PUTTING THEMSELVES FIRST

Why Putting Hartlepool First are no different. More greedy politicians. More snouts in the trough. Zero integrity.

ByHARRY BLACKWOOD

I was born in Hartlepool fifty eight years ago and have never lived more than five miles away from the magnificent Christ Church which stands proudly in the centre of my home town.

I mention this, not only because I'm a proud Hartlepool bloke, but also to counter a stupid comment from a woman the other day on The Hartlepool Mail website who suggested I should keep my nose out of Hartlepool political affairs because I don't live in the town.

The intensely misguided Stella Leighton (if that's her real name) is technically correct but when I was editor of the Hartlepool Mail I could run from the front door of my current home to my office (within spitting distance of the aforementioned Christ Church in under half an hour. It's five miles. Reckon ten minutes on the bike would sort it now.

My affiliation with Hartlepool (I worked and lived in the town for more than forty years plus my connection and editorship of the local newspaper, combined with a lifetime's interest in politics puts me in a unique position to pass comment on all aspects of Hartlepool life.

As the local council elections are just days away I'm going to stick with politics.

WRIGHT LACKS THE RIGHT STUFF

MP for Hartlepool, Iain Wright.

byHARRY BLACKWOOD

Hartlepool MP and Chancellor Osborne.  Two peas from the same pod.

When I stared this blogging lark, I had no idea it would be such a messy business.

I can assure you it is. I've just spent five minutes cleaning porridge off the screen of my laptop after spitting a huge mouthful over the screen. I bet there were many people in Hartlepool similarly exasperated as I was with the Hartlepool Mail Budget story today,

In a nutshell it was an attack on the budget and the Chancellor in particular. Normally I'd applaud anyone who describe George Osborne as smug and complacent. Such a description would have my 100% support.

But when the criticism comes from Hartlepool's Labour MP Iain Wright then it's two other words that come to mind. POT and KETTLE.

It's a perfect description of the lacklustre local lad who took over from Peter Mandelson in the safe Labour seat. Many times I've heard people describe Wright in such terms. Lots of them have been lifelong Labour supporters who have not only become disillusioned at the national party under the stewardship of Ed 'Mr Bean' Miliband, but are becoming visibility angry at Wright's ineptitude.

The rot began to set in with the long-running hospital saga. Wright made endless pledges to the public to the effect that Hartlepool's hospital would remain in place as long as he was MP. I'll give him his due, the hospital is still there. Unfortunately almost all of the wards are empty as services and most have the staff have been transferred to North Tees. Wright has been impotent and has sat idly by as there has been a gradual chipping away of services.

If this failure to prevent the dismantling of vital services was Wright's only red mark on his homework, the loyal Labour voters of Hartlepool might be persuaded to forgive him. In the face of public service cuts and a devious and dangerous Tory plan to privatise the NHS, there is perhaps little headway that a North East Labour MP is going to make in the commons. But at least he could have shown a bit of fight and passion. Frankly I've seen more grit and determination from Dale Winton. 

IS BIG GRAVY JUMPING ON THE GRAVY TRAIN?

It's June 2002, and Hartlepool's Labour MP, Peter Mandelson goes bananas upon hearing the news that a candidate whose main election manifesto proposal is free quantities of the nutritious fruit for all primary age schoolchildren, the town's first (and only) directly elected mayor. His name is Stuart Drummond, and one of the key skills he brings to this important role is his ability to perform in public. That's as H'Angus, the monkey mascot for Hartlepool United Football Club!

More monkey business in Hartlepool

byHARRY BLACKWOOD

Go anywhere in the world and you can't fail to find someone who is familiar with the Hartlepool monkey hanging legend. From Barcelona to Buenos Aries folk have heard how the good people of the town hung the poor animal thinking it was a French spy.

But there's another bit of monkey business that Hartlepool has become associated with. It was

Stuart Drummond, Mayor of Hartlepool
in 2002.

an event that totally changed the way I view politics and people. A turning point in my life.

The day that Hartlepool United's football mascot won the poll and became one of the very first directly elected mayors in the country, taught me how the political system can be used by people for their own selfish agendas. It also led to my sacking but we'll put that part of it on the back burner.

When H'Angus the Monkey decided to throw his banana into the ring and stand for election to the £60,000 a year post, it was done as a joke. The Hartlepool United football club chairman paid his election deposit and supporters of the club and a local rugby club threw themselves behind his campaign.

Stuart Drummond, the man in the monkey suit, promised free bananas for all school kids in the town and submitted an interesting curriculum vitae to the local newspaper of which I was editor, boasting of a degree and proficiency in a number of languages. It did make us wonder why he was working in a call centre on a pittance but hey, did it matter, he was a joke.

As it turned out it did matter. He won.

LABOUR DONT GIVE A SHIT ABOUT YOUNG PEOPLE OR THE LOW PAID

Stockton North Labour MP Alex Cunningham. His constituents have complained via Twitter because while campaigning for a Living Wage, he shamelessly exploits a young office apprentice by paying them just £125 per week.

By HARRY BLACKWOOD

If the Labour Party MP Sadiq Khan is to believed (please don't, he's a politician) his party cares deeply about Britain's young people. They must do. Why else would Labour be committed to lowering the voting age to 16?

Well, how about if it was nothing more than a callous and calculated plan to get young people to THINK Labour cares in order to grab a few extra votes? Forgive my cynicism, but a lifetime of dealing with scheming, duplicitous, lying politicians has taught me to be suspicious about everything they say and do.

The reality is that the Labour Party don't give a damn about young people. If they did they'd make a manifesto pledge to do something about the insultingly low wages paid to young people. The National Minimum Wage of £3.72 an hour for 16/17 year olds is nothing more than slavery. Hell's teeth why don't they just go the whole hog and start sending kids up chimneys again?

This issue of low pay was brought into sharp focus this week when Stockton North Labour MP Alex Cunningham was taken to task on Twitter by constituents after it emerged that he was taking on an apprentice in his office and paying the young person £3.37 an hour, or the princely sum of £125 a week for a 37 hour week.

WRIGHT AND THE MAIL. EXPERTS IN HYPOCRISY

Joy Yates, Editor, Hartlepool Mail

by HARRY BLACKWOOD

In a previous blog I wrote about the breathtaking hypocrisy of Hartlepool's Labour MP Iain Wright.

Wright, is happy to blather on about how the government is not doing enough to bring decent jobs to Northern towns like Hartlepool, but it's a case of do as I say, not as I do. You see Wright thinks it's perfectly acceptable to employ his wife on £27,000 a year instead of giving that job to an unemployed local person.

In the good old days of proper journalism when local newspapers would make MPs like Wright accountable for their actions, The Hartlepool Mail would have been asking him to explain his duplicity.

Not these days. No flaming chance.

It would be hard for the Hartlepool Mail to bring Wright to book because the Editor and the papers owners are just as proficient in the hypocrisy stakes as Wright.

MR WRIGHT IS MR WRONG

Hartlepool MP Ian Wright opening one of the town's food banks.

by HARRY BLACKWOOD

This smarmy character with the ill-fitting suit and a stupid grin on his face is cutting the ribbon to "officially" open Hartlepool's first food bank.

So who is he and why would he be smiling at the thought of people having to rely on food hand-outs to keep hunger at bay?

Well, the "gentlemen" in question is Iain Wright and he's the Labour MP for Hartlepool.

I have no idea why he has a moronic grin on his face considering what he's doing, but I'll hazard a guess. He's grinning at the thought that it's another photo opportunity for the sheepie in his Labour stronghold to be brainwashed by. Well, that and the fact that Mr Wright is never, ever, likely to need a food bank.

One of the reasons of course is that he has a very nice MPs salary. It gets better. Mr Wright has a second income as well. His wife Tiff is in the fortunate position to be earning more than £27,000 a year working part-time as a secretary.