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Pilkingtons is still there. I am not sure how many people work there now but it was a huge employer in St Helens, along with Beechams and the coal mines. They all helped to put St Helens on the map, along with the rugby league team.
I think I am right in saying that St Helens is the largest place in England to have never had a team in the Football League. Rugby League dominates the town’s sporting interests. Even its three non league football teams languish in the lower levels of the non league, although St Helens Town won the FA Vase in the late 1980s.
I don’t ever remember seeing the ghastly Kilroy Silk in Rainford. But who can ever forget his finest moment?
Absolutely dreadful individual, that’s honestly the only thing I remember him for. They always used to make any excuse to show that clip on Have I Got News For You.
As a darts fan I can’t let mention of St Helens pass without noting that it is also the hometown of former world champion and winner of that leg Michael Smith. Sadly his form has dropped off a cliff since as a result of arthritis.
Not only Michael Smith. Dave “Chizzy Rascal” Chisnall hails from St Helens, and Stephen Bunting lives in the town as well.
It looks like there is a darts club on the town’s otherwise hollowed out main street. Most of the shops have moved to a retail park, leaving the town centre resembling a ghost town.
One bright spot is The Cricketers Arms. Not so long ago it was a rundown, backstreet pub and going nowhere. The current licensees took over about a decade ago and within a few years had won the Pub of the Year award from CAMRA.
How could I forget Chizzy? One of the better players never to have won a big title although he has come close on many occasions. I imagine he’s made a solid enough living though.
“Winner of that leg Michael Smith.”
Worth remembering, if only for Wayne Mardle hyperventilating.
‘I can’t spake’ lives rent free in my head alongside a few select other lines of commentary.
Just looked at our Community facebook page with one participant asking which ward our area now came under. This was aked yesterday 48 hours after the election. Of 12, one-third of responders still thought we were still in the old ward.
Obviously not sure who responded and whether they were from our area or had even voted but even so this is quite a high proportion.
And so it starts , somewhere in the background Raynor is sitting quietly pulling the strings
Pick 3 on Saturday champion 2025/2026
I’ve written to Ms West and told her what I think of her. If Starmer goes Farage will claim it as a personal victory, having campaigned during the council elections to get rid of him. He’s playing Labour like a fiddle. And this from someone who, if he were PM, we would be at war with Iran now.
*laughing*
You think you have troubles!
In Birmingham there are 101 council seats … Labour has regularly taken 60+ to control the council.
Last week we were left with a real mish mash …. this as I currently understand it is the state of play.
Reform 22
Greens 19
Labour 17
Conservatives 16
Lib Dem 12
Independents 13
The sharp eyed may notice that adds up to 99 ……. 2 are to be declared tomorrow (Monday)
The last election in 2022 had Labour taking 65 seats and had been in control for 14 years
On the grapevine some are saying they won’t work with such and such etc …… so how we get a functioning workable council is anybody’s guess?
Post your solutions to the council on a postcard to arrive no later than June 2029.
good luck to allBlackcounty Kid, It should be perfectly obvious that the Birmingham Council will carry on as before. Left leaning councillors (Labour, Liberal Democrats, Greens and Independent = 61 while the far right (Reform and Conservatives) = 38. That is unless Reform can persuade all the Independents to join them which is unlikely.
And Raynor makes her move , Starmer is in trouble now , is there any doubt that enough signatures will be achieved , I just don’t think he has enough friends left
Pick 3 on Saturday champion 2025/2026
“Starmer is in trouble now”.
He has been a dead man walking for ages. If he really thinks he is going to stay in office by making yet another reset speech and by appointing has beens like Brown and Harman to non jobs, then he is even more delusional than I thought.
He’s not bluffing his way out of this , I imagine we’ll see one of two more heads pop up now saying it’s time for a a change , Raynor has numbers behind her
Pick 3 on Saturday champion 2025/2026
appointing has beens like Brown and Harman to non jobs
A rather doddery Gordon Brown shuffling from No.10 to his car was a suitable metaphor for the state of Labour. Farage and co must be laughing their union-jack socks off.
Brown and Harman might prove to be adept at doing whatever it is they’re supposed to do in these new nebulous extra-governmental roles and provides them with a nice little earner in their dotage, but that is by-the-by: the ‘optics’ of wheeling out the old guard the day after being hammered in elections is awful.
Starmer isn’t the problem, so changing the leader will not help Labour. The source of the problem is that Labour have continued to adopt devious Tory policies. The Tories froze the tax free rate in 2022 and reduced the basic rate to 20%, claiming they had reduced taxation. They hadn’t of course; they had made sure the biggest burdon was on the poorest shoulders. If you analyse the May election results you will find Reform won in areas of extreme poverty. People on low incomes cannot make ends meet; they are getting more and more in debt and do not know which way to turn. They see that the Tories will never help them and are disgruntled that Labour are just as bad. The solution is to get back to a fair tax system. After all, income tax was supposed to be based on ability to pay.
The solution is to increase the income tax free allowance to £18,000 per annum and increase the basic rate to 25%.
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