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FROM STALIN'S MOSCOW TO SALTBURN - THE ODYSSEY OF ROSA THORNTON (ROSA RUST)
An interesting past piece from the column by the enigmatic "Hollie Bush" in the East Cleveland newspaper, Coastal View, and which tells of a local Saltburn lady's personal voyage through the politics,...
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BOOSBECK'S 'BRIGHT PARTICULAR STARS' - RESPONSES TO 30'S JOBLESSNESS IN EAST...
It was an interesting experience to pick up a book and finding a big chunk of local East Cleveland political history sitting in it. But that was what I knew I would find in 'Bright Particular Stars'...
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A SPECIAL BROTHERLY RELATIONSHIP ? LESSONS FROM US TRADE UNIONS
The present (at the time of writing) continuing stand-off between Obama and the tea party republicans who cannot, cannot stomach anything that looks like a NHS, just illustrates the levels to which the...
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Ray Davis on a Well Respected Man
I spotted the following para in the Independent the other day."Ray Davies, leader of the Kinks and the first man to get a reference to the Inland Revenue into the British charts – as in “the taxman’s...
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Brighthouse, or s...thouse?
I noticed that the Regent Walk retail centre on Redcar's High Street has had a new opening, But this may not be one to celebrate. It is about 13 years since as the then Council Leader I booked Mo...
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"Dealey Plaza Closed for Re-Surfacing" - JFK 50 Years On
A fortnight or so back in the PRT I used up a few paras to look at the state of class politics in the US, based on the then stand-off between the Obama democratic forces and the far right, neo-liberal...
View ArticleA House, A House, My Kingdom for a House!
There are very few areas of policy more political than planning. Within the scope of the debate on planning, there are few areas more political than housing policy. Locally not only is the management...
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Ninety Years and Counting - the 1923 Labour Government in Retrospect!
An anniversary that seems to be slipping off the radar, is that, at the end of this month, we will be celebrating 90 years since the election of the first ever Labour Government in the UK.Although this...
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'FAKE MUSIC' - SPYING ON SWORD DANCERS, NAZIS, WORK CAMPS AND ENGLISH FOLK MUSIC
A month or so back the PRT ran a small piece on responses to 1930's unemployment in East Cleveland, featuring the small mining village of...
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AND COMING NOW TONY BENN - THE FILM
This a sneak preview of the feature documentary, Will and Testament which the film-makers say will be coming to cinemas in late Spring 2014, and a very good trailer in its own right it is too.See...
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The Fire Next Time - Piper Alpha Remembered As A Warning From History.
25 Years ago this week, the single most destructive disaster in the UK offshore oil industry occurred when the Rig Piper Alpha caught fire. 167 men, some from Teesside, died that night. As Aberdeen...
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Dirigible daydreams - the balloon and airship in socialist romance.
Now with July on us comes an utter warm weather whimsy. Nothing local. Just simple whimsy. Take ballooning. If there was ever a pursuit that seemed to be for the nobs it is this. The thought of...
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REPUBLICANISM, REVOLUTIONARY RHETORIC AND FENIAN RIOT IN 1870'S STOCKTON
Last week's disturbances in Belfast, where 'loyalists' rioted, after being denied their 'right' as they view it, to march in strength through nationalist areas, was a minor feature of the news....
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DETROIT AND DECAY - COULD IT HAPPEN HERE ?
Last weeks news that Detroit has gone bust leads me to the thought; could it happen here ? The sheer scale of Whitehall cash cuts to revenue and capital budgets of our local councils is such that the...
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From Cameron's very own white van to 'Keep Britain White' - The Economic...
It's summer, parliament is not sitting and the silly season is on us. And nothing more silly than the sight of a poster display vans driving around areas with a large Asian population advising the...
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Preparing for Power - Labour's route map for democratic renewal
I was struck by the Archbishop of Canterbury's attack on the Wongas of this world, and more so because he argued for community based credit unions as an antidote to the payday lenders. It is telling...
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Ancestral Voices on Immigration and the Politics of Race
A fortnight ago I was fighting a (finally successful) by-election for Redcar and Cleveland Borough Council in my home village ward of Skelton,It quickly became aware to me and the by-election team from...
View ArticleDoes anybody have a fracking clue?
The public, arguably, has every right to be confused sometimes. How can you have a divide between the passion of the anti-fracking protests yesterday, which culminated in the arrest of Green Party MP...
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From Red Petrograd to the Redcar Sea Front - A Tale of Two Towers
Now that the sun is starting to take its hat off, and is making a belated appearance in our sky, time for a day trip to somewhere like Redcar. Once you are there, time to check out what was last...
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The Attack on the Poor the Press Missed
Last week's Autumn Statement by George Osborne went unnoticed by almost everyone on Teesside, and we were being battered by one of the worst storms in living memory. I speak as some one who spent...
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