Michael Portillo and Piers Morgan are two very different media personalities. I like Michael who impresses with what he says and retains vulnerability and the sadness of regret at what might have been. Piers Morgan has never been my cup of tea but some of his recent travel programmes have been enlightening. On Saturday night I watched half a dozen episodes of Michael’s programmes in which he followed the advice of Bradshaw’s Victorian railway travel guide, following four routes of interest, staying at the hotels or Inns mentioned and making brief visits to places of interest along the way, although never being too far away from his love of railways, trains and steam engines in particular. His regards his finest political contribution persuading Margaret Thatcher to save the Settle to Carlisle railway line. That is sad, for a politician.
According to Wikipedia Michael Denzil Xavier Portillo (born 26 May 1953) is a British journalist, broadcaster and former Conservative Party politician and Cabinet Minister. Portillo who was first elected to the House of Commons in a by-election in 1984; a strong admirer of Margaret Thatcher and a Eurosceptic, Portillo served as a junior minister under both Thatcher and John Major, before entering the cabinet in 1992. Seen as a likely challenger to Major during the 1995 Conservative leadership election, Portillo ultimately stayed loyal. As Defence Secretary, Portillo pressed for a purist Thatcherite course of "clear blue water" separating the policies of the Conservatives from Labour.
Portillo unexpectedly lost his Enfield Southgate seat at the 1997 General Election; political commentators widely believe that he would have been elected Conservative leader had he retained it. Subsequent to the loss, Portillo embarked on both a broader career in the media, and a revision of his previous beliefs, arguing for a more socially liberal and tolerant Conservative Party. Returning to the Commons in a 1999 by-election, Portillo rejoined the front bench as Shadow Chancellor, however his relationship with Conservative Leader William Hague was strained. Standing for the leadership of the party in 2001, Portillo came a narrow third place behind Iain Duncan Smith and Kenneth Clarke. Disaffected with politics, Portillo retired from the Commons at the 2005 general election, since which he has pursued his media interests, presenting a wide range of television and radio programmes.”
That is the semi official presentation of someone who nearly became leader of the Conservative Party and British Prime Minister and therefore a figured standing out in British history. I can only speculate why someone who became the golden boy of the right wing of Conservative Party along with John Redwood decided to give up professional politics at the comparatively young age of his late 40’s.
I believe his surname may only have influenced some voters against him, including some members of the traditional little England Conservative Party. Michael’s father came to the UK as a Spanish Republican refugee. He married into a middle class Scottish family which from one of the programmes appears to have had as much influence if not more influence on his outlook than his Spanish background which he was only able to fully discover first hand after the death of General Franco and the establishment of democracy.
What appears to have damaged him within the Conservative Party was the intervention of Norman Tebbit at the time of the 2001 leadership election when following disclosure of his bi sexual background, Lord Tebbit accused him of not being as frank as he could have been. A factor may have been that Michael had moved away from several of his former right wing positions into the centre, paving the way for David Cameron, to follow the approach of Tony Blair and concentrate on the middle ground even if this resulted in alienating some of the traditional core vote within the Party. In the event it was his decision to leave Westminster, which he announced in 2003, my traumatic year of all traumatic years, turning down the offer of a Ministerial post in the Michael Howard Shadow Cabinet. Maybe he foresaw the Conservatives would not win the next General Elections and he has expressed doubts about the ability of the Party to win an overall majority at the next although this was prior to the backlash over Iraq and Members Expenses Scandal and the near collapse of capitalism, together with other government failures which changed the political climate. I usually find myself in agreement with the assessment he makes with Diane Abbot on the Thursday night political review held when Parliament is Sitting. His popularity and public recognition has changed for the better since he commenced a series of TV programmes which he fronts with old fashioned gentlemanly charm and unaffected curiosity.
I am unable to immediately follow the four train journey’s in their original curiosity because not all are available on the BBC iplayer. It is also note worthy that of the three series presently available there is only one journey among my top four. This is the Settle to Carlisle line over the Ribblehead viaduct. Those not included in his travels are the journey from Fort William to Mallaig for the Island of Sky Ferry, the journey from Fort William to Glasgow across the Rannoch Moor, both in Scotland and the Little railway from Ffestiniog to Porthmadog in South Wales.
Since the Settle to Carlisle line was reprieved it has gone from strength to strength with three quarters of a million passengers a year from the 300000 originally required and with a constant movement of goods trains 24 hours a day. It has brought new life to the many small communities along route associated with the isolated stations. There are a number of charter steam trains which operate along the line in summer and where bookings are essential and the full list of steam train trips in the British Isle is available online. Trains on the Settle Carlisle route pass over 21 viaducts with the most beautiful that at Ribblehead 440 yards long 104 ft high and 24 arches. That at Smardale is 131 ft high but is half the length.
I have had the good fortune to admire a steam train passing overhead having stopped the car on the way between Durham and the Lakes just in time. This prompted me to find out the when and wherefore of a future steam train journey which involved driving to Settle to catch a train which came from Leeds, and returning by the standard and less expensive two coach train.
His travels on this route had commenced at Preston which I did visit by train although I cannot remember the route, but may have a note somewhere and I stayed overnight prior to being interviewed for the post of Director of Social Services, Lancashire. The post went to former colleague at Cheshire County Council who had become a Director in the Manchester conurbation. Michael then visited Blackpool where I have also stayed overnight in a hotel, having been invited to speak at a meeting on mental at a Labour Party annual conference and where I then shared a platform with Dr David Owen, then Foreign Secretary, but also a former Minister of Health, the then present Minister of Health David Ennals, whose brother was Secretary of Ruskin College, and the great Barbara Castle, who demonstrated just how to address a Labour Party audience. I had prepared the right speech for the wrong occasion.
The next section was Windermere to Kendall and covered some of my favourite areas in the Lake District, I have stayed a week in a cottage close to Lake Windermere as well as doing a spontaneous over night bed and breakfast stop and a weekend stay at a Hotel a little away along the lakeside outside the town. I have not travelled on the particular line but have driven to Haverthwaite where there is a one station stop to Lakeside at Windermere. An extension of this line in the opposite direction is presently proposed.
Windermere, the town, is a little way away from the Lake on a hill and has a population of 7500 with Bowness being the lakeside community of close to 4000 with its own town centre and impossible to park so a walk down hill is advisable, with the walk back after a day out something of a challenge. Both towns owe their existence to the railway and tourism, with an estimated 10 million visitors to the Lake a year which means it is swamped with cars and boats of all kinds moored at every possible area. However the road on the west bank is minor and there has been no development which makes a good car ride but without places to stop except at approved sites. The best way to see the lake is by a steamer trip from Bowness. The lake is 18 km 11 miles in length and up to 1.5 km or a mile wide. There are islands including the famous location for Swallows and Amazons. Although the week’s stay was at Easter, there was snow!
Michael also took a trip to Grasmere where Wordsworth and is sister are buried. I have visited Dove Cottage, their former home in which he wrote Daffodils and many of his famous poems -I wondered lonely as a cloud; Imitations Immortality; Ode to Duty and My Heart Leaps up.
In the programme Portillo also paid a visit to Kendal and asked after a Kendall Mint Cake which he alleges he did not know is not a traditional form of cake and but a slab of mint sweet covered in chocolate. Pull the other one. Kendall is a market town on the way to the Southern Lakeland via County Durham. It is possible to visit the lakes this way in a day but the journey is slow and tiring.
Michael then took the Journey from Carlisle through to Glasgow via Gretna Green. I have stayed a long weekend at a Hotel in Carlisle with an indoor Swimming pool.. Carlisle is a days trip from Newcastle with a good road passing close to the Northumberland town of Hexham as well as a train service. It is possible to visit the Northern lakes via this route although the more direct way is over the mountainous hills to Alston, Penrith and Keswick. More on this another day.
Carlisle was a rugged stone built community on the Borders between England and Scotland or Scotland England depending on viewpoint, and until the 20th century a lawless place full of feuding bandit families who gave their allegiance as did Carlisle to which ever army occupied the town.
Michael visited Gretna Green, a curious border town which has became world wide famous because it was possible for English young men and women to marry when sixteen of years of age without parental permission and where the service was performed at the village Blacksmiths. All that couples had to do was to comply with the residency qualification of three weeks which meant the growth of low cost bed and breakfast accommodation, caravans and camping sites. There is also the remains of the biggest ammunitions manufacturing site in the UK where during World War I up to 30000 women were employed. I have stopped for a meal or break at Gretna Green several times on the way to Scottish sea and land lochs holidays on average one every other year for two decades from the mid 1970’s.
Michael mentions Lockerbie where a full aeroplane was blown out of the Sky and also a railway accident involving three colliding trains during World War 1 which also killed several hundred people. By a quirk of fate I had nearly become the Director of Social Work Services for the governing local authority having been invited to apply by the Department of Health when it was discovered that the successful applicant for the post did not posses an appropriate professional qualification. I have been on holiday in the area for a week, where it also snowed and the car had difficult getting in and out of the site of Lodges.
Michael then continued by train to Glasgow, a city where I lived for a month in 1961 and have stayed a few days at a conference since, as well as passing through or around on the way to other parts of Scotland for holidays. Glasgow until recent times was a grim City with much poverty at its centre and on outlying estates. The best description of what it was like in the Gorbals is in the novel No Mean City. Since becoming the city of European Culture there has been considerable expenditure on making the city a place to visit rather than pass through with 4 million visitors a year.
I have made the journey between Glasgow and Edinburgh by train but more often by the motorway link and always crossed the Firth of Forth by car. I have visited Edinburgh, the start of his next stretch, several times but again mostly passing through on the way to holidays in central and east Scotland. The Railway Bridge is iconic and featured in the film the 39 Steps. I have three memorable visits to Edinburgh, with two in I961, when I first went over by car to address the Scottish CND Committee about the forthcoming Direct Action/Committee 100 demonstration at Holy Loch when I had been temporarily employed as a field organiser, and then made the trip by car with a cheque to pay the fines for Pat Arrowsmith and the other marchers who had walked down Princess Street against the instructions of the police, only to find these had been paid by the Scottish Miner‘s Union and the group were being entertained in the boardroom at the union HQ in Fife by the Moffat Brothers where they were all made Honorary Members of the Union. The third occasion was to sit a few rows behind the Queen at the Commonwealth games. Subjects for further comment at another time. Michael continued to Kirkcaldy, the home of his maternal grandparents.
I have missed the first two episodes of his earlier journey from Liverpool to Hull and onto Scarborough on the North Yorkshire Coast.
I commenced with the third stretch from Todmorden in Lancashire a town which I do not know, although I have travelled from Leeds to Liverpool by train when on my way to a training conference for the National Lotteries Charities Board and my car broke down just outside Leeds station. I also travelled from Newcastle to Liverpool for a visit of the Local Authority Forum on Drug Misuse and I believe this was the occasion that I stayed at the Railway Hotel, Michael loves Railway Hotels with the one at Hull having its entry directly from the old main concourse. On his third stage travel Michael went on to Skipton where I spent a week nearby during a Drug Advisory Service visit to the area, going into this quiet West Yorkshire market town surrounded by glorious countryside for meals in the evening.
During this trip Michael took to the skies in a railway helicopter which examines the track, monitoring points and other potential hazard and where he showed the section of railway from Redcar to Whitby which follows a precarious route at the top of tall cliffs. This is now only used a fright line. I have travelled to Whitby by train as well as by car. The train used to be taken from Seaburn Station via Sunderland and onward to Middlesbrough to meet another train which originates in Newcastle via Darlington. The route from there passes through the picturesque Esk Valley arriving at Whitby 90 mins later. One can arrive by lunchtime on the cheap day returns but with trains back limited it is best to stay on until seven otherwise in term time the earlier train at 4 is filled by school children who are put on the train by teachers but are then left free to create mayhem until collected by parents and local transport services from the many stations along the route. It is also possible to continue to Scarborough by a separate service.
On his trip Michael made a stop at Bolton Abbey which I have visited by car. The Picturesque ruins of the former Abbey are located on the banks of the River Wharfe in the grounds of an estate of the Duke of Devonshire and now owned by the Chatsworth settlement Trustees. He ended this stretch at York one of the great cities of the UK, much visited, especially by travellers from the United States. I have frequently visited York since moving to the North East, at least once a year although recently it has been passed through on the way to London by coach. The city became important as a Roman settlement and at one time briefly controlled the Roman Empire. The brilliance of Roman building is shown in the straightness of the city walls. The continuation of the walls and narrow winding streets, the Shambles does mean horrendous bottlenecks all the time and even travelling around the outskirts to Beverley and Hull can be a pain adding half an or more to the journey. Therefore the mainline train journey from Newcastle is preferable, especially on a cheap day return. The city is fames for its glorious Minster as well as the Shambles and its range of restaurants. The centre is also prone to flooding! However the city is also a Mecca for those who love trains with the National Railway Museum. I have stayed at the Railway Hotel here, also at a conference, also at the Midland Manchester for the same reason.
Michael then travelled the penultimate leg of this journey visiting the seaside town and former fishing town of Bridlington which I have only visited once on a day trip. It has a large and wide Sandy beach and one of the best looking station forecourts in the UK. He then continued to Hull which I have visited by train from Newcastle in the early 1970’s, from Beverley, from Leeds and York and from London as well as several visits by car. The city has changed beyond recognition, especially after the creation of M 62 motorway from Liverpool via Manchester, the development of higher education with two universities, and radical changes to the docks which have been modernised into a developing container port. The Fishing industry collapsed all along the Yorkshire coast after the cod wars although is being revised as Red Mullet and Bass and other fish migrate further north from the warmer Mediterranean waters.
The final stretch is from Filey to Scarborough. I do not think I have been to Filey made known for the Butlin’s Holiday camp and nearby Flamborough Head which has several hundred thousands birds nesting throughout the season.
I have stayed a few days holiday at Scarborough as well as for a conference and several long day trips. I missed one opportunity to attend the annual Cricket festival at which Yorkshire has played Durham some years and I once turned down an invitation to be short listed as the Chief Executive. Scarborough became as fashionable as Torquay, the Riviera of the North vis-à-vis that of the south west. Scarborough is very hilly and the use of a cable lift is merited to get from the sea front up to the town centre. I had planned to stay at the Grand Hotel which has 365 rooms all different, 12 floors and four corners, but so far have not made it. I once attended an evening variety show and then travelled over the moors home arriving in the early hours. I also got up at dawn and travelled back to the office after an overnight stay in one of the most invigorating car journeys of my life. The sun shone and it was glorious.
with the intimate details of their exploits.
As I said Piers Morgan has seemed to me too clever and brash by more than a half. He has a wannabe high life style, something which appears to come more naturally to Michael Portillo. His full name is Piers Stefan O’Meara (Pughe-Morgan).
He was born in 1965 the youngest of four children to the artist Gabrielle O’Meara whose husband Vincent died when Piers was only one year of age. His mother subsequently married Glynne Pughe-Morgan. Piers started in journalism in South London but his style attracted interest from Fleet Street and was recruited to the Sun newspaper group and became the youngest Editor of the scandal Sunday, the News of the World at the age of 28, the youngest appointed editor for several decades. He then became the editor of the Daily Mirror.
All appeared to be going to well until he became involved in an Insider share dealing scandal from which he was cleared but two financial journalists on the paper were sacked. As the circulation of all the major popular dailies fell he became the subject of an elaborate hoax in which photographs appeared to show British Army soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners leading to his being sacked. He then became involved in several newspaper publishing ventures including a weekly newspaper for children.
It was only in 2006 that Piers re-established himself as a major media figure when joining the American show America’s Got Talent said to have been chosen by Simon Cowell to replace himself when he launched he British version. In 2008 Piers joined the Britain’s Got Talent team. Last year he commenced three programmes on the world’s high maintenance high lifers visiting Dubai, Monte Carlo and Hollywood and this year has seen him in Las Vegas, Marbella and Shanghai.
It is the programme on Shanghai which has interested me most as it brought me up to date with what has become the greatest and most powerful city conurbation in the world and the shop window for the capitalist dictatorship of the People’s Republic of China Empire. It will hold a business and commercial international exhibition this year which will outclass the holding of the Olympic games. The city is said to be the home of over ten thousand multi millionaires, many of them female as interviewed by Piers Morgan in the programme. The city has a skyline to rival New York and Dubai including the tallest hotel. Because the country is a one party dictatorship there are no problems about planning permissions, or moving populations to make way for developments or to create new cities and towns. The city state has a population approaching 20 million and is richer than the UK economy and has been growing exponentially in contrast to the UK decline. It is the busiest cargo port in the world, compare that to the disappearance of London as a port and the contrasts become even more evident.
I am enjoying the Portillo journey’s full of nostalgia for me and representing the attempt by communities to overcome the loss of an empire and the consequential trading power, control of the high seas and financial capital. I do not enjoy the Piers Morgan programmes although they are an accurate picture of our Brave New Commercial and Cultural World. I fear what I see, not for me, but for the future of the United Kingdom and its people.
According to Wikipedia Michael Denzil Xavier Portillo (born 26 May 1953) is a British journalist, broadcaster and former Conservative Party politician and Cabinet Minister. Portillo who was first elected to the House of Commons in a by-election in 1984; a strong admirer of Margaret Thatcher and a Eurosceptic, Portillo served as a junior minister under both Thatcher and John Major, before entering the cabinet in 1992. Seen as a likely challenger to Major during the 1995 Conservative leadership election, Portillo ultimately stayed loyal. As Defence Secretary, Portillo pressed for a purist Thatcherite course of "clear blue water" separating the policies of the Conservatives from Labour.
Portillo unexpectedly lost his Enfield Southgate seat at the 1997 General Election; political commentators widely believe that he would have been elected Conservative leader had he retained it. Subsequent to the loss, Portillo embarked on both a broader career in the media, and a revision of his previous beliefs, arguing for a more socially liberal and tolerant Conservative Party. Returning to the Commons in a 1999 by-election, Portillo rejoined the front bench as Shadow Chancellor, however his relationship with Conservative Leader William Hague was strained. Standing for the leadership of the party in 2001, Portillo came a narrow third place behind Iain Duncan Smith and Kenneth Clarke. Disaffected with politics, Portillo retired from the Commons at the 2005 general election, since which he has pursued his media interests, presenting a wide range of television and radio programmes.”
That is the semi official presentation of someone who nearly became leader of the Conservative Party and British Prime Minister and therefore a figured standing out in British history. I can only speculate why someone who became the golden boy of the right wing of Conservative Party along with John Redwood decided to give up professional politics at the comparatively young age of his late 40’s.
I believe his surname may only have influenced some voters against him, including some members of the traditional little England Conservative Party. Michael’s father came to the UK as a Spanish Republican refugee. He married into a middle class Scottish family which from one of the programmes appears to have had as much influence if not more influence on his outlook than his Spanish background which he was only able to fully discover first hand after the death of General Franco and the establishment of democracy.
What appears to have damaged him within the Conservative Party was the intervention of Norman Tebbit at the time of the 2001 leadership election when following disclosure of his bi sexual background, Lord Tebbit accused him of not being as frank as he could have been. A factor may have been that Michael had moved away from several of his former right wing positions into the centre, paving the way for David Cameron, to follow the approach of Tony Blair and concentrate on the middle ground even if this resulted in alienating some of the traditional core vote within the Party. In the event it was his decision to leave Westminster, which he announced in 2003, my traumatic year of all traumatic years, turning down the offer of a Ministerial post in the Michael Howard Shadow Cabinet. Maybe he foresaw the Conservatives would not win the next General Elections and he has expressed doubts about the ability of the Party to win an overall majority at the next although this was prior to the backlash over Iraq and Members Expenses Scandal and the near collapse of capitalism, together with other government failures which changed the political climate. I usually find myself in agreement with the assessment he makes with Diane Abbot on the Thursday night political review held when Parliament is Sitting. His popularity and public recognition has changed for the better since he commenced a series of TV programmes which he fronts with old fashioned gentlemanly charm and unaffected curiosity.
I am unable to immediately follow the four train journey’s in their original curiosity because not all are available on the BBC iplayer. It is also note worthy that of the three series presently available there is only one journey among my top four. This is the Settle to Carlisle line over the Ribblehead viaduct. Those not included in his travels are the journey from Fort William to Mallaig for the Island of Sky Ferry, the journey from Fort William to Glasgow across the Rannoch Moor, both in Scotland and the Little railway from Ffestiniog to Porthmadog in South Wales.
Since the Settle to Carlisle line was reprieved it has gone from strength to strength with three quarters of a million passengers a year from the 300000 originally required and with a constant movement of goods trains 24 hours a day. It has brought new life to the many small communities along route associated with the isolated stations. There are a number of charter steam trains which operate along the line in summer and where bookings are essential and the full list of steam train trips in the British Isle is available online. Trains on the Settle Carlisle route pass over 21 viaducts with the most beautiful that at Ribblehead 440 yards long 104 ft high and 24 arches. That at Smardale is 131 ft high but is half the length.
I have had the good fortune to admire a steam train passing overhead having stopped the car on the way between Durham and the Lakes just in time. This prompted me to find out the when and wherefore of a future steam train journey which involved driving to Settle to catch a train which came from Leeds, and returning by the standard and less expensive two coach train.
His travels on this route had commenced at Preston which I did visit by train although I cannot remember the route, but may have a note somewhere and I stayed overnight prior to being interviewed for the post of Director of Social Services, Lancashire. The post went to former colleague at Cheshire County Council who had become a Director in the Manchester conurbation. Michael then visited Blackpool where I have also stayed overnight in a hotel, having been invited to speak at a meeting on mental at a Labour Party annual conference and where I then shared a platform with Dr David Owen, then Foreign Secretary, but also a former Minister of Health, the then present Minister of Health David Ennals, whose brother was Secretary of Ruskin College, and the great Barbara Castle, who demonstrated just how to address a Labour Party audience. I had prepared the right speech for the wrong occasion.
The next section was Windermere to Kendall and covered some of my favourite areas in the Lake District, I have stayed a week in a cottage close to Lake Windermere as well as doing a spontaneous over night bed and breakfast stop and a weekend stay at a Hotel a little away along the lakeside outside the town. I have not travelled on the particular line but have driven to Haverthwaite where there is a one station stop to Lakeside at Windermere. An extension of this line in the opposite direction is presently proposed.
Windermere, the town, is a little way away from the Lake on a hill and has a population of 7500 with Bowness being the lakeside community of close to 4000 with its own town centre and impossible to park so a walk down hill is advisable, with the walk back after a day out something of a challenge. Both towns owe their existence to the railway and tourism, with an estimated 10 million visitors to the Lake a year which means it is swamped with cars and boats of all kinds moored at every possible area. However the road on the west bank is minor and there has been no development which makes a good car ride but without places to stop except at approved sites. The best way to see the lake is by a steamer trip from Bowness. The lake is 18 km 11 miles in length and up to 1.5 km or a mile wide. There are islands including the famous location for Swallows and Amazons. Although the week’s stay was at Easter, there was snow!
Michael also took a trip to Grasmere where Wordsworth and is sister are buried. I have visited Dove Cottage, their former home in which he wrote Daffodils and many of his famous poems -I wondered lonely as a cloud; Imitations Immortality; Ode to Duty and My Heart Leaps up.
In the programme Portillo also paid a visit to Kendal and asked after a Kendall Mint Cake which he alleges he did not know is not a traditional form of cake and but a slab of mint sweet covered in chocolate. Pull the other one. Kendall is a market town on the way to the Southern Lakeland via County Durham. It is possible to visit the lakes this way in a day but the journey is slow and tiring.
Michael then took the Journey from Carlisle through to Glasgow via Gretna Green. I have stayed a long weekend at a Hotel in Carlisle with an indoor Swimming pool.. Carlisle is a days trip from Newcastle with a good road passing close to the Northumberland town of Hexham as well as a train service. It is possible to visit the Northern lakes via this route although the more direct way is over the mountainous hills to Alston, Penrith and Keswick. More on this another day.
Carlisle was a rugged stone built community on the Borders between England and Scotland or Scotland England depending on viewpoint, and until the 20th century a lawless place full of feuding bandit families who gave their allegiance as did Carlisle to which ever army occupied the town.
Michael visited Gretna Green, a curious border town which has became world wide famous because it was possible for English young men and women to marry when sixteen of years of age without parental permission and where the service was performed at the village Blacksmiths. All that couples had to do was to comply with the residency qualification of three weeks which meant the growth of low cost bed and breakfast accommodation, caravans and camping sites. There is also the remains of the biggest ammunitions manufacturing site in the UK where during World War I up to 30000 women were employed. I have stopped for a meal or break at Gretna Green several times on the way to Scottish sea and land lochs holidays on average one every other year for two decades from the mid 1970’s.
Michael mentions Lockerbie where a full aeroplane was blown out of the Sky and also a railway accident involving three colliding trains during World War 1 which also killed several hundred people. By a quirk of fate I had nearly become the Director of Social Work Services for the governing local authority having been invited to apply by the Department of Health when it was discovered that the successful applicant for the post did not posses an appropriate professional qualification. I have been on holiday in the area for a week, where it also snowed and the car had difficult getting in and out of the site of Lodges.
Michael then continued by train to Glasgow, a city where I lived for a month in 1961 and have stayed a few days at a conference since, as well as passing through or around on the way to other parts of Scotland for holidays. Glasgow until recent times was a grim City with much poverty at its centre and on outlying estates. The best description of what it was like in the Gorbals is in the novel No Mean City. Since becoming the city of European Culture there has been considerable expenditure on making the city a place to visit rather than pass through with 4 million visitors a year.
I have made the journey between Glasgow and Edinburgh by train but more often by the motorway link and always crossed the Firth of Forth by car. I have visited Edinburgh, the start of his next stretch, several times but again mostly passing through on the way to holidays in central and east Scotland. The Railway Bridge is iconic and featured in the film the 39 Steps. I have three memorable visits to Edinburgh, with two in I961, when I first went over by car to address the Scottish CND Committee about the forthcoming Direct Action/Committee 100 demonstration at Holy Loch when I had been temporarily employed as a field organiser, and then made the trip by car with a cheque to pay the fines for Pat Arrowsmith and the other marchers who had walked down Princess Street against the instructions of the police, only to find these had been paid by the Scottish Miner‘s Union and the group were being entertained in the boardroom at the union HQ in Fife by the Moffat Brothers where they were all made Honorary Members of the Union. The third occasion was to sit a few rows behind the Queen at the Commonwealth games. Subjects for further comment at another time. Michael continued to Kirkcaldy, the home of his maternal grandparents.
I have missed the first two episodes of his earlier journey from Liverpool to Hull and onto Scarborough on the North Yorkshire Coast.
I commenced with the third stretch from Todmorden in Lancashire a town which I do not know, although I have travelled from Leeds to Liverpool by train when on my way to a training conference for the National Lotteries Charities Board and my car broke down just outside Leeds station. I also travelled from Newcastle to Liverpool for a visit of the Local Authority Forum on Drug Misuse and I believe this was the occasion that I stayed at the Railway Hotel, Michael loves Railway Hotels with the one at Hull having its entry directly from the old main concourse. On his third stage travel Michael went on to Skipton where I spent a week nearby during a Drug Advisory Service visit to the area, going into this quiet West Yorkshire market town surrounded by glorious countryside for meals in the evening.
During this trip Michael took to the skies in a railway helicopter which examines the track, monitoring points and other potential hazard and where he showed the section of railway from Redcar to Whitby which follows a precarious route at the top of tall cliffs. This is now only used a fright line. I have travelled to Whitby by train as well as by car. The train used to be taken from Seaburn Station via Sunderland and onward to Middlesbrough to meet another train which originates in Newcastle via Darlington. The route from there passes through the picturesque Esk Valley arriving at Whitby 90 mins later. One can arrive by lunchtime on the cheap day returns but with trains back limited it is best to stay on until seven otherwise in term time the earlier train at 4 is filled by school children who are put on the train by teachers but are then left free to create mayhem until collected by parents and local transport services from the many stations along the route. It is also possible to continue to Scarborough by a separate service.
On his trip Michael made a stop at Bolton Abbey which I have visited by car. The Picturesque ruins of the former Abbey are located on the banks of the River Wharfe in the grounds of an estate of the Duke of Devonshire and now owned by the Chatsworth settlement Trustees. He ended this stretch at York one of the great cities of the UK, much visited, especially by travellers from the United States. I have frequently visited York since moving to the North East, at least once a year although recently it has been passed through on the way to London by coach. The city became important as a Roman settlement and at one time briefly controlled the Roman Empire. The brilliance of Roman building is shown in the straightness of the city walls. The continuation of the walls and narrow winding streets, the Shambles does mean horrendous bottlenecks all the time and even travelling around the outskirts to Beverley and Hull can be a pain adding half an or more to the journey. Therefore the mainline train journey from Newcastle is preferable, especially on a cheap day return. The city is fames for its glorious Minster as well as the Shambles and its range of restaurants. The centre is also prone to flooding! However the city is also a Mecca for those who love trains with the National Railway Museum. I have stayed at the Railway Hotel here, also at a conference, also at the Midland Manchester for the same reason.
Michael then travelled the penultimate leg of this journey visiting the seaside town and former fishing town of Bridlington which I have only visited once on a day trip. It has a large and wide Sandy beach and one of the best looking station forecourts in the UK. He then continued to Hull which I have visited by train from Newcastle in the early 1970’s, from Beverley, from Leeds and York and from London as well as several visits by car. The city has changed beyond recognition, especially after the creation of M 62 motorway from Liverpool via Manchester, the development of higher education with two universities, and radical changes to the docks which have been modernised into a developing container port. The Fishing industry collapsed all along the Yorkshire coast after the cod wars although is being revised as Red Mullet and Bass and other fish migrate further north from the warmer Mediterranean waters.
The final stretch is from Filey to Scarborough. I do not think I have been to Filey made known for the Butlin’s Holiday camp and nearby Flamborough Head which has several hundred thousands birds nesting throughout the season.
I have stayed a few days holiday at Scarborough as well as for a conference and several long day trips. I missed one opportunity to attend the annual Cricket festival at which Yorkshire has played Durham some years and I once turned down an invitation to be short listed as the Chief Executive. Scarborough became as fashionable as Torquay, the Riviera of the North vis-à-vis that of the south west. Scarborough is very hilly and the use of a cable lift is merited to get from the sea front up to the town centre. I had planned to stay at the Grand Hotel which has 365 rooms all different, 12 floors and four corners, but so far have not made it. I once attended an evening variety show and then travelled over the moors home arriving in the early hours. I also got up at dawn and travelled back to the office after an overnight stay in one of the most invigorating car journeys of my life. The sun shone and it was glorious.
with the intimate details of their exploits.
As I said Piers Morgan has seemed to me too clever and brash by more than a half. He has a wannabe high life style, something which appears to come more naturally to Michael Portillo. His full name is Piers Stefan O’Meara (Pughe-Morgan).
He was born in 1965 the youngest of four children to the artist Gabrielle O’Meara whose husband Vincent died when Piers was only one year of age. His mother subsequently married Glynne Pughe-Morgan. Piers started in journalism in South London but his style attracted interest from Fleet Street and was recruited to the Sun newspaper group and became the youngest Editor of the scandal Sunday, the News of the World at the age of 28, the youngest appointed editor for several decades. He then became the editor of the Daily Mirror.
All appeared to be going to well until he became involved in an Insider share dealing scandal from which he was cleared but two financial journalists on the paper were sacked. As the circulation of all the major popular dailies fell he became the subject of an elaborate hoax in which photographs appeared to show British Army soldiers abusing Iraqi prisoners leading to his being sacked. He then became involved in several newspaper publishing ventures including a weekly newspaper for children.
It was only in 2006 that Piers re-established himself as a major media figure when joining the American show America’s Got Talent said to have been chosen by Simon Cowell to replace himself when he launched he British version. In 2008 Piers joined the Britain’s Got Talent team. Last year he commenced three programmes on the world’s high maintenance high lifers visiting Dubai, Monte Carlo and Hollywood and this year has seen him in Las Vegas, Marbella and Shanghai.
It is the programme on Shanghai which has interested me most as it brought me up to date with what has become the greatest and most powerful city conurbation in the world and the shop window for the capitalist dictatorship of the People’s Republic of China Empire. It will hold a business and commercial international exhibition this year which will outclass the holding of the Olympic games. The city is said to be the home of over ten thousand multi millionaires, many of them female as interviewed by Piers Morgan in the programme. The city has a skyline to rival New York and Dubai including the tallest hotel. Because the country is a one party dictatorship there are no problems about planning permissions, or moving populations to make way for developments or to create new cities and towns. The city state has a population approaching 20 million and is richer than the UK economy and has been growing exponentially in contrast to the UK decline. It is the busiest cargo port in the world, compare that to the disappearance of London as a port and the contrasts become even more evident.
I am enjoying the Portillo journey’s full of nostalgia for me and representing the attempt by communities to overcome the loss of an empire and the consequential trading power, control of the high seas and financial capital. I do not enjoy the Piers Morgan programmes although they are an accurate picture of our Brave New Commercial and Cultural World. I fear what I see, not for me, but for the future of the United Kingdom and its people.
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