Sneaky councils’ silver lining in yellow peril

Jim Williams
THE FRIDAY THING: TWO pieces of good news this week (apart from the fact that Latics have finally discovered how to win).

The first was an admission that something we have all known for years is blatantly true. Speed cameras do not all reduce accidents and have been used by unscrupulous councils as a sneaky way of taking even more dosh out of our pockets.

It is estimated that councils have profited by millions from this yellow peril, a ruse with a view to filling the council coffers of Charlie and his cronies up and down the land.

It hasn’t, of course, gone into the pockets of the chief execs (even they don’t have pockets big enough to carry all that loot) but has been used to pay for services and pet schemes that we thought were funded by our council taxes. Will they now give us back our money, taken from us by false pretences?

Not surprisingly, only a few councils have decided to publish the full data on each speed camera in their area. Oldham Council will be releasing more information in the autumn (see Page 3 of today’s paper).

The other piece of long overdue common sense is the decision to reduce the impact on all of our lives of the health-and-safety rules. Banning things like conkers, sack races at school sports, handing out pins with remembrance poppies, schoolyard games, climbing ladders and just about anything that has about it the hint of excitement and adventure.

The health-and-safety police’s attack on fun included dodgem cars, kite flying, street parties and only being able to play football in the schoolyard if the ball was made of sponge.

Youngsters have for generations made their own fun playing in the great outdoors and, yes, there were occasional accidents but virtually all of us survived with little more than the odd scar or scratch to show for our games of cowboys and Indians or goodies and baddies. Even playing house with the girls but that had dangers all of its own. Kissing and that. Ugh!

These days, of course, the PC lot, every bit as bad as the health-and-safety police, would ban the notion of Indians or baddies as their contribution to turning us all into boring replicas of perfection, a kind of Stepford family where the very nature of fun and adventure is outlawed.

At least this concerted attack on childhood has suffered one setback.



WELL then, ladies, how’s your erotic capital as we head into the weekend? Are you skint or flush? Is your account running on empty like your purse or is your get up and go simply bursting to get going?

Or do you think your erotic capital is Paris, London or, heaven forbid, Blackpool?

Not surprisingly the notion of erotic capital is the brainchild (female, of course) of an academic at the London School of Economics where, when they are not counting the money they make from students, they turn to matters erotic (there’s a lot to be said for going to uni),

Dr Catherine Hakim has dreamt up the concept of erotic capital which is, apparently a heady but delicious cocktail of sexuality, social skills, sex appeal and beauty. Look out for it next time you are on Tommyfield or queuing for the bus.

The basic currency of erotic capital is for women to use their abundant feminine wiles both at home and at work to improve their position (steady on their, lads) in society. And this doesn’t mean turning into another enhanced and ebony female who flirts with TV and media fame for about 30 seconds and nor does it mean hiding who you are. There is nothing wrong with making the most of what you have.

You will notice that that there is an element missing from this exciting socio-sexual development. Do we men have any erotic capital? If we have it’s only small change to jingle and then only for the tiny minority who don’t have holes in their pocket.



IT is good news that the 42-year reign of terror practised by Col Gaddafi (close friend, remember, of Tony Blair) at last appears to have come to an end. The overwhelming majority of Libyan people should have much to celebrate and should face the future with considerable optimism.

It remains to be seen if the country will become a democracy with a proper machine of state instead of a state with a machine gun pointed at its head, and hopefully it will be one less trouble spot in a troubled world.

But was it only me who shuddered when our Prime Minister, somewhere on a beach in Cornwall, said that British troops may be sent in to keep the peace? Does it not make you think instantly of Iraq and Afghanistan and just how costly those two missions have been?

We have played our part in giving Libya a chance of democracy and we should stay at home and let them get on with it. We don’t want British blood spilled on another foreign field.



FINAL WORD: It takes more than one person to run a successful enterprise and Ian Kendall, who announced his departure from Oldham Community Leisure this week, would be the first to admit that it was not a one-man band.

But Ian’s contribution to sports development in Oldham cannot be overstated. For decades, sporting facilities have been seen in Oldham as expendable and have always been at the head of any list of cuts.It is probably that council mind-set that has brought Ian to the conclusion that it is time to leave. He will be badly missed.