|
|
 |
Reviews, Humber Mouth 2006 |
|
 |
|
Sacked, hundreds of them
Some months ago now I was on the Gate Gourmet picket line.
There, there were mainly Indian women fighting for their right to work.
They had been sacked, hundreds of them, by a Texan billionaire, in the car park,
using a bullhorn. They were bundled off the land by more Texan tough guys.
They didn't need Texans - they could've got the Labour conference guys to
chuck them out! Like that guy who shouted out Nonsense at the Home Secretary - an elderly survivor of concentration camps ... The pregnant women there were thrown off the premises. The Texan was within his rights. The workers were acting against the law.
The fourth richest country in the world
Now, in the tenth year of a Labour government, in the fourth richest country in the
world, we have the most sackable workers within Europe.
We have the poorest terms and conditions of workers across Europe.
Our workers are the most insecure. But Blair boasts about this anti-labour
legislation and his flexible workforce.
These are Thatcher's laws and he has not weakened any one of them.
|
The poorest pensions in Europe
Every country needs a labour party to stand up for the vast majority of workers. Our pensions are the poorest in Europe. After nearly 10 yrs of a Labour government! With a vast majority in Parliament. In the 4th richest country in the world! There is a study by Strathclyde University on British pensioners. In Britain, pensioners are more likely to die from the cold than anyone else in Europe - including Siberia!!
Taxes to send every working class child to college
Take students - now I've been working since I was 16.
I have always understood the necessity of paying taxes.
|
|
Taxes to redistribute wealth and advantages from the rich to the poor. Taxes to send every working class child to college or university. And that was happening when Britain was a much poorer country than it is today! Now, in my constituency, there is a mother who has a daughter at Oxford University. The girl has four more years of medical training to go. Already she owes the sum of £22000 ...
The ABC of labourism
Now we come to City Academies. Schools for our children are being handed over to businessmen to run. It has always been the ABC of labourism that schools should be local and comprehensive and free to all. For all, regardless of their ability, or race, colour or creed. Now New Labour is giving them over to rich men to run. To men such as Lord Harris who is a carpet manufacturer! Going round school giving pep talks to the students! Now we have people running our schools arguing for creationism to be taught in the classroom. Car salesmen!
|
|
Poverty worse than when Charles Dickens wrote Oliver Twist
Now to poverty. Here in Britain today, in the 4th richest country in the world - in the 10th year of a Labour government - with a vast majority in Parliament - the distribution of wealth is worse - now - than when Charles Dickens wrote Oliver Twist! Why are we not boasting about having the finest public services in the world? The best pensions? The best resources schools? Fully staffed hospitals?
I won't be talking about the War!
And I won't be talking about the War! Why?
|
|
Because there's no one left defending it!
No one is left arguing the war was right! Even in Oxford University!
They had a motion for debate there:
This house supports the Labour government's policy on Iraq.
They could find no-one from the government of Tony Blair to come and
argue for the motion.
The motion, in the end, had to be argued for by Ian Duncan Smith; the former Conservative Party leader!
|
Reviews, Books - The Loop by Nicholas Evans Reviewed by Steve Rudd
|
|
This is the second breathtaking novel from Nicholas, the first having being
the international best-selling weepy, The Horse Whisperer which shot
the English-based writer to fame.
The Loop has nothing to do with horses whatsoever, and instead focuses
on the trials of a wild pack of wolves that is terrorising a farming community in Montana.
A 29-year old wolf expert called Helen is
Read more...
|
|
Reviews, Books - Rising To Obscurity and How To Remain Anonymous by AAA Aarbon (Bitterne Books) Reviewed By Nick Quantrill
|
|
Published by Hull-based Bitterne Books, the first two titles in this humorous series
offer a different take on the modern world that we live in.
Part satire, part social comment, they follow the story of AAA Aarbon, a self-confessed
seeker of anonymity.
AAA Aarbon is described by his editor as being best forgotten for many reasons.
Rising To Obscurity charts the absurd
Read more...
|
|
Reviews, Books - Notes From a Small Island By Bill Bryson Reviewed by Steve Rudd
|
|
Good old Bill is a natural comedian and never holds back when it comes to being honest. He's one of the world's best-loved and most famous travel writers, and this volume of 'notes' is exclusively concerned with a number of weeks that Bill spent investing in the art of travelling around Britain back in the mid 90's.
His travel writing talents first came to prominence when he released
Read more...
|
|
Reviews, Books - Flashback By Jenny Siler Reviewed by Steve Rudd
|
|
The past is a puzzle for everyone, a tattered collection of memory and desire. Even those people we most long to understand remain no more than a sum of those static moments we've chosen to hold them in.
This is a must-read novel for any discerning fan of high-octane,
Steve Hamilton-esque thrillers, as the drama-drenched action flits the
length and breadth of the
Read more...
|
|
|
Reviews, Books - Book Recommendations by Steve Rudd
|
|
Here are some short and sweet book recommendations in place of the usual fully-fledged
reviews, quite simply because I haven't had time to write up these reviews in more detail.
The fact is that there are too many great books, and far too little time to read
them - let alone write about them in gushing retrospect.
Anyway, here's some mention of some of the books I've recently been
Read more...
|
|
|
Reviews, Films - Films Kong By Michelle Dee
|
|
Visually stunning. Terrific pace. Jackson winds up the tension to breaking point
and never lets you go till the final frame.
This is what you would expect from a Christmas Blockbuster, but this reworking of the
original King Kong film, has so much more than the usual thrills and spills.
Naomi Watts is very striking to say the least and the ill-fated love
Read more...
|
|
Reviews, Books - Complicity by Nick Quantrill Reviewed by Steve Rudd
|
|
The rain refused to ease as Coleman made his way through Queens Gardens
and on towards King Edward Street. He pulled his collar up and hurried his pace...
This is a staggeringly enthralling showcase for Hull-based writer Nick Quantrill's
unmistakable talent for writing fiction - and crime fiction, to be more precise.
He has written a fair few short stories that revolve around crime
Read more...
|
|
Reviews, Books - Ian Newton - The Night Shift Reviewed By Kevin Maguire
|
|
The guy in a sharp business suit glowered as if I was mad for laughing out loud
while waiting for a flight in Washington Dulles International Airport.
No exhibitionist, I rarely laugh out loud. Indeed, I rarely read anything worth
laughing about, let alone out loud. But the story about two on-the-run robbers
holding a group of Hull factory workers hostage after a fish
Read more...
|
|
Reviews, Books - East Of The Mountains By David Guterson Reviewed by Steve Rudd
|
|
Alright, so you might not have heard of the author before, but you might
actually be already familiar with some of his 'work,' as his debut novel
was called Snow Falling On Cedars... a staggering bestseller that came
to be made into a Hollywood movie starring Ethan Hawke.
Such a debut made it apparent that Guterson is one hell
of a story teller who goes to great
Read more...
|
|
Reviews, Books - Scott Phillips - The Walkaway Reviewed by Steve Rudd
|
|
It is imperative that you keep your wits about when reading this novel more than with almost
any other mighty slab of fiction ever published. If you've never read Phillips' awesome debut
novel The Ice Harvest, then there's actually little point whatsoever you even making a
beeline for The Walkaway, for this mesmerisingly cool epic crime-drama is the incredible
Read more...
|
|
|
Reviews, Books - Robert Adams - Antman (Bitterne Books) Reviewed By Nick Quantrill
|
|
Antman is the latest crime novel from prolific Hull-based author Robert Adams.
It is his interest in ant behaviour that forms the heart of this book, and one
that allows him to craft a dark narrative that absorbs and terrifies in equal measure.
The novel starts with the discovery of a dead pig at a remote location in the Hull area.
Forensic investigation reveals that the animal was reduced
Read more...
|
|
|
Reviews, Books - The Two-Bear Mambo By Joe R. Lansdale Reviewed by Steve Rudd
|
|
Lansdale certainly is one hell of a prolific author, and this is something
like the tenth novel of his that I have had the pleasure of reading.
The vast majority of his novels follow two buddies, Hap Collins and Leonard Pine, as they manage - without fail - to get into all kinds of violent predicaments through being often overly stubborn and too-proud-by-half men.
Read more...
|
|
|
Reviews, Books - Wobegon Boy by Garrison Keillor Reviewed by Steve Rudd
|
|
I have a responsible job and pay my taxes and keep my lawn mowed, but because I dare to be
an individual, people whisper about me behind my back. Why is life like this?
This epic novel is an absolute masterpiece that is drama-driven and hugely poignant, as it
follows a man called John Tollefson as he bumbles through his life over a pronounced period
of time, with the
Read more...
|
|
|
|
|
| What's Happening? |
|
|
|
| Chill Out |
|
|
|
| About Us |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|