Well said, Sir!

In common with thousands of Stone residents, I eagerly await the Stone Gazette dropping through my letter box each month.

There was a time when the Evening Sentinel had three editions each day and on a Friday you could get the Weekly Sentinel.  They sent reporters to funerals to record who attended. They had staff photographers to snap the happy couple on their wedding day. They reported the opening of a bank's new branch office or the installation of a new President of the local golf club.  There wasn't much they missed. Well, those days are well and truly over. Indeed, I ask myself each week why I bother to buy the local weekly paper for the amount of Stone news in it.

That's why we are so lucky to have the Gazette. All right, I know most of the articles are a 'cut and paste' job from press releases issued by the promoters of the stories. But there's alot of interesting stuff in there. And we do get some really good original articles from Christine Conlin plus some real gems in Philip Leason's history columns.

But the reason I most enjoy the Gazette is for the monthly editorial! Paul Mitchell's 'grumpy old man' approach to life reflects my feelings on most issues - and especially this month.

Everything he says about a career in journalism could apply with equal force to the legal profession. I must be asked at least once a week if I can help someones son, daughter, nephew etc to find a training contract with a firm of solicitors.  And, like Paul, I have to explain that they haven't got a cat in hells chance of getting one.

Schools and the career services have been doing their pupils a grave disservice for years by building expectations of a career in the law. Going to University to get a law degree is the easy bit. After all, with a pass rate of 98.5% at A levels and a target of 50% of school leavers going on to university, you'd have to be a bit dim not to be able to do it! But after you've got your law degree, getting a training contract with a solicitor or pupillage with a barristers' chambers is well nigh impossible. And without one or the other, the graduate will never qualify as a solicitor or a barrister. The legal profession has been shrinking for years. Legal aid has been slashed, divorce can be obtained by filling in forms, conveyancing vanished with the housing slump, wills can now be written by anyone and accident claims are now handled by 'no win - no fee' conglomerates. There are simply no jobs. So forget it.

Mrs. Worthington was exhorted not to put her daughter on the stage. These days a career 'on the boards' is probably the safer bet!

Totally Locally

I've just come across this whilst checking a few friends Facebook sites. What fantastic sentiments and advice! We should all make a copy and read it every day!

I heard the other day that someone was trying to set up a Totally Locally meeting here in Stone but I can't remember who told me. And I haven't seen anything about it since.

Does anyone out there know any more? It sounds like a campaign we should all support. The future of towns like ours depends upon us all practicising the ethos behind the Totally Locally campaign.

Exciting times ahead!

I love meeting people with a passion for Staffordshire and who, like me, believe that small is beautiful! Today I met such a person - Emily Whitehead who is the inspiration behind an amazing website, Simply Staffordshire. Emily wants to get Simply Staffordshire members involved in the Uttoxeter Food and Drink Festival (and, I hope, the Stone Festival in October) so we met up at the Racecourse this morning to discuss various ideas with her.

Most of her members are small producers and businesses who have been handpicked by her to ensure high standards. As she spoke, I could almost hear echos of Brian Blundell in my ears! Like Brian, she believes that it will be the small local businesses that will do most for the local economy. She, too, believes that we should be proud of our food and drink heritage.

Emily clearly has some very useful PR and marketing skills and I have no doubt that Simply Staffordshire is going to become a business to watch. It's going to be good working with her.

That's the way to do it!

On Monday evening, I chaired the AGM of the Bonfire and Firework committee and it was all done and dusted in under an hour!

All our hard work goes up in flames!

I've said it many times but I'll say it again - this is a great committee to be involved with. Everyone is there to make sure that we have a brilliant show and they all do their own specific jobs. No arguments or back stabbings. No personal agendas. Its a pleasure to work with them.

The bullet points from the meeting were that we approved the accounts for last year (another record payout of £11,00 to the local groups who organise the event - see below); confirmed the date of this years event (Saturday 3rd November); agreed to hold the entry prices at last year's level (no change for three years) and confirmed a similar budget as last year for the fireworks.

It was also decided that we must be more positive in explaining that the event is wholly organised by volunteers from various groups in the town including Scout and Guide groups, Army Cadets and a PTA. Many people are under the mistaken impression that the show is put on by 'the council'! Oh no it isn't!

And we shall be stressing that the profit is split amongst the local good causes who are either involved in organising the show or who are nominated by volunteers. Last year, we distributed £11,000 amongst Stone Outward Guides, Stone Army Cadet Force, 1st Stone Scout Group, Aston & Little Stoke Scout Group, St Michael's PTA, Stone District Scout Council, N. Staffs Basics Accident Doctors, 2nd Stone Scout Group, Stone Stroke Club, Katherine House Hospice, Stone Alzheimer's Drop-In Club, St Michael's Church Bell Fund, British Red Cross and Douglas Macmillan Hospice.

And that makes it all worth while.

Four thousand Page Views!

I've just checked the statistics page for this blog and received a very pleasant surprise! Whilst I was away over the weekend this site had it's 4,000 page view!

And the fascinating statistic is that the posting with the highest number of hits was the Joules clock story (not a great surprise) closely followed by my suggestion about using the police station site and car park to create a full one way system around the top end of town (very surprising!).

So a big thank you to everyone who comes to look at my blog.

My annual pilgrimage!

Call me an anorak if you wish but I just love steam trains! I'm old enough to have have used them regularly when I was a schoolboy. I used to catch the 8.35 from Barlaston Station to school at Newcastle. Yes, that was in the days when Newcastle had a railway station. No trace now of course - the D road obliterated the line completely and the station site opposite the Borough Arms Hotel now forms part of the walk through the gardens to Queen Street. And Barlaston station is no more, either.

The largest loco - 70000 Britannia

So whenever I have the chance I always try to get down to Minehead for the West Somerset Spring Steam Gala. And Janet takes advantage of my trip to go and see her girls in Dartmouth. So we were up at the crack of dawn on Friday and made good progress down the M5 to Taunton. There Jan dropped me off at the bus station and, using my bus pass (one of the advantages of age!) I enjoyed a delightful  bus journey through the beautiful countryside of North Somerset to Minehead. I saw so much more than if I had been driving a car.

And the smallest !

I then spent the rest of the weekend hopping on and off steams trains. Wonderful! The West Somerset Railway is a proper railway - over twenty miles long and eight stations. Apart from a handful of paid employees, the whole operation is run by volunteers - over 600 of them. I've been a member for several years and just wished I lived nearer. If I did, you'd never see me! I'd be there with my sleeves rolled up at every opportunity!

But the weekend brought home to me just how important leisure and tourism is to the local economy of towns like Minehead. Every hotel, guest house and B&B was full; restaurants and pubs were doing a roaring trade and, due to the brilliant weather, the ice cream stalls all had long queues. I had a conversation with a local who was of the opinion that without the visitors to the railway the town would have gone out of business years ago. We've no similar attraction in Stone but we must must make the most of what we've got to attract the tourist pound. Which make our Farmers' Market and our Festivals all the more important.

Great excitement!

Over the last few weeks, I've been heavily involved in helping to organise a new food and drink festival at Uttoxeter Racecourse in June. The events team at Uttoxeter contacted us a couple of months ago and asked if Stone Food and Drink Festival would be willing to work with them to put on a summer festival and we were only too pleased to help. Indeed we were honoured to think that they valued our input so highly.

Obviously we had to negotiate an appropriate financial arrangement with them and we were able to do so on the basis that Stone Food and Drink Festival would receive all the benefits accruing from our involvement. So it's been full tilt ever since!

This morning I popped over to Uttoxeter to have an updating meeting with Dan Whitehead and came away 'on a high'. Both Dan and I had been receiving exactly the same positive responses from traders and public alike. Bookings for stalls are well above expectations and a couple of hundred entrance tickets have already been sold online!

We're lining up several meetings for next week with more traders and a couple of potential sponsors. Busy times ahead! And the beauty of it is that all the work involved is being done in tandem with our own Stone festival. So we all benefit!