...Mail with his framed Pools shirt and his cute H'angus doll handily posed in the background, that was a lucky angle, I never noticed any pictures of the hospital or Remploy, must be an oversight, what a pity.
I won't be voting for him.

just had a quick look on the mail website,and he,s on there he can,t understand why he has,nt had any letters regarding the post office closures,do you think it has something to do with his past record,because everything he gets involved with goes belly up.

or perhaps they know he'll just fookin lie - say they won't close and then let them

not to worry tho he'll sort a bus out to get us to the nearest one

just had another look and you can email him what you think,i think he should leave it well alone,and he is calling the mayor saying he is,nt doing enough"he should put his money where his mouth is"the same mayor who is holding a public forum with the post office,just hope wrighty keeps away or it will be well fooked,they,ll end up closing even more,the only one left open will be the general post office.

iain the Chicken

Trevor the farmer was in the fertilised egg business. He had several hundred young layers (hens), called 'pullets' and eight or ten roosters, to fertilise the pullets' eggs.

Trevor kept records and any rooster that didn't perform went into the soup pot and was replaced. That took an awful lot of his time so he bought a set of tiny bells and attached them to his roosters. Each bell had a different tone so Trevor could tell from a distance, which rooster was performing. Now he could sit on the porch and fill out an efficiency report simply by listening to the bells.

The farmer's favourite rooster was iain, and a very fine specimen he was too, but on this particular morning Trevor noticed iain's bell hadn't rung at all!

Trevor went to investigate.

The other roosters were chasing pullets, bells-a-ringing. The pullets, hearing the roosters coming, would run for cover but to farmer Trevor's amazement, iain had his bell in his beak, so it couldn't ring.

He'd sneak up on a pullet, do his job and walk on to the next one.

Trevor was so proud of iain, he entered him into the Brisbane Exhibition and iain became an overnight sensation among the judges.

The Result?

The judges not only awarded iain the No Bell Piece Prize but they also awarded him the Pulletsurprise as well.

Clearly iain was a politician in the making: Who else but a politician could figure out how to win two of the most highly coveted awards on our planet by being the best at sneaking up on the populace and screwing them when they weren't paying attention.

Do you know a Pullitician called iain?.............

Criticising the Mayor...? Would he be criticising him if he was a Labour Mayor...? I detest the snide digs and put downs the party political hacks slip in as far the mayors concerned, with the regularity of a dripping tap.
As for getting no complaints...what would be the point? Whenever these things occur, the bean counters and sharp suits talk about 'public consultation'.... it's all a front, because they do what they were gonna do anyway, they just use it as another opportunity to put their intentions over. With our MP's record over fighting for anything, it hardly fills you with confidence does it...? from the hospital onwards...and his ability to 'move on' after the event is to be admired.

He was elected fair and square.

Indeed he was.................................. until next time. When Mr Offshore Poolie will take his seat.

Ian, surely even you can't suggest that this bloke represents the Labour voters of Hartlepool. He's a career politician with zero interest in the town other than one day in every four years. This is not an anti Labour rant, if Tony Benn or Dennis Skinner was standing I'd vote for him myself if I was eligible.

I'm not saying any other major party would be any better which is why I prefer independents.

Debarred for using moisturiser and dancing foreign dances. Like a girl.

What a sad reflection on our political system, even bummers can vote.

i thought you were joking
what happens after the votes from the bunker dry up
get real
i gave up on politics some time ago just as well i did
you have not a cat in hells chance of an independent taking Hartlepool i would get more votes than offshore

well put no6bus sadly i dont think this gem will be seen in the evening paper

Seriously Ian, the time is right to put someone in who gives a shit. The town has lost its hospital while its MP stood idly by. You know better than most that we have between us the organisational skills and the passion to motivate this town to do something.

ok go and talk to Jody Dunn ect who had a bit more organisation than you would hope to have
pie in the sky john and you know it

Maybe Ian, but she's tried twice and failed.

You have every chance if the current incumbent is a moron and the right independent guy stands.



I fully concur.

Mr Offshore has had the balls to put his hand up. He has no criminal record or skeletons in the cupboard, which rules out a lot of people.

If anyone more able wishes to volunteer then Mr Offshore has already said that he will stand aside in favour of a better candidate. Personally I admire his willingness to put himself in the firing line.

The alternative, is the thought of years of the Denis Wise stunt double climbing the greasy pole of politics and singing the song he's told. Sadly, in Hartlepool, all politics are based on the apathy of the majority, the working class vote cast by those who haven't worked for three generations. I'm offended by political jokes, especially when they get elected.

But.... a genuinely independent candidate can do this. Yes it's a long shot but its doable. The people of Hartlepool will get behind anything thats a bit different and promotes the place.

To stand any chance, it would have to be a local independent candidate, the mayoral election proved that. Get a half decent alternative ready not to see the big picture and put the interests of the town first and you're onto a possible winner. Wright won because he ran against two slightly less popular partys, if he'd ran unopposed, he'd probably have lost

The one thing I was certain about when we did that Monkeyhangerz CD is the mentality of the town. People will get behind something that is genuine and that is for the greater good. Wright is the MP for himself not for Hartlepool

Don't forget too that there's likely to be a hefty national swing against Labour in the general election.

swings dont happen in hartlepool
i can't believe what i am reading here

you are having a laugh aren't you

Wright was selected by the local party
he has that behind him you are fooling your self john

You might well be right but its worth a shot.

'the local party'... just a bunxch of political hacks, an irrelevance with the collective IQ of a radiator.

an expensive shot

Jody Dunn. I liked her. You've got to be impressed by a woman with her drive, ambition and looks. And she loved her hole (allegedly)

I fear you might be right but someones got to try.

WILL ALL THOSE MPS WHO ARE IN IT FOR THEMSELVES PLEASE STAND UP
AND AS THE WHOLE HOUSE RISES TO ITS FEET
GET REAL IT IS A GRAVY TRAIN AND THE LIKES OF US WONT CHANGE ANYTHING

Very, very true.

I was still at Brinkburn in 2005 in the run up to the general election and the 3 main candidates came in for a discussion and a chance to get their point across to the town. Jody Dunn ran rings around the bloke, he was made to look stupid. Yet, he actually increased his electoral margin. Unbelievable. I won't be voting for him in the next election (I voted SLP last time) but nor will I be voting for Poolie Pride - independent candidates are the way forward in local politics but in national politics they have no chance as they just don't have the backing and support of anyone to force changes through.

YES, but that's not the point. When we had the first mayoral election, the reason we elected a 'monkey' was because the people were saying that basically we don't want any of the traditional candidates, full stop. Even then, it was thought that the mayoral election was a mere formality for the Labour party to go through before crowning King Leo ... they got the biggest shock of all
As for the 'backing and support to force changes through'.. tell me exactly what our representative of the big party theory has achieved for us...? The only changes seem to be all to our detriment.
As long as the electorate of this town vote on the basis of their grandparents political prejudices, we will be taken for granted by Labour and written off by opposition parties as not worth the efffort, so no one has to make much of an effort on our behalf. We'll are forever condemmed or so it seems, to be written off as the sort of place that when it's necessary to cut or trim a service or budget, we'll make the sacrifice because we're politically neutered.
I'd have a go merely to damage the prospects of the incumbent and open up the field... anfdthe locals do like a laugh.

I'm afraid Mr Gremmlin is one of the old school Hartlepool who would vote for a pile of bricks if it was wearing a red rosette. There is no rhyme or reason or thought process involved, they vote Labour because its the 'party of the working man' The fact is that the Labour party that he votes for is a historical illusion, not the one that exists today; There is no Ramsey MacDonald these days nor an Clement Attlee, Nye Bevan or a Harold Wilson.

Iain Wright is a smug, self serving excuse for an MP, he has more interest in furthering his parlimentary career than he has in his in his constituents. Yet the old Labour voters will still put their X next to his name. I think Mutley puts it best with his 'kicking a baby down York Road' analogy and until the traditional over 50's Labour voters die out then it probably won't change and the likes of Wright will continue to prosper.

If offshorepoolie got elected how would people get to his surgeries-------by canoe?

Yeah, you could cadge a lift with John Darwin.

Better still, stick Wright in a canoe and kill two birds with one stone.

Almost right.

Just swop the words Wright and two birds......

you really have got to get up to speed john but the same could be said of the working class tory boy who thinks he has made it yet hankers to leave the country on a regular basis
in fact i take that as a compliment from someone who fancies maggie thatcher
as for those over fities you are so disparaging about are probably the same type of over fifties that put two labour pms in Nottingham and i think for you to insult the working class like that just proves my point

I simply find it mindblowing that people will vote for a badge irrespective of what it means today. Labour voters look back to the days when it was a socalist party with real values. It is no longer that party.

Aye, even at eighty odd shes still fanciable - phwoorrr!!

The reason we have a labour government is because of the incompetence of the conservative party. The conservative party , not the electorate , got rid of maggie thatcher. The same conservative party then pisssed off the electorate so much that a landslide against them ensued. Since then the conservative party have been so pisspoor in opposition that the country is now in it's eleventh year of labour rule. If anybody is looking for a reason why we have what we have , try looking in the back yard of the conservative party. They made the labour party electable.

there is something sick about a young working class tory boy who fancies someone older than his granny