Two thousand and seventeen has
become one of the most important years of my life as I come close to reaching
answers to some of the great question which have dominated my seventy-eight
years of self-aware existence in England, part of a country more dived than
before at several level and part of a world which appears to have become more dangerous
a fascism rises again in Europe and the USA is shown to have elected a
potential maniac as its President. Contrary to popular propaganda his attention
seeking behaviour is predictable as well as contemptible and the defence of his
actions by Teresa May and the Tory hierarchy compared to their attempted
character assassination of Jeremy Corbyn is yet another example of the
hypocrisy of the British Establishments and which unfortunately include
elements in the Labour Party and Trade Unions.
I have this sense of time
running out to fulfil what I have believed is my mission in life and I am
constant struggle to determine priorities and achieve a balance, needing to pay
greater attention to my physical body as the problems of aging become more
apparent and finding small and inexpensive ways to enjoy life and avoid
debilitating stress.
I continue to be in awe,
admiration and respect for those who set aside the pleasures and joys available
to work solely in the interwoven causes of human and planet survival, or in providing
help to those in need now.
I commenced the creation of a
plan for next year with going through the records and notes on what I have done
during the year against the background of what had happened in world outside
the room where I have worked for many hours each day.
The
year commenced with a visit to family in the midlands and on the South Coast
and included a stay in Croydon over the New Year. I attended a performance of
the work Amadeus at the National Theatre on the afternoon New Year’s Eve on the
as preparations were underway for the annual fireworks display which I watched
back at the Premier Inn close to East Croydon Station. I also saw the same production
a month later relayed to the Cineworld Bolden. Before then I had experienced
the imaginative use of CGI in a Royal Shakespeare production of the Tempest
from Stratford also at the Cineworld Bolden and an important production of Ill
Travatore relayed from the Royal Opera House in London. I went to the cinema
eight times in January having viewed the last film of 2016, Passengers at Vue
cinema in central Croydon on December 30th and then on 1st
January Silence with both films setting the tone for what became my approach
and has built up over the year, with the first about time, immortality and the
need not to feel or be alone. The second
on the nature, power and belief of religion together with the reality and
limitations of being human. This became the subject hit of the break through
artist The Rag and Bone man as the title song of in fact his second album with
the first unnoticed Wolves with its mixture of rap and blues before recognition
and fame following appearances on Jules Holland and the Graham Norton and
graduation to the festival circuit. The strength of the human of human spirit
when challenged and when in a group was seen on Sky Television at home later in
the month-the 33 -the Miners entombed in Chile for two months in 2010.
The
film fuss in January was an old-fashioned musical La La Land which went on to
become the best film at the Oscars, but which was one of the few films which
disappointed and I consider having been overrated.
Given
that the about half my working time was spent on researching my involvement in
the peace movements of 1959 to 1964, it will not surprise that I consider
Hacksaw Ridge one of the best films of year as it portrays the true story of
Desmond Doss, the Pacifist awarded the medal of honour for his rescue of wounded
soldiers during the landing to take the Island of Okinawa from the Japanese
during World War II.
Another
film based on real events was the Australian production of Lion and which
received six Oscar nominations, the story of a young Indian boy lost who became
a street child and was adopted and went to live in Australia. His search to
find out his biological identity mirrored
one of my priorities which became a close to being settled in November
as it is now likely to be. Four of my selection of best films for 2017 were
experienced in January with the other the most creative expression of what the
loss of parent can mean to child, The Monster Tree.
The
fun 3D GGI video game film was the Assassins Creed now available on Sky films.
Live By night was the first gangster movie enjoyed. Wild Horses seen on TV is
in fact a contemporary crime western film and not to be confused with the great
Rolling Stones song of the same name. Jackie the story of the impact on of the
wife of President John Kennedy after the experience of his assassination. The
recent release of some state papers by President Trump came to a halt without
the truth coming to light. An insight into the psyche of people who have
brought Trump to power is in the adventure drama set in present day Mexico-
Mercury Plains a film viewed TV with the most dissatisfying film Kids in Love
meant to be a truth film about being young and bohemian in London also viewed
on TV. Sadly, Trumps supporter include
large sections of White United States and watching the thousands of High school
young Americans who this year as well as last year in their marching bands and
Cheer Leader organisations I wondered how many came from Trump enthusiast
families?
The
behaviour of Donald Trump continues to dominate political and media attention
in Britain following the disastrous and rash action of Prime Minister Teresa
May in being the first leader to hold his hand and who, as the year progressed,
emerged as being a powder puff a Prime Minster governed by a need to stay in
power and prevent Jeremy Corbyn leading a socialist leaning new government for
the first time since 1945. Ambitious
former Labour Minister Tristram Hunt resigned as Member of Parliament to become
Director of the Victoria and Albert Museum. A more significant development was
the resignation of the Deputy Chief Minister in Northern Ireland Martin
McGuiness and his death with a mixed media response and from the various
political interests in Ireland paved the way for the disastrous impasse and
where a borderline racist and fascist party has been able to do a deal with
Teresa May to keep her and the Tory Party in power after effectively losing the
snap General Election in June. Hundreds of thousands of women marched in
various cities around the world at the potential implications of Trumps
election as President. The momentum behind a petition to stop the proposed
State visit of President Trump became stronger as hundreds of thousands signed
after May’s rash visit and the implications of his Executive Orders and Tweets
commenced to sink in.
The
Prime Minister announced we would leave the Common market and Customs Union
when she triggered article 50 but was prevented from taking the action without
a vote in Parliament when the Supreme Court ruled against her by 8 votes to 3. However, when given the opportunity to vote the
Commons backed the decision to invoke article 50 by406 votes 10 144 including
47 Labour rebels. Tony Blair intervened again in British politics on the issue
of Europe and Jeremy Corbyn as leader with positive counter consequences. He
still sees himself as a young Churchill.
In
January the Red Cross announced the situation in British hospitals as a
humanitarian crisis. The Royal College of Nursing and separately leading doctors
wrote to the Prime Minister of their concerns. I was contacted by former
Directors of Social Services and sign a letter on the crisis in social care. Despite her good intentions and fine works
were first replacing David Cameron she appears to have become a prisoner to the
ambitions and negativity of her Chancellor of the Exchequer and the Brexiteers.
During
February and March my cultural experience was led by cinema visits as the,
award’s season approached. Hidden Figures the story of a female mathematician
who contributed to the USA Space programme with the added handicap of being
black was impressive and the Viceroys House on tole of the Mountbatten’s in
India leading to the partition was insightful with the Lost City of Z of great
interest. Patriots Day was the first of two important films on the terrorist
attack which killed those watching the finish of the Boston Marathon.
I
am not a fan of the Danny Boyle’s film Trainspotting the film which brought
Robert Carlisle and Ewan McGregor to attention and thought the second episode
as the aged group reassembled OK but no more. Similarly, I thought Fences was a
vehicle for Denzel Washington to get an Oscar, but he was outshone by Viola
Davis. Logan was a good final episode of the X men series bringing Patrick
Stewart together with Hugh Jackman with the real star the young Dafne Keen as
the eleven-year-old Laura. The Wall,
Skull Island and John Wick were all good adventure films with two seen in
3D. Disney’s Beauty and the Beast was
good. The political film based on the true 1960’s situation when a couple were
prosecuted because a white man had married a Black woman, the Loving’s-titled
Loving rounded a very good two month of cinematic experience.
On
return from my 78th Birthday visit to the Midlands I had experienced La Boheme
and the Nabucco on consecutive nights at the Sunderland Empire with the young
Ellen Kent Opera company. I have a CD set of the latter and have seen both the
Royal Opera House and Metropolitan Opera performances of La Boheme with the
latest modernish version from the ROH on BBC arts channel only a few days ago.
I experienced Ideomeneo from the Met relayed to Bolden on the 15th
March and Madam Butterfly from the ROH at the end of the month, I was greatly
impressed with a performance of Swan Lake from the Bolshoi at the beginning of
February.
I
read the authorised biography of John Le Carré early on the year who as an
undergraduate at Oxford university spied on left wing students forth British
government and his admission sparked a reading which continues of a jinni
library of factual books on the workings of homeland security since the end of
World War II. The most revelatory has been the official history of MI5 with
Margaret Thatcher setting up a vetting system to prevent industrial wreckers
from getting any king of public funded job which involved between three and
four million applicants during her reign and with no evidence that the system
was subsequently ended, and which operated alongside the intelligence work
involved in monitoring organisations and individuals using undercover assets. I
became even more interested on learning there was a purge in the mid 1980s of
former subversives who had found their way into government positions
because the focus involved Departments such as Health where the
individuals had little or no access to information which could undermine the
integrity of the state with its emphasis on the rule of law and parliamentary
democracy although the recent evidence
is that the executive aided by
the civil services does its best to limit the effectiveness of the House of
Commons.
The
reading and rereading continues of Undercover by Joe Carter, The New Spymasters
by Richard Grey, Spy Catcher, Peter Wright, Intercept Gordon Corena. GCHQ
Ricard Aldrich, the Oxford handbook of National Security Intelligence, and the
important Securing the State David Omand intended for politicians and policy
makers. My interest in John Cornwall led to acquitting DVDs of the Looking
Glass War and A most hunted man to complete my library of the films of all his
books to-date.
The
year has also seen some remarkable television series with SS Great Britain an
ominous omen of the move back to fascism in parts of Europe in part a response
to the migrations from war and poverty organised by criminal elements and where
the security services are playing their usual double games. An antidote to
Trump’s projection of yob America is Madam Secretary which less acerbic than
West Wing nevertheless continues to provide great insight into the real White House.
On its own I found the Northern Stage production of Ibsen’s Hedda Gabler
engaging but of no longer term interest, I made a family visit of one week in
March for birthdays which was also the opportunity for restaurant meals.
I
attended an open lecture at Newcastle University on Genetics and Social
mobility by Professor Leon Fenstein and I am yet to study the Encyclopaedia
Britannica guides to Genetics and also
the Brain, both subjects coming to the fore again as year ended. I have a
theory without any evidence that once we have learned to create artificial
brains we will be able to use the knowledge to control human minds at a
distance and suspect that we are already well along this road with the
addiction to mobile phone one example. Films like the Manchurian Candidate, the
Ipcress File and 1984, and the more recent Bourne Identity series have revealed
the prospects before humanity.
I
had commenced the year with having to revisit issues related to my previous
work for Sunderland Council with a focus on corruption and the entanglement of
organised crime in the region and politics. I acquired and read the novels of
Ted Lewis Carter series Get Carter where films set on Tyneside and an American
city have been made although the books have an East Yorkshire setting (also
Jack Carter’s law and Jack Carter Mafia Pigeon. White Riot (Martyn Waites) is a
clever book about political exploitation of race for corrupt purposes La
Geordie Cosa Nostra purports to be a realistic guide to regional villains while
Fog n the Tyne Bernard Mahoney is a better account of the longstanding war
between Newcastle based Crime families. After attending a talk by Anne Cleeves at
South Shields national Library of the Word I was disappointed that her Vera
novel Telling Takes was set in Yorkshire and not Northumbria. I am yet to read
Sheila Quigley’s novel The Road to Hell set in the North East.
The
reality of crime came to British cities of London and Manchester with first a
killing drive on Westminster Bridge followed by the murder of a policeman tasked
with the protection of Parliamentarians and then the most cowardly and
horrendous act ever omitted I the British Island with a suicide bombing of
children and their parents at a concert at the main indoor arena in Manchester.
This was then followed by another drive to kill on London bridge by the station
followed by stabbing victims in the neighbouring streets and restaurants.
Government claims that appropriate resources have been directed to the homeland
security may be right, but I remain unconvinced that the cataclysmic reductions
to the police, border controls, customs and excise, coastguard service and the
British Navy have not taken their toll on the ability to prevent
Everyone
must find ways of coping and in my instance, I found fresh resolve to proceed
with work as well as find ways to experience a range of cultural experiences. I
forgot mention the February performance of Joe Cocker as he recorded an album
of his favourites in Berlin before a massive arena audience. I watched this
again last. The politics of power were experienced with a relay performance of
Julius Caesar from Stratford. Royal Shakespeare company and then an
extraordinary performance of Salome, seen both live at the National Theatre and
then in cinema relay, the farce even a political one is not something I have
enjoyed but I decided to see Out of Order at the Theatre Royal in Newcastle,
My
reading was directed at the two subjects which form the basis of a book to be
written this year on the period in my life 1959-1964 and I also made a special
day trip to catch the final day of a photographic exhibition on the Partisan
Coffee bar in Soho where the former ground floor and basement centre is next to
the offices of Private Eye. I had been surprised by aspects of John Charlton’s book
Don’t you Hear the H Bomb Thunder about the participation of a number of local
people in radical politics on Tyneside in the 50’s and 60’s and also by aspects
of Richard Taylor and Colin Pritchard The Protest Makers on the British Nuclear
Disarmament movement 1958-1965 written
in the 1980’s and then the most expensive book
purchased to date at £75 Richard Taylors scholarly work Against the Bomb
published by the Oxford University Press. When visiting the Partisan
photographs at an arts centre in Bethnal Green I found that the British War
Museum had an exhibition for several months on People Power Fighting for Peace
and where Lyn Smith had published two books. The first Voices against War
covers a century of protest and People Power associated with the exhibition and
which I also visited on a day trip. The film- Iona (Sky June) where I stayed at
their Community House in Glasgow in 1961 but only visited the Island in the
1990’s was of interest. The Danish language drama film, the Commune (also Sky
June brilliantly exposed the inherent problems in trying to create a lifestyle
choice and inviting others to participate and will inevitably impose their own
vision, potentially take over and destroy.
In
1964 female friend had been murdered in Soho and her witnessed death remained
unsolved. I had discovered the police file had been closed in 1969 and was
lodged with national archives but had been able to obtain a copy of what was
said to have been a signed information statement. It was several months later that I was able
to track down the Inquest papers which I was able to read at London archives
discovering that I was already in London on the Saturday when the archives were
open at the weekend. I then visited the crime scene locations mentioned in the
file which I obtained a copy on payment of £100. Amazingly a novel was
published in wartime England A scream in Soho (John G Brqndon) with some
coincidental circumstances. The Soho of the time was well covered in Adrift in
Soho a novel by Colin Wilson. Also of interest is Dog Days in Soho Nigel
Richardson and Gangland Soho James Morton. And then more recently I re read the
Challenor case a Penguin books special which I bought in 1966 written by a
friend Mary Grigg and then found that Challenor himself had written an
autobiography of his time in the SAS and the Met (Tanky Challenor) and recently his role has been reappraised by
another policeman Dicky Kirby -the scourge of Soho
I
was able to make the various visits using the four open Virgin first class
return ticket. I discovered that the first-class service at weekends is dismal
compared to that on week days although the price is the same. The Counterfeit
Traitor is a 1962 spy film based on a WW2 true story with William Holden viewed
on Sky in June.
In
the three months I viewed at least one film a week with Churchill, his
experience of the D landings of interest but where Gary Oldman’s portrayal in a
film which opens in January is said to be important. Their Finest billed as a
comedy has a stellar cast with an outstanding performance from Bill Nighy and
Gemma Aterton and has several moving and serious moments covering what was a real
film made for the Ministry of Information to put a positive twist to Dunkirk.
In the third quarter of the year I saw Dunkirk three times, including on Imax
at the Vue cinema Gateshead, on a visit to Croydon London and then with family
members on a visit to Worthing.
More
often the experience was action 3D CGI with Guardians of the Galaxy, Pirates of
the Caribbean and The Mummy enjoyable but the surprise film which is on a
different level was Wonder Woman. The
Promise was the first of two romantic adventure films loosely based on
historical events during the last days of the Ottoman empire with the second- The Ottoman Lieutenant only viewed this week
on Sky. A quirky film Rules Don’t Apply covered the relationship between a
young actress part of the stable of Howard Hughes and her relationship with the
appointed driver, unlocked appealed in part for its theme of the role of
private security firms and their use of former national security figures, a
subject which I covered in a brief note to many politicians with only one
acknowledgement but a significant one. Central Intelligence was one of the
films viewed on Sky, lightweight save America kind of film. The film Domino
fascinated as it is based on the real-life story of the daughter of Lawrence
Harvey who became a bounty hunter in the States where she was raised. Wild
Oates was fun with Shirley MacLaine and Billy Connolly also on Sky Don’t
remember Restless and saw many past films again. I watched Bridger Jones baby
with two potential fathers and Lost in the Sub, the Secret of Chimneys, Our
Brand of Crisis and Operation Chromite all on Sky. The star performance on TV
was a documentary on the artist Sheridan Smith where I have booked to see
perform during the coming year,
In
April the Prime Minister decided to call a General Election having previously
said she would not do this. Just arrived is Betting House, the Inside story of
the General election campaign and result which surprised almost everyone
although I won an over £100 successfully predicting there would be no overall
majority. The book is written by Tim Ross and Tom McTeague. A significant number of Labour Members of
Parliament hoped the result would see the back of Jeremey Corbyn as Leader
together with many his Shadow Ministers and their policies. Labour was expected
to lose seats because of his said unpopularity on the doorstep with forecasts
of an increased majority over 100 seats and higher. The opinion polls put the
Government ahead by some 20 points As I have said many times I did not vote for
Jeremy in the first leadership election although I supported everything in his
personal manifesto. I had two reasons my knowledge then, since reinforced with
evidence is that the British Establishment has been rooted in the capitalist
ethic of exploitation of the masses and where in the 1980’s the groundwork was
set for global power by passing the position of individual governments. I also
believe the time had come to achiever a change in the power structure according
to gender orientation at all levels particularly government and parliament. I
also shared concerns that some of the dictatorial and mob characteristics which
had flourished in some unions and became identified with the Militant tendency
movements of the 1980’s would re-emerge. There was however much in Hammer of
the Left John Goldings Book which I disagreed and disliked because my concern
was at methods not at aims objectors and analysis of what needed to change, I
had read the Candidate by Alex Nuns and a quick overview of New Labour Was the
gain worth the pain by Dr Gaye Johnston who had worked for Newcastle Social
Services, I am still to read Red Ellen by Laura Beers and Harriet Harman’s book
A Woman’s Work. I need to re rad Robert Peston’s Who runs Britain. My criticism of the Parliamentary Party was
their belief that the electorate would vote for a Party that got rid of a
leader who had remained true to his beliefs throughout his long political life
in the House of Commons at time when there was great cynicism about politicians
generally unwilling to put the welfare of the public in general before their
personal position. However, the propaganda against Jeremy appeared overwhelming
but as the election progressed a clear divide emerged between May who appeared
wooden inflexible and hiding from debate and interaction with the public and
the kind of crowds which were developing wherever Jeremy appeared. Then the
manifesto appealed across generations. There was the work of the hundreds of
thousands of recently joined members and the use of social media. The role of Momentum
and its use of social media technology must be valued. I have commenced to read
Betting the House which I good but so far there is no reference to how Britain is
run by the state within the state and I will be amazed if the book provides information
of significance not already known.
I
have mentioned that I made number of visits to London including a weekend visit
to the London Archives which has a tiny reception on the ground floor and where
the nearest station is Farringdon which I pass every time I visit as it is a
stop on the Crossrail train from Brighton to Bedford and which I use from St
Pancras to East Croydon. Farringdon is also one the new stations from the new
cross London Elizabeth Line service which will eventually commence at Reading
in the west to Paddington and then the major new development of Tottenham Court
Road with the transformed existing station and the new cross rail station a
block separating with new office accommodation and retail developments above
then to Farringdon and a series of stations into Essex. Oxford Street is now
opened again although there was till major work going on when I visited. During the year I also
watched a programme on the transformation of Paddington station to accommodate
the new Elizabeth line station as well as the daily life of this station from a
visit by the Queen to a fire and disruptions on the lines.
On
the weekend visit to London archives I had lunch at the Wetherspoons opposite
Farringdon Station where the food was premium priced. The midlands visit at
Easter included Sunday lunch at a pub restaurant close to the Travel Lodge,
next to the drive in Macdonald’s which is part of the same chain as that next
to the Travel Lodge at Riverside Nottingham. We also visited the Frankie and
Benny’s on the same site as the Travel Lodge and that located in the retail
park close to the Mansfield Football ground, another popular venue was Nando’s
where on one visit when I was the first to arrive at the branch located next to
the Odeon cinema in Mansfield, I saw the Olympic para swimmer whose huge photo
dominated one entrance approach to the park waiting alone outside. She was joined
by two members of the British selection panel to discuss why she was being
dropped from the national squad. Later in the year I visited with family
members a Nando’s close to Piccadilly Circus after a visit to Hamleys in Oxford
Street and another before going to see Cars 3 at the refurbished Vue in
Leicester Square which was in a side street close to Holborn Tube station. The
advantage of Nando’s is that they are same priced wherever they are located.
The new branch next to the Cineworld at Bolden is very popular even though
Cineworld Unlimited members cannot get concessions given to customers at the
adjacent Frankie and Benny and Pizza Hut.
There was one visit to the Pizza Hut close to the Odeon in Mansfield and
on a visit to the city of Nottingham where I also visited the Wetherspoons
located at a former branch of Lloyds Bank. One criticism of Nando’s and other
similar chains is the cost of non-alcoholic drinks where in one instance I
noted the unlimited help yourself mixes tap water with the stream. The worst
price without concessions is the Mexican Tex Med chain Chiquito’s did spent
more on a family outing to Food in Worthing but the food there was exceptional
accompanied by pianist. There have also
been several visits to the White post just off the Doncaster Nottingham road at
the Farnsfield off, the village appears besieged with new and proposed housing
developments without the primary school space, roads and shops to accommodate.
Properties in the village are £1000’s greater because of being in the catchment
areas for the Southwell Minister school.
The
surprise of the year has been the refurbishing of the café’s attached to Morrisons
with some solid bright farmhouse kitchen tables and chairs and where the meal
pricing is reasonable with the notable exception of breakfasts which with
coffee are pricey. This reminds of the
failure to find a Wetherspoons close to London bridge station one Sunday
because the line to Victoria station from East Croydon was closed for
engineering works. In the past I have
used the Wetherspoons going to the far side of the station to catch a bus which
takes one direct to the Lord’s cricket ground I had visited the branch across
that road and discovered that they are one of only two branches that are using
a machine which provides a range of coffees and milks.
Wetherspoons
breakfasts are a favourite and sometime go to the Wouldhave here in South
Shields close to where I live on the Lawe Top. During the year I also enjoyed
their breakfast at Trent Bridge cricket ground, in Durham city before the
Miner’s Gala and in Leicester Square. I was disappointed not to find a branch
close to London bridge station but was
offered the English at nearby Inn for around a tenner. I ended pay what I would
at Wetherspoons for a bacon roll and coffee at Hotel on my walkabout in
Southwark, when visiting the Travel Lodge at Sutton ibn Ashfield there is a
branch of Subway where a sausage and cheese roasted 6in Italian cheese and herb
bread with gherkins, corn and black olive plus coffee costs £2.20. Surprisingly the branch of Copelands which
offered a great bacon roll and coffee deal has closed as the chain went into
administration although a new branch has opened in South Shields High street of
all places given that about a fifth of the stores are closed as had one of
three branches of Greggs in the same street. Greenwood the large and tall
clothing store also went into liquidation with the South Shields and Newcastle
stores showing closure sales for several months. I purchased three pairs of trousers
for £15 in total while the cost to shorten the leg length came to £12 and included a discount. I use
Sew in South Shields which makes its main money from selling Fancy dress
outfits. The store which was located on the main road out of Shields to Sunderland
passed the Town Hall in the direction of Cleadon Village moved to a new
location, the former Lloyds bank at one end of Frederick Street. I use the Post Office nearby and across from
Lidl because of the east in parking although with the popularity of Lidl’s this
is proving less easy than previously. Half of Frederick Street has been demolished
is being replaced by a new housing development. The main post office in the
centre of South Shields is also being demolished along with the rest of that side
of the Street to make way for the new Transport Hub and which will now include
a new training facility for the Nexus Tyne and Wear Travel company. This is
intended to help regenerate the town centre. The post office had relocated to
one of many vacant lots in the High Street. However, it is not all retail gloom
because the closed B and Q has been replaced by a supersized B and M low cost
main brand centre with a wide range of goods from food to office equipment, pet
food to toys and household goods. The town already had the major supermarkets
of Morrisons, Walmart Asda and Tesco, with many local stores including two
Sainsbury, Iceland and Aldi. It also has two Lidl’s with one recently converted
into a superstore. In addition, there are several versions of Pound ships
although a venture to sell packaged fresh meat has failed because I suspect
people were concerned at its origins and the lack of turnover despite the giveaway
offers.
In
the wider region the converting of one end Eldon Square of what is now part of
the Intuit chain to a three-level restaurant quarter has been completed as had
that at the largest indoor and retail park in Europe on the banks of the Tyne
on the outside skirts of Gateshead. I have noted that both areas are well
patronised and the special offers to attract late night diners has been noted.
However, there has been one franchise failure with the closure of the Handmade Burger
company stores in three North East locations.
My
attraction to the eat as much as you like meals from around the world noted the
splendid establishment at the Gate in Newcastle, but is the kind of venue to go
with someone capable of good and long
conversation to best the money worth. I continue to wonder how the all the
restaurants in Ocean Road continue to survive with only a couple at Community
centre end appearing to thrive by offering great three course happy hour deal
which seems to go on throughout the evening weekdays. A small eat as much you
wanted opened at the park end of Ocean road and unsurprisingly failed to survive.
Continuing to be popular is Colemans Fish and Chips which won a national award
and hosted an outing of the Blair Cabinet and extended to twice its original
size to accommodate coach parties.. The firm has now created a new upmarket sea
food restaurant at one end of the sea front at Gypsies Green with an
imaginative redevelopment the famous Temple toilet.
In
addition to General Election campaigning and the horrendous Manchester arena
attack the Duke of Edinburgh has stood down from making public engagements. The
extent to which he influenced the approach of the Queen and controlled the
lives of their children will not be revealed in my lifetime or those of my
children even if the monarchy is changed although not abolished when Queen
Elizabeth joins her ancestors. I am looking forward to reading Chris Bryant’s
book on the role our aristocracy has played in running the country over the
past thousand years. Another early read will be Collusion the relationship
between Trump and Putin and the extent to which Russia joined the USA, the UK
and China in the development of cyber warfare. Reading our national press or
listening to the national media one could believe this had been started by Russia,
despite the admission that it was developed in the USA with the capability of shutting
down whole countries as Snowden admits, one of the most despicable USA traitors
pretending to have the public interest while hiding away in Russia although
this may provide another example of the appearance of someone or something is
only one aspect of its reality. The whole issue of artificial intelligence and
the potential risks and good uses will be covered in the second part of my
review of the year.
A
domestic event then occurred in June which ranks along with the murder of the
Labour Member of Parliament, Jo Cox, the election and re-election of Jeremy
Corbyn and previous expenses scandal of Members of Parliament and the
subsequent attention to inappropriate sexual behaviour at Westminster which should
cause fundamental change in public involvement in politics and the need for
fundamental changes. This was the available massacre of families in a fire in a
tower block in North Kensington one of the richest local authority in the UK
and symptomatic of the obscene and planned to widen between the extreme wealth
of a few and the increasing decline in the position of the majority. There was
the usual expression of anger, horror and something must be done in the House
of Commons, but nothing changes.
The
full effect of the Brexit vote became apparent following May disastrous failure
to gal control of the Commons and her Cabinet, when she announced that the
Queen’s speech opening the New Parliament would also cover 2018. Worse much
worse was to come.
