http://brocklebank.merseyblogs.co.uk/ Mr Brocklebank has joined the digital age to relay his musings to the good people of Merseyside and Cheshire via the internet. He will update regularly so make use of the bookmark facility on your browser, if you desire to do so. en Copyright 2008 Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:21:25 +0000 http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/ http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss BRAVO, planners: Not only did Liverpool city planners refuse a wind-turbine proposal in the Back Canning Street conservation area, but the Planning Inspectorate backed their decision. Rodney Street Association head honcho Dr Emlyn Williams thundered: "Maybe at last officialdom is recognising the importance of our heritage by refusing this monstrous proposal." http://brocklebank.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/07/planning_a_commonsense_decisio.html http://brocklebank.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/07/planning_a_commonsense_decisio.html Mon, 28 Jul 2008 21:21:25 +0000 HONESTY compels Mr Brocklebank to add that a leading journalist of this parish was embarrassed to hear his own mobile field telephone trilling during Friday's executive board meeting at Liverpool City Council's Millennium House (aka "the Fun Palace"), thereby indebting him to the Lord Mayor's Fund. http://brocklebank.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/07/the_reporter_rings_only_once.html http://brocklebank.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/07/the_reporter_rings_only_once.html Sun, 27 Jul 2008 21:20:32 +0000 HOW intriguing that the On the Waterfront - Culture, Heritage and Regeneration of Port Cities international conference, organised by English Heritage, in November at Liverpool BT Convention Centre, has an official brochure featuring a large cover colour photograph of the Mersey Bar lightvessel Planet, whose future here - thanks to Liverpool's "caring" waterfront authorities - is very bleak. In the interests of accuracy, should not the organisers put stickers over the photograph saying "Going to Manchester", so delegates fully understand how this port city treats our maritime heritage? http://brocklebank.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/07/what_planet_are_they_on.html http://brocklebank.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/07/what_planet_are_they_on.html Sat, 26 Jul 2008 21:19:47 +0000 IT APPEARS that, to assist the surge of golf-loving passengers through Hillside, Merseyrail introduced a revised timetable with trains every 20 minutes instead of 15 minutes. Curiouser and curiouser, as Alice in Litherland says. http://brocklebank.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/07/curious.html http://brocklebank.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/07/curious.html Fri, 25 Jul 2008 21:19:01 +0000 MR BROCKLEBANK is well relieved to see a glamorous toilet installed at Hillside railway station platform. Could this be anything to do with the presence of the Open at Royal Birkdale? Once the big event has gone, will this lovely convenience, befitting of its international role, be removed with passengers - sorry, customers - once more hanging on or throwing caution and whatever else to the winds and reverting to the traditional "watering the vegetation"? http://brocklebank.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/07/flushed_with_pride.html http://brocklebank.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/07/flushed_with_pride.html Thu, 24 Jul 2008 21:18:15 +0000 HOW odd to see an electronic motorway sign proclaiming "Tall ships use M53". In spite of Mr Brocklebank's brougham wheeling up and down said thoroughfare, he saw no such representative vessels in transit. Could it have been an error for "All skips use M53"? http://brocklebank.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/07/ships_on_a_motorway.html http://brocklebank.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/07/ships_on_a_motorway.html Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:17:43 +0000 MR BROCKLEBANK is bemused by the rising estimates provided by the media over the numbers of people attending the Tall Ships' Races event in Liverpool last weekend. With the body count bidding starting at 50,000, at the time of print it had risen to 300,000. Surely the simplest way to sort this out is to get everyone who attended to return and stand in an orderly queue so they can be counted properly? (Late news: a missive delivered in a cleft-stick by a postal runner estimates 450,000 - equivalent to Liverpool's population.) http://brocklebank.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/07/population_rising.html http://brocklebank.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/07/population_rising.html Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:17:04 +0000 MR BROCKLEBANK has the fondest memories of accompanying Prof Tony Bradshaw, the eminent botanist, around St James' Gardens, beneath Liverpool Cathedral. As he lovingly sniffed the wild flowers in his fedora, Prof Bradshaw epitomised that celebrated, but deeply endangered species, the English eccentric. Now Lord Mayor Rotheram has made him Liverpool's first Citizen of Honour. Prof Bradshaw, a splendid example of humanity and learning, is not so robust as on that happy day in the gardens, and Mr Brocklebank's thoughts are with him. http://brocklebank.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/07/some_great_news.html http://brocklebank.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/07/some_great_news.html Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:32:04 +0000 LIVERPOOL'S much- photographed Wall of Fame is suffering from a slipped disc. One of the brass CDs from the Mathew Street attraction - each represents a number one hit - is missing. Should not the cultural paramedics race around (in record time, naturally) to the Cavern Quarter? http://brocklebank.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/07/slip_up.html http://brocklebank.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/07/slip_up.html Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:30:42 +0000 THE chairman of Liverpool's planning committee Cllr Dave Irving was troubled at last week's committee meeting by a few contentious applications. "These takeaways are a hot potato," uttered the chairman. Was that a pun, or should that be a pan? Presumably as in a Scouse pun, or pan of Scouse. http://brocklebank.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/07/food_for_thought.html http://brocklebank.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/07/food_for_thought.html Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:29:52 +0000 WHEN Mr Brocklebank's brough- am edges along Edge Lane, he feels a desperate deja vu from the 1960s as 900 perfectly sound Vic- torian houses face imminent dem- olition. Will their replace- ments last 140 years or more? Hardly likely. How come, with young people unable to afford starter homes and the Govern- ment pleading for an extra 3m houses, such stupidity is unleashed? http://brocklebank.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/07/to_the_edge_of_reason.html http://brocklebank.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/07/to_the_edge_of_reason.html Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:29:00 +0000 WHEN new Liverpool John Moores University chancellor, astronomer and rock musician Brian May, mentioned en passant that his wife, the actress Anita Dobson, would be starring in Hello Dolly! at the Empire Theatre, he would doubtless have been heartwarmed to hear a party of JMU senior management, led by vice chancellor Dr Michael Brown, no less, attended a performance. Was this an official all-expenses trip for serious research into the American musical, or to show solidarity among the JMU academic family? http://brocklebank.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/07/why_hello_dolly_and_michael.html http://brocklebank.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/07/why_hello_dolly_and_michael.html Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:25:53 +0000 AFTER suddenly instructing the Royal Navy last week that its warships could not open to the public during the Tall Ships' Races, due to health and safety issues on Seament Jetty, Liverpool docks owner Peel Ports relented and will allow public access to destroyer HMS Argyll. When questioned, a Peel Ports' Mersey Docks representative denied its plans had changed and that the three warships were always going to be off-limits in Huskisson Dock. How odd, then, that, at the Town Hall public quarterly Tall Ships briefings, there was nary a peep out of Peel's representatives when it was regularly stated that the warships would be open to the public http://brocklebank.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/07/peel_in_a_pickle.html http://brocklebank.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/07/peel_in_a_pickle.html Thu, 17 Jul 2008 00:24:41 +0000 FANCY that: retiring Liverpool University vice chancellor Prof Sir Drummond Bone, on chairing Liverpool’s big year: “Some of us were involved in organising Capital of Culture year. “Some of us have lost several years of our life over that.� http://brocklebank.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/07/capital_event_for_the_prof.html http://brocklebank.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/07/capital_event_for_the_prof.html Tue, 08 Jul 2008 22:20:34 +0000 MY QUEEN and I. An etiquette lesson exclusively revealed by Lord Mayor Steve Rotheram on the occasion of meeting Her Majesty at St George’s Hall. QEII: “How have the preparations gone, Lord Mayor?� LMR: “Very easy, Ma’am. You see, I’m used to calling me mum ‘Mam’ at home, so it’s no problem remembering what to call you. Anyway, I expect travelling around you must think all the country smells of new paint.� Pause for Royal Prerogative of laughter to be tinkled (LMR thought bubble: “I think she liked that one�). QEII: (exercising regal eye twinkle): “So you’re the youngest and most inexperienced mayor in the country?� LMR: “With respect, Ma’am, you were only 24 on acceding to the throne, and you’ve not done a bad job.� Cue QEII fixed smile; knighthood possibly not in post. Mr Brocklebank declares: “God bless me mam, no sorry, God bless you, Ma’am!� http://brocklebank.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/07/the_lord_mayor_and_the_queen.html http://brocklebank.merseyblogs.co.uk/2008/07/the_lord_mayor_and_the_queen.html Tue, 08 Jul 2008 22:19:09 +0000