Tory gives £100,000 to UKIP

Tory backer, Stuart Wheeler, has given UKIP £100,000 to fight the European Parliament Elections. Wheeler says he puts loyalty to his Country above loyalty to the Tory Party. Click here to see an interview with Stuart Wheeler.

Vote For Dave Pascoe In Rossmere Ward

A by-election is to be held on May 7th for the Council Seat left vacant following the sad death of Rossmere Councillor Michael Johnson in February. Mick and Dave were opposed politically but they conducted their opposition without personal animosity. They often ‘crossed swords’ during campaigns and debate was always ‘lively’. RIP Mick.

Vote For Dave Pascoe In Rossmere Ward!

Dave lives in Rossmere Ward and has fought this seat four times in the past, each time coming closer to winning with an increased vote every time. In 2008 Dave broke through into second place when the Liberal Democrat vote collapsed.

Only UKIP is a credible alternative to Labour in Rossmere Ward. Tories or Lib-Dems can’t win in Rossmere and Labour will be lining up one of their Party Faithful who will expect to take the seat by right. I hope the residents of Rossmere don’t allow themselves to be taken for granted!

UKIP wanted the election to be held on June 4th since this would have reduced the costs of holding the election as it would have been on the same day as the European Parliament Elections. However, the current politicians don’t care about how much of your money they waste and they have decided that saving money isn’t important.

Dave will be sending out more detailed proposals during the campaign but if you would like to know more, display a UKIP poster, or help with the campaign then Dave is always available at 64 Dunbar Road. I know he would invite you in for a cup of tea but that’s illegal during a campaign! Politicians can promise you the earth but they can’t give you a cup of tea!

Alternatively, telephone Dave Pascoe on 223754 or
e-mail him at d.j.pascoe@btinternet.com.


________________________________________________________________________________
Published by Stephen Allison 13 Beaconsfield Square Hartlepool TS24 0PA
on behalf of Dave Pascoe 64 Dunbar Road Hartlepool TS25 5DX

Sorry seems to be the hardest word!

Maybe Gordon Brown needs to think about what he needs to say sorry for! Click here for some suggestions from Nigel Farage MEP the UKIP Leader addressing Mr Brown during his recent visit to the European Parliament in his attempt to drum up support for his faltering G20 Economic Summit dream

Pay Rises all round!

I receive a copy of a letter in my Councillors Bag today originally dated 3rd June 2008. I assume it was to remind me that Hartlepool Council agreed the final pay award for 2008/09 back in June last year and that it was 2.75% against an interim award of only 2.45%. All members and staff salaries will include the agreed award from April 2009 and arrears of 0.3% to cover April 2008 to March 2009 will be paid to Members and Staff in May 2009.

With the country on the verge of bankruptcy I suppose its time to get every penny you can before the whole thing collapses. In the Council tax setting meeting this year I did propose that Councillors should voluntarily forgo their allowances for 12 months s a gesture towards the hard time we are going through. Believe it or not there was very little support for my proposal!

Happy Birthday Rosie

My little girl is 18 today. Happy Birthday Rosie!



Eighteen years ago today I was the happiest and proudest man alive. After 30 hours in labour it was eventually decided that Rosie needed some surgical intervention in order to make her appearance into the world. Rosie's dislike of exerting herself started in the womb, why should she do something herself when if she waits long enough someone will do it for her. I was allowed into the operating theater (and I've still got the surgical mask tucked away in my special box of memories, along with the umbilical clip!) I was warned to stay at the head end and not look round the screen but of course I had to look didn't I! A student nurse had already been positioned ready to catch me so I presume most dads take a peek and wish they hadn't. Anyway, out she eventually came and the surgical team asked if we had a name "Rosemary" I said through floods of tears. Well the entire theater then broke into a chorus of "Love Grows where my Rosemary Goes" and that got me sobbing even more.

Happy birthday Rosie.

Is the British Government.......

When a government needs money it sells things called “Gilts” or “gilt-edged securities” which pay a fixed income over a fixed term. Returns are usually low but they are seen as one of the safest forms of investment because they are issued by the British government, which has never (so far) reneged on a debt.

However, Gordon Brown’s government today failed to find enough buyers for £1.75 billion pounds of bonds as debt investors refused to back Gordon Brown’s plan to stem the worst economic crisis in three decades by spending his way out of trouble.

Labour wanted to sell a record £146.4 billion pounds of debt this fiscal year and as much as £147.9 billion pounds in 2010. According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Britain will have a deficit of 11 percent of GDP in 2010, the highest in the Group of 20. Brown’s whole strategy is based on borrowing and if he can’t get anyone to buy his debt it means the prospect of going cap in hand to the IMF is getting closer.

Going to the IMF effectively means admitting the UK is bankrupt.

Anyone care to place a bet now on Gordon Brown getting the Nobel Prize for economics?

A new slant!

We are all no doubt well familiar with the Oil Minister;s Children trying to get money out of Nigeria and offering huge amounts in commission to anyone who will help them. However, I got a different angle thrown at me today. It just shows ow hard people are working to come up with new scams........the e-mail is someone called John at "cantv.net" which if you google search comes up with a header from Venezuela. Why a US Serviceman in Iraq would be using an ISP from South America is an obvious question.

Anyway, enjoy........

Hi,

I am SSG Dewayne Pittman, an active American soldier serving in Iraq, I am serving in the military of the 1st Armoured Division in Iraq, as our mission here is highly exclusive due toinsurgents everyday and car bombs are attacking our peaceful mission here.

We managed to secure funds from the war zone. The total amount is US$ 19 Million dollars in cash. We want to move this money out of this place,this place is a war zone, so that you may keep our share for us till when we will come over to meet you.We will take 70%, my partner and I.You take 30%. No strings attached, just help us move it out of Iraq, Iraq is a war zone. We plan on using diplomatic courier and shipping the money out in a large box, using diplomatic immunity.

If you are interested I will send you the full details, my job is to find a good partner that we can trust and that will assist us. Can I trust you? When you receive this letter, kindly send me an e-mail signifying your interest including your most confidential telephone/fax numbers for quick communication also your contact details.

This business is risk free. The box can be shipped out in 48hrs if you want to handle the deal with us as brothers.

Respectfully,
SSG DEWAYNE PITTMAN.

Save our Pubs

COUNCILLORS have given their backing to a nationwide campaign aimed at highlighting the plight of British pubs. UK Independence Party (UKIP) councillors Steve Allison and Martyn Aiken handed over 1,000 beer mats to the landlady at the Owton Lodge pub, in Stockton Road, Hartlepool.


The beer mats are part of a nationwide campaign from UKIP to highlight the effect the smoking ban has had on pubs.

The party wants to see landlords given the power to decide whether to allow separate smoking rooms on their premises. They are also calling for the tax on real ales to be cut to support traditional beers.

Coun Allison, of the St Hilda ward, said: "UKIP believes pubs know their own customer base better than 'the man from Whitehall.' It should be the landlords who decide if their pub is non smoking or not and if they want a designated smoking room they should be allowed to have one as long as it is correctly signposted and the staff don't mind.

"Depending on what figures you read there are four or five pubs going out of business every day because of overtaxing and over zealous health and safety laws. That is a great shame because pubs are great social venues and surely it is better to have people drinking in a controlled environment like a pub.

"The punitive level of taxation on beer and spirits in pubs also reduces sales volume and hence revenue, forcing many pubs out of business."

Landlady June Hollifield, who has been at the Owton Lodge for five years, said: "I think it is a fantastic idea and anything that supports British pubs should be celebrated. "I was given 1,000 beer mats and they will be placed around the pub."

Gordon Parkin, UKIP's lead candidate for the European Parliament elections in June, was also present at the launch.

Any landlord who wants beer mats delivered to their premises should contact Dave Pascoe on (01429) 223754 or email: d.j.pascoe@btinternet.com

http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/news/Future-of-pubs-is-put.5096262.jp

Please sign our petition to Save The British Pub - http://www.savethepub.co.uk/petition.html

You can also download a poster for display at your local pub.

Ask No Questions......hear no lies!

While writing the previous post I was reminded of a conversation I had some years ago with a friend who worked as a medical researcher. He had spent several years looking into the effects of mumps and the treatments available. However, he had just changed the focus of his research to give prominence to the effects of HIV and AIDS on patients who had suffered from mumps during childhood. I asked him why the change and he admitted it was purely to obtain funding. He told me that it was politically advisable (at that time) to include HIV and AIDS in some way in any grant application as it was almost impossible to obtain cash without them.

Reading the Council Papers I receive it seems to me that the Tall Ships Race is Hartlepool Council's equivalent of HIV and AIDS when it comes to obtaining funding. It is politically advisable (well at least from the Mayor's viewpoint I would assume) that no opportunity is lost to refer to the Tall Ships Race. Almost any spending can be justified if it can be linked to the Tall Ships Race. It was career suicide for any medical researcher to suggest there might be other aliments or afflictions apart from HIV and AIDS and in Hartlepool Council at the moment it is totally unacceptable to question anything that has the words "Tall Ships Race" attached to the proposal.

5 Year Procurement Plan

Five year plans were beloved by Stalin and the Soviet Union Planners and they are still in fashion in Hartlepool Borough Council. The Council's Five Year Procurement Plan (6 monthly update) included mention of the Tall Ships Race (without which no Council Document is complete these days), Building schools for the future (another sacred cow in Council speak) and the Council's ICT Partnership (about which least said the better).

The agenda papers however didn't mention the vacancy currently on the Council's Website for a Strategic Procurement Manager. This is described as an exciting opportunity for a procurement professional with excellent managerial and purchasing skills to take forward our challenging Corporate Procurement Strategy. Presenting an opportunity to make an impact across the Council, this role will have a high profile, working with Chief Officers and Senior Managers as the Council continues to explore new and innovative forms of procurement.

Since the Procurement Plan has been approved by the Finance and Efficiency Portfolio holder I did wonder what a "Strategic Procurement Manager" would actually be doing for 37 hours a week (permanent post) to earn their £38,575 - £42,195 pa, plus Essential Car User Allowance.

Hold on! Isn't there a recruitment freeze in place at Hartlepool Council? Obviously not!

Whatever that means?

I recently received an Agenda paper for a Council Committee Meeting that included the following paragraph. Can anyone help me understand it?

"In relation to (company name) and the provision of the learning disability respite service, the impact of the personalisation agenda and implementation of self directed funding has developed the scope and availability of services in the market place. The department is currently undertaking an extended consultation with carers and individuals who use the service. In the interim it has been agreed that the service provided by (company name) will continue until 31st March 2010 to enable a full tender process to be undertaken to establish a future buildings based respite service."

I think that means, "There is much more choice available. However, we are staying with the existing supplier for another twelve months until we decide what to do."

Of course the report is only to be "noted" by the committee I sit on since the decision has already been made by the Portfolio Holder. I'll have to make sure I give it a good "noting" for the future? Whatever that means?

Dearest one, Greetings

No matter how many spam filters I apply the phishers just keep on coming. I quite likes this one because of the grammar and speeling..lol...its almost as bad as mine...

Dearest one,Greetings,
Please with Due respect and humility, I got your contact from the international web site directory) We know that this is not the normal way to contacts someone because of the too much scam in the internet but we did it because of its confidenciality.

I am Marry Collins, the only doughter of late Mr. Wilfred collins. My father was a very wealthy cocoa merchant in Abidjan, the economic capital of Ivory Coast before he was poisoned to death by his business associates, my mother died on the 28 November 1998 according to my father he took me and my younger brother so special because we are motherless.

Before the death of my father on 29th April 2006 in a private hospital here in Abidjan.He secretly called me on his bedside and told me that he has the sum of $5.000.000 (Five Million Dollars) left in a suspense account in a Bank in (Europe), that he used my name as his first doughter for the next of kin in deposit of the fund.

He also explained to us that it was because of this wealth and some huge amount of money his business associates supposed to balance him from the deal they had that he was poinsed, that I should seek for a God fearing foreign partner in a country of my choice where we will transfer this money and use it for investment purpose, (such as real estate management) for our future hope.Please We are honourably seeking your assistance in the following ways.

To provide a Bank account where this money would be transferred to and also promise us that you will remain honest and serve as the guardian of this funds with the investment since we are too young to handle such project, untill we finishes our education we will now take over.

We have every legal evidence to proove about this funds.Moreover we are willing to offer you 15% of the total sum as compensation for effort input after the successful transfer of this fund into your designate account in your country.

As soon as you comfirm the money in your account, you will be sending us a sufficient ammount to get our visa to come over and continue our studies in your contry.

pls contact me wit this email address marry_c20079@xxxxxxxx.fr


We are waiting to hear from you.Thank
you.Yours Sincerely,
Marry Collins.

Council Meetings to a T

Human sexuality

Many aspects of human sexuality are very puzzling, take celibacy. This can be a choice in life, or a condition imposed by environmental factors. While attending a Marriage Encounter Weekend, Tony and Julie listened to the instructor declare 'It is essential that husbands and wives know the things that are important to each other.'

He addressed the men.'Can you each name and describe your wife's favourite flower?'

Tony leaned over,touched Julie’s arm gently and whispered,

'Self-raising,isn't it?'

Thus began Tony's life of celibacy.

Out of Touch!

Brilliant example I saw today from John Youles (UKIP Secretary Norwich North) about how out of touch with reality many of our politicians are.

" Taxi drivers in Norwich had had their costs put up by the city council increasing charges for waiting at ranks, etc., so at a meeting with the council they asked for a fare increase. They were told not to worry, as the council would eventually approve A BACKDATED FARE INCREASE.

Think about it...."

http://www.ukip.org.uk/index.php/topic,983.msg3352/topicseen.html#new

Support for Brown?

My policy on anonymous comments is fairly clear but I do accept those that add to the debate. Yesterday "Anonymous" said in response to my post about Gordon Brown and the Nobel Prize...

"But didn't Paul Krugman the 2008 winner (and someone who obviously knows what he's talking about) sing Gordon's praises. It was he who said "Gordon Brown may very well have saved the world's economy".

Of course it all depends who you listen to! According to a report in today's Guardian, Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, has totally rejected Gordon Brown's plans. So I doubt very much if she considers Brown to be the Saviour of the world economy? Merkel insists any global recovery plan must rein in the markets and it's not time to look at more growth measures.

Last night the EU's 27 leaders acknowledged the scale of the crisis threatening to blow the 16-strong eurozone apart. Merkel has the support of the French President, Nicolas Sarkozy. The Germans have admitted that their economic contraction could be worse than the 2.25% forecast and France admitted it faced its worst slump for 30 years, with the economy likely to decline by 3%.

(http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/mar/20/merkel-rejects-brown-economic-plan)

Nobel Prize For Economics

The Nobel Prize in Economics 2006 went to Edmund S. Phelps of Columbia University for his analysis of intertemporal tradeoffs in macroeconomic policy.

The Nobel Prize in Economics 2007 was shared between Leonid Hurwicz of the University of Minnesota , Eric S. Maskin from the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton and Roger B. Myerson of the University of Chicago for having laid the foundations of mechanism design theory.

The Nobel Prize in Economics 2008 went to Paul Krugman of Princeton University for his analysis of trade patterns and location of economic activity.

The Nobel Prize in Economics 2009 goes to.......Gordon Brown? Let me check, it isn't April 1st is it? It's still March! According to an article I've just read on line (See link at the bottom of this post) Gordon Brown is being mentioned as a possible Nobel Prize Nomination for Economics. I can see the nomination now!

The Nobel Prize in Economics 2009 goes to Gordon Brown for "his single handed trashing of the UK Pension Industry, presiding over the biggest crash in UK Banking EVER and for saddling the future generations of British Taxpayers with a debt so huge they will probably never be able to pay it off."

I suppose Gordon Brown getting the Nobel Prize for Economics is no worse than huge Bonuses being paid the bankers who have had to be bailed out by the taxpayer, or Fred the Shred's Enormous Pension. Apparently the story starts with the Vatican's favorite economist, Ettori Gotti Tedeschi, who is hugely impressed with Brown's moral fibre. When Brown met the Pope last month he said that without G20 action to tackle the crisis an extra 2.8 million children could die before their fifth birthday between now and 2015. Last month, the Pope himself came up with a moral denunciation of the American bankers that Brown has himself attacked as "irresponsible".

Tony Blair must be furious. Gordon Brown getting an endorsement from the Vatican! Could you make it up?

http://waugh.standard.co.uk/2009/03/give-gordon-a-nobel-prize-vaticans-favourite-economist.html

Feet First

I had my picture in the Hartlepool Mail Today. That's me sat in the treatment chair having my feet looked at. OK, it wasn't really my picture in the Mail but Sandra's. She recently treated her 500th patient and had a little write up in the Mail "Women in Business" Section

http://www.hartlepoolmail.co.uk/business-update/Feet-first-for-Sandra.5079839.jp


A former nurse who became a chiropodist is celebrating after treating her 500th patient since qualifying as a mature student. Hartlepool woman Sandra Allison owns Fetching Feet Chiropody, which is located in the Arches, in Park Road.

The 49-year-old qualified as a podiatrist in the summer of 2007 after completing a three year degree course at New College Durham.

Fetching Feet Chiropody provides treatment for corns, callus, verruca, sports injuries and foot problems. Before moving into chiropody Sandra spent more than 20 years as a nurse after completing her training at the former Cameron Hospital in Hartlepool. As a qualified nurse the mum-of-two is also able to administer local aesthetics and to carry out nail surgery and treatment of in-growing toe nails.

Sandra, said: "I became a nurse because I wanted to work with patients, but nursing was less and less of that and more and more filling in paperwork. As a chiropodist I get to treat patients every day. It gives me a great feeling when someone tells me they feel like they are walking on air after I've treated their foot problem. That's what it's all about for me and every patient is an individual to Fetching Feet Chiropody."

She added: "The first visit will always be a comprehensive assessment of the general condition and well being of the patient's feet and lower leg," added Sandra, who also carries out home visits.

"Assessment takes about one hour and concludes with an individual treatment plan unique to that patient."

The Arches surgery is open every day except Sundays and Wednesdays, is open on Saturdays until noon. Early morning appointments can be arranged before 9am and one night a week the surgery is open until 7.30pm. Telephone Sandra Allison 01429 232526 for an appointment.

By Chris Cordner

Small Print

As someone rapidly approaching the Big 50 my attention was caught by an advert in the paper today "Exclusively for the Over 50s. Premier 50 Current Account giving 5.0% AER interest" The 5.0% being in letters almost 2 inches high. Not a bad deal I thought. However then came the small print. On balances up to £2,500. 0.1% on balances over £2,500. This being in letters less than a quarter of an inch high.

So, if you hadn't read the small print and invested £10,000 you would be expecting 5%, or £500 a year income. what you'd actually get is £132.50. Unfortunately there was more small print. A £10 monthly fee applies. So Investing £10,000 would actually yield £12.50 a year. If you invested the maximum (£2,500) at the top rate the yield would be £5.00 after fees and charges. If they had said in the advert that "Exclusively for the Over 50s. The Premier 50 Current Account at 0.2%" then it isn't quite as attractive. Or invest £10,000 at 0.125% (which is what you would actually get) then the deal isn't quite so good!

In case you are wodering which bank was offering this deal......
I hope you can make that out? It is very small. You always did have to read the small print but it's even worse these days, and the Banks wonder why people have lost all trust in them.