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Betting the Last Penny

I have to admit, I hate the idea of a Casino at Jackson’s Landing.

Whether justified or not, the mental image I have of such

establishments is a very grubby one. I had hoped for better things for

what has now become the icon of a failed regeneration scheme. The

Marina promised great things but it is a stalled development in

serious danger of being completely ruined by greedy developers, a

council content to wash its hands of responsibility and an

administration that thinks the word ‘pro-active’ is the description of a type of yoghurt. Now almost

20 years old, the Marina still looks like an unfinished building site in parts while other parts have

become a testament to neglect and poor maintenance. There appears to be little prospect of

Jackson’s Landing being put to any good use in the near future and talk of it being used as a

retail facility or as an exhibition centre has turned out to be just that - talk. Like it or not, if we are

to stop the increasing dereliction of the site, then we must accept whatever comes our way. This

is no time to get picky and the notion that we should shun a Casino, should one appear, appears

to be a case in point. There are already similar Casinos at Middlesbrough, Sunderland and

Newcastle and although I would never set foot in one myself, they seem to operate their

business in a professional manner with minimal impact on their respective surrounding areas -

certainly far less than the antics we see in Church Street every weekend. The idea of excluding

even the possibility of such an enterprise in fear of it promoting irresponsible gambling is absurd

in a town festooned with betting shops and where lottery queues clog Supermarkets and

Newsagents every Saturday.

Embarrassing or Just Plain Sad?

The sad demise of the Hartlepool Mail continues as it finds itself in the embarrassing situation

of being forced to follow the national papers in reporting a local news story. That story, of course,

is the sordid business of former M.P. Peter Mandelson being awarded the Freedom of the

Borough. The paper seemed quite happy to cover the build-up to the 5th, November meeting,

towing the official line and describing both Mandelson and TV present, Jeff Stelling as ‘two of

the town’s finest’.

When it came to the reporting on what became something of a debacle of a meeting it still chose

to stick to that official line.

HTH, to their credit, ran the story the day after the meeting and a full 11 days before the

Hartlepool Mail finally acknowledged that all was not well. It only did so after the Mail on

Sunday had picked up on the story and published its own report on 15th November. An

embarrassing situation, for sure - Hartlepool people found themselves reading a quite different

version of how Mandelson came to be made a Freeman of Hartlepool than the insipid version

presented in the local newspaper. The story was then thought to be significant enough to be

picked up by other media including the Northern Echo on the 17th.

Not for the first time, HTH has found itself highlighting an event or situation of local significance

which the town’s own newspaper has chosen to ignore or, as in this case, even to misrepresent.

While I share my fellow contributors satisfaction at this, I also feel some unease that it should be

so and that feeling is tinged with no small degree of sadness over what has become of the

Hartlepool Mail now a shadow of its former self.

No disrespect to my fellow members of the HTH drinking club, but it cannot be right that

reporting the reality of such events should fall solely on the shoulders of a gaggle of interested

people running a web site in their spare time.

Ineptness Causes a Problem for Mandelson

One of the problems caused by the ‘Freeman’ fiasco is quite where it now leaves Mandelson

himself. The adverse publicity now surrounding his award of ‘Freedom of the Borough’ virtually

guarantees that the people of the town do not support it.

The irony is that, had labour group leader Brash supported a vote based on

individual nominees, Mandelson may well have still received the award.

Sure, there would have been much dissent in the council chamber that

night but the number of absentees would in all likelihood have ensured a

labour majority once the Chairs vote was added.

As it stands, there is now a cloud of suspicion hanging over Mandelson’s

award with suggestions that it was gained only as a result of political

shenanigans, the inappropriate use of ‘pink papers’ and that it comes

without the support of the people - an empty award indeed.

I’m reminded of the primary schools closure controversy and see that once

again, the political ineptness of Cllr Brash has placed the local labour group

in yet another embarrassing position - not to mention the Dark Knight himself. Brash’s ability to

drop not only himself in the mire but his colleagues too is becoming almost legendary. He may

well have ambitions of becoming a player on the national political stage but he shows no sign of

the black cat column

Cllr Brash

“ . . . Brash’s ability to

drop not only himself

in the mire but his

colleagues too is

becoming almost