Hull 2017

One of the great things about the City of Culture programme is it gives you a reason, not that you should need one, to visit places you’ve never been before.  So on Saturday 10^th April I headed across the Pennines to Hull.  I’d booked the train weeks ago and the weather was going to be the luck of the draw, thankfully lady luck saw that I arrived in East Yorkshire to a perfect spring day of unbroken sunshine.



As this was my first visit my immediate call was to the Hull 2017 welcome desk on the station concourse where I was greeted by the volunteers who were friendly and informative about what was on, and who devised a route I should follow to make the most of my day and advised where to get lunch.  Armed with my information leaflets and a map I headed off towards the heart of the city centre.  

My first stop was to see the poppies “Weeping Window”, I’d volunteered as one of the Culture Ambassador team when the poppies were at St George’s Hall in Liverpool last year, so was interested to see how they compared.  The Hull Maritime Museum is a smaller building and at the end of the main shopping street so the location is busier and has lots of people just walking past, whereas in Liverpool people had made a conscious decision to go towards the installation.  It felt less sombre that in Liverpool, although the sunny day atmosphere also contrasted with the Remembrance Day and winter period that St George’s Hall hosted them.

Weeping Window - Paul Cummins and Tom Piper

I then went into the Maritime Museum which has some interesting material telling the story of the port and especially the Whaling and Fishing industries.  The Court Room is a very impressive room which echoed to the wealthy merchants and ship owners who once here to watch their ships and cargo sailing past the windows.  Across the road stands the Ferens Art Gallery.  The first work you see looks like a mound of pebbles and stones relocated from the shoreline, but are in fact all pieces of plastic and polyurethane which have been moulded and transformed by the actions of the sea.  It fills the centre of the entrance foyer very well.  

Cove - Alexander Duncan

Moving into the galleries there is a good selection of nautical paintings but my eye was particularly taken by large black boards with chalk drawings by Tacita Dean "Roaring Forties: Seven Boards in Seven Days, 1997".

Roaring Forties, Tacita Dean

Down to the Old Town, like many maritime cities there is grandeur and wealth in the architecture lining the streets,  I enjoyed the sights and smells of Trinity Market – a proper market with atmosphere (take note Liverpool's St Johns Market!).

Over the road to the Fruit Market in search of lunch.  As I turned into Humber Street I was stopped by one of the Culture Volunteers and told I'd enjoy the gallery but I'd need to discover what it was myself.  So I entered Kingston Art Galley to discover... a lot of urinals! Fountain 17 turned out to be one of the highlights of the day.  It was quirky and fun, I loved it so much I bought the book..

My lovely volunteer was pleased that I had enjoyed her recommendation for art, and now pointed me in the right direction for lunch at Thieving Harrys at the end of the street, and I had a very good burger, chips and a grapefruit juice for £9.  Before I left Humber Street the end of the building opposite was a fun colourful addition to the landscape

I walked along the waterfront towards The Deep on the other side of the River Hull – although I didn’t go in as aquariums aren't high on my list of places to visit and I wanted to stay out in the fresh spring sunshine.

Back to the boardwalk alongside the River Hull the traditional trawler Arctic Corsair is moored outside the transport museum but my next call was the William Wilberforce House, this was interesting to see both the 17th century house, and the slavery exhibition.  It really reminds you of the cruelty of the human race, but also it's humanity, even if the latter doesn't always outweigh the former.

The Streetlife Transport Museum was next with a good collection of trams, buses and mock-up shops with an extensive carriage collection on the 1st floor.

After this I traced my steps back to the Fruit Market as I wanted to see the difference to the river scene as the tide had now come in, so I grabbed an ice cream and watched some yachts entering the marina basin.

As the galleries were now closing, and the shops winding down, my day was drawing to a close so I had a walk around Queens Dock Gardens before heading back to the station.  

Luckily the volunteer information was still open so I made a point of stopping to thank them for their help and to say how much I had enjoyed the day.  The Hull 2017 programme is unfolding and changing throughout the year so there remains plenty to go back for, and I'm already planning my next visit for a couple of months time.

Article 50

Tuesday 29th March 2017 was a rather insignificant day in the grand scheme of things, but it marked a further milestone in the history of the United Kingdom.

As the US Secretary of State Dean Acheson put it in 1962, “Great Britain has lost an Empire and has not yet found a role”

In 1973 we found a role, of joining with our European neighbours, which had for too long been our enemies, to become a modern European nation and to help, and indeed lead the way, in rebuilding and reshaping Europe for the fast changing world we were witnessing.  And we did, the single market which you hear so much about was a British idea, ironically led by Margaret Thatcher who was a European, pragmatically if not culturally.

The world changed faster than we foresaw, and perhaps faster than we as human beings with complex emotions could deal with.  Certainties around our world, our homes, our jobs and our families were upended and many people struggled with the change, and struggled to see how they fitted into it.

The EEC, later the EU was often blamed for things over which it had no control.  People in my part of the country blamed the EU for the loss of trade on the docks, but it was the automation of containerisation and handling of bulk commodities which changed the workforce on the docks, indeed trade is higher now than in the so called boom years of the 1950s, albeit serviced by a workforce of 400 instead of 6000.

The EU is blamed for making cosmetic improvements, for instance funding an artwork, rather than building a new place of work.  But remember ‘what’ the funding is spent on is decided locally not by a civil servant in Brussels.  It is someone in your town hall who wanted the artwork, not a “eurocrat”.

It is very true that areas of the UK have been left behind, if a large factory closes in your town, its effects are devastating to the whole community, and whilst the EU can fund a replacement building, and train our young people in the new skills needed, it cannot bring back the quantity of jobs lost.

Of course I’m writing this from a city which has benefitted enormously from EU funding, and the voters here could see how much we gain from co-operation with our European neighbours, but equally I can see how if you are from a former industrial town which has declined, and continues to do so, no matter how many fancy new buildings and artworks have been put up, the option in the referendum to carry on as we have was hardly a tempting offer.  Who can blame them therefore for accepting the offer from the Leave side who offered them something different, even though the offer was false at worst, exaggerated at best.

The 44 years we have so far been in the EU have seen enormous advances on our continent.  Who looking forward from 1973 could have seen the fall of the Berlin Wall; the collapse of the Soviet Union; the amazingly smooth transition of former Soviet states to proud independent European nations; peace and cross-community governance,  albeit still fragile, in Northern Ireland.  And although we all, worldwide, live in uncertain and indeed dangerous times, we are much more prosperous than our parents and grandparents were, even if for some, that prosperity is unequal and unfairly distributed.

So the leaving process has begun.  The focus now falls on the teams put in place to deliver the negotiated settlement.  No longer can David Davies, Liam Fox, Boris Johnson and Theresa May smile and just say everything will be fine, or tell us how excited they are for the future.  They need to now explain how and when things will change.  What the people of the country need to do to be ready for that change.  And what will happen if the change isn’t for the better.

We cannot accept a situation where we leave the EU whatever the conditions, whatever the damage to our country, whatever the cost.  As an elected politician and as a duly appointed Prime Minister, Theresa May’s overriding duty is to protect the country.  If at the end of the two year negotiation period it is shown to her that leaving the EU is wrong for the country, then she must stop the process.  To do otherwise is to knowingly cause damage to her own nation and the electorate will be her judge.

Nine months have passed since the referendum and I have yet to hear a single reason why this country will be better off, economically, politically or culturally outside the EU.  I have heard abstract concepts about democracy and sovereignty, and of course plenty of comments about immigration, both reasoned and downright racially prejudiced.  But I have not heard anyone explain what we will be able to do in March 2019 that we cannot do now, which will make this country better.

To name four key areas:
Sovereignty – we have it, never lost it, otherwise how are we doing what we are doing now.

Immigration – the UK Government has the power to limit immigration from other EU countries – Directive 2004/38/EC of 2004 – but chooses, except in limited special cases, not to utilise it.

Democracy – the European Parliament is elected, and on a proportional basis.  I find it amusing that UKIP, unable to have a single MP* elected to Westminster, has 20 MEPs (making them the joint largest UK representative party) yet continues to accuse the EU of being undemocratic!
*Douglas Carswell being a special case in that he was already an MP.

Trade – We can and do trade with the rest of the world.  But why does Germany trade more with our commonwealth partners, India, Australia, and New Zealand than we do?  Being EU members isn’t holding Germany back, so why do we believe it does so to the UK?  We are told that the Commonwealth, quite stupidly referred to as "Empire 2.0" will ride to the rescue as if those nations have been sitting there for 44 years just waiting for our return - what nonsense. One leave voter even said Britain will be OK because "everywhere in the world loves us" conveniently ignoring who those countries celebrate their independence from.

I remain fundamentally opposed to the UK leaving the EU.  I have always agreed that the EU is not perfect and sometimes needs a kick up the backside, but that equally applies to our government whether Westminster or local town hall.

Brexit can be stopped, I believe it should, but I think it’s unlikely to be.  What happens in the future nobody knows, will there even be a United Kingdom in 10 years?  If Scotland is offered accelerated membership of the EU it may well vote to leave.  Northern Ireland is at a crossroads and if the government in Dublin play this cleverly and with more emphasis on the future than the past it may well lead to a United Ireland in my lifetime.

What will happen to the EU?  The more excitable Brexiters not only expect a breakup of the EU, they positively froth at the mouth at the very thought of it.  They are mistaken.  The history of the continent is not the same as the England’s.  Despite all the nonsense about the EU being a dictatorship, a lot of Europeans have actually lived in a dictatorship, they have seen what happens when you divide a continent and will never go back to those divisions.  The EU may well change, I expect that it will.  Perhaps to a less controlling, but more defined federal structure, a sort of United State of Europe Lite.

The world has changed, and is still changing.  I believe the superpower of the next generation will be China.  Europe will need to be strong and united to face China across the negotiation table, already Germany trades with China at 4 times greater levels than the UK.  When China wants to talk to Europe they will do so through Brussels or Berlin.  They’ll speak to London too of course, but we won’t be first on their list.

London, Manchester, Liverpool, Bristol, Newcastle, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Belfast – these are modern European cities, whose citizens think of travelling, trading and working in Paris, Berlin, Madrid and Rome as no different to doing so in the their sister UK cities.  These modern British Europeans may understand but do not share their fellow citizens opposition to the EU.  And no doubt those who so fervently voted to leave cannot understand our support for it.

Mrs May speaks of wanting the United Kingdom to be fairer and more united than ever before. Unfortunately the country is far too divided for that to happen any time soon.  Whilst any discussion about Brexit is accompanied by talk of Remoaners and Quitlers, whilst both sides refuse to budge in their beliefs, whilst even the Commons chamber echoes to triumphalism and rancour, her wish will lie unfulfilled.  Both sides in this debate are convinced that they are right.  Some will quieten down over the coming weeks and months; some will never accept they are wrong; most will wait and see what happens.

Liverpool 2022

World Firefighter Games, Liverpool, 2008 - Opening Parade

When the Mayor of Liverpool, Joe Anderson suggested that Liverpool was interested in bidding to be host city for the Commonwealth Games in 2026 I thought it sounds interesting, something we should at least consider but it’s a long way off, I’ll get round to getting excited about the prospect one day, but not yet.

Suddenly with Durban’s hosting of the 2022 games looking in doubt, we now have the prospect of Liverpool stepping into host the games in 5 years’ time!

I’ve no doubt there are the usual suspects, and others, already shaking their heads and denouncing this as a non-runner which we can’t achieve.  And the usual keyboard warriors are probably already wheeling out their rusty scouser “jokes” that weren’t funny 20 years ago.  But me, I love a challenge, and my first instinct was “bloody hell, we need to roll our sleeves up, pull our fingers out, and put our backs into it” (and other assorted metaphors).

Can it be done?  Yes of course it can.

Can we do it? Yes, if we want to.

Will we do it? That’s the question.

Tour of Britain, Liverpool, 2014

If we are going to leave the EU and embrace “Global Britain” then what could be more of a statement of intent than a trading mercantile city like Liverpool hosting the Commonwealth’s finest athletes.

5 years is a very short time to organise a Games, so we’d need to bring some new thinking to the bid.  For a start we’d need to build venues, or would we?  When Glasgow hosted the Games in 2014, the swimming events were held in Edinburgh, so there is no reason why our cycling events couldn’t be held at the Manchester Velodrome.  There are existing venues and locations we could use in the North West and North Wales, all within an hour’s journey from Liverpool.  All the indoor activities could be accommodated in the Liverpool Arena & Exhibition Centre complex.  This could also give an impetus to the pending development at Liverpool Waters and Bramley Moore Stadium (Everton FC). 

But with the cost of hosting the Commonwealth, and the Olympic, Games becoming out of reach of many countries (hence why Durban are struggling) surely bringing the games back down to a realistic footing would bode well for their future 

The DCMS and HM Treasury would of course need to put some money where their post-Brexit mouths are, but with Theresa May presumably having won the 2020 election, what could be better than a mid second term opportunity to stand tall on the world stage.

The Mayor of Liverpool, Mayor of Liverpool City Region and Mayor of Greater Manchester would also need to work together on this – alas not a mean feat in itself – to present a cohesive plan to the government and Commonwealth Games Federation.

Sea Odyssey, Liverpool 2012

And of course we’d need to have the people of the city on board.  There will be plenty of naysayers, aka the Echo Comments page, but one of the key reasons we won 2008 Capital of Culture was the willingness of the people to get behind the bid.  We need that spirit to prevail again.

So, Liverpool 2022. #AllHandsOnDeck

Cambrian Rally 2017

An early start meant leaving Liverpool at 4am to get to Llandudno to marshal on the start line for this year's Cambrian. I marshalled in stage last year but with very different conditions I thought better of taking a rear-wheel drive, low-slung sports car into the forests this year.
The weather on the way to Llandudno was warmer (4c not -1c) but wetter than forecast, but it was dry when I got there, with a brisk wind coming in off the sea. 

I busied myself putting last bits of safety notices up before the competitors starting arriving and at 7:30 the first car left the ramp and the 2017 BTRDA championship was underway (or so we thought) - https://www.btrdarally.com/ - I was on the exit gate getting the cars safely off the promenade, onto the road, and heading off for the 30 mile drive to SS1 in the Alwen Forest. 

All 112(?) cars were away by 9:20 - shout out to the organisers for the bacon barm cake and coffee that James brought round - and it was time to stand down for a few hours. I was staying for the day, so decided to have a power nap in the car, and then planned to go for a walk around the Great Orme before regroup at 3pm to prepare for the cars finishing.  

As High Tide was at 10:54, and with some waves getting a bit close to topping the prom I decided to stay in the car until the sea receded a bit in case I needed to relocate, so it was around 11am that I heard the distinctive sound of rally cars unexpectedly reappearing.  

So it was back on with the jacket and hi-viz to see what was going on - the rally was cancelled due to the snow and ice, and all cars were heading back to us to get a finishing time, and hand in their damage reports. There were only 3 of us around initially so we were a bit busy until reinforcements quickly arrived, and we managed to get all cars checked back in by 12:30.
We all quickly got the rally furniture, start/finish ramp, safety barriers etc dismantled and by 2:15pm there was nothing else for me to do except head for home. The rain had returned by then, and with road works near Deeside it was 5pm by the time I got back. 

Chatting to the drivers it was clear that conditions in the forest were bad, but as I was on the coast all day I didn't realise how bad it was until videos started to appear last night.

Hairpin Media: https://youtu.be/2xN13gMIEwo

Sideways Media: https://youtu.be/Lyip1Tlt5rk

The organisers made the only decision possible, the cars, even those with 4-wheel drive, were struggling and simply sliding on the ice which isn't safe for the competitors, marshals or spectators.  The other two stages were even worse apparently and marshals couldn't even get to their posts on one of them. With hindsight, the cover photo for this year's rally (top of this blog) was quite prophetic..

A disappointing end to the day, but we can't control mother nature. Next event for me is in two weeks for the North West Stages - http://www.nwstages.co.uk/ - where I'll on the finish at Weeton Barracks near Blackpool (hopefully without snow!)

Time to move on

Boris Johnson's ill-conceived garbage earlier today (18 January 2017) was crass and embarrassing. To liken the French President to a Nazi PoW guard showed a total lack of respect. Can you imagine Lord Carrington,  Malcolm Rifkind,  Harold McMillan et al saying such a thing.
David Davis also reached for a WW2 reference today, whilst, less surprisingly the tabloid press used wartime imagary to illustrate May's speech. 
Now, I enjoy watching a good war movie, and laugh along with Dads Army, I'm proud of what our country did to fight fascism and respectful of the sacrifices made by those that served in wartime, but it's about time our country got over its obsession with WW2. Of course we must remember, but it's in the past, not the future, whilst we sit watching "Sink The Bismarck" (and I do) the Germans have got on with making a success of their shipbuilding and maritime industry. Whilst we hum along to the theme tune of "633 Squadron" Germany has got on with exporting twice as much to the US as we do, four times as much to China, even exporting more than we do to the Commonwealth countries of India, Australia and New Zealand.
Theresa May wants Britain to be a successful trading nation, well we all do, notwithstanding our profound disagreement over our membership of the largest trading block in the world, but we'll never do this whilst we continue to be held back by the weight of our history. The horror of WW2 ended 72 years ago, it's time we moved on

Cruising with Fred

I've seen a number of cruises leave Liverpool on the Fred Olsen Line sisters Black Watch and Boudicca and thought they wouldn't appeal to me as they are quite old and small ships and obviously gear their offer towards the more mature, traditional market.  However I have always liked these ships since they were originally in service with Royal Viking Line from 1973 to 1991, in their day they were two of the most luxurious cruise ships in service (a third sister now sails for Phoenix Reisen as Albatros).

A repositioning voyage from Liverpool to Southampton, with a day in Dublin gave me the opportunity to recently try the Boudicca (formally the Royal Viking Sky) for 3 nights.  I'd been informed before boarding that the ship would only be carrying 400 passengers, half of her normal compliment so it would be a quiet few days.

I arrived at Liverpool Cruise Terminal and was welcomed by my colleagues on the Cruise Ambassadors Team into an empty passenger lounge as most of the guests had already boarded and within 10 minutes I was on board too.

My first impression was how clean Boudicca was, and obviously well maintained, not an easy feat for a 44 year old ship.  I quickly found my twin outside cabin on Deck 4 and unpacked before heading off around the ship to explore.

She very much fits the "Country House" tag which the company advertise, with lots of comfortable armchairs and sofas in a variety of small bars and lounges.  Her outside decks were spotless with a large heated swimming pool and steaming jacuzzis on the Lido Deck.  Although clean, her age shows on the outside decks with different levels with steps between them and high sills on the doorways.

 

After the lifeboat/safety drill was carried out, and we'd been welcomed on board by the Captain it was time to head out on deck to watch our sailaway into a cold, but flat calm River Mersey and out into Liverpool Bay and the Irish Sea. 

Dinner was taken in the Four Seasons Restaurant where I was on a table with 5 other single passengers, 4 of us were from Liverpool, along with another two ladies from North Wales and Scotland.  The menu on all three nights was disappointing to me, with traditional British meals, i.e. Shepherds Pie or Lamb Shanks, and on one night I had to choose the "always available" grilled Chicken Brest as there was nothing I liked on the menu.  Vegetables were of the standard carrots, broccoli and cauliflower variety and served well done.  The food I likened to 'going to your nan's house for tea', nothing adventurous at all, but it was decent quality, served hot and seemed to be  appreciated by the core passenger clientele of Fred Olsen Lines.

One reason for the company's high repeat passenger rate was readily apparent though, and that was the personal service offered to the passengers, for instance one of the guests on my table, a senior lady who is a frequent passenger, was recognised by one of the waiters on the other side of the restaurant who without prompting let our waiters know what she liked and didn't like so they were able to recommend items on the menu, the waiter also remembered that she suffered from low potassium levels and again without prompting a plate of small bananas were given to her as she left the restaurant each evening to take back to her cabin. 

We arrived into Dublin the next morning onto a wet and unwelcoming commercial quayside in Alexandra Basin, and had to wait in the lounges onboard until called to a waiting shuttle bus for the 20 minute drive to the city centre.  There was nothing at the port in the way of facilities, and no welcome from the local tourist office.  No maps were available at the berth nor on the shuttle bus.  The famous Irish "Cead Mile Failte" (a Hundred Thousand Welcomes) was completely absent. 

Luckily I know Dublin well and ignoring the rain I had a quick walk around the centre of the city to see what changes had taken place since my last visit 9 years ago before catching the Dart train down to Dun Laoghaire as I wanted to visit the Maritime Museum, the rain had stopped when I got down there so I had a pleasant walk around the harbour too.  Dun Laoghaire would make a much better cruise arrival experience than the more industrial Dublin Port and boasts a Dart station opposite the old ferry terminal pier allowing easy access to the capital too.  I don't know how Dublin is going to accommodate turnaround facilities especially for the large Celebrity Eclipse scheduled to be based at the Irish port in 2018 unless they build something this year.  Our returning shuttle bus was stopped for 10 minutes as a container train was moved through the docks, if that happened during check in for a 3,000 passenger ship it could cause chaos.

After visiting the small but interesting Maritime Museum I returned to Dublin on the Dart and after a bit of shopping headed back to the ship.  We sailed at 6pm so I was able to get some photos of the Irish Sea ferries that had arrived in late afternoon.

Another calm night was spent sailing down the Irish Sea towards Lands End and the Isle of Scilly, and then the following afternoon we followed the south coast of England heading towards Southampton, again the sea was flat calm and with an unseasonal outside temperature of 16c the pool and Lido Deck saw plenty of use, especially with the younger families on board.

On arrival the following day in a foggy Southampton the lower passenger numbers allowed for a quick disembarkation after breakfast and 4 coaches left at 08:30 to head back north, quiet roads meant we arrived back at Liverpool just 5 hours later, including a half hour stop on the M6 Toll Services.  A very efficient transfer.

In summary Fred Olsen was exactly what I expected, a traditional product, aimed at a more mature audience with food and entertainment to match. Would I go again?  If an interesting itinerary came up and a decent offer on the fare was available I'd consider it, but I won't be rushing back.