30/05/2008 by admin.

I was going to marvel at how great public transport was, paying as I did £2.90 to get to Manchester Airport from Littleborough on Wednesday afternoon and £1.50 to get back last night. To drive and park there overnight would have cost a fortune.

But there’s always a fly in the ointment. My flight from Gatwick was delayed so I missed the 20.20 train home at Victoria. Instead I got the 21.00 to Rochdale via Oldham, to be met by Mrs S at Milnrow. What a shambles!

There had been something on at the Arena and Northern, presumably with an eye to the approaching Metrolink take over of the line, are still running the dreaded Pacers.

So I’m sitting on a seat for two, which is only really big enough for one with my brief cased next to me while pairs of glammed up ladies are hogging all the three seats. After a while an old chap appears at my side and unpleasantly demands that I move up - and move my brief case.

Nobody wants to fight a pensioner so I move up and sits down, horribly close. “When I see people with bags on the seat, I deliberately sit on them,” he said, “hoping that there’s eggs inside!”

He pulled out a pass and said “There…disabled!” In the interests of harmony, I refrained from pointing out that, in that case, I was the only one who had paid for my ticket.

After that he wanted to be my best friend and inisted on telling me, over and over again, that “f…ing” Metrolink was never going to work on that line and by running it through Oldham town centre, people the other side of Oldham would just get longer journeys.

In actual fact I agree with him but it had been a long day so I just nodded assent, fearing that his remark meant he was, in fact, going to the other side of Oldham, as I was.  

But no, to my relief, he actually got off at Hollinwood, wishing me all the best and a Merry Christmas!!!!!

Posted in Transport, Uncategorized | Print | No Comments »

30/05/2008 by admin.

Just back from testing a group of Fords. Star of the show was supposed to be the new 4×4 Kuga but the Mondeo with a new 2.2 diesel engine stole the show for me. I thought it was a brilliant car when they launched in Sardinia last year and the thrill of driving it hasn’t faded. Superb! 

Posted in Motors | Print | 1 Comment »

28/05/2008 by admin.

Browsing innocently the www.Zuerich.com site I was taken to a list links for things like shopping, visitor attractions, etc.

And there among them was: “Local fuck buddies. Get laid guantee”. Strange lot, the Swiss.

Posted in Society | Print | 1 Comment »

23/05/2008 by admin.

I apologise unreservedly to Seb Coe, London 2012, and the Northwest Regional Development Agency.

About a year ago, while still working for the Manchester Evening News, I gave Lord Coe - who was a delightful interviewee and remembered me from the Commonwealth Games - a hard time for not sending the cycling to Manchester.

I accused him of patronising us by promising a few scraps from the Olympic table when it was Manchester’s 2002 success which won London the Games anyway,

Now, as a businessman looking for work, I went to the same venue (City of Manchester Stadium where they were getting ready for Ricky Hatton’s fight) to another NWDA event about winning Olympic contracts.

It was brilliant and I now firmly believe that they are serious about spreading the work around.

Sorry.

Posted in Business | Print | 1 Comment »

23/05/2008 by admin.

There’s hope for the human race!

Tamsin Dunwoody lost the Crewe bi-election horribly but, like losing London mayor Ken Livingstone before her, was extremely gracious in defeat, pointing out that her late mother would have accepted the Tory victory as a necessary feature of democracy. I wish her well.

Posted in Politics | Print | No Comments »

21/05/2008 by admin.

I recommend the latest addition to my news section on the main site…having got sick of waiting for it be published in a certain newspaper.

Radio 4 did a good job but you could have read it locally a month ago!

Posted in Politics | Print | 1 Comment »

21/05/2008 by admin.

A very minor point..but at 7am when I have driven to Todmorden Sports Centre, walked my dogs, and turned up to do my 40 lengths before a day’s work, do I really deserve a reply to me cheery good morning like this…..

“Haven’t you got any less????”

It was only a tenner and the till was full of change!

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16/05/2008 by admin.

As I walked across Manchester to Victoria Station on Wednesday morning after a night at the Piccadilly Hotel – where I had been stuck in a lift with about 10 Russians - I looked on fondly at the gathering Glaswegians, carrying their cases of lager and being loud.Naively, I was proud of Manchester for having the international clout to stage the EUEFA cup final and was intending to drone on about the Commonwealth Games and the need to hold the Olympic cycling at the Velodrome in 2012.I will never suggest that again.Because what happened on Wednesday night made me ashamed not only to be British…but to be human.

The sight of PC Mick Regan tripping while running from a gang of baying drunken Rangers supporters, who then proceeded to try to kill him, was just too  much to bear.

As he said himself: “I know that they will say it’s a minority - but a few thousand is a big minority.”

Now my old newspaper is shamefully backing the whingeing Manchester United fans who complain that the city council will not now provide big screens to watch the Champions League final in Moscow.

Manchester United fans, of course, have an unblemished record in Europe - I don’t think so. I was in Budapest shortly after the Reds smashed up the city.

And I was on duty in Manchester City Centre the last time they won the European Cup. There were no screens then, just Mayhem when the final whistle went which could just as easily turned nasty had tghe police tried to do their job.

I have a better idea than big screens in Manchester. Why don’t the players chip in for a free showing at Old Trafford?

Or why doesn’t Glasgow put up some big screens?????? 

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12/05/2008 by admin.

Graham Stringer MP is pressing home his opposition to “bonkers” congestion charging for Greater Manchester following the election disaster last week.

How long before the government loses its bottle and takes its ball home?

Sorry to go on about this ….well I’m not…but why not run a voluntary experiment with those who agree to be tagged given refunds on excise and/or fuel duty?

OK, so it wouldn’t bring in £3bn ( £1.2bn from the Transport Innovation Fund and £1.8bn borrowed against the proceeds of congestion charging) but £1.2bn is not to be sneezed at and it would prove or disprove the point.

Trouble is, every time I mention it, tumbleweed rolls across the room. Am I missing something?  

Posted in Transport | Print | No Comments »

07/05/2008 by admin.

I was still digesting the enormity of last Thursday’s local election results when Geoff Dossiter of the Freight Transport Association rang, inviting me to conclude, like him, that GMPTA chairman Roger Jones losing his seat on Salford Council was sounding the death knell of congestion charging in Greater Manchester.

He is probably right and I won’t…alright I will…remind those in charge that I suggested last year that they ask for volunteers and offer them a rebate on their excise duty in return…but let’s put all that aside for a moment.

I firmly believe that Roger Jones was one of the finest local politicians around and I, for one, will miss him.

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