Let’s hope it won’t be far right on the night...

THE FRIDAY THING: POLITICS makes some pretty odd bedfellows: just look at UKIP.

Basically a racist party, they spout the nasty dogma of the right while at the same time turning into the only non-funny stand-up comics in the history of Oldham politics.

UKIP is attempting to achieve what the BNP and other myopic misanthropes have tried to achieve in the past, turning Oldham into a hotbed of cynicism, prejudice and a kind of barmy racism.

No fewer than 18, presumably like-minded, citizens are gearing up for what they believe will be a triumphant night at the polls for UKIP on May 22. Heaven help us.

Labour’s rule over the council is hardly likely to be threatened with Jim McMahon, who has had an outstanding year, certain to retain leadership of the council - not because he occupies the post but because he has proved himself to be good for Oldham and good for Oldhamers.

Jim will continue his mission to turn the borough into a place where people feel safe and are happy to be.

I suppose the only question now is how long Jim will stay in his present role, hopefully long enough to see plans for a new-look and enterprising Oldham brought to fruition.



FINAL WORD: Too many people take newspapers and the news too lightly. But amid all the selfish efforts of some folk to censor, limit or ban news and comment in newspapers there are some brilliant shafts of reason.

The British Museum, for instance, has created a gallery of newspapers and news magazines from decades past as a tribute to the sterling efforts of all those who go the extra mile to tell people what is happening, where and why - and who’s doing it.

Only the local and national media hold the authorities and those who bring harm to others to book for their crimes and omissions of honesty and integrity.

Anyone with an interest in newspapers - and newspapers down the ages with good news, bad news, comedy, sadness, tragedy and disaster - should pay a visit to the new gallery in the British Museum to marvel at the efforts of so many reporters and photographers, editors and sub-editors, interviewers and diggers for truth, honesty and integrity that is the busy world of the printed media.

I know I am biased in this, but I feel no shame. Newspapers and news magazines are the showcase of records, of knowledge, alertness and awareness of what goes on in the world, the city, town and village, for good or for evil.

In a newspaper’s pages are the world, frowns and scars, gaiety and humour. We are all in there somewhere and the British Museum knows this better than most.