Statue call for Oldham giant

THE FRIDAY THING: IF ever Oldham is moved to erect a Union Street statue to highlight its debt to a local saint, then surely Norman Stoller - already a CBE and hopefully on the path to becoming Sir Norman or even Lord Norman - would be a prime candidate.

Norman never misses an opportunity to joke about his lack of physical stature and would probably tell us that the statue wouldn’t cost too much because it would not need as much stone as that of a taller person.

Norman, a truly great asset to the town, and a dedicated supporter of the borough in more ways than I could mention here, is now offering £1million to support the cry to “Get Oldham Working” by council leader Jim McMahon.

Norman described Jim’s rallying cry as “pure magic” and over the next few years the support of the Stoller Charitable Trust could well help to create the job opportunities for hundreds, maybe even thousands of Oldhamers.

Thanks to the efforts of Councillor McMahon and the council’s chief executive, Charlie Parker, the transformation of Oldham as a place to live and work is already on the drawing board.

Oldhamers, driven to scepticism by what they see as years of broken promises, pledges and bright new dawns, are finally sensing that despite the continuing chaos of the Metrolink development, the wind of change is blowing through Oldham and sweeping aside the cobwebs. It is starting to create a brilliant new town centre offering jobs and educational, entertainment and commercial opportunities.

It is no surprise to me that Norman has promised this massive contribution to help the new Oldham rise from the old and share in an exciting period of transformation and prosperity.

So what about that statue then?


ANOTHER week, another terrible tale of young girls used and abused by gangs of vile scheming men.
What makes this latest case so bad is that several of the girls actually reported what was happening to them to the police in Oxford but, for reasons not explained, were ignored.

Was it that the perpetrators of the assaults were all members of ethnic minority communities the police didn’t want to upset - or couldn’t they be bothered to listen to the girls and investigate their complaints?


FINAL WORD: It was interesting to see UKIP finishing second and ahead of the Lib-Dems, Tories and Greens in the Alexandra ward by-election. Was the UKIP vote sparked by its novelty appeal? Whatever it was, a greater danger to Oldham than UKIP is the constant threat of cheating at the ballot box. It undermines democracy by allowing those not genuinely elected to take a council seat.