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Friday, 16 October 2020
Monday, 5 October 2020
Ernest Needham was a true footballing great and you can buy a book on him at just £10
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Ernest-Needham-Prince-Half-Backs-Extra-Time/dp/B08KBQR4WR/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=ernest+needham&qid=1601644127&sr=8-1
ERNEST NEEDHAM: PRINCE OF HALF-BACKS
“I shall always think that Needham was the finest footballer I have ever seen.”Herbert Chapman (1932), the greatest manager of his era
Rough Jersey’s Extra-Time series is dedicated to providing easy and affordable access to rare and important football texts which make enjoyable reading for the supporter who wants to learn more about the great historical figures plus the historian seeking out primary sources of forgotten times in football.
Ernest Needham is arguably the finest footballer to pull on the red and white stripes of Sheffield United.
Known as ‘Nudger’ the Chesterfield born player generally occupied the left half position but he could and did play in many other positions. He was a superbly talented player who passed the ball well with both feet, possessed amazing stamina, had an eye for a goal and his never say die attitude was an inspiration to those around him.
As captain of the Sheffield United team, which included Billy Foulke, for a decade, Needham guided his men to become Champions of England by winning the Football League in 1897/98 and then to two FA Cup final triumphs in 1899 and 1902.
Needham played 464 League and FA cup matches across 18 years for the club. Known as the ‘Prince of Half-Backs’ Needham, who worked as a miner before becoming a professional footballer, was England’s finest player in his position. He played in 16 internationals - winning eleven and losing just two. He captained his country in 1901 to a 6-0 victory over Wales. He was the first Sheffield United player to do so.
Sadly, a lack of film footage means fans of today cannot ever hope to judge just how good he was. It is through match reports and articles of the time that football fans who love the history of the great game can be transported back to when the early greats played their football.
In 1912, Needham, who was also a fine cricketer who represented Derbyshire at County Cricket, wrote 12 lengthy articles in The Green Un’, the Sports Special of the Sheffield Star. These articles covered his career, his achievements and disappointments, his thrill of the game, some of his big matches, his toughest opponents and greatest teammates plus his general thoughts on football.
We have the pleasure of reproducing those articles. Clive Nicholson and Mark Metcalf Rough Jersey Productions
Wednesday, 30 September 2020
Selby Town lose to Skegness 4-1 at home in an NCEL fixture on a chilly night
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| A great save, the Selby keeper had a very good game and prevented his side from suffering a much heavier defeat |
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| There is one small seating area behind one of the goals |
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| I spent the first half with a Skegness director and former player and whose son now plays for them although he was missing for this game due to injury. It was a good performance by the away side (playing in orange) who were temporarily pegged back briefly at 3-1 but deservedly earned all 3 points. |
Monday, 21 September 2020
Sean McGovern - the plan to write a booklet on the disability rights activist
Sean McGovern - the plan to write a booklet on the disability rights activist
I am set to write a booklet on Sean’s life for the Unite Education department. Sadly, Sean, died on 6 May 2020, aged 63. He has left behind a number of people who deeply miss him. (*) The labour and trade union movement has also lost a real inspiration.
Sean wrote a blog (**) from 2010 that contains hundreds of articles up until the end of 2018 when his prolific output faded with just a couple of pieces in 2020.
If you want to know about the attacks being mounted on disabled people by the ConDem coalition between 2010 and 2015 and then the Tory government from 2015 onwards then it is a mine of information.
It also shows how New Labour never really bothered about opposing these attacks. Not so Sean, plus those he inspired to fight back, who refused to accept the unnecessary austerity agenda, which has seen the rich rob the poor.
Sean worked tirelessly to defend and extend the public services and welfare resources that are needed to enable disabled people to participate fully across society. By understanding the need for unity in the face of a common enemy he did all this work by also seeking out support for other marginalised groups facing attacks on their rights and living standards.
The blog is also packed with everyday observations and Sean’s dry sense of humour, which he could skilfully utilise to attack his political opponents, shines through to create a fair few laughs.
I have already made contact with Sean’s sister, Colette, who has promised to help in whatever way possible. I also have a growing list of people to interview and I will be expanding on this in due course. I have around another 100 articles from the blog to read.
If you want to know more and/or to contribute to the work then please get in touch.
* I can’t hope to match this obituary of Sean that was in the Morning Star from his former partner Claire Glasman.
** bombasticspastic.blogspot.com : A look at life's quirkiness through a jaundiced eye and a mind open to all except that to which it's hermetically sealed...
BLOOD SUCKERS - how PFI has left a toxic legacy by sucking the NHS dry
BLOOD SUCKERS - how PFI has left a toxic legacy by sucking the NHS dry
Note - this was intended to be the words to a brief documentary film but COVID19 has prevented its making so far.
Private Finance Initiatives (PFI) began under John Major's government in 1992 but was expanded under Labour after 1997. At the 2002 Labour Party conference, Prime Minister Tony Blair assured worried delegates that PFI “isn’t the betrayal of the public services. It’s their renewal.” This was all part of New Labour’s revolution.
Private Finance Initiatives use private money from bankers, construction companies and facilities management firms for major public sector capital projects. Private consortiums build and own the facilities, which are then leased back to the state, in exchange for regular repayments that are considerably higher than if the projects had been funded directly from the public purse.
In 1998, Alan Milburn, Labour health minister, signed a deal for Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust allowing them to procure under a PFI project the funds to construct a new Halifax hospital, Calderdale Royal Hospital (CRH), costing £65 million. Bovis built the hospital. One of the benefits for Milburn of PFI debts was that they did not form part of Labour’s deficit balance sheet as the costs were passed on to future generations.
Backing the Halifax deal was local Labour Mp Alice Mahon, desperate to see a new local hospital, plus both major opposition parties nationally and locally.
The PFI contract lasts for 60 years and will cost taxpayers £774 million by 2058 with the total cost of the PFI debt of capital + interest over its 30 year life coming to £290 million, with the rest of the monies covering services such as catering, maintenance, portering and domestics.
Private investors are able to charge an annual rate of return much higher than others types of investment. Investors can also sell their equity to other investors as has happened regularly at Calderdale Royal Hospital.
In 2016 Trust chief executive Owen Williams reported that 6% - around £22 million - of the trust’s annual £343 budget had been spent on repayments. Attempts to renegotiate with the owners of the debt or even escape the deal were found to be impossible. Some smaller hospital trusts had been able to buy out PFI contracts. In 2014 Northumbria Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust bought out Hexham General Hospital, which was opened by Tony Blair ten years earlier.
Faced with such crippling debts Calderdale and Huddersfield NHS Foundation Trust sought to close Huddersfield and Accident and Emergency Department, sparking outrage and the largest post war demonstration in Huddersfield in 2016 with 5,000 taking part. The campaign was ultimately successful but only at the expense of the continuing run down in other services at the Huddersfield hospital.
Calderdale Royal Hospital is one of around 100 PFI Hospitals including the Pinderfield’s Hospital in Wakefield.
Originally the PFI hospitals cost £11.5 billion but will ultimately cost 7 times that sum at around £80 billion. £2.1 billion was spent on interest repayments by NHS hospital trusts alone in 2018-2019. Particularly badly hit was St Helens and Knowsley, which paid out over 13% - £51 million - of its overall budget in interest repayments.
Despite such high levels of spending a report last year also calculated that many PFI hospitals require significant improvements such as new fire safety hazards and sewage repairs that are calculated to cost around £3 billion.
Carillion was a major holder of PFI projects with £485 million awarded under Labour between 1997 and 2010, £347 million under the Conservative - Lib Dem coalition between 2010 and 2015 and a further £439 million awarded by the Tories in 2015.
Carillion collapsed in 2018 and following which the Conservative Government abolished PFI projects. None of which stopped the two PFI hospitals that Carillion was building at the time collapsing – Royal Liverpool University Hospital and Midland Metropolitan Hospital – are both currently due for completion several years late.
In August 2019 Boris Johnson promised to upgrade 20 hospitals by boosting NHS spending by £1.8 billion annually.
This is less than was paid to private bank accounts in PFI repayments in 2019 and which ensures NHS trusts have mountainous ongoing debts with no new money for capital improvements. The ongoing decline in the NHS will thus continue.
“For every PFI hospital built and up and running you could have had 3 hospitals up and running and that includes the staffing as well.” Allyson Pollock - Director of the Institute of Health and Society, Newcastle University.
PFI projects were one of the many way used by government’s over the last 40 years plus to dismantle a loved public health service. A mass public mobilisation is needed if we are to reverse these processes in order to keep our health service public for all.
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