'Blackpool or Birmingham or somewhere godawful'

Riverwalk I couldn’t resist looking that up:

Financial Times 30 July 2013

www.ft.com/content/8faf3c78-f910-11e2-86e1-00144feabdc0

Lord Howell [of Guildford], a former minister, angered a large portion of the country, MPs and peers, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, by saying fracking should be concentrated in the northeast. The former energy secretary, and the father-in-law of chancellor George Osborne, said parts of the area were “uninhabited and desolate”.

The statement has puzzled industry analysts, who point out that the bulk of Britain’s shale gas reserves are not in the northeast, but in the northwest of England, in the Bowland shale basin.

Lord Howell later apologised for “any offence caused” by his comments about fracking, and insisted that he did not believe the northeast was “desolate”.

Same article …

Lord Howell was [also] recorded saying: “Now Qatar’s a great place, but it’s also near a lot of jihadists. [It is] the size of Guildford. If it was to go into chaos we would be up shit creek, we really would.”

Guildford is 270 km square
Qatar is 11,571 km square

Maybe imperial would have been been easier for him? I think he should practice his measuring skills - starting with a shit creek.

It depends where you go. We visited Blackpool years ago and it wasn't great but we didn't see all of Blackpool, only a small part.
If people visit some parts of Birmingham the would think it awful but they won't have seen the whole place. We shouldn't generalise.

I did go to Blackpool in the 80's and it was pretty rundown and awful. But, it might have improved since them obviously.

stardreame Why do places with really bad housing in parts of it always seem to have a Lord Mayor?

because a Conservative Government think that that is an excellent way of shrugging off their responisbility for the situation and blaming someone else. Such areas get so desperate for the help they are not getting they think that perhaps a bit of home rule will help. Once they have the Lord Mayor, the Conservatives shake off their responisbility and blame everything on the Lord Mayor.

Tory politicians are in a bad place atm. The media is waiting to pounce on all of them and their unwisely elected leader. You get the feeling it is the "end of days" for this government and unless they do something about their great leader, it will get worse.

I'm reminded of former Secretary of State David Howell, saying that fracking should take place in the desolate areas of the North East - no doubt that was his actual view at the time.

He later corrected himself to say he meant the North West where drilling was actually going on. He further corrected to say he shouldn't have mentioned any area at all!

That's Baron Howell, of Guildford.

MayBee- I love your diagnosis of Integrity Bypass Syndrome!
I remember the young mayor of Blackpool talking about single unemployed folk being sent to be housed in his town from Cheltenham- sent with no support for Blackpool to look after.
Still, I suppose that it ensures that Cheltenham doesn't become "godawful ": heaven forbid!

Also, it is worth mentioning that this happens with children's homes too and also homes for people with disabilities who are in the care of the local authority and have no advocates or family to protect their needs. I think a lot of people are ignorant as to how poverty or lack of capacity through illness/disability/addiction (etc) affects your choices in life.

M0nica

^The trouble with a lot of the seaside towns and I've visited plenty they have attracted the unemployed and undesirables because b and b owners and some smaller rundown hotels have hit hard times they have let out their rooms to these people on a permanent basis and people flock there because accommodation is cheaper.^

Blimey, Well, of course people whose livelihood depends on running a B&B, will, in the lack of other visitors, accept anyone who can afford a room, but in fact, most of these B&Bs have contracts with the DWP, or Employment or whatever ministry deals with those unfortunate to be unemployed. They are the ones that send people to live by the sea, because it is cheaper than putting them up in B&B's close to where they have lived and away from any family or social support that may have helped them if they were nearby. Children of families dispatched to the seaside like this have their education disrupted and many people become mentally ill and 'undesirable' because of the enforced move and isolation from their usual support frame works

Since many seaside resorts are also areas of high unemployment, it also makes it much more difficult for enemployed people sent there, to get back into good employment, because they have been moved so far from places where they could have hoped to find employmet.

Thanks MOnica, for posting an accurate summary of why people are living in B&B in run down seaside towns. They don’t go because rents are cheap Maudi. They’re sent because rents are cheap.
That’s also why many former mining and mill towns have growing populations of people seeking asylum. They’re shipped out to where rents are low.

The Commonwealth Games begin in Birmingham on 28 July. The city stepped up after Durban pulled out as hosts bringing forward its bid to host the games in 2026.

In general, commonwealth sport is known to give a huge boost to GDP, provide employment increase tourism and give a threefold return on public investment. Aren’t these the things that Wheeler should be talking about instead of disparaging the city?

thecgf.com/news/new-report-reveals-commonwealth-games-consistently-provides-over-ps1-billion-boost-host-cities

This is funny and exactly how it should be dealt with.

twitter.com/jessphillips/status/1535549778716770304

Yes, the north v south thing is very annoying.

My tuppenceworth is that I have had short visits to both, and found them both to be friendly places. Every town or city has rundown bits, but also lovely bits. As far as I am concerned, a place where people will speak to you in the street is somewhere I will want to go back to. In the case of Blackpool, more than one person went out of their way to make sure we knew where we were going. Looking forward to my next visits to both!

Why do places with really bad housing in parts of it always seem to have a Lord Mayor?

Why is levelling up seen as South vs North ? There are many extremely deprived areas along the south coast and many London boroughs rank high on the poverty/ deprivation index - seems like there’s no joined up thinking or any proper plan as to what levelling up actually means. But that doesn’t surprise me.

Like just about everywhere else, both Blackpool and Birmingham have some nice parts and some unpleasant parts. Silly to generalise.

Blinko

MawtheMerrier

DiamondLily

She's apologised and said it doesn't reflect her actual view. ?

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/heather-wheeler-birmingham-blackpool-godawful-b2098701.html

Too damn late.
Actually she is wrong anyway, I love Birmingham for its Botanic Gardens and parks, some very fine buildings, Symphony Hall, the orchestra, Birmingham Royal Ballet, the friendliness - where do I stop? I don’t know Blackpool but the warmth of the people in the NW is second to none in the U.K.
She needs more than a good talking to, patronising b***h

Totally agree. Birmingham has a superb parks, gardens and canalside with great eateries and nightlife. Symphony Hall is second to none - not just my view but Sir Simon Rattle has said so too. This woman has obviously never been to Birmingham or not recently anyway.

How disappointing that such a misinformed person has a Government role of any sort.

That includes 99% of the cabinet

Blackpool does indeed suffer from the storm of bad policies superbly outlined by MOnica - but it's still not godawful.

Such patronizing language, clearly reflecting the MP's genuine view, or why say it?

Of course it reflects her views.

So where?

But logically it was A or B or C, so A and B were not in C, so it was about some places other than A or B.

Why did she say it if it didn't reflect her actual view? Also why does she not know where she was? I think the Tories have lost the plot just now.

MawtheMerrier

DiamondLily

She's apologised and said it doesn't reflect her actual view. ?

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/heather-wheeler-birmingham-blackpool-godawful-b2098701.html

Too damn late.
Actually she is wrong anyway, I love Birmingham for its Botanic Gardens and parks, some very fine buildings, Symphony Hall, the orchestra, Birmingham Royal Ballet, the friendliness - where do I stop? I don’t know Blackpool but the warmth of the people in the NW is second to none in the U.K.
She needs more than a good talking to, patronising b***h

Totally agree. Birmingham has a superb parks, gardens and canalside with great eateries and nightlife. Symphony Hall is second to none - not just my view but Sir Simon Rattle has said so too. This woman has obviously never been to Birmingham or not recently anyway.

How disappointing that such a misinformed person has a Government role of any sort.

Great post M0nica.

The trouble with a lot of the seaside towns and I've visited plenty they have attracted the unemployed and undesirables because b and b owners and some smaller rundown hotels have hit hard times they have let out their rooms to these people on a permanent basis and people flock there because accommodation is cheaper.

Blimey, Well, of course people whose livelihood depends on running a B&B, will, in the lack of other visitors, accept anyone who can afford a room, but in fact, most of these B&Bs have contracts with the DWP, or Employment or whatever ministry deals with those unfortunate to be unemployed. They are the ones that send people to live by the sea, because it is cheaper than putting them up in B&B's close to where they have lived and away from any family or social support that may have helped them if they were nearby. Children of families dispatched to the seaside like this have their education disrupted and many people become mentally ill and 'undesirable' because of the enforced move and isolation from their usual support frame works

Since many seaside resorts are also areas of high unemployment, it also makes it much more difficult for enemployed people sent there, to get back into good employment, because they have been moved so far from places where they could have hoped to find employmet.