SON OF GRIDKNOCKER

I rather liked this quip by Garry Younge in The Observer on Sunday (vis-a-vis the lacklustre opponents Jeremy Corbyn was up against in the Leadership election):-

                                                             "Barring the odd speeding ticket, they didn't have a conviction amongst them."

Colin: Please could I make a parallel suggestion, while you are in Poirot mode?

Voice posts have red and green arrows for posters to use, to signal their agreement or disaggrement with fellow posters' expressed opinions.

But on a site like the Guardian's, there is a third icon: 'Report'. Clicking on this invites you (via 4 or 5 drop-down options) to state why you think the post should be 'reported'. Frixample: "Personally abusive" or "Racially intollerent". Guardian moderators who patrol the site then make a decision whether to ignore or uphold the 'Report'. If the latter, the post is removed, but in the space a statement is placed saying: "This post has been removed as it contravened the site's community standards."

Such a system - easy to install and simple to monitor - would have avoided all the 'unpleasentness' on The Voice over the last few weeks, which resulted in the loss of two of your stellar posters.

@ Roger: "I think he is totally out of his depth."

Don't you believe it, matey; not even for a nano-second.

Jeremy Corbyn has rolled up his M&S chinos and is now paddling in the Westmister fishpond, with the Etonian pirhannas circling around his ankles ("Hey, David, let's nip his toes off at PMQs on Wednesday, yeah?).

He'll kick them all disdanefully aside (aided and abetted by the redoubtable Eagle twins) then move forwards into the dawn of a new, equitable socialist Britain, taking the country with him.

JC4PM

Great idea. I wish them every success.

I thoroughly agree about BBC H&W being bland. Time was (soon after it launched) when the delightful Jane Garvey would light up its airwaves. But of course she got 'poached' by Head Office - and look where she is now!

Chuggers (and God-botherers): most definitely NO.

(Silent, seated) beggars: YES. Vocal or aggresive beggars: NO.

Good street musicians: most definitely YES, especially if it's my friend Richard, the accordionist who comes all the way from Birmingham, to play outside M&S.

@Slim: you and me both, mate!

It was sold for just over £600,000 as recently as 2014. A search of Companies House records shows no details of the lucky directors of current owners Regional Land Holdings Limited, who are now sitting on a very valuable asset.

Many thanks for this fascinating heads-up gdj.

I'm wondering whether anyone can throw any light on the curious case of the former BT building in Breinton Road?

According to the Eye's forensic analysis, this is now owned by a company registered in the British Virgin Islands - curious in itself.

But just take a look at the miniscule price which was paid for this enormous building, which I'd suggest probably has a similar total floor area to nearby Sainsburys.

As the late-Dud was wont to remark to the late-Pete: "Funny? Funny?"

@ Ubique: yes, that would be interesting, though I suspect that Mrs Balls would be reluctant to step aside!

As to other 'big guns' which Labour's tin hats can bring onto the battlefield (both pretty rusty, in terms of velocity and trajectory), there's loquacious Kinnock, who could happily talk utter tosh on Marr's Sunday sofa for a whole hour; and, of course, Old Labour's answer to Old Moore's Almanac - Lord John Prescott, from whom we've yet to hear.

My money's still on JC!

Now Andy Burnham has 'come out of the closest', having discovered the public benefits of rail re-nationalisation! Whatever prevented him from speaking up before?

THEY'VE been burning the midnight oil in Labour Party HQ these last few weeks. They're trying to fathom out a Stop Corbyn strategy. While the three other Labour Leader hopefuls (Yvette Cooper, Andy Burnham and the one who never says anything) remain frozen like rabbits in a car's headlights, Harriet Harperson is trying womanfully to find a winning formula which will see off the Islington Leftie Upstart.

Persuading Polly Toynbee to pen a Guardian piece entitled "If I was a dreamer, I'd vote left of Corbyn" went down like a lead baloon. And getting shadow chancellor Chris Leslie to throw his toys out of the pram, merely evinced the general public response: "Err, who's Chris Leslie?" Likewise Alan 'Postie' Johnson's "I'm backing Yvette" statement only had another 5000 people climbing on the Corbyn bandwagon.

It was 2.00a.m. when Ms Harman thumped the table, awakening the slumbering cohorts. "I've got it! We bring in Gordon! Remember how he turned round the Scottish referendum at the last minute?"

"Brilliant!" cried the wet-behind-the-ears wannabies, anxious to get home to bed. "Let's get Mandy to handle the pr!" 

"Get me Gordon on the phone!" commanded She-Who-Must-Be-Obeyed. "Anyone know where he is?"

"He's on a wilderness trek in the Cairngorms with Sarah."

Thus the scene is now set for a gruelling 15-round pugilistic onslaught, between the nimble-footed man affectionalely referred to by his messianic followers as 'JC' and the gurning Kirkaldy Bruiser. And with Len McLusky as JC's manager and seconds being provided by ASLEF, UNISON, UNITE and the Fire Brigade, it has all the ingredients of being a Rumble in the Westminster Jungle.

Today's morning papers are awash with kind and heartfelt tributes to Cilla, but the one that sticks out as just about perfect, is Paul O'Grady's.

When approached by the Liverpool Echo for a comment he told them: "Please say it isn't true?"

I'm absolutely gutted by the news that Cilla Black has died. A show business legend, glamorous personality and a Merseysider capable of belting out the best Beatle songs.

What really get's my goat is that when the Grim Reaper woke up this morning (nursing a nasty hangover), Mrs GR mumbled to him under the duvet: "So who's it to be today, huggle bunny?"

"I was thinking I might take out the Blairs," he replied. "Maybe have their private jet crash on its way back from Kazakstan? That Corbyn jibe about heart transplants was well out of order."

"Let's go for Cilla", says Mrs GR.

'Cilla? What have you got against poor old Cilla Black, me dearest?"

"The teeth."

"Rather harsh reason to take someone's life, innit?" says GR.  "After all, she's only 72 - and she's never got over the loss of her Bobby."

And there you have it, Voice readers: seems we were within an ace of bidding farewell to Tony and Cherie Blair. Sadly, it was not to be.

CILLA BLACK   RIP

I don't know anything about this Mr Hubble, but I do have very strong views on his academy's so-called 'modern extension'. View it from Waitrose car park if you haven't yet experienced it. But I warn you, it's a real shocker.

For a long time, I seriously thought it was a two-storey stack of Portacabins, which the builders refurbishing the old boys high school block on Widemaresh Street were using as offices and storage. Then someone came along and painted it with what looks like red oxide paint and stuck grey gutters and downpipes on the outside. The penny dropped: this is to be an architectural contribution to our city's built environment.

I think I'd rank it as the worst building in the west midlands! Chief Planner Andrew Ashcroft has a lot to answer for.

Folk I encounter on my peregrinations across High Town, often stop me and ask: "Vicar - how did you come to be de-frocked?"

I usually explain to them that I am bound by the terms of a Gagging Order, signed by the then-Bishop of Hereford, The Right Rev Greville Chasuble. Save to say that it was a very minor misdemeanour, of no great significance, involving a) an abseiling session down the cathedral tower to raise funds for a hedgehog sanctuary at Tillington; and b) my absentmindedness in forgetting to put on any underpants that morning.

It was the graphic telephoto images, broadcast that evening on Midlands Today, which sealed my fate - and caused irreperable damage to the BBC's Birmingham switchboard, which was out of action for a fortnight. But all that (as the former Mrs Membridge-Tinninges is wont to remind me, in her Christmas card from Antibes each year) is in the past.

As Christ himself put it (in his sermon on the steps of Aldi's Tel Aviv branch, I think it was): we should always turn the other cheek - after first checking that there are no cameramen from BBC Midlands Today, lurking in the crowd.

E.Membridge-Tinninges (Rev - de-frocked)

Thanks Dip! Happy memories.

Wonder whatever happened to the old curmudgeon?

Agree with greenknight. If the Voice created a 'catch all' heading (Chuckle Corner or something like that), then stories like Dillgaf's amusing golf trolley story could be added as and when, 'cause the 'continuity' and 'thread relevance' would be their humour.

PS: It might also - possibly - bring King Bobby back from his self-imposed silent retirement. I seem to recall he had some verey amusing anecdotes a couple of years back involving a) a river bank, b) a woman named Patricia and c) a large bramble bush.

So the demolition of that attractive little group of buildings (the Tann Brook Centre), from which the admirable Rose Tinted Rags were unceromoniously despatched last year, has nothing whatsoever to do with the absurd Link Road (aka The Link Road to Nowhere)?

Was Ron Smith offered a lease of the Tann Brook Centre itself - which surely could have been refurbished for considerably less than the combined costs of demolition and new construction? 

What fascinates me about this incident (and well spotted Mystery) is not so much the surreptitious way in which the van is parked, as the absurd choice of name for the 'cover' company under which it masquerades: 'Safer Roads Partnership'. No doubt if you got up-close-and-personal (and before you got a mouthful of abuse from the driver), you'd probably find that that black line below the slogan says: "Delivering a safe environment for Herefordshire council taxpayers" or some other such Plough Lane weasilspeak!

Well said, Adrian - and good to have you contributing to The Voice.

But be ever so careful about using phrases like 'bird nesting season'; you'll have the bigots posting irate 'Oh For Christ Sake' messages like the one above!

It really is sad reflection of Herefordshire, that there are people about who take such a blinkered view of the farce of the Highways Agency's spurious Edgar Street 'pinch point', which clearly wasn't needed at all! 

I wonder (@ Messrs Smith & Major) if we are permitted to post observations here on The Voice about the fact that the jack-booted HA are about to re-plan (for a third time!) the notorious Asda roundabout. Or is that off limits too?

I think I'm going to be out on a limb here (ooops, dreadful pun), but I can think of nothing nicer than to be able to look out of a sitting room window and see those majestic trees across the road. Watch them clange through the seasons. Rather that than (like the poor folk who live in Edgar Street) know that for the rest of your days you'll be looking at a timber-slatted car park that has all the architectural merit of moored container ship!

Tiny bit off-thread this, but may I say how good it is to see Adrian Bridges posting on this site once more? The best councillor Herefordshire people didn't get this month!

He always talked a lot of sense in debates, he never got rattled by Tory bombast and his idea of extending the rail service to Rotherwas (are you reading these words Roger Cloth Ears Phillips?) was the best thing since sliced bread.

Welcome back aboard SS Hereford Voice Adrian!

May I make three small contributions to this thread, comrades?

No 1  A combined fire / police hq seems emminently sensible idea, considering my good friend Ubique says he saw such a set-up in France 30 years ago!

No 2  DON'T whatever you do take your eye off the ball vis-a-vis the former Working Boys Home on Bath Street. Don't - did you hear me? DON'T! Flash Harry Bramer - architect of the mad-cap plan to demolish a fine group of (should have been if the council's conservation officers weren't asleep on the job) unlisted Victorian buildings - is quite likely to come up with another belter. What's it to be this time, Harry: possible fracking site? waste incinerator? multi-storey car park? That's it: The Geof Hughes Memorial Multi Storey Car Park, to be designed by HSC boss John Bottomley.

No 3  Please can we hear some words of wisdom from The Great Cambo?

In the new ward of Dinedor Hill (formerly Hollington), there was a rum do concerning illegal advertising. This was to be a crucial seat, with IOC going mano-a-mano with the Tories. Four years ago they lost it, when the Greens' Gerald Dawe was ousted by Ledbury hatter Peter Sinclair Knight. For once, Bob 'Cloth Ears' Matthews had overlooked a city fight which could have been spoled by the Indies' intervention. IOC's David Summers eventually pulled off a memorable victory with a 42-vote majority.

Mid-morning on polling day and a voter goes into the Rotherwas polling station, complaining that a car had been parked outside, festooned with Tory election propoganda. The car in question turns out to be owned by the Tory candidate, Peter Sinclair Knight, who had strategically positioned the vehicle - a large estate car - with its hatchback open, revealing a huge VOTE TORY placard propped up against the back seat.

In double-quick time the ex-Guards officer was given his marching orders by the returning officer, who was unimpressed with his lame excuse: "I was only exercising the dog."!

Strange goings-on in local election polling stations (episode 94).

I know I probably sound like George Galloway, but where I voted last week (Aylestone Hill Ward; Broadlands Primary School, Prospect Walk) the signposting to the actual station was simply abysmal. On my way home I had to direct several folk who were wandering around, seemingly lost. Two of them were on the point of packing it in and going home. 

One of the four candidates on the all-female slate was someone called Angie Tyler (who had had the bad taste to include with her election literature which came through our door, a flyer for a car book sale in memory of her dead daughter ffs!). When I stepped into the flimsy, un-curtained and hardly-private plywood polling booth, what should I find sellotaped to the counter but a 'Vote Angie Tyler' sticker. It didn't stay there very long!

With all the patronising clap-trap we have to suffer from politicians every election night ("And I particularly want to express my heatfelt thanks to the returning officer..."), let's have a vote of no confidence for the election officials of Herefordshire, shall we, especially after the fiasco of Saxon Gate?