Large Desolate Areas Of The North East

[Ric.ror]

Hope all you folk living in that area have an enjoyable evening despite living in a large desolate area

[alexanderd]

Jno, the Archbishop of Canterbury was, until recently, Bishop of Durham so knows the area very well.

[New Judge]

It is perfectly correct, LG. There are large areas of desolation in the North East. There are far fewer, if any, such areas in the south. Whether it's reasonable or not is more subjective.

"...the North East means anywhere right of the Pennines between the top of the Wash and Berwick on Tweed?"

What about Essex, east Cambridgeshire, Suffolk and Norfolk? Chingford and Walthamstow have a good case for inclusion too. :-)

[humbersloop]

Nope, that's the South East.



Obviously

[doctordb]

Surely it makes sense to turn all the old mining communities into 'fracking' communities.
We're constantly told how great the mining industry was and how happy the people who worked in it were. Surely the people of those towns would jump at the chance of the return of heavy industry to their area, digging up the earth and changing the landscape. It would be just like the good 'ol days which is after all, isn't that exactly what they want?

[doctordb]

Www.miningwasgreat.com

[LazyGun]

@NJ No, it is not. Fracking is safe, isn't it? And it is the phrase used "desolate" which betrays his inner feelings about "The North".

Plenty of empty space in the South East - and if shale gas is so important to us as a nation, and so safe - I am sure that those in the South East would be willing to do their national duty, surely?

Otherwise, it is Nimbyism, pure and simple....

[sunny-dave]

There's an easy answer to the anti-fracking lobby (and the anti-nuclear too) - just point out that the lights will be going off from around winter 17/18 whatever we do.

It's too bl**dy late to build/drill/fack/dig our way out of it now, and the foreign chappies will be keeping their electricity at home to meet their own shortages - not exporting it to us.

Offer people who live in the designated frack/nuke zones a guarantee of energy security (even if the rest of the country is on short-time supplies) and possibly a discount on the energy price too.

I'd bite their hands off if it was offered to me - I'd prefer nuke to frack, but either would do.

[New Judge]

An excellent point, doctorb, and one which I had overlooked.

You don’t need any links, Kosmos. All you need is an appreciation of the events surrounding the 1984/5 miners’ strike and the reaction of the mining communities to the government which closed the pits - and the attitudes which still prevail thirty years later. All of this will give you the impression that "mining was great".

[ludwig]

He should have just said 'It's grim up north, let's keep all the industrial sh1t up there where no-one that matters will notice', and not tried to paraphrase it.

[Wharton]

I thought the North East of the UK was Shetland.

[ludwig]

I think it's the use of the word 'desolate' that makes it funny.

[Ric.ror]

I'm hearing Howell but I'm seeing Osborne!

[naomi24]

‘Desolate’ – poor choice of terminology.

[sandyRoe]

Wasn't it Lord Howell's political mistress, Thatcher, who was responsible for much of that desolation?

[hawksley]

So Howell ,is Osbornes father in law , is that why they both suffer from foot and mouth disease.

[New Judge]

Sorry to harp on about this but Lord Howell DID NOT SAY that the entire area known as the North East was desolate. What he said was this:

“There are large uninhabited and desolate areas, certainly up in the North East where there is plenty of room for fracking to take place well away from anybody‘s residence, where it can be conducted without any kind of threat to the rural environment“

Not quite the same as saying the North East is a desolate hell-hole.

It seems the word “desolate” is the main cause of offence, so here are Some synonyms of the word:

abandoned; bare; bleak; isolated, lonely; vacant; wild

So I will repeat. This is perfectly true. There are huge areas in that part of the country where the word “desolate” is perfectly appropriate . The area does not comprise solely Newcastle, Durham, Sunderland and Hartlepool. In particular the areas to the west of the Darlington-Newcastle roads are particularly bleak and deserted. As has been pointed out, much of the coal mining country has been largely abandoned - i.e. made desolate - so we are led to believe by those still harping back to decisions taken thirty years ago. The only mistake My Lord Howell made was to suggest that those areas be used when I believe they have not been identified as potentially very fruitful for fracking.

Of course Lord Howell has apologised. That’s what politicians do when they believe they have upset somebody, however unjustified that may be. Despite the big cities growing nicely over recent years areas such as the North East are constantly moaning that they receive no investment. They are, it is said, crying out for “jobs” and here we have the opportunity for a major industry to start up in the UK. But there is the usual prevarication and hand wringing over “where” “when” “who will it affect more than others” and so it goes on until - as with electricity generation and London‘s airport expansion plans - too little will come about too late. The entire nation cannot be employed as bankers or stockbrokers. Some people will have to get their hands dirty if they want to work and some people will have to put up with industry close to where they live. Nobody moaned when the North East was covered with pit winding gear and *** heaps (or when miners died horrible deaths as a result of their work).

Just for the record I am just as annoyed with the protesters kicking off in Balcombe - especially those who are “professional agitators” and who seem to have little connection with the area. I understand that Lord Howell’s speech was designed to divert disruption away from such areas to places which he considers more appropriate. But his remarks about parts of the North East being desolate were perfectly reasonable.

[ludwig]

Even his fellow peers were falling about laughing before he'd finished making the point NJ. We all know what he meant, it was just an amusing choice of words that made him look like a character out of a political satire.

[Gromit]

Lord Howell has now admitted he made a mistake.
Apparently he meant to say North WEST not North East.

So that's better? What a fracking idiot!

[ludwig]

What a plonker. He's trying to be demonstrate an awareness of the geography outside of the home counties, by being too specific.
He really should keep it simple, and just say 'up north'.