Once bitten, twice shy in Stoke-on-Trent

There's something wrong about having to travel hundred miles across Europe to get your teeth fixed.
I admire Stoke-on-Trent nurse Christine Hughes for her initiative in getting on a plane to Hungary to save £20,000, so she can have a million dollar smile.
But why should she have to leave Britain at all? It's a disgrace that the treatment in Hungary cost £9,970 compared with the whopping £30,000 she faced paying here.
I accept that it might be more expensive here, but £21,000 more expensive?! Without sounding like Victor Meldrew, the dental service in this country is just not what it used to be.
There was a time when we could all get quailty NHS treatment. Now most of us have to fight tooth and nail (yes, that's the joke) to get our teeth seen.
Most dentists don't seem interested in the NHS or treating NHS patients. I've managed to retain NHS treatment but are made to feel like a low-life because I won't pay for private.
I probably could afford to pay, but it's my stand against a Government determined to consign NHS dental care to the history books.
The Government, of course, blames poor old Maggie Thatcher for our dental problems because she closed down dental training schools.
But she is an easy target. Poor old Maggie gets blamed for everything these days including the credit crunch, Third World poverty, cold weather and the fact that Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross need to be surgically removed from public life...
Anyway, if you want to feather the nest of some not-so-hard-up dentist in Budapest rather than paying for a second family Porsche for a dentist in Britain, pop along to The Sentinel...

A policeman's lot is not a happy lot in Stoke-on-Trent (plus, bringing down the Iron Curtain)

Jack Regan from The Sweeney would turn in his grave, if he knew. He would certainly be Oliver Twist. Poor old policemen aren't as tough as we thought...
Things are so bad that they are getting back pain from carrying 7lbs of equipment everyday, according to The Sentinel.
Surely this is an early April Fool's Day joke? But no, it's true. Our cops, those top-notch law-enforcers, are actually not bristling with muscles patrolling the streets "looking for trouble, because troubles their business" (well that's what the maker's of The Bill say).
There was a time when if there was trouble down your street the local Bobbie would give you a thick ear.
Now I'm wondering if the police have the strength to go on the beat...meanwhile, back at the Stoke-on-Trent mayoral elections it's not good news.
The electorate, confused about whether to vote 'yes' or 'no', have decided we do not need an elected mayor.
This is a sad day for Stoke-on-Trent. We are going back-to-the-future with a Kremlin-style council leader voted into power by his old muckers. The people won't have a say.
Even as I write I hear the Iron Curtain being pulled tightly shut across the corridors of power.
This could be the day democracy died in Stoke-on-Trent...there maybe trouble ahead.
If you need to know more, try The Sentinel's website...

Pathetic Stoke-on-Trent councillor

Isn't it strange how some people bite the hand that feeds them. This could be said of gobby Stoke-on-Trent councillor Peter Kent-Baguley.
As a regular reader of The Sentinel, I find his name appears all over the columns, he just can't keep out. Self-publicist comes to mind.
But the worm has turned. And after appearing in last night's paper in a story about the city's referendum, he then decides to use his pathetic little blog to slag off the paper, its owners and the editor.
What Mr KB is annoyed about is that the paper wrote a story he didn't like. So he has spewed his bile across the internet.
However, I think what Mr KB is afraid of is open and democratic discussion. He doesn't mind a discussion as long as it matches his abnoxious opinions
I thought we lived in a democratic country. No, it appears Mr KB has his own views on democracy: "Agree with me or keep it buttoned."
It would seem that it is politicians like him who are holding this fine city back. Like so many councillors he lives by the view of a petulant child, "it's all about me."
Rather than slagging off the newspaper his time would be more wisely used helping to run the city successfully on behalf of its taxpayers.
This sad man should get out of politics because I'm sure there's someone better qualified to be a councillor, someone who spends less time criticising local companies and more time doing what they are supposed to do, looking after the interests of electorate.
If you would like to read more on Stoke-on-Trent life without Mr KB go to The Sentinel...

D-Day looms for Stoke-on-Trent

So my friends, the end is nigh in Stoke-on-Trent. Tomorrow, the three of us who can be bothered, will vote on whether to keep our elected mayoral system.
If we lose, we are all doomed. It means we go back to the old style system where councillors vote their muckers into power.
The council will then go into lock down making the Kremlin of a bygone era seem democratic.
Bizarrely, as I have said before (sorry to bore you), if we vote 'No' tomorrow we will get the chance to have a say over who will govern dear old Stoke-on-Trent through the elected mayoral system.
Even most of the councillors admit that there's no-one they believe should or could be an old-fashioned council leader. I guess I would agree with those sentiments.
So we pray for an elected mayor, a Messiah (or even a decent, bright, intelligent leader) comes to prominence and gets voted in to lead us to the Promised Land...a Stoke-on-Trent we can be proud of...and with a tear in the eye, I would suggest you go to The Sentinel to read more...

Tragedy of the M6 near Stoke-on-Trent

It gives me no pleasure to say I told you so. Just 24 hours after I complained about the horrors of the M6 near Stoke-on-Trent seven people were killed in four separate accidents within hours.
OK, car and lorry drivers are to blame sometimes for these accidents. Yes, I'm not fond of those who tailgate in 4x4s or lorry drivers who drive without consideration as if they are in a scene from Death Race 2000.
But also the Government has blood on its hands. For years ministers have known that this road is dangerous. For years successive they have deferred making a decision on widening or putting in other measures such as extra lighting or speed restrictions to encourage safer driving.
These are the ministers who are happy to pour money into useless wars against the unseen enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Yet when it comes to protecting the lives of drivers (who pay a considerable amount of tax to use the damn roads) they turn a blind eye.
The only noise from Westminster after the latest tragedy is the deafening sound of silence. So, once more, the M6 through Staffordshire and south Cheshire resembles a graveyard.
How many more lives must be lost before something is done? If you are minded to read more about this tragedy, go to The Sentinel's website...

M6 mayhem in Stoke-on-Trent

The M6, NCP's best car park. When is the Government going to pull its finger out and widen the road in Staffordshire and Cheshire?
As soon as those southern wimps cry foul on the M25 it gets widened. We ask for a bit of work in the north and it goes into consultation for a few years.
The road is chaotic, just look at the latest accident yesterday, just an eight car pile-up. And there are so many fatal accidents that the stretch between 14 and 18 has become a cemetery.
Worse offenders are 4x4 drivers who think nothing of driving a yard from your boot while travelling at 90mph.
Add to this the lunatic lorry drivers and no wonder us safe drivers fear using the road which often resembles a scene from Mad Max.
Just a thought, but do lorry drivers want to kill all car drivers? They often speed, block up two of the three lanes and think nothing of pulling out when there's no room.
Then they have the cheek to blame car drivers for their bad drivering. They are the bullies of the road and should be kept out of the way during hours of daylight.
The problem is easy to solve. Ban lorries from the road between 6am and 11pm and lock up all 4x4 drivers.
If you wish to read about the latest carnage on the M6 pop along to The Sentinel...

Question Time in Stoke-on-Trent

Can't see the BBC breaking out of London to make it north to Stoke-on-Trent again. The MPs and celebs got a bit of a kicking from the good folk of the Potteries.
They were ill-prepared to deal with a passionate and informed audience. Their real-life stories of NHS drug postcode lotteries, unemployment and the fight against the BNP left the panel floundering for answers because they all live so far away from the real world.
Did it make Stoke-on-Trent look bad? No, the people of this fair city showed it was able to debate with the best in Britain and come out on top.
Question Time in Stoke-on-Trent was intellecutually stimulating and achingly painful at the sametime. It was compulsive viewing, as long as you were prepared to wear a crash helmet while watching.
Rarely has this programme been so raw, so fascinating.
The golf between the panelists perceptions of life and the dose of reality served up by the audience left our stars, James Caan, Claire Short, Dominic Grieve, Geoff Hoon and Julia Goldsworth, either speechless or groping in the dark for some kind of answer.
With this kind of passion you wonder why any Government would have left Stoke-on-Trent to rot for so long...maybe they are scared of real debate.
If you want to read more, go to The Sentinel.

Parking mad in Stoke-on-Trent

I do not believe that we should pay to park at hospitals. It's a tax on people when generally they are at their most vulunerable, visiting a sick relative or friend.
Most of us want a great NHS, but we already pay enough in taxes for this monster without being taxed for the privilege of visiting our loved ones.
Here in Stoke-on-Trent we are getting a super-hospital. In their wisdom, the planners have not provided enough car parking spaces for the staff...who's clever idea was that?
The management excuse for this oversight is to say they have to cut their carbon footprint so they're looking at a park-and-ride scheme for staff.
First of all, is it me, or does it seem that everytime managers have to do something a bit tricky they blame global warning? You can here the Government excuse, "we are scrapping SATS tests for 14-year-olds not because we are completely useless, but because we want to reduce the amount of carbon emissions created by teenagers taking exams," yeah, really...
Or, "we are sorry the economy is in meltdown, but it's due to climate change..." And I thought it was due to the crass greed of bankers.
So where was I? Right, the other point about this park-and-ride business is that the hospital staff are ignoring their own advice and not taking exercise.
Incredibly, around 1,000 live within a mile of the hospital and many decide to use their gas eating machines.
So there they are, eight hours a day, dishing out lectures on keeping fit to patients then driving a few hundred yards home. I ask you. What about getting on a bike or using your pins?
If you are minded and want to read more, pop to The Sentinel...

Stoke-on-Trent health report

OK, I admit that I was just the two-and-a-half hours late for my NHS appointment. But did I really deserve to be treated like Stoke-on-Trent's modern day Jack the Ripper? I think not.
And then, comes the crunch. When can I have another appointment. Asking for this was like committing one of the mortal sins...
"November sir," came the response, "this year", I said with intrepidation. "No, 2010....." Yes, I know I'm exaggerating, but surely the NHS can do a little better.
After all, as commented on in the good old Sentinel, we are shareholders in the NHS like we are shareholders in half the high street financial institutions.
We should be treated with the respect of shareholders, ushered into doctors' waiting rooms with reverence, not scorned like some badly trained puppy.
In banks and building societies we should be treated as investors not an inconvenience. We are the people keeping all those banks and NHS services, where are the thanks? Where is the humility that staff should show to us for paying their wages?
We dig the country out of a hole and get treated as if it was our fault.
Anyway, I asked whether the NHS could fit me in within the hour as I stood at reception. I have seen busier cemeteries than this bastion of hope. "Sorry sir", "we are too busy"...
If you want to find out what other fun and frolics are taking place in the NHS, pop along to you know what, yes, The Sentinel...

Stoke-on-Trent boo boys

There's so many bleedin' hearts in football. Poor old Ashley Cole. The man who wanted to leave Arsenal because he was only earning £55,000 week...(pause while I grab a Kleenex).
So Ashley, who wouldn't last two minutes if he had a proper job in Stoke-on-Trent, was defended by stand-in England captain Rio (£120,000 a week minimum) Ferdinand who described England fans as "shameful" for booing Ashley.
The only shame in all this is that anyone could defend Cole's 'schoolboy error'.... (sorry if I sound like John Motson....) during the England game.
Every fan has a right to express his view and Cole's pass back to a Kazakhstan player was...pathetic.
It's time for Cole to grow up. Think about all those lads who will never fulfill their dream of doing what he does every week.
Think about poor old Port Vale who looked out for the count until they pulled off a great win this weekend. Think about how hard those lads at Stoke City and Crew Alex work.
To be honest, booing is the least of the problems Cole faces. His main problem is that he can't pass to one of his own players...
If you want to read about real football teams and real players, pop along to The Sentinel website...

Saint Stoke-on-Trent

Mmmmmmmmmmm...something doesn't quite add up in Stoke-on-Trent. Call me cynical or sceptical, or both, but one of the city's best-known developers, St Modwen, appears to have pulled a fast one.
For 10 years the firm has sat on the site of the old Stoke City ground, the Victoria Ground. The company pledged (heard this a few times) to build homes on the land.
Most people fancied this as it is off one of the major gateways into Stoke-on-Trent and we all wanted something to nose at as we travelled along the A50.
Now, out of the blue, and with the housing market in terminal decline (my mud hut is now worth 23 pence, down 14 pence) the firm has decided that due to "market conditions" (yawn...) it is now thinking of building some ugly, faceless warehouses.
Hilariously, St Modwen says they don't want the land to go to waste while the credit crunch is on. Errrrrrrr....so what about the previous 10 years, there wasn't much of a credit crunch on in 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001..........zzzzzzzzzz
Me thinks that St Modwen didn't want to put up houses at all...slap my wrist...how dare you say such a thing...
So much for the regeneration of Stoke-on-Trent, bland, boring warehouses are hardly going to make the area a great place to live, are they?
If you need to know more, visit The Sentinel website...

A slice of custard in Stoke-on-Trent

Do we really want hospital food to be so good that it appears on Master Chef? You see, at the hospital used by Stoke-on-Trent's finest, the University of North Staffordshire, all hell's broken out over the standard of the food.
My local paper, The Sentinel, has described how the custard is so thick that it's served in slices and meals are so late that patients have to be served toast to keep starvation at bay.
But if you think about it, why should hospital food be any good? It never has in the past, and frankly it has not done anyone any harm.
And, if it was any good, it would encourage people to stay in longer and block those beds. So the reality is, we should keep the standards down because it encourages people to leave.
My main concern would be if patients weren't getting fed. This happened to a friend of mine. He was in hopsital six days before staff realised he hadn't had a bite. He was so hungry he would have given his right arm for a slice of custard...
Anyway, if you fancy reading more, pop along to The Sentinel's website...

Confused of Stoke-on-Trent

I'm troubled today. The problem is this. If you want to vote to keep an elected mayor in
Stoke-on-Trent you have to vote no, yes, I said no.
And here lies the problem. A lot of people are commenting on The Sentinel's website saying that they will be voting yes to keep the elected mayor. What they actually mean is no. This city needs an elected mayor.
If it doesn't it will return to the dark days in the corridors of power where the authority is run by a serving councillor and a gang of his mates.
This will be disasterous and mean that Stoke-on-Trent will never become a smasrt 21st century place to dwell.
So unless the good voters of Stoke-on-Trent get their act together and learn to say no, we shall all be heading for the exit door.
Should you wish to learn more go to The Sentinel's website.

Stoke-on-Trent footie trouble

There's trouble brewing in the bowels of the Potteries. For a lifetime Stoke City fans dreamed of top-flight football.
Last season they seemed doomed to fail once more. But by chance and a lot of aerial football, they managed to scramble into the Premier League.
But things are looking gloomy. Second from the foot of the table and with only four points in the bag and the fans are getting restless.
What makes things worse is that we can only sit and admire as Hull City fly high, a team who came up via the play-offs.
Compared to Stoke, Hull are looking like Brazil. If only Stoke would start playing decent football and give up on this 11 man behind the ball business. They set up to draw and lose, never do they set out to win. Championship football here we can.
Read the full gory details on The Sentinel's website...

Barmy in Stoke-on-Trent

As you know, sunny Stoke-on-Trent has been in the national news after an exclusive story in The Sentinel newspaper.
This was about a load of teachers going off to Marbella for a "conference"...mmmmm, really.
The national hacks have been falling over themselves to stick their boot into a northern city. They just love it.
(By the way, have you noticed that ever since the BBC announced that they were moving a large chunk of their operations to Manchester that they now regularly do stories about the city which portray it in a terrible light? Those southerners must hate the fact that they have to leave grotty London to move to a top city...)
Anyway, back to Stoke-on-Trent. As you know, the trip to Spain was cancelled as the teachers turned up at the school with their luggage in tow.
Now the head, having got himself into a complete mess is claiminig he may try and get some money off the hotel and airlines!
This bloke is going to have to join the real world soon. If you want to see the whole story, pop along to The Sentinel's website...

Bus stops here in Stoke-on-Trent

So that's the answer. Unbelievable. After years of decline in Stoke-on-Trent the answer to prosperity according to our councillors is to have a bus station that looks like the one in...Barnsley.
So, I don't have any gripes about Barnsley. Some famous sons have come from there like Michael Parkinson and Dickie Bird. But come on, Barnsley.
If they had said our bus station will be like the one in Barcelona or Sydney, then at least you would say there's some thought gone into it. But Barnsley...and is it any good anyway?
Well to be honest, no. It's horrible and within five years will be like the last bar in the universe, grimy, grotty and full of waifs, strays and vagabonds.
Anyway, if you fancy having a peek at the future, pop along to The Sentinel...
Breaking news, those teacher who were off to sunny Spain for a 'conference' (see yesterday's blog rant) have cancelled the trip!
I don't know what's worse. If they had gone at least the taxpayers' money would have been spent doing something but now...just a complete utter farce, and we paid for it! Get the latest by going The Sentinel .

Stoke-on-Trent teachers off to sunny Spain...

I know we all like to give teachers a bit of a kicking for their long holidays and short working days, but sometimes they don't do themselves any favours.
A school in Stoke-on-Trent has put its size nines in it big time. The head, in his wisdom, has taken up to 80 teachers to Marbella in Spain for a 'training conference'.
The head's arguments fall a bit flat. Firstly, he says that going off to Spain is cheaper than booking the same event in Britain, they went to Crewe last year, and secondly, the 'conference' was book before the credit crunch.
I think he misses the point in the story which appears in The Sentinel. The point is why are they going anywhere for a meeting when they could easily fit in the school hall and it would cost us, the poor old taxpayers, errrrrr...virtually nothing at all.
Ok, I accept that it's not a beach and sangria jolly (or do I?) but the money would be beter spent on the children at the school. Surely this isn't rocket science? If you fancy reading more or letting off some steam visit The Sentinel's website.