Saturday just gone I had the chance with friends to see The Iron Lady film at the Carlisle Vue Cinema. The film has had a fair bit of media coverage given the subject (Margaret Thatcher) and the actress playing her (Meryl Streep).
Much of the media coverage has been based on two areas. The first if an American actress can pull off the mannerisms of one of this country’s most powerful women. The second related to whether it was acceptable to show Margaret Thatcher in the ill health that she now suffers from.
The first question is quite quickly and easily answered in the film with a resounding yes. I first remember seeing Meryl Streep in the film A Cry in the Dark when I was about 14. In my view there isn’t a film actress about today with her depth and range. She certainly conveys the character she is portraying. The highlight being when she has a frank exchange with the US Secretary of State over the Falkland Islands.
The second area is much more problematic. If you don’t like topics such as dementia in your films, then this isn’t the film for you. The movie being told in flashbacks regularly brings this topic up, and I would guess at least 40% of the film is on this subject. It is used in the film to contrast the past (powerful) Margaret Thatcher, with the current situation of finding herself handled almost as an errant child in the view of family and staff.
One of the surprises to me was to see the rest of the cinema audience. Whilst some cinemas in the Tory-shires have apparently sold out, the same could not be said for Carlisle on a January evening. Nearly all the ‘posh’ seats had sold to a mixture of middle aged and ‘affluent greys’, the rest of the seating sold was taken up by a mixture of people including a good number of students to whom the subject must be historical.
The main weakness of the film is not it’s deviation from fact or timeline. Whilst there are several historical inaccuracies such as the portrayal of Margaret Thatcher as the only female MP (at the same time Parliament had MP’s such as Barbara Castle or Bessy Braddock) or the fact that for about 8 years she failed to be chosen for a seat. The overall balance of the piece is as fair as it could be. It concentrates on a woman in a man’s world rather than events such as the Miner’s Strike. The main let down to me were the other members of the Thatcher family. Not caring much for Mark and Carole Thatcher myself (too willing to trade on the reputation of their mother in my view), the latter gets an almost sympathetic characterisation. The Dennis portrayal is by two different actors, one playing the younger Dennis and the other playing the older Dennis. The younger actor plays the character with sympathy, whilst the older character seems to verge on a comic characterisation ala Private Eye. This seems at odds with the detailed and obviously well considered performance of Meryl Streep. It’s a bit like putting Jimmy Krankie in Downton Abbey.
Certainly I’d recommend this film, even to those aren’t Conservative supporters, yes it suffers from cramming a life into 2 hours, but isn’t the right wing love in or hatchet job that some have made it out to be in the press.
As some readers might recall there has been a proposal ‘floated’ by the BBC to merge the Local Radio Network with BBC Radio Five Live. This would consign BBC Radio Cumbria to two slots (a breakfast show and a drive-time slot). It has met with a number of comments, overwhelmingly unimpressed with this. I have over the last few weeks assisted with a petition and solicited support (which was given 100%) from the Councillors and Officers at the CIty Council in lobbying the BBC over this. Likewise other groups from Dalston Parish Council, Flooding organisations and the County Council have similarly got in touch with the BBC. It has been very worthwhile to note the value Cumbrians have attached to BBC Radio Cumbria. All the comments have been attached to the petition so that the recipients can read the comments which we have been fortunate to receive. The letter below is just a copy of the letter sent by me to the ‘DG’, which hopefully covers the main points in favour of retaining BBC Radio Cumbria.
Dear Mr Thompson
BBC RADIO CUMBRIA & LOCAL BBC RADIO.
Under the proposals of ‘Delivering Quality First’, the BBC has raised the prospect of replacing BBC Local Radio with a Five Live broadcast at all but two times in the day. As you will no doubt be aware this has caused a number of media articles and comment generally. As such, I hope that you will allow me to make some comments. Though I doubt that you would personally read the letters from listeners, I hope that this will be added to the pile that is, no doubt gently building up in your office.
These proposals if acted upon would effectively dismantle live coverage of local news and sport in Cumbria. BBC television coverage is based in the North East. Cumbria is more often than not an appendix to the sports and news coverage there. The journalists at BBC Radio Cumbria have led initial news coverage of the Lockerbie Bombing, the West Coast and Carlisle flooding and the West Coast Shootings offering residents information and advice, often before the main news department has been able to fully react. Two brief slots a day for local coverage would miss many such events and lead to the trickling away of the journalistic support based in the area. In fact, many groups advise residents at times of strife to tune into the local radio station. In addition many rural areas have low speed broadband connectivity, which would compromise their ability to get rapidly changing information.
Radio Cumbria have on the Internet a short broadcast of some the national and international events they have covered ahead of the national media, which I am sure highlights their effectiveness more than I can. It can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GuAuE93GLDI&feature=related
It is to the credit of the BBC that the local radio network costs just 3.2 pence per user per hour, I hope that the BBC Trustees would feel proud of this service and its value.
A merged Radio Five Live and Local Radio would however not easily complement each other. Five live is a National Talk and Sports Station. Local Radio has a listenership of about 10 million, but very few listeners actually choose to tune into both as they cater for different sections of the population.
Whilst I accept that the BBC has said that this is not a firm proposal, it has been raised as a proposal solely by the BBC alone. I sincerely hope that this idea is put out to grass in the near future.
Yours sincerely
James Bainbridge
I would just like to say thank you. On Friday I was re-elected to the City council. The results were:-
Conservative -1010 votes
Green Party - 116
Labour Party - 306
UKIP -145
It’s very humbling to have been returned, and over the coming months I hope that we can address the issues residents raised on the doorstep. There are always things we can do better and always things I can do as a councillor to improve. So I am seeing this as a chance to move forward.
Can I also thank the other candidates for having the bottle to put themselves forward. Also thanks to the voting staff and counting staff who had long working days. Some started at 6am on Thursday and finished at 2:30am on Friday.
The postal votes were sent out on Friday and it was waiting for me on the doorstep when I got back yesterday.
This time the ballot papers contained the AV voting referenda slip, asking whether national elections should be counted under AV (yes) or the current First Past the Post (No).
I haven’t ever put anything down about it before because to be honest I couldn’t be bothered enough by the whole issue to do so. I voted no, for the following reasons:-
1. I still think that MP’s should be elected by who gets the most votes, not by who gets the most 2nd or 3rd preferances.
2. Having relatives who live in Australia, where they have this AV system, I know from them that the process is confusing, takes an age to count and is so unliked that most Australians would like to switch back to the system we use now.
3. Both the two groups running the various sides seem to me to be behaving like children.
4. I find the whole premise of this vote rather grubby. It was born out of the need to do a deal, in the auction that seemed to take place after the General Election. Had another 20 Conservatives been elected or 50 Labourists, then this would have not seen the light of day.
5. It rather misses the point. No one has ever stopped me and said what we need to solve the nation’s problems is to allow a voter to use their second choice. I’d much rather see a concerted effort in getting the 30% - 45% of the population who don’t vote at General Elections to vote. People use to vote in higher levels at National and local elections. I can’t see how AV solves this.
Well, the election leaflets arrived yesterday, so today I’m beginning to set off delivering them. I have to admit when to the two boxes containing about 1,800 leaflets showed up I did have a mild panic. However bit by bit I’ll get them out before the 5th of May.
This year in Stanwix Rural I will be contesting the seat along with a candidate from The Greens, Labour and UKIP. I had expected the list to contain a Liberal Democrat after they stood in all Carlisle Rural wards last year. However I have been told that the local party isn’t as fully fledged as we had been led to think. It will be the first time that the Greens have stood in this ward. Personally speaking I much prefer to have a good, broad list of candidates rather than the situation we have in Eden were 18 Councillors have already been returned without a vote being cast.
The most comic performance of the week so far has come from a candidate who announced they were standing in one day’s edition of the News and Star and then announced they were withdrawing the next day. Everyone who has spoken about it this week has usually been giggling.
Thrilled today that the Radio One Big Weekend has finally been announced as coming to Carlisle. It has been a number of months in the planning (I think it was first discussed late last year). Having been then sworn to keep stum (those who know me know how hard that is!), it was amazing how the details seemed to get about so quickly. But now the wait is over.
The acts are pretty darn top notch, with the Saturday event being rounded off by the Foo Fighters and Sunday being concluded by Lady Gaga. I’m sure Cranston’s will be fashioning a meat dress for her as we speak. One of the good things is that the build up to the concerts will have a series of ‘events’ in the area, so even those who don’t get tickets can get involved. The fact that local businesses will benefit as well is great in these cloudy economic times.
The event is free but the allocation of tickets is weighted to those with local postcodes. Sadly I am not a source of tickets myself or a short cut, but if any readers are interested the following is taken from the News & Star website:-
Ticket registration opens tomorrow (March 31) at 8.15am and closes at 7pm on Thursday, April 7 at www.bbc.co.uk/radio1. Tickets are free
How can I get a ticket?
Although a few tickets may be given away as prizes in on-air competitions, the main way to get a ticket for BBC Radio 1’s Big Weekend is by registering for their ticket ballot. There are 40,000 tickets for the weekend.
Tickets will be given away in pairs but last year almost half a million people applied for them and Radio 1 expects demand to be massive. You will need to be lucky to get one of the 10,000 pairs available for each day.
Tickets will be allocated randomly but weighted in favour of those living in Carlisle, Cumbria and the surrounding areas, including the Scottish Borders and North East of England with a smaller amount distributed throughout the rest of the UK.
How old do you have to be to attend?
There is no age limit. However, if you are under 16 you must be accompanied by a responsible person who is at least 18 years old. You may also be asked for ID if you look under 16. Children under two years old do not need a ticket, but those two and over will need one.
Can I choose which day to go on?
Yes. You will be asked to pick which day you would like to go to when registering – but you are not able to change that day after you have registered.
Today I was at the meeting Irthington Parish Council had organised in regards to the Carlisle Airport Application which was submitted prior to Christmas. I counted other than Parish Councillors and media about 40 residents attending, which was more than I thought might attend given the short time it was organised in. According to the Cumberland News no City or County Councillor was attending, however in we were all there.
I am aware that the applicant (Stobart Air) are organising a drop in session, but I have no date for it as of yet.
The link below is to the web-page on the City Council that outlines the application. Any resident who wishes to comment on the application is more than welcome to.
AIRPORT APPLICATION
Those readers who have picked up today’s Cumberland News will have read on the front page the report about how a street light has been out in Brampton since November the 3rd, and isn’t fixed 6 weeks later. Some of you may think it has been a slow news week at the CN, others of you that have read the article will now be thinking along the lines of “what a xxxx Council, haven’t fixed a street light for six weeks, etc.”. Certainly that was the angle of the article
About 2 years ago I was in a meeting discussing the targets the City Council set itself for street light repairs (yes, we have them - it is as I recall, about 48hrs from being told to having a repair man visit). Myself and Cllr Patrick questioned the high mark the Council had reported, Les Tickner who was then in charge several areas including street lighting and ourselves then had a good 20 mins discussion on the matter. You might think me very sad when I tell you that it was very informative to learn about street lights. The information has been retained in my head for the last two years and now I can rationally explain one or two points that never got reported. If nothing else it paints a slightly different picture, even if it might send some readers to sleep.
Myth one – The City Council fix all the street lights.
Not actually true. The City Council will handle the call regarding the light, and note the number on the light. This tells use if the light belongs to the County Council (usually those on the main roads- say for example on Hardwicke Circus), the City Council (such as in this case), or even a housing developer (usually these have no number for example like those at Edenside, Cargo).
We then send someone out mostly within 48hrs.
If the fault can be identified as being above the electrical panel, and we have the part, we try to fix it. If the fault is below the panel such as with the electrical supply, the actual people we need to get to repair it are United Utilities. Strange, yes, bizarre, probably. However we have no rights to interfere with this area, just as a home owner couldn’t dig up the power cables outside their house. The Council may have turned up tried to fix it, went with some replacement parts, but decided they needed to get the Electric Board in after all. Probably in this case it was a United Utilities fault as it was an ants nest which had destroyed some cables, and ants I think would probably nest at the base of the light. I’ve no doubt that had the fault been a simply repair such as a replacement bulb, the light would have been done there and then.
Myth two – United Utilities would have turned up as soon as we told them we needed them.
Not the case I am afraid. The City Council has a target of sending a repairman out to the light within 48hrs. Doesn’t apply to anyone else, such as United Utilities. They could turn up the next day, next week, next month even. It’s up to them. But because it’s been reported to the City Council most members of the public would presume the City Council was the source of the delay. There are probably only one or two United Utilities workers doing this in North Cumbria, and at this time the delay builds up as more people notice broken streetlights when the nights draw in.
Myth three – Get the spare parts or if it couldn’t be repaired all the Council would need is a new light.
The street light that was broken looks like the dark brown ones that you see around the City. These are now at least 20 years old and more likely nearer forty. If you had a 40 year old fridge or oven, like us you would struggle to get replacement parts too. In fact in this case I think they established it was not going to be able to be repaired, so they installed a new light. I think the cost of these new lights is at least £850 pounds. Naturally we won’t have hundreds in a stockroom somewhere and would probably have to order it. As this is the time of year that people tend to notice broken lights more, probably we would have to wait for a while for one to be delivered.
Myth four – Light has turned up and in in the ground, time to switch it on.
Sadly not, as I said before it needs to be connected to the power supply, we can’t do that work (aren’t allowed to). Job for United Utilities (see Myth Two).
That’s how street lights can take weeks to be repaired. Sadly the City Council response in the article was a bit wishy washy in my view, which didn’t help. However if any resident is having a similar problem in Stanwix Rural, please do drop either myself or Marilyn a note. The City Council does what it can to fix lights to the best of its ability. Sadly sometimes things can take a bit longer than we first hoped, that doesn’t mean the Council workers aren’t doing anything to solve it.
Yesterday I had the honour of being in a small party who toured the two new school sites in Carlisle. The Richard Rose Central Academy (St Aidan’s site) and the Richard Rose Academy at Morton School.
The Rose’s didn’t have an easy birth, to say the least. However away from the media storm, they have been quietly getting on with the job. Both sites were in different stages of completion. The Morton site is due to be open in September 2011, whilst the Central site is due to open in the New Year. I have to say the views from the Morton site are amongst the best on Carlisle. The attention to the impact of design as a way of facilitating education is very impressive and innovative.
I’ve personally felt that the Secondary education system in Carlisle has at times has under performed. When I was first elected it seemed that all the schools except Trinity were in Special Measures (Trinity at that time had only just avoided such a measure). For that reason alone I wish the Academies and the pupils the best of launches and hope the potential of all concerned are reached.
This Tuesday will see the Tullie House plan up for debate. The option open to the Council is to either progress the plan to evolve Tullie House in to a Trust, similar to the way Carlisle Leisure operate the Sands Centre, or to drop the plan entirely. The Trust would take the role of running the day to day operation of the business, with the Council acting as a grant provider and operating more as a landlord. The scheme works well with Carlisle Leisure and I think that it could do likewise with TullieHouse as it allows them to seek funding from bodies who wouldn’t provide money to a Council run Museum.
I became convinced that this was the right option when the recent Crosby Garrett Helmet came up for auction. From a standing start and with a majority of public support, the team at Tullie House mounted a bid that totalled £2 million. They even out-bidded the Getty Museum in the process. To me that proved that the team than runs Tullie House has the knowledge and the ability to manage Tullie House as a responsible Trust on behalf of the people of Carlisle District.
‘Our man/woman’ in the Labour Group has however told us that they will be opposing this. The leader thinks that even though the plan has merit, they feel there is some political traction in opposing this. Some of the Labour Group however disagree with this. It will be of interest to see if they have the vision in this long term project to risk the ire of the cabal that is trying to prop their leader up.
Hello and thank you for visiting my website. Alongside Councillor Marilyn Bowman I am proud to represent Stanwix Rural on Carlisle City Council. We live in a wonderful part of the UK, with a great way of life. This website is designed to illustrate the work I undertake as a Councillor, as well as highlighting some of the issues which affect our daily lives, both locally and nationally. Please feel free to contact me via this website. If you would like to speak to me in person about any matter within Stanwix Rural or Carlisle my mobile is 07896 300997. All the best!