What if I’d turned out a Reform supporter?!

I was born in a coal mining town in Nottinghamshire which now has a Reform MP. Could I have ended up being of the far right as opposed to being the Social Liberal of the left that I am, if I’d stayed in the town of my birth?

What factors come in to play in shaping our societal/political views? If I’d stayed in Kirkby-In-Ashfield instead of leaving it aged six, due to my Dad’s job, what different influences would I have been exposed to than those I have been on Merseyside, where I’ve lived since the age of 10?

Obviously, family influence will always be a significant factor in political leanings, religious affiliations and sporting club support for many folk of my and indeed previous generations. Having said that, all 3 may well now be becoming a thing of the past for younger generations.

I do very much follow my family’s sporting support being a Nottinghamshire County Cricket Club fanatic, with a football following for Mansfield Town and Nottingham Forest. However, I have rejected my family’s Church of England religion and am an atheist. With regard to politics, my family was a mixture of Conservatives and right-wing working-class Labour supporters whilst, of course, I opted for both trade unionism and Liberalism. The caveat here is that I’m pretty sure my Mum was akin to a Chapel Liberal, although she rarely spoke about politics. My Dad’s parents were solid working-class, council house dwelling, Tories with Grandad being a regular at the local Conservative Club. Grandma was stridently anti-Catholic and antisemitic. Politics on my Mum’s side of the family is something I know nothing of at all.

Away from family our friends can, of course, influence us too. In my case there’s no doubt that my old friend Andrew Beattie, who died in 1999, was a very significant influence on me. Andrew was a free thinker from an early age. I got to know him when we were both 11 and at school together. We discussed music, politics and religion; Andrew had little to no interest in sport. He was from a strongish Labour background and like me a Church of England family affiliation. One of our class friends Russell was a coloured lad and I can’t recall anything being said of a racist nature about him. Andrew rejected religion as a young teenager, whereas I was probably still following it until around 4 years later when I was 17ish. The 1979 General Election and the lead up to it was of great interest to us both and to settle where we stood politically we decided to read the manifestos of the 3 major parties. That led us to conclude that we were actually Liberals and we both joined the old Liberal Party in 1980. So without doubt Andrew was a very significant influence upon me.

Another influence on me was becoming a lifelong trade unionist from 1975. I joined the union on starting work in the civil service, pretty much as all my work colleagues did. There was no closed shop but union membership in Inland Revenue offices across the country back then would be in the high 90%’s everywhere. Not only that senior managers encouraged everyone to join the Inland Revenue Staff Federation (IRSF). I went to union meetings, found them interesting and around the time I decided I was a Liberal I also became active in my union. I was an Office Secretary (shop steward), branch committee member and then spent 22 years as a Branch Secretary, also doing odd bits and bobs for the union at a regional level too. The union itself morphed into PTC and then into PCS as it is today. I learned a lot as a trade union activist, not least how to negotiate, how to respect the views of others and how to keep calm under pressure; skills I found very useful as I climbed the political ladder.

Despite my Grandma’s anti-Catholic/anti-Semitic prejudices (which my Dad held too) religious divides were something I knew little of until I started work in Bootle on Merseyside. Two things happened which are still like memories of yesterday, although both took place in the mid-1970’s. Firstly, next to the building I worked in was an Orange Lodge Hall. It did cheap lunches and was a regular hang out for some of the civil servants I worked with. On being taken there for the first time I saw a dart board with a picture of the then Pope on it and blurted out my surprise only to be told to shut up, with an explanation after we’d left. I was in a place where practising Catholic colleagues did not tread and stupid remarks about the dart board picture weren’t made! The second event was related to the first as one day I turned up for work to be met by a huge number of people lined up in the road playing drums, whistles etc. On walking into work and asking, quite innocently, what was going on outside I was viewed as being most odd because I had no idea. Explanations flowed from my colleagues both from a Catholic and Protestant perspective. I’d seen nothing of Orange Lodges in my years living in Kirkby, Rochdale and Maghull even though Maghull was only half a dozen miles from Bootle. I soon learned about deep religious prejudices, how cross-religious marriages were much disapproved of and how religion divided the City of Liverpool with it’s two major football clubs having their origins in religion too. Quite a learning curve indeed for a late teenager.

The other big influence on me was working, on a part-time basis, with people who had disabilities from my teens into my 30’s. I worked at The Maghull Homes (a transitioning epileptic colony) which is now the Parkhaven Trust. I met many residents who suffered from epilepsy and who often had other disabilities too and many of them became my friends. You can’t be around people with disabilities without it giving you a whole new perspective on life and that experience making you think how lucky you are. It’s an experience all young people would benefit from in my view.

As a political aside I got talking to a chap called Phil, whom Andrew and I went to school with, about a year ago and he told me about a female history teacher at our school who was active in the old Liberal Party and that he’d talked to her quite a bit about politics. I have no recollection of this Liberal inclined teacher but she certainly had an influence on Phil who dabbled in Liberal politics too in the late 1980’s.

So yes, I was subject to influences on Merseyside that I would probably never have encountered back in Kirkby, although goodness knows what influences I missed out on too. My theory is that certainly back in the 1960’s Kirkby was still a pretty insular mining town, as many mining areas were back in the day, whereas Liverpool back then was a seaport with world-wide influences. I moved from insular to world-wide without really noticing it until later I guess.

Obviously, I could still have gravitated to the political left and indeed have become a free thinking Liberal back in Kirkby but my feeling is this would have been more unlikely than likely. But, if Ed Davey could come from a similar East Midlands community just down the road from where I was born then anything is possible I suppose.

To conclude I grew up from the age of 10 rejecting religion, embracing people of colour and those with disabilities and steering very much to the left of politics. Indeed, I feel that whilst it is often said that people get more right wing the older they get, pretty much the opposite has happened to me. My only nod to what may be considered the political right is that I’m big on law and order in our society.

What would be interesting for me would be to sit down with Kirkby-In-Ashfield people born in 1958 to understand the influences they encountered particularly in the areas of religion, racial prejudice and politics.

Oh and yes, I do have a couple of irrational prejudices, a deep dislike of Yorkshire County Cricket Club (I think Geoff Boycott is responsible for that – well he did run out my Notts & England cricketing hero Derek Randall) and I really don’t care for tattoos (no idea where that one came from). And one big regret, whatever happened to all those cooperative shops that were once everywhere in the East Midlands and which were created by the Rochdale Pioneers, a town I lived in for 4 years in the 1960’s? So my positive prejudice is wanting to see a significant rise in cooperative businesses, but maybe that’s just my Liberal prejudice shining through?

 

OK, I admit it, I’m a big fan of Alfred Waterhouse buildings

I think the first of his buildings to really catch my eye was Liverpool University’s Victoria Building atop Brownlow Hill. The brick/stone & terracotta work on the outside is quite beautiful and the tiles inside are to die for.

 

Victoria Building Clock Tower, Liverpool

 

 

 

Inside the Victoria Building

This started me looking out for Alfred's buildings and two obvious ones, in Liverpool city centre, are the North Western Hotel adjacent to Lime Street Station and the Prudential Building in Dale Street. 

North Western Hotel, Liverpool

 

If you look you’ll see a number of Prudential buildings across the country where Waterhouse, or indeed his son, were the architect. The one in Nottingham springs to mind as it also has a statue of Brian Clough very close to it. 

Prudential Building Nottingham with Brian Clough Statue

Another is in Newcastle, where part of it is now Portofino Italian Restaurant. Well, I had to have a meal there on a recent visit to the North East. Great Italian food surrounded by Waterhouse tiled walls, what more could I ask for. 

Insdide Portofino Newcastle

 

The Portofino web site says ‘Set in a magnificent Victorian Grade II listed building, a fittingly opulent setting’ and ‘The building is grade II listed and was built in 1891. It was one of 27 branches of Prudential Assurance Company, all of which were designed by prolific 19th century architect Alfred Waterhouse. Alfred Waterhouse also designed the Natural History Museum in London and many other government, educational and commercial buildings, across the UK. The interior is lined with fainece tiles, which were produced by old firm "Burmantoffs Pottery" from Leeds.’

Prudential Building Newcastle

 

Born (1830) and raised in Aigburth, Liverpool Waterhouse set up his first architectural practice in Manchester and then, as his fame spread, in London where, of course, his quite wonderful Natural History Museum may well be his crowning or, at least, his most well known glory.

 

Natural History Museum, London

Whilst he did not design the cathedral-type Rochdale Town Hall, when the clock tower burnt down he designed the replacement tower. This is an utterly magnificent building even though Alfred only had a later hand in it. What’s more it’s recently been carefully restored and is on my bucket list to visit, even though I’ve been in it a number of times prior to it being restored; indeed I took my Cycling Proficiency Test there in the mid 1960’s.

The Clock Tower of Rochdale Town Hall

 

Waterhouse and his son designed a great many buildings all over the country and we’ve all probably laid eyes on quite a few of them possibly without realising it.  

Wigan is another town where his works can be found and here’s an interesting YouTube video where Sean Jinks gives a talk, in Wigan, about their Waterhouse buildings and some of them in Liverpool, Manchester and London. It's a long video but if you're interested in architecture it will, I'm sure, be of interest:-

Sean Jinks talks Waterhouse -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vp6V93fwJ6Q&t=5005s

I was prompted to write this blog posting following my reading a recent article in Liverpool’s rather excellent on-line newspaper ‘The Post’ and because of my recent visit to Portofino Newcastle. 

Here’s a link to 'The Post' website – It’s a subscription news outlet I might add but with some articles being accessible without subscription. If you live on/are interested in Merseyside subscribing to it is, in my humble opinion, very worthwhile indeed - https://www.livpost.co.uk/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cycling through public projects/funding we may oppose

As a generality, we tend to oppose the spending of public money on things we don't/won't personally use. The NHS used to a rather obvious exception but, of course, Reform say they want an insurance-based health service and as that party is seemingly quite popular presently then their supporters must, I guess, be opposed to public funding of the NHS.

Anyway, I digress as this posting is about spending on transport infrastructure. In my part of the world Sefton Council is presently building cycle/pedestrian facilities along a section of the A59. The works and the reasons for them don't seem to have much public support, at least as far as postings on a local Facebook Community Group are concerned. Are community Facebook Groups representative of much, much wider actual communities though? There’s a whole piece of research to be done there of course.

 

 

Disruption (road works) during the construction is obviously unpopular, probably even more so than the end result, although people who virtually never walk or cycle probably just see the whole project as being a waste of their money. Do they also disapprove of public money being spent subsidising buses or trains as they rarely, if ever, use them?

I cycle, walk and drive but I try not to use my car on short trips around my community, so I'm probably in a pretty small minority. I've tried the new cycle paths through Lydiate and they're fine but just a mile up the A59 the same but very long established cycle tracks (in Aughton, Lancashire) are very poorly maintained. They're rutted, have clumps of grass growing in them and the parallel pedestrian paths are pretty much impassable in parts. Will this brand new section become the same in the future?

My other gripe is that cycle facilities/infrastructure projects, at least on Merseyside but I suspect countrywide, are usually limited to what I'll call big/grandiose schemes with the many smaller changes required within communities to make cycling safer and to encourage more folks to get on their bikes never happening.

So yes, I'm happy with the A59 cycle paths, although I do know a fellow cyclist who disapproves of the works, I might add. 

 

You petrol heads can now shout at me as your taxes are being spent on a project you'll probably very much oppose, but which is fine with the minority group I belong to.

 

Has Starmer ‘Clegged’ his own Government?

 

You remember Nick Clegg who did really well with voters in the run up to the 2010 General Election particularly in the then TV debates that are pretty much no more, in that format, because he did so well. ‘I agree with Nick’ became the response from Cameron and Brown and both Tories and Labour have been against debating with a Lib Dem leader ever since.

OK Clegg was charismatic and likeable, a rare combination in a leading politician, but his wheels came off spectacularly days after that election because voters felt he’d not been straight with them and they subsequently turned against him and his party big time. Tuition fees was the obvious policy issue where he promised one thing but then backed off in the Coalition Government deal. The pros and cons of what he did don’t really matter. What did matter was that many voters felt they had been taken in by Clegg and were furious with him when he did not follow through in their eyes. The dye was cast and Clegg took quite a few years of stick on a regular basis before he existed the political stage unwillingly in the 2017 General Election.

So what’s all that got to do with Starmer? Well, if you think about it at the 2024 GE voters were utterly sick of the Tories after years of mismanagement of the country and its economy. Johnson and Truss had holed the Tory Party below the waterline and voters wanted to enlarge that hole!

Keir Starmer had emerged from political obscurity to become Labour Leader; a man with precious little political experience but he’d held down a high profile job as Director of Public Prosecutions. He seemed a bit grey and uncharismatic but looked a reliable chap in comparison to PM’s before him. Come the 2024 General Election he was always going to win a majority and what a majority it was! However, the number of voters putting their crosses next to Labour candidates was only around one third of all those who voted; hardly a ringing endorsement.

But the utterly despised Tories had gone and this new chap would do the right things to make us all feel much better about our country, fix our broken public services etc. etc. Like Clegg though, it did not take long for the political wheels to start falling off. Starmer’s big Clegg moment was obviously cutting pensioners winter fuel allowance; a ham-fisted policy gaff of huge proportions and after a lot of internal Labour Party trouble he was forced to row back on much of it.

No sooner had this gaff seen a hastily fudged fix than his government went off on one again; this time hitting the welfare benefits of people with disabilities. That also went down like a lead balloon and another internal Labour rebellion was required to fudge another policy fix.

The point about Starmer is that whilst voters thought he’d be a boring/grey PM they believed he’d put a stop to all the austerity and divisive governance. With the winter fuel and disabilities cuts they took the view that whilst the Tories had gone they were seemingly still pulling the new government’s strings!

Electors have became very angry and in a similar way to how they reacted to Clegg. The rights and wrongs of the policies are irrelevant to them, the big issue is one of trust and, like with Clegg, voters have come to the conclusion that Starmer has failed them. When a leading politician gets into such a hole it does not really matter about the good things they may well have done because it’s only the bad things that voters think about. 

Starmer has indeed ‘Clegged’ his own government.

 

1967 – A year with a ‘Feed the Minds’ event to remember

1966 had its big occasion at Wembley Stadium but another London event the following year, although of a much smaller nature, has always been memorable at least to me and maybe Rosemary Clayton too.

I was 9 in 1967 and lived in Rochdale whilst attending Lowerplace Junior School. I’ve often pondered the memorable event and wondered if there was any record of it, certainly I had nothing (or so I thought) other than what was in my now 67 year old memory. And then something quite unexpected happened as I was sorting through some old papers and family records recently.

I came across an envelope of my educational records/letters etc. kept by my Mum and Dad. I’d inherited them back in 2009 when Dad died but had just filed them away. Yes, there were school reports saying things along the lines of ‘with more effort could do better’ etc. but then two letters about me on ‘Rochdale Education Committee’ headed note paper caught my eye. They were both about the event I’d thought there was no record of and here they are:-

 

A chat with Sheila who’s a member of some family history organisations and has spent time looking at both our family histories and she went searching through newspaper records of the time turning up a Rochdale Observer article, dated 23^rd December 1967, reporting on the London trip and award presentation and here it is:-

 

The photo has clearly not scanned well when the newspaper archive was digitised with just a vague outline of little me on the right. To be honest, whilst I did remember that I went to London with a little girl and a member of staff I had no recall of their names, but now I know that the girl was Rosemary Clayton and the teacher was Miss Robinshaw. I wonder what became of them both?

So a matter I’ve pondered about for many years has finally been explained in far more detail than I ever expected. I enjoyed my 4 years living in Rochdale and have fond memories of it. I was living there due to my Dad, George Robertson, being the manager (1964 – 1968) of Thomas Cook the travel agent shop in Drake Street. We left Rochdale in 1968 when he became manager of another Thomas Cook shop in Lord Street, Liverpool.

And a final thought. I was hardly a high achiever at school but was never in trouble either. I’d describe myself as a quiet lad who sat in classes daydreaming, so I wonder why I was selected to go to London to pick up a ‘Feed the Minds’ prize that the school had won?

 

Looking for Frank’s Place

Frank Hornby, of Dinky Toys, Hornby Railways and Meccano fame, was born at 77 Copperas Hill, Liverpool on 15^th May 1863.

Copperas is an interesting word and in this case it denotes a place where Copper Sulphate was produced, Copperas being the old name for it. It was produced at a works owned by the Hughes family. No.77 along with a number of other properties on this road were demolished when Lime Street Station was enlarged. This is what the location looks like in 2025:-

In 1994 Liverpool City Council decided to mark this world famous toy maker’s birthplace by creating and installing a cast metal plaque in Lime Street Station. This is the very plaque:-

In 1999, when Lime Street Station was undergoing a huge refurbishment the plaque was removed and was seemingly lost forever. However, it turned up at an auction where a keen eyed Hornby enthusiast both recognises and buys it. The Chap concerned is a member of the Hornby Railway Collectors’ Assn (HRCA) and via this organisation the plaque is handed back to Network Rail.

In 2023 it is unveiled on an easel at Lime Street as this link to Network Rail’s website details:-

https://www.networkrailmediacentre.co.uk/news/return-of-the-plaque-missing-model-railway-inventor-tribute-reinstated

The plan, we understand, is that it will be placed on a wall within the station near to the statues of Bessie Braddock and Ken Dodd but, as Lime Street Station is a listed building, permission has to be gained. Here’s the area where we believe the plaque will be erected at some point:-

Pending such erection it’s in Lime Street Station’s ‘Mini-Museum’ which is a part of the Standard Class Waiting Room adjacent to the First Class Waiting Room. These facilities are not on the concourse but on the first floor above M&S, Costa etc. and it’s accessed via a set of stairs by the shops. Here’s a photo of the plaque's present surroundings in the Standard Class waiting room at Lime Street Station:- 

 

So that's the story of Frank's birthplace and where he's being remembered. To find out more about Frank Hornby, his world famous Meccano Factory and its products have a look at the website of Maghull's Frank Hornby Charitable Trust at:-

 https://www.frankhornby.co.uk/

or visit Maghull's Frank Hornby Heritage Centre in the Town he lived for much of his adult life. Maghull is 7 miles north of Liverpool and the Heritage Centre is within Meadows Leisure Centre with the same opening days and hours as Maghull Library.

  

 

Cars and social status

Social status has always intrigued me as I’ve never really been able to get my head around it. Maybe it’s because I’m a Liberal by instinct and see social status as being of no interest?

Anyway, this particular ramble is about cars and the perceived social status that goes with them. Of course, such social status before the motorcar was based on the ‘turnout’ of the horse, harness and carriage, so Jack Hargreaves tells us in an episode of the early 1980’s Ch4 TV programme ‘Old Country’. You can find it here on YouTube -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9gbY0cAvDA

For me too it all started back in the early 1980’s when my dad, who’d previously bought his own cars (his first was a Morris Traveller), was given one by his employer, seemingly because he was a branch manager as a part of his employment package. A nice yellow MKI Vauxhall Astra. The car he sold on gaining the Astra he’d previously bought from his company when the lease on dad’s area manger’s car, a green Triumph 1500, came to an end.

                     Me & Mum - 1966 (in Rochdale) with Dad's Morris Traveller

You may realise realise from this that dad’s area manager had gained a company car some years prior but then again an area manager covering the whole of the north west of England would clearly need a car and anyway he was obviously deemed to be of a higher eployment/social status. As an aside, I bought that MKI yellow Astra from my dad’s company when it in turn came to the end of its lease. Dad, at that point, was given an MKII Astra.

Without doubt I’d noticed, unsurprisingly, that dad’s area manager was given a higher spec’ car and it made my youngish mind wonder about cars and social status.

Yes, of course, cars have always had a status about them as in the early days it was only the wealthy who could run them. As they got cheaper the ownership base widened, but even in the early 1960’s having a family car was still relatively unusual amongst ordinary working class/lower middle class folk. The local doctor would have one to do his rounds, but they were still pretty much beyond the pocket of many working people. Now, of course, the lack of a car is all but seen as odd in our car dependent communities.

I read the other day about what, if I recall correctly, was a Dutch study regarding the effects of taking children to school by car instead of walking/cycling. Unsurprisingly, the walkers and cyclists taking their children to school were fitter, had less body mass but interestingly they also seemed happier too. So clearly running a car on shortish journeys has more than financial consequences; it damages your health/wellbeing too.

The now infamous school-run clogs up roads around primary schools in particular and often the journeys made are less than a couple of miles. But is having a car and taking your children to school in it all part of social status or is it just a consequence of young families living their days at 90mph so to speak? I suggest both.

Does a parent in a basic run-around car feel socially inadequate against a row of top of the range German cars that their children’s friends parents roll up in? Are parents who walk or cycle their children to school left feeling as though they don’t quite fit in?

And here’s another interesting and rather sad aside. Quite some years ago, during the time I was a local councillor, I was contacted by a pensioner couple who asked me if I could try to get a local circular bus route to take in their estate. It seemed like a good idea to me so I surveyed the quite middle class estate telling them about the request and asking for support to campaign for the route to be adjusted accordingly. Suffice to say I got a lot of negative responses from car-owning folk who did not see the need/want a bus trundling around their estate. I only got positive responses, in the main, from households without a car and they were few and far between. Without a groundswell of support the campaign was doomed. See what a mean about car dependent communities; we’ve got them and some folk will cling hard onto them.

A chap I know recently told me that a friend of his had likened his car to an old lady’s shopping car. Yes, it’s a small car but quite adequate for his purposes and budget and the person making the remark had a much fancier car. Did it make him feel inadequate and looked down upon? Yes, it certainly did.

All this makes me think that cars are very much the ultimate status symbol in our society. Having a car is vital if you want to fit in. Having a grand car is a further step up and you may well feel the need to compete with your family/friendship group to stay fitting in. It’s like having the latest i phone, wearing the latest fashions, even having the latest footballers’ hair cut, for blokes anyway. And talking of Prem League footballers and indeed other successful sports people don’t they always have an expensive car to go with their perceived celeb’ status?

And what of Tesla’s? With sales seemingly dropping off following the company owner doing what looked to many to be akin to a 1930/40’s German political salute the cars gained the unfortunate nickname ‘Swasticar’ and overnight a popular car amongst the middle classes with an environmental/social conscience became a problem. Will they sell second hand? Will environmentalists continue to buy them? Will they now sell to far right supporters? Probably not as they also tend to be fossil fuel enthusiasts, so no buyers there then. If you bought one to be up with the latest car trend or simply because you want to do the right thing for our environment* then buyer regrets may well be an unfortunate consequence.

I must admit that I’d rather not have a car. It costs me small fortune to run, but our evermore car dependent communities mean that unless you live within a major city your public transport options, particularly with regard to buses, get less and less by the year. But just look at how London is changing (health warning -petrol heads should not view the following video because of potential detrimental blood pressure consequences) but will it lead to a whole new social status issue with cycles? -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OunBRdTIe3w&t=339s

Yes, I’ve got a car but it’s not a BMW, Merc’ or Audi etc. so no, I’m certainly not trying to fit in and may well be looked down upon and perceived to be of a low social status as a consequence, but frankly this old Liberal doesn’t give a damn.

Now go out, stretch your budget as far as you can, lease a fancy car and show it off at the school gate and amongst your friendship group. But you’ll have to keep upgrading to maintain your social status. If, however, you can’t afford to upgrade (oh the social shame of it) change the number plate to a personalised one. It’ll get you some social Brownie points and stop folks reading your reg plate to clock the age of the car and them realising your just a poor person struggling to keep up.

* Electric cars generally are not necessarily good for the environment as we may like to think because mining for the minerals to build batteries is a massive problem in the making.