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There is a scrap of track across one end of Tenax Road going towards Ashburton Road West.

One last point on "Career Politicians"; one of the Six Points of The People's Charter of the 1840s was that MPs should be paid a salary; the thinking was that it would open up Parliament to the ordinary man, and make corruption less likely.

Many, many years ago, returning from a morris trip in the Forest of Dean, we'd just got onto the M50; a pheasant appeared from the left-hand side of the carriageway. halfway across, it looked left, saw what was bearing down on it, and accelerated onto the central reservation. You could almost see the beads of sweat on its forehead!

I seem to recall a story the other day that the treasury were going to withdraw all 2p and 1p coins because they were used only once, but have now rowed back on that, for some reason. Had they done that, it might, at last, have got rid of all those "make it look cheaper than it is" prices; you know, if something costs 99p it looks a lot cheaper than it costing £1.

Love to know where you actually live. Being late is a function of an unreliable bus service. On one particular route, there is no guarantee that a particular service is going to turn up. If you don't have a car, nor anyone to give you a lift, the alternative is to walk, and the distance is around 4 miles, with a chuffing great hill in the way. Older people may not be savvy with the internet. The majority of people claiming social security are in work, like you. I cannot understand the attitude of those with a small amount being so against those with nothing or less. Those who put you in this situation are laughing at you while plundering your country.

Not in our local ones, they don't (help, I mean). You need a password to access the terminals in the JCP, which is a 12-figure number. On the help front, the one I protest doesn't even inform claimants that they can take a witness in with them. neither do they inform you that you can appeal any decision if you think it's incorrect. If you're early for your appointment, you are told to wait outside, never mind the weather. If you're late, and given the way the buses around Tameside run, it's a very distinct possibility, you're sanctioned. We've had people who asked to use the JCP phone to contact a decision-maker be told to leave and use an ordinary phone.

Great idea in theory, but as you say, in practice it hasn't worked. The chief problem, for the claimant is the conditionality. If you go into a jobcentre to claim, you are directed to the gov.uk site to find and fill in the form online. God help you if you are computer illiterate, or don't have the internet, or can't find a place with the internet to complete the form (libraries, etc., are closing). Then there's the compulsory 37 1/2 hours a week looking for work. The six weeks, if you're lucky, wait for the first payment means you're likely to be talking to your landlord/mortgage provider. and so on mentioning that next month's payment is likely to be absent. The main problem is that payments under Universal Credit are usually lees than the payments you received when on legacy benefits.

Most of the pros are in the minds of the Department for Work and Pensions; the cons are experienced by those in receipt of it.

Already happening. You will no doubt have heard of the "hostile Environment" as applied to immigrants; the same thing has also been applied to people on social security since 2012 ; it's called Universal Credit. Recently the SoS for Health flew a kite whereby your entitlement to free healthcare might depend on your modifying your lifestyle. We are always told that the UK is a free country; it seems to me that the poorer you become, the less free you are.

Sorry Clive, you misunderstand me; I was quoting the sort of thing that The Fail, Sun or Express might say; I should have put a smiley of some sort after that remark. I was, from 1985 until I retired in 2016 a contract piping designer, so I know full well how the treatment of unemployed people by governments has changed. I can well remember going into Jobcentres at the start of the 1980s, you were paid, virtually no questions asked, for the first 6 months you were unemployed. That went to being allowed to look for a position in your line of work if you had a skill. However, from about the 1990s you had to fill a form in to show you'd been looking for work. The big change came in 2012, since when Jobcentres offer you no help at all; in fact in my experience, from standing a protest outside Ashton-under-Lyne Jobcentre every Thursday morning, their main job seems to be actively hindering anyone on social security from claiming their entitlement at all Of course, wages and hours at the bottom end are so poor (average wages are still lower than they were, in real terms, in 2010) that those on them have to claim to top up. If they are in an area where JSA, tax credits, and so on, have been replaced by Universal Credit, they are in a truly terrible position. I could go on and on about that and what it does to people, but I'd still be here this time tomorrow.

Do you mean social services or social security? The latter system is indeed "Digital by default"; you need access to some sort of computing device to claim benefits, and to comply with the orders that the DWP give you; hence all these lazy unemployed people with smartphones.

Prior to the truck acts, employers quite often paid their in tokens, only redeemable at a store owned by the same employer; you were forced to buy your often substandard groceries, etc., from your employer, usually at prices that meant you were permanently in debt to them (I owe my soul to the company store). This was called "Truck". The acts were passed in the early 1840s, and basically stated that employees must be paid in cash rather than kind. The other offshoot, in England, was that a group of workers in Rochdale clubbed together to buy goods wholesale and distributed among themselves at reduced prices. a proportion of the profits at year end were redistributed to all the members as a dividend. What could possibly go wrong with that idea in modern Get Rich Quick Britain?

Fylde are hardly paragons of virtue in the sugar daddy stakes; less than ten seasons go, they were Kirkham and Wesham, playing at a ground behind a pub in the middle of the Fylde countryside, in a league outside the non-league pyramid (West Lancashire League, ISTR) at step seven. I believe that things like pay on the turnstile are done with there.

I live not far from Newton for Hyde station. If you like, I'll attempt to get some photos of the portals through there. Bearing in mind that one of the feeder points was in the vicinity. I think the substation on Danby Road in Newton, and the 132kV supply to it, were installed specifically for the railway.

The usual end of season tripe at Boundary Park!

Come on The Iron! They were formed by the workers of Thames Ironworks.

There are all sorts of rumours concerning Vaughan; one is that he was using the clubs as money-laundering vehicles; some of which came from the carousel fraud for which he was eventually convicted.

In your list of rogues, you failed to mention that serial club-crasher, Steven Vaughan.

There is a website called Twohundredpercent, which has interesting reviews and comments on the situations at Bolton, Bury and Gateshead

Big clubs have been going bust for years; Just think of Leeds and Luton in the early 00s, and Pompey about 10 years ago. The Pompey case was particularly bad, with the club being used as a vehicle for money-laundering; this can be a problem for any football club, given the due diligence that does, or doesn't happen on change of ownership

If a new club is formed, would it be fan - owned; and I wonder what level it would be admitted at; Northern League, or one of the regional NPL divisions? Good luck, anyway!

So sorry to hear this; rogue owners are a curse on the modern game, and the sooner they are kicked out of the game, the better. When you think of all the great clubs ruined, it makes you want to weep!

And Marple

Not from Shields, I didn't!

No, I escaped, but I know of several people who didn't.