. So, any mention of this in the Daily Ghost or Oldham Echo? (Surfs both wretched websites, groans at the c-list celeb/charidee "stories", navigates past obligatory "Merseypride" piece, notes Peel Holdings' puff-piece, sighs as Denise Fergus is wheeled out again to denounce a play she hasn't seen.........tumbleweed.)
Nope, not a dicky bird. Must have been mislaid on the news editor's desk, eh?

Hit The North

Boris Johnson's role as stand-up comic for the Tory faithful was faithfully reprised today for the blue-rinse brigade in Manchester (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/video/2009/oct/05/boris-johnson-tory-conference-cameron ).
However, the best gag in his routine was unintended when he declared that if the Tories could win control of London, they could win any inner city in Britain. Yes, that's right, any inner city. Including Liverpool, to which the cycling bon viveur made the most indirect & fleeting of references.
Now, of course, we all know that although Johnson was Spectator editor at the time of the anti-Liverpool editorial (tastefully timed in the wake of Liverpool man Ken Bigley's murder in Iraq this time five years ago), it should be said that the scousers-are-self-pitying-thieves scrawl came courtesy of Simon Heffer, who wasn't even criticised by the now-London mayor for his, erm, thoughts.
It also brings to mind Geoffrey Howe's observation to his Tory cabinet colleagues in the wake of the Toxteth riots that government policy for areas like Merseyside should be one of "managed decline".
Incidentally, I couldn't help but notice that at the end of the Guardian's jarringly-edited video, the camera focuses on Cameron as, of all songs, "Shout to the Top", by the Style Council is played. Does Weller know about this?

Just A Word, Councillors

Just in case Mike Storey, Warren Bradley, or any one of the many talented, principled, visionary leaders of the city of Liverpool on the Lib Dem benches at the Town Hall ever feel tempted to respond in colourful terms to the Professor, Wayne or myself, don't.
Or we'll do what this enterprising & resourceful US blogger (http://rivervices.blogspot.com/ ) in Ohio did & reproduce said sentiments in loving detail: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/02/mayor-jim-kalb-to-blogger_n_308021.html .
You have been warned.

Outfoxed

There's a measured take on the New Labour/Murdoch divorce from the Liverpool Culture Blog (http://www.liverpoolcultureblog.co.uk/2009/09/labour-on-the-sun-wrong-on-hillsborough-wrong-on-labour/ ), expressing unease at the invoking of Hillsborough as part of their spat.
Meanwhile, one blogger looks at a likely Cameron victory next year & notes that the Tories will take aim not just at the BBC, but Ofcom, too, hence Murdoch's switch; such a scenario could lead to a British version of Fox News over the airwaves (http://robinbrown.wordpress.com/2009/09/30/the-sun-drops-labour-but-there-are-wider-issues-at-stake/ ).
If it does come to pass, I say: Bring. It. On. Murdoch may think a UK version of his attack-dog channel will deliver the goods, but the reaction from the blogosphere will be just as swift, astringent & relentless as that seen in the US by sites like Huffington Post (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ ), Raw Story (http://www.rawstory.com/ ), Media Lens (http://www.medialens.org/ ) & Media Matters (http://mediamatters.org/ ).

What Will Happen To The Kids?

It's never a pretty sight when a hitherto strong & celebrated marriage comes to an end & one partner declares a new-found ardour for another. Recriminations & accusations fly, imprecations fill the air & no depth of loathing & malevolence is considered too low.
That's exactly the case with the divorce of New Labour & News International, or Rupert Murdoch, to be precise (http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/sep/30/sun-ditches-labour-for-tories ).
David Bartlett last night referred to the story, adding with a degree of understatement which had me wondering if he, too, would soon join Chris Bascombe (http://www.how-do.co.uk/north-west-media-features/special-features/bascombe-keen-to-stress-positives-after-liverpool-fc%10news-international-furore-200711081309/ & http://condensedthoughts.blogspot.com/2007/09/transfer-too-far.html ) & Tony Barrett in leaving Oldham Hall Street for the Wapping gulag that the Sun is "still extremely unpopular in Merseyside" (http://blogs.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/dalestreetblues/2009/09/the-sun-newspaper-ditches-labo.html ).
When Murdoch & New Labour walked down the aisle back in the late 90s, it said far more about the party than the proprietor; now the rejected rump of what was once a mass party react like a jilted wife & Tony Woodley, his exchange with Paxman last night truly cringeworthy (http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/newsnight ), ostentatiously rips up today's edition of Murdoch's rag (http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/sep/30/the-tony-ripped-up-labour ). Pathetic.
[I wonder if Woodley has put his own house in order yet (http://condensedthoughts.blogspot.com/2008/12/solidarity-im-all-right-jack.html ) ?]
Woodley's theatricals also ascribe a level of importance to Murdoch's endorsements which no longer applies; it's commonly accepted that the next election will see the role & influence of the web (blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc.) increase at the expense of what we in the blogosphere fondly term the dead tree press.

The Americans Call This An Infomercial

Daily Ghost editor Mark Thomas will, no doubt, protest that his publication is "pro-business". So far, so obvious; it's the sort of thing any provincial editor will say.
There is, however, a distinction to be made between reporting on commerce in Liverpool & publishing PR pieces which amount to free advertising. In this regard, the Ghost has long fallen short. Matters are made more murky by the role of Larry Nield, late of the Oldham Hall Street parish, now, of course, a leading light at October Communications/Aurora Media.
Take this innocuous-looking piece in this morning's edition: http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2009/09/29/liverpool-firms-take-time-to-mingle-92534-24803757/ ).
The Liverpool law firm Hill Dickinson hosted "a networking event for 'the next generation' of city professionals."
So what, you might ask. Well, Hill Dickinson is a client of October/Aurora (http://www.octobercomms.co.uk/clients.html ).
Mutual back-scratching facilitated by an ex-Oldham Hall Street hack isn't a crime. Nor, however, is it journalism, it's PR. Mark Thomas really should do the decent thing & insert the words "advertising feature" at the top of pieces such as this.
How about it, Mark?

Oldham Echo: Fight Arranger

Remember that kid at school who always went round telling one lad that another lad had said he could fight him? If things escalated, & they usually did from such an inflammatory starting-point, the two lads would end up rolling around while a group of other lads, led by the "shit-stirrer", would chant, "fight, fight, fight!" The two protagonists would end up getting the cane while the "shit-stirrer" would snigger at his antics. Well, the Daily Ghost & Oldham Echo are journalism's "shit-stirrers" with their series of pieces designed to produce a hitherto non-existant spat between Liverpool & Southampton over the cruise ferry terminal affair (http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/09/cruise-wars-scouse-wedding-at-sea.html ).
Using his blog to continue a ridiculous & totally irresponsible farce, David Bartlett adopts the role of a nine year-old boy engaged in a schoolground argument (http://blogs.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/dalestreetblues/2009/09/cruise-wars-liverpool-vs-south.html) :
"Liverpool is the Capital of Pop. Our artists have produced more number one hits than those from any other town or city. The Beatles are our most famous export.
"Southampton's most famous musical export is probably Craig David - unless you count Benny Hill. He hit the top spot in 1971 with Ernie (Fastest Milkman in the West).
"Liverpool is the most filmed British city outside London with credits including: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Sherlock Holmes, 51st State, The Hunt For Red October, Nowhere Boy, In the Name of the Father, Letter To Brezhnev, Backbeat and Priest.
"The One Show once filmed a feature in Southampton called 'Why ice is slippy'. The city was the location for an HSBC training video.
"Liverpool FC are the most famous club in British history, with 18 league championships, five European cups, three UEFA cups, seven FA cups and seven league cups. Everton have competed in the top flight a record 107 seasons and won the league nine times, the FA Cup five times and a European trophy (Cup Winners Cup).
"Southampton FC have won the FA Cup. Once.
"Liverpool was the European Capital of Culture in 2008 and has been a UNESCO World Heritage City since 2004. The city has 2,500 listed buildings and 250 public monuments - including the largest collection of Grade II listed buildings outside London. Liverpool Cathedral is the largest in the country.
"Southampton has the world's oldest bowls green."
You can sit down now, David, & take a deep breath. Got to get your strength back for PE later, eh?
All three comments so far posted in response to Bartlett's na-na-na-na-na moment take him to task for reducing an already manufactured story by Oldham Hall Street to the level of a Year 5 playground exchange, with the Professor wondering whether Paddy Shennan [hello, Paddy!] actually penned the puerile piece. More seriously, the Professor warns that "this kind of exchange between cities can be so destructive so don't be surprised the next time some 'Scouser/Liverpudlian/Liverpolitan' gets bottled in a Southampton pub when they hear his accent, or some poor sod from Southampton gets battered here by a bunch of jingoistic morons, we need to think, is this the cultural level we wish to promote?"
Today's Oldham Echo tries to revive the "fight, fight, fight!" chant (http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2009/09/28/liverpool-v-southampton-tax-rap-for-firm-in-pier-head-cruise-war-100252-24795007/ ), spinning on the tax status of ABP, owner of the Port of Southampton, saying it is registered in Jersey where Corporation Tax is zero per cent.
However, a commenter on the Echo story, willsonline, puts things in a more rounded context:
"Peel Holdings should be investigated - they were given Speke Airport on a plate, along with hundreds of acres of land - along with the Manchester Ship Canal. Granada TV exposed how they came about owning Trafford Park and fooling the people of Manchester into handing over the biggest trading estate in Europe for free, and it was all behind-the-scenes dealing that robbed the people of Manchester, and now it's happening in Merseyside, and lots of the profits are going offshore with Peel Holdings."
Peel Holdings' chairman & majority shreholder John Whittaker is a tax exile on the Isle of Man & is worth an estimated £1.3bn (http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/09/cruise-wars-liverpool-gets-full-naval.html ).
Today's Oldham Echo editorial attempts to affect a disdainful position (http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/views/our-view/2009/09/28/southampton-cry-unfair-about-liverpool-s-cruise-liner-plan-what-a-damn-cheek-100252-24793991/ ):
"The cries of 'unfair' emanating from Southampton regarding Liverpool's perfectly reasonable bid for a turnaround facility at the Pier Head are becoming tedious and tiresome."
I'll tell you what's "tedious and tiresome", it's the juvenile antics of Oldham Hall Street over this & many other local topics.
The editorial again raises ABP's tax scam in Jersey, but is deafeningly silent on Peel Holdings & Whittaker.
An indication of the true nature of Peel Holdings can be found across the Irish Sea where workers in the Port of Dublin have been involved in a long-running dispute with a subsidiary of Peel, Maritime Terminals Ltd (http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2009/0704/1224250045706.html & http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/breaking/2009/0709/breaking50.html ):
"The union [Siptu] said that when the company [Marine Terminals Ltd] decided to make 19 staff members redundant earlier this year, it used its own selection criteria. Siptu said five workers were made redundant initially, and that on May 15th a further 14 were told by mangement that they were to be let go.
"On the same day, all other Siptu employees were written to, telling them they must sign new contracts agreeing to pay cuts of between 14 and 18 per cent, or be sacked, it said."
That's the nature of the beast Oldham Hall Street champions. Not just "tedious and tiresome", but disgusting.

New Name For Our Favourite PR People

You've heard of Aurora Borealis (the Northern Lights), that dazzling force of nature in the night sky. Well, now it seems that Larry Nield & the rest of his chums at October Communications have decided to take some inspiration from it & take its name as part of a new moniker (http://www.how-do.co.uk/north-west-media-news/north-west-marketing-services/october-communications-no-more-as-aurora-media-is-born-200909226397/ ).
The one thing you can't expect from marketing types is candour. It's therefore safe to say that October Comms (as was) realised that they had become the story instead of promoting & manipulating it. Always a bad sign in ad-land. The wafer-thin veneer of quick conferring which masquerades as considered, strategic reappraisal in the world inhabited by October Comms will have been prompted by the facile hope that a new name means a new identity. Typically shallow.
Aurora Media, as Larry's happy band of pluggers is now to be known, hasn't yet got the website up & running; with such a level of planning & foresight, you can tell they've been in bed with the Culture Company, can't you?
How-Do reports:
"It comes following a tie-up with environmental consultancy StratEco [www.strateco.co.uk/ ]."
The StratEco website says it is "focused in three key areas", resource management, strategic business consultancy & PR consultancy; under the second of these areas is the sub-heading, "Ethical and social responsibilities". Irony is not dead.
How-Do quotes a newly-promoted member of October/Aurora, Mo Maghazachi, as saying:
"StratEco had been looking for a public relations arm and one which knew about green ethics and planning applications.
"Over the last 18 months, October Communications had been taking a lot of environmental PR work out of London, so we launched this joint venture."
There's a curious juxtaposition there of the phrases "green ethics" & "planning applications". The former is something of which October appeared to display minimal awareness, while the latter is something they were very much au fait with.
Maghazachi added that the change of name "was because October Communications didn't reflect what the new company was about."
Translation: the shenannigans employed by Larry's outfit had become all too transparent to the wider public, despite the best efforts of Oldham Hall Street to ignore & suppress them.
There's also a change of location to go with the tawdry re-naming, sorry, modern re-branding of the business; they're to vacate the Matthew Street premises they've occupied & are to saunter down the road to a larger space on Hanover Street.
New name, new location, same old shabby, secretive practices. Maybe Larry will write a piece for Liverpool Confidential about his new offices. Or maybe he won't.

This Land Is Your Land

There's a guest post on Tony Karon's excellent Rootless Cosmopolitan blog by Gavin Evans about how the music of Bruce Springsteen was a constant companion during his days as an anti-apartheid activist in South Africa. It also celebrates The Boss' 60th birthday. (http://tonykaron.com/2009/09/22/bruce-springsteen-at-60-a-personal-appreciation/ ).

Also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yuc4BI5NWU .

From The Mersey To The Dee, The Carbuncles Grow

Looks familiar? No, it's not the carbuncle cup-winning ferry terminal on the city's waterfront, it's the design for a hotel overlooking West Kirby's marine lake which looks as though it's been given the green light (http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2009/09/22/controversial-west-wirral-hotel-plan-looks-set-to-move-forward-92534-24747849/ ).

The design has been criticised for being "not iconic enough". That's one way of putting it.

Stereotypes & Spin

Last week's TUC conference in Liverpool was as underwhelming as it was ineffective (a sure sign of the times, just imagine if the acquiescent paymasters of New Labour had met in the city, say, 25 years ago).
However, Hugh Muir's Guardian Diary column last Thursday did relate this charming anecdote which I'm delighted to quote in full (http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/sep/17/hugh-muir-diary-bnp-griffin ):
"Gordon Brown's original sabre-toothed spin doctor, Charlie Whelan --now head of the political unit at Unite-- has been dazzling admirers with a new sartorial image during a reluctant week-long visit to the TUC in Liverpool. He has taken to wearing a summer-white suit --despite the chill wind-- in the style of Mr Clean himself, Martin Bell. But his views on Liverpudlians can hardly be described as squeaky-clean. While moaning that there are no longer direct flights between his Highland retreat and Liverpool --he had to travel via Manchester-- he says the one consolation is that burglaries in the Highlands have gone down. Just a joke, says Charlie. Brave man."
Ah, yes, Charlie, indeed, just a joke, eh? Yeah, we love those gags & cracks about hubcaps, shellsuits & self-pity. All part of the gaiety of life, we'd all agree. So I'm sure Charlie will laugh at those cracks about him being a typically cold & calculating spin-doctor who lied through his teeth for his political masters, regardless of the consequences. Wouldn't he?
After all, it's not as though Charlie is unpopular with his colleagues at Unite, is it? What? Oh: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/sep/13/unite-official-charlie-whelan .
Still, I'm sure there's no foundation to what Toby Helm describes in his Observer report as "turmoil at Unite since Whelan's appointment as political director." Nor, too, should there be any truth in the claim that there is "a real culture of fear and a climate of bullying that he [Whelan] allows to take place in his department."
Charlie a bully? Ridiculous! He just likes a joke, & this time, it's on him.
Oh, btw, Charlie, about the Martin Bell suit, an actor named Kenneth Cope got there first in a 60s TV series called Randall & Hopkirk Deceased. Kenneth's a scouser. Funny, eh?

Based On A Corrupt Council They Assembled Earlier

Wayne referred to the story earlier (http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/09/cruise-control-naval-warfare-breaks-out.html ), but I just couldn't ignore the bizarre claim by Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg that a Lib Dem government (yes, I know) would be modelled on the Lib Dems' reign of misrule, mendacity & corruption in Liverpool (http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2009/09/21/nick-clegg-lib3eral-democrats-success-in-liverpool-shows-how-party-would-run-britain-92534-24739397/ ).
Yes, Liverpool City Council, headed by a venal & fickle cabal of characters whose leader condones the criminal behaviour of a party colleague (Steve Hurst), & whose handling of culture year rendered it a squandered opportunity for the city, is the sort of thing we should expect on a national stage if the world stands on its head & elects Clegg into No.10 with a working majority next year.
Clegg, of course, has already tried to demonstrate his political machismo by promising severe & devastating cuts in the risible scenario of a Lib Dem victory at the election. [It reminds me of Zsa Zsa Gabor's famous remark that men who are macho aren't mucho.]
This has obviously spooked Warren Bradley, who sought to minimise the fall-out, knowing only too well that the Lib Dems in Liverpool are in for a similar electoral plight to that which faces New Labour on the national stage (http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2009/09/21/warren-bradley-promises-that-liberal-democrat-cuts-would-not-hit-liverpool-front-line-staff-100252-24739475/ ).
Ian Hernon's article, however, does concede that that the Lib Dems' proposal to save £14bn in cuts annually "will hit Merseyside and other city-regions where more than half [of] wage earners are in the public sector."
Just imagine, Warren Bradley as deputy prime minister, Steve Hurst as Justice Secretary, Mike Storey as Foreign Secretary, Berni Turner as Culture Secretary & Paul Clark as Housing minister. Don't have nightmares, children. Sweet dreams.

Off Message & Off Course

Amongst other things, being a local MP means that you can make all the right noises, get the local rag to faithfully reprint them & thus give the impression you're taking a stand on an issue. That's certainly something Joe Benton & Frank Field, Labour MPs for Bootle & Birkenhead respectively, knew when they supplied Oldham Hall Street with a missive on bankers' bonuses earlier this month (http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2009/09/04/merseyside-mp-s-demand-maximum-wage-to-prevent-return-of-city-bonuses-92534-24604709/ ):
"Birkenhead MP Frank Field and Bootle MP Joe Benton are among more than 30 Labour MPs piling pressure on Gordon Brown to rein in the so-called 'masters of the universe' as the end of the recession looms."
Rob Merrick's piece peddles the delusion that Brown is facing concerted pressure from backbenchers on the issue. He isn't. Bankers' bonuses is a major story, but it doesn't pose a terminal threat to Brown before the next election. It's also amusing to read that "the end of the recession looms."
Yeah, right. Then again, if your brief on Oldham Hall Street is to do a PR job for Liverpool One at every opportunity, I suppose stating the recession will soon end goes with the territory.
Merrick's piece should be compared & contrasted with a report by Patrick Wintour in the previous day's Guardian (http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/sep/03/gordon-brown-bank-bonuses-plan ):
"Brown, determined to protect the interests of the City of London, insisted that the French plan for a bonus cap should only be examined, rather than endorsed, leaving a Labour prime minister taking a less radical stance than the the two conservative European leaders." [France's Nicholas Sarkozy & Germany's Angela Merkel].
Benton is quoted by the Post's article thus: "It would be wrong to attribute the whole of the crisis to bonuses, but they must have helped encouraged deals that were high risk. For a long time, it seems there has been no ceiling at all on the top wage earners, who should not be exempt from the restrictions imposed on public sector workers and others on low wages."
Quite right, just the sort of thing I'd expect to hear from the honourable member for Bootle, where the boom merely meant a less rapid rate of decline.
However, both Benton & Frank Field would do well to remember the infamous words of Peter Mandelson when he declared that New Labour was "intensely relaxed" about those becoming "filthy rich", as he so charmingly put it.
Both MPs should also take up the issue of the latest unemployment figures with New Labour's high command; they should note with more than a little concern the figures for their own constituencies. Birkenhead's jobless rate has increased by 53.3% over the last twelve months, while Bootle's has gone up by 46.9% in the same period (http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2009/mar/02/unemployment-and-employment-statistics-economics ).

Kangaroo Court

A couple of the comments on my post about Michael Shields appeared to suggest that the Oldham Echo had wrapped itself around the campaign, something which tainted the integrity of it. I understand where they're coming from; the Echo has "gone to town" on the story not out of any sense of altruism, but because it cynically calculates that it will at least arrest the sharp decline in its circulation figures. However, there will come a time in the near future when the temporary rise in sales comes to a close.
As for the case itself, it was inevitable that the whispering campaign against Michael would intensify. They tend to emanate from the usual quarters & I won't dignify any of them by providing links. A welcome & necessary corrective to the drip, drip, drip of innuendo, conjecture & open lies appeared in today's Guardian, courtesy of a piece by Stephen Jakobi of Fair Trials Abroad (http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/sep/16/michael-shields-miscarriage-of-justice ).
Jakobi, who attended part of the trial, states: "Almost all the formalities of a fair trial were observed, but it was all for show. All applications by the defence were refused. All applications by the prosecution, no matter how unreasonable, were granted."
Jakobi relates how the skewed nature of the trial sometimes bordered on the Pythonesque. However, he gets to the meat of the case when he declares:
"Above all, the treatment of original eyewitness identification was appalling. Witnesses were allowed to contradict their original police statements that they could not remember the defendant's face, and the defence were not allowed to put these statements to the witnesses in cross-examination. Everyone was allowed to make dock identification as though this had real evidential worth. It was clear by her own evidence that the only person who picked Shields out at an identification parade had had no opportunity of seeing his face at the time of the incident."

He Said What?!

"Clearly, council and Lib Dem leader Warren Bradley is not about to tell his party to lay down their arms and surrender control of the council.
"For one thing, he thinks his party has much to be proud of, having delivered a successful Capital of Culture year, overseen the city's recent regeneration, and increased educational attainment." (http://blogs.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/dalestreetblues/2009/09/my-last-daily-post-column-figh.html )

Close The Door After You

It would be tempting to remark that the rats are leaving the sinking ship. However, I suspect that would be a vile slur on the rodent population. Be that as it may, many others will probably make that comment (http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2009/09/08/sir-trevor-jones-to-stand-down-from-liverpool-council-100252-24632954/ & http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2009/09/08/convicted-liberal-democrat-councillor-steve-hurst-to-stand-down-100252-24632956/ ).

Wayne's already waved a cheery goodbye to the dubious duo with a couple of pertinent points about their tenure & track record (http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/09/councillor-steve-hurst-steps-down-good.html & http://liverpoolpreservationtrust.blogspot.com/2009/09/trevor-jone-steps-down-good-riddance.html ).

Turning first to the criminal, David Bartlett reports that Hurst will wait until next May before taking his leave. It would have been nice to bid him an immediate exit, but it seems that like many a discredited MP in the Westminster expenses scandal, he is happy to hold on to the bitter (& sour) end. The piece relates:

"The ECHO understands Cllr Hurst became fed up with the press coverage and the fact the issue would not go away."

Clearly the criminal's chutzpah hasn't been diminished by the opprobrium rightly meted out to him.

In attempting to put a veneer of political respectability on one of the most tawdry affairs in Liverpool local government (& that's saying something!), the Lib Dems only succeeded in digging the hole that little bit deeper. Step forward & take a bow, Colin Eldridge. Cllr Eldridge churned out a statement which seems to say everything about the Lib Dems' warped sense of ethics:

"[Hurst] has been an absolutely first class councillor for the people of Wavertree ward and prior to that Church ward.

"For all the people he has helped he will be a loss to the community. I wish him well in his endeavours in future."

Cllr Eldridge's effusive torrent of political effluent may well come back to haunt him, seeing as he is due to stand as the Lib Dem candidate for the Wavertree seat at the next election (http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2009/09/08/liberal-democrat-stakes-it-all-on-race-for-liverpool-wavertree-constituency-92534-24630500/ ).

Turning to the man who was happy to chomp on a cigar while surveying the city's waterfront from a Mersey ferry boat with Michael Heseltine after the Toxteth riots in 1981, David Bartlett's article is terse to the point of Twittering, leading one to suspect that a short five-sentence press release has been, yet again, reheated on Oldham Hall Street & served up to the readers.

Perhaps it's due to Cllr Jones' willingness to resort to the lawyers (or rather a certain prominent Liverpool lawyer) to make his point.

Adding to the civic brain-drain from the Town Hall is Nadia Stewart. Cllr Stewart, representing Croxteth ward, defected from Labour to the Lib Dems at the time of the 2008 local elections, keeping her new friends in power (http://condensedthoughts.blogspot.com/2008/05/turncoat-in-toytown.html ).

The Post's piece on Cllr Eldridge's Westminster ambitions added that "more prominent councillors are expected to announce they are standing down in the coming weeks."

The exodus has begun.

*Photograph of Cllr Bradley & his motley crew of ne'er-do-wells courtesy of the Liverpool Subculture blog.

Pardoned

Perhaps it was the weight of evidence in his favour. Perhaps it was clear to even Whitehall mandarins & ministers that the Bulgarian judicial system's rudimentary approach to criminal matters was a sick joke, thus rendering realpolitik just this once irrelevant. Perhaps the excellent & sterling campaign waged by his family persuaded countless others to take up the case in a way which couldn't be ignored. Perhaps Justice Secretary Jack Straw, defending what is sure to be a Labour marginal at the next election, was spooked at the thought of his father standing against him.

In all probability, all the above factors have played their part in securing justice for Michael Shields today (http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/click/rss/1.0/-/1/hi/england/merseyside/8245760.stm ).

Today is clearly a day for celebration among Michael's family & friends. They won't want to dwell too much on the wider issue of this being a gross miscarriage of justice, perpetrated while a Labour government largely kept schtum because of Bulgaria's application for EU membership.

Not today anyway.

Nor will they be thinking too much of the identity of the individual responsible for the attack who has effectively got away with it while Michael was wrongly convicted.

Everyone on Merseyside knows the identity of the low-life whose cowardly attack & subsequent actions caused so much misery & distress for Michael's family.

If the notoriously slow wheeels of the judicial system do not turn sufficiently quickly in delivering final justice for not just Michael, but Martin Georgiev, the Bulgarian victim of the attack, this blog will name him as a matter of course.

Schadenfreude

As the old phrase says, revenge is a dish best served cold. It is therefore to be hoped that US "shock-jock" Steven Cohen's humble pie was uncooked when he decided to call time on his World Soccer Daily radio programme (http://industry.bnet.com/advertising/10003639/steven-cohen-abandons-sirius-radio-show-following-advertiser-boycott/ ).
Cohen, if you need reminding, constantly used his programme to repeat the lies about Liverpool fans at Hillsborough. He compounded the insult by hurriedly reading out an "apology" from a hastily-scripted statement, only to repeat his lies afterwards (http://condensedthoughts.blogspot.com/2009/05/shock-jock-subdued-as-sponsors-scram.html ). After being dropped by the Fox Soccer Channel, Cohen's radio rant was his remaining opportunity to pollute the airwaves. Now that is no more.
Like many a discredited cretin before him, Cohen is resorting to both the venal & the outlandish, claiming that he received anti-semitic emails & that his step-children were "contacted" (his word). Such tactics reveal a good deal more about the nature of the man.
Cohen is reported to be planning a subscription-based successor to his defunct show. That's sure to be a pretty slimmed-down operation, assuming, of course, that enough mugs sign up.

From Arraignment To Accommodation

Carted off to Liverpool's bridewell after a shambolig gig at the Mountford Hall in 1997, the conclusion of which was alleged to have been marked by the throwing of a mike stand into the audience, Shane MacGowan, arrested for said act but later released (http://www.shanemacgowan.com/articles/nme97b.shtml ), might have consoled himself with the thought that one of his heroes, Irish writer Brendan Behan, had also done time in the place. Alas, Behan was not familiar with the bridewell, on Cheapside just off Dale Street. Instead, the bibulous Behan was taken to Walton.
Nonetheless, the bridewell used to hold a particular appeal & repugnance in equal measure to several generations of miscreants in the city; some saw it as a badge of honour to have slept in its cells while others winced at the very mention of its name (http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2004/nov/13/prisonsandprobation.ukcrime ).
[As a teenager I was told that my great-grandmother spent a night there after drinking a fair deal, singing Irish rebel songs & calling a police officer "a pot-bellied oul Orange bastard". Her husband interjected as she was dragged away, "Don't take away Ireland's hope." Whereupon he, too, was hauled off.]
For a decade it's lain idle, although that may well soon change (http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2009/09/04/liverpool-bridewell-sold-at-auction-for-student-accommodation-92534-24604729/ ):
"A Merseyside property company bought the historic premises at auction yesterday, and now aims to sympathetically convert it into low-cost accommodation for university students." Sympathetically convert? Sounds ominous, doesn't it?
As the building is a Grade II-listed property, both the exterior and the interior need to be preserved as they are. The former won't be difficult to conform with, the latter, however, could well be more problematic.
On the Sunday of the Matthew Street weekend I was with friends at the Rose & Crown pub on Cheapside. I noticed that, despite the heavy rain, a steady stream of people queued up to have their photographs taken outside the rear entrance of the building. The link between incarceration & inebriation, many of the bridewell's "guests" were the worse for wear, was fleetingly invoked.

Retail Retreat

Welcome as Tesco's decision not to go ahead with a store on Hope Street is (http://www.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/liverpool-news/regional-news/2009/09/04/tesco-withdraws-plans-for-liverpool-hope-street-store-92534-24604733/ ), it also raises the question of political grandstanding by those elected representatives whose self-regard is in inverse proportion to their actual efficacy.
Vicky Anderson's piece in the Post includes a gushing quote from Berni Turner, evidently attempting to appear magnanimous in a victory some may be forgiven for thinking she piloted:
"I hold out the hand of friendship to Sir Terry Leahy [Tesco chief executive], because he has absolutely done the right thing. I take my hat off to him."
Cllr Turner's warm words may also be prompted by her use of the term "evil empire" in referring to Tesco during the Facebook campaign against a Hope Street store. A rapproachement may well be all the more necesary given that Cllr Turner's Old Swan ward is the home of a large Tesco store.
The retail giant's volte-face also places Larry Nield's take on the development in a rather unflattering light. Writing on the Liverpool Confidential site a while back, the October Communications representative took the view that any campaign against a Hope Street store was futile & that mammon must be allowed to take its course. He concluded (http://www.liverpoolconfidential.com/index.asp?Sessionx=IpqiNwEiNwEnIwY6IHqjNwB6IA ):
"There may be some sympathy for those who say a Tesco is unsuited to Hope Street, but under planning rules it would seem they are on a loser. The council has no power to prevent Tesco opening on Hope Street. The issue is signage, and it would seem a compromise will have to be reached.
"We are not going to see the re-opening of grand grocery stores such as Kirklands and Coopers of Church Street, Reeces or the Kardomah.
"Every Tesco in the city centre I visit seems to be thriving, which makes me wonder how people have survived until now. It also makes me realise Tesco's business judgement is paying dividends."
Strictly speaking, of course, the Tesco proposal wasn't derailed by the council, which, as Larry pointed out, had no say in the matter. However, his subsequent assumption that Hope Street would host a Tesco store now looks less than sage.
In an intriguing aside to Larry's LC piece, one commenter pointed to Liverpool Vision's status as a client of October Communications, adding that it's headed by one Terry Leahy. LC's editorial team jumped in quickly, declaring:
"Larry and/or October Comms do not work or perform any PR or marketing function for Liverpool Vision.
"As far as we know, if October [Comms] did ever work for [Liverpool] Vision, it would have been some years ago, and even then in its earlier life before the big quango merger.
"Please, please, folks, be careful before you add your wisdom to the rant, especially when the things you are saying are completely without foundation. You are legally responsible for your own comments and we'll have to remove them if they are reported to us as excessively rude or defamatory."
It's curious why LC should assert that there's no link between October Comms & Liverpool Vision, adding that the lawyers could, theoretically, be dragged in if anyone suggests otherwise when October lists Vision as one of its clients (http://www.octobercomms.co.uk/clients.html ).
Either someone's guilty of a terminological inexactitude, or that webpage urgently needs updating. Perhaps Larry can shed some light on this; clarification would be welcome. So, Larry, what's the situation?

He's Back

The Professor's back with a gem of a post: http://profchucklebuttychronic.blogspot.com/2009/09/matthew-street-special-festival.html .
Welcome back, Professor, you're a star!

And They Say Industrial Reporting Is Dead

As the city approached the Matthew Street money-making weekend, the Oldham Echo couldn't resist lapsing into pantomime mode, not, as you'd expect, by urging us all to wear mop-top wigs & yodel along to the old favourites, but to wheel out an old bogey figure from the 80s (http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2009/08/28/gmb-leader-on-holiday-during-enterprise-liverpool-strikes-100252-24551743/ ).
Marc Waddington's turgid tract of tabloidese last Friday shrieked:
"The union chief involved in stalled negotiations over today's bin strike in Liverpool will be watching events from a sun lounger at a five-star resort in Crete, the ECHO has learned."
The notion of anyone on holiday "watching events" relating to an industrial dispute is a new one on me; perhaps live satellite link-ups were arranged just for the occasion, or perhaps it is now common practice, available to anyone on holiday, to watch live TV pictures of, well, not much really, just a few people entering & leaving a building where negotiations take place. Or perhaps it's just lazy journalism.
Waddington's slanted piece spoke about Ian Lowes, the GMB official concerned, not being "on the picket line" because of his holiday. Lowes is someone the Echo has long had in its sights. He was a key player during the 80s when his role on the Joint Shop Stewards Committe (JSSC) cemented the support of the local authority unions for the Militant council against the Tories & Kinnock.
Waddington's piece continued:
"The news of of his trip comes in the week that Liverpool city managers expressed frustration that attempts to get the unions back around the table had failed."
Presumably, this "failure" was caused by Lowes' holiday; managers had made "attempts" to get the seemingly recalcitrant unions back at the table, had they?
The article also alleged that Lowes' holiday had "infuriated some GMB members" who were "left to take the action" while the GMB official enjoyed "the island paradise".
So were any GMB members actually named &/or directly quoted in Waddington's piece? Er, no. He fell back on the typical tabloid trick of anonymity & third-hand sourcing. It did, however, quote Lib Dem Eddie Clein, as you'd expect. As for the GMB members, they were "left to take the action" which they'd voted for in a ballot; they didn't need Ian Lowes' hand to hold onto during last Friday's strike.