Commenting should now be easier

Apologies to anyone who tried to comment and found it didn’t appear because it went off to be moderated – that happened because when I first set up the blog, I set that up also.  As the nature of the blog has changed, I’ve now made it easier to post, and comments should go up straightaway. 

Should I call this site the Bath Figaro?

When I set this up, I thought I would take an occasional look at what was happening in Bath, and give my views. If people wanted to shoot me down – well, I can take it. But the latest corporate website inflicted on its local papers by the giant company Northcliffe Papers, leaves one wondering if they simply want to kill off local journalism – it’s so appalling! So should I try to challenge it? Should I set up a web-based journal for Bath? I did ponder calling it the Bath Figaro, a scurrilous newspaper of the 19^th century which got round libel laws by saying that various people had NOT done things, when it was fairly clear that the paper knew they had, but couldn’t prove it. So imagine, if you will, that the editor thought a council official had taken bribes, he would say that Mr XYZ was NOT seen sliding a large brown envelope into his pocket, after a meeting with Mr ABC. (This is a purely hypothetical example, you understand.)

However, the answer is that it would be quite impractical. I’m far too busy doing other things, and, however much we may deplore Northcliffe Papers, our local journalists on the Chron are doing their very best to run a decent paper. So keep buying the paper, folks, but if you want to comment on anything that takes your fancy – especially if I have raised the issue here – then feel free to put up your views. Unlike Northcliffe Papers, I won’t ban anyone for going off subject. But I will remove any abuse – especially if I think it breaches the law. I hope anil takes note.

Hen and Stag Parties

One upon a time, we used to run a jolly little tour (as we thought) called the Great Bath Pub Crawl. It had a bit of everything – comedy, history, ghosts and of course, about three or even four pubs with real ale. Then the stage and hen party market found out about it. After I had taken round several hen parties, including one in which half the participants were dressed as leprechauns, complete with ginger beards, and the other half as Vikings, and Andrew had taken round a few stag parties, during which one groom had run round the garden of a pub dressed in a mankini (Sacha Cohen has a lot to answer for) we decided to jack the whole venture in, before we got banned from the pubs we went in. And these parties were quite well-behaved compared with some we have seen around Bath. Yet here is Robin Bischert, Head of Bath Tourism Plus, informing us that they” tended to be a good thing for the city” adding “groups that come to Bath are here to enjoy the facilities the city has to offer and clearly add a valuable contribution to the visitor economy by spending in Bath's spas, restaurants, shops, accommodation and other attractions.” Of course – silly me - that’s why Dublin clamped down on them – they were bringing too much trade. Actually – no – they were a pain in the .. er .. elbow, the same as they are becoming here. But hey (says Henry Brown, so it must be true) all that we need to do is to persuade the restaurants to give them a good meal. Words fail me. Are these two men for real – or do they live on some alternative planet? What do you think?

Don’t blame me – I didn’t vote for them.

During the election, the Lib Dems were all set to reverse all sorts of unpopular plans put in place by the Tories. Now they’re in, however, we’re already seeing a certain amount of back-tracking. The Wellsway Bus Lane is going to stay and – all you people at Newbridge, who thought you were going to retain your open spaces – the fight for them is going to have to go on. It’s not the LIb Dems fault, of course – it’s the wicked Tories who have spent so much money on them already they will just have to go ahead. Besides, the LIb Dems want to put something else on those village greens – bikes not buses. So that’s all right then. If I were a parent at Culverhay, I don’t think I’d start counting my chickens yet. Will the LDs will decide that too much money has been spent on that to make changes? The good news about this is that, if this volte-face continues, come the next council elections, maybe we will see even more independents getting elected. And that can only be good for democracy. Mr Crossley, you have been warned – and every time you look across the council chamber at June Player, I hope you remember my warning.

And Finally …

One of my criticisms of the new Chron website is the plethora of fonts. However, you’ll see that I’ve used a number of differing font from post to post. That’s because what goes up on the blog preview doesn’t always turn out quite how I had expected. Readability is important, so please let me know which font you find easiest to read. Just give the date of the blog.

I'm Back

If any of you have followed this blog, then you'll know that I haven't posted anything for weeks. There were two reasons for this - firstly I was working hard on a book and secondly, I felt that I had done as much as I could on the ramp and it was up to others to go with it. This they have done, but I still think that the tripartite agreement (as the ORR calls it) between Network Rail, FGW and Multi not to take down the ramp before they have proved that their lovely new scheme works will be ignored. However, before that, I will be pressing the ORR to threaten to close the station if that happens - and warning the new administration in B&NES what's happening. I expect you think they ought to know - it was clear, however, that facts were being withheld from Terry Gazzard, the Tory councillor who was supposed to be in charge of Major Developments.

However, this blog is called Kirsten Elliott looks at Bath - and I don't intend it to be a one subject blog, namely the idiocy that is being perpetrated at the station. I have decided (looking at the comments on the Chron website) that contributing to them is fairly depressing, so vituperative have the comments become. So, I'll be making my views clear on here. it would be a very strange world if people all agreed with me - my aim is just to provoke people into thinking.

We live in such interesting times at the moment, council-wise, that I think there will be plenty to talk about. But here's one of the subjects I'll be looking at during the coming days - just why this council and the last thinks they should be consulting F0BRA, a group which represents at most 4,000 residents, not all of whom agree with Henry Brown, the chairman, and referring to them as key players, when this is a city of over 85,000 residents.

Anyway, before I sign off, here's an amusing story. I was at a concert during last year's Sweetland festival, as was our esteemed former leader, Francine Haeberling. For reasons known only to himself, Thomas Trotter decided to end his concert with "Land of Hope and Glory." After a few seconds, die Fuhrerin started fidgeting in her seat and looking round. After a while she started gesticulating that we should all stand, and most did (though my husband and I didn't, just grinned wolfishly every time she glared at us.) Now, I know there's a poem about the man who couldn't tell God save the weasel from Pop goes the Queen, but how humiliating to have a leader who couldn't tell Pomp and Circumstance March No 1 from the Allelluia Chorus. Let's hope Paul Crossley is a bit more musical than that.