On the BBC Breakfast News this morning was a fairly long piece about ‘The Northern Powerhouse’; featuring Liverpool and the impovements being made to transport and the docks. The reporter in question then ‘went out’ to garner the views of people about the improvements being made – which were greeted with enthusiasm.

Where the improvements in Liverpool are concerned one may look no further than what have been designated as ‘Priority Routes’ by the European Union – explained here, here and here – and how many of those asked knew that these ‘improvements’ were nothing to do with the Westminster government or any initiative on its part, even though Westminster claims the credit.

Likewise, referring to the ‘Northern Powerhouse’, not all is as it seems. Improvements to Teeside, road improvements in the region etc, are all being carried out with ‘financial assistance’, and/or, to comply with the need to provide the ‘feeder’ routes to ‘Priority Project’ routes. Remember, under the last government Regional Develoment Agencies were ‘replaced’ with Local Enterprise Partnerships (same animal, different name). Witness: the North East LEP area funds include £460m from the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and European Social Fund (ESF) as well as £10.5m from the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD). County Durham qualifies for an additional £7.7m from the Youth Employment Initiative (YEI) (source).

What we are seeing, althought few realise it, is regionalisation by the back door; and the idea behind creating a’Northern Powerhouse’ is just that – but we are hardly likely to hear one politition admit that; after all, have we not recenty been informed that all politicians lie – and so do, deliberately?

When we look at events in the House of Commons today, following the Queen’s Speech, one cannot be reminded of ‘performing monkeys’ – and we, the taxpayer, funds these animals to the tune of £millions per annum? FCS, for the price of admission to London Zoo – and a few bananas – we can enjoy the same show and for a lot less.

The last few words that appeared on a Facebook page today, said it all (whether true or not – but you get my drift):

THESE ARE ACTUAL COMPLAINTS RECEIVED BY “THOMAS COOK VACATIONS” FROM DISSATISFIED CUSTOMERS:

1. “On my holiday to Goa in India, I was disgusted to find that almost every restaurant served curry. I don’t like spicy food.”

2. “They should not allow topless sunbathing on the beach. It was very distracting for my husband who just wanted to relax.”

3. “We went on holiday to Spain and had a problem with the taxi drivers as they were all Spanish.”

4. “We booked an excursion to a water park but no-one told us we had to bring our own swimsuits and towels. We assumed it would be included in the price.”

5. “The beach was too sandy. We had to clean everything when we returned to our room.”

6. “We found the sand was not like the sand in the brochure. Your brochure shows the sand as white but it was more yellow.”

7. “It’s lazy of the local shopkeepers in Puerto Vallartato close in the afternoons. I often needed to buy things during ‘siesta’ time — this should be banned.”

8. “No-one told us there would be fish in the water. The children were scared.”

9. “Although the brochure said that there was a fully equipped kitchen, there was no egg-slicer in the drawers.”

10. “I think it should be explained in the brochure that the local convenience store does not sell proper biscuits like custard creams or ginger nuts.”

11. “The roads were uneven and bumpy, so we could not read the local guide book during the bus ride to the resort. Because of this, we were unaware of many things that would have made our holiday more fun.”

12. “It took us nine hours to fly home from Jamaica to England. It took the Americans only three hours to get home. This seems unfair.”

13. “I compared the size of our one-bedroom suite to our friends’ three-bedroom and ours was significantly smaller.”

14. “The brochure stated: ‘No hairdressers at the resort.’ We’re trainee hairdressers and we think they knew and made us wait longer for service.”

15. “When we were in Spain, there were too many Spanish people there. The receptionist spoke Spanish, the food was Spanish. No one told us that there would be so many foreigners.”

16. “We had to line up outside to catch the boat and there was no air-conditioning.”

17. “It is your duty as a tour operator to advise us of noisy or unruly guests before we travel.”

18. “I was bitten by a mosquito. The brochure did not mention mosquitoes.”

19. “My fiancée and I requested twin-beds when we booked, but instead we were placed in a room with a king bed. We now hold you responsible and want to be re-reimbursed for the fact that I became pregnant. This would not have happened if you had put us in the room that we booked.”

BE AWARE …

THEY WALK AMONG US and THEY VOTE!

And it is expected that the electorate have the ‘nous’ to understand all the aspects of our nation’s membership of the EU and to pass reasoned judgement on that, come a referendum?

Just asking……………………