What will you be getting instead of EMA Lollipop?

 

As I flick through today’s Guardian the ongoing violence and raids in Muammar Gaddafi’s hometown of Sirte instantly depress me. Another headline devoted to the civil chaos in Libya makes me wonder if the papers are becoming obsessed with just one story. Of course the rebellions in Libya are major news especially as Britain and the UN become more and more involved and the death toll rises but there are other stories that deserve just as much attention and headlines.

My Lollipop also seems to agree as she grabs the paper off me and hastily flicks past the Libyan crisis articles probably trying to find any breaking news on her teen idol Justin Bieber on his current UK tour. “Give it back Lollipop, there’s nothing on Justin Bieber in it,”

“I’m just checking sis, last month it had that huge article about “Bieber fever,” remember?”

“That was just a one off article Lollipop,” I explain as I snatch back the paper.

“See this is what you should be reading about Lollipop,” I say as I show her an article entitled, “Gove unveils cut- price replacement for EMA.”

“See. Things that will soon concern you when you go to college.”

“I already know I won’t get any EMA sis, unlike you who got tons of money off the government to spend on clothes and going out.”

“Actually under this new, “more generous than expected replacement for EMA, setting aside 180m a year you might get something Lollipop. And it is not for spending on clothes and going out! Guidelines from the Department for Education stress that the money should go to cover food, travel and equipment for college.”

“Oh whatever sis, everyone knows £30 a week is at least one good night out or a few trips to the cinema.”

“Yeah I guess so,” I agree as my sister reads the article.

“This Education secretary guy Michael Gove has announced that all second year students who began courses in 2009- 10 will still receive the full EMA of £30 in their final year. However those who stated courses in 2010- 11 who received the maximum EMA of £30 will only get £20 until the end of the end of the next academic year and those students who received anything lower will receive nothing,” explains my sister. “So it really doesn’t concern me as I’ll still receive nothing sis,” she says as she slams the paper down and turns to her laptop to upload Justin’s Twitter page.

“Actually in the next academic Year College principals will distribute funds to students who they believe are in need of help EMA officials admitted that the system could continue to change as colleges could link payments to student grades,” I further explain to my sister. “So you could still get some kind of handout if you keep your marks up which you will because you are the class geek.”

“Oi! I am not a geek, I am young and sophisticated, which is more than I can say for you,” retaliates my sister. “Yeah i.e. major geek,” I reply whilst my sister pretends not to listen and turns up one Bieber’s performances on his UK tour.

I sigh as I finish reading the article and hope my sister does get some kind of financial help from the government like I received. Although James Mills, Head of Save Our EMA Campaign claims this replacement is a, “small victory.” The 16- 19 yr old bursaries represent a cut of 2/3 from the previous £560m annual budget leaving just £180m left to support Britain’s poorer students.

So although this is a small victory it may not be enough for prospective students like my Bieber-obsessed sister who want to stay in education.

 

So just how good was Bieber last night Lollipop?

As I trawl through MEN’s web pages I notice that it is not just my Lollipop and her Bieber obsessed friends that are going mad for the teen idol. Almost the whole of Manchester’s female population seemed to be screaming for him last night and over the weekend as his My World Tour finally hit Manchester. Lollipop can hardly speak from all the squealing and hollering that she did at his concert last night. Instead she shows me the hundreds of photos she took of the pop sensation, smiling at each one on her camera whilst I just roll my eyes at my sister’s crazy obsession.

“Have you seen the review in the MEN,” I ask my sister who shakes her head as I toss her the paper.  She reads through the article looking totally unimpressed. “They’re reporting on it like it was just average sis. It was amazing,” croaks my sister. “No they’re not Lollipop, look it says here that, “High camp it may be, but when he plays guitar on Never Let You Go, dangling from the rafters in a heart-shaped cage, or bangs out Down To Earth on the piano, the charisma that has made him a global superstar finally shows.”

“He was a star the whole way through, did the MEN reporters not see the incredible dance moves he was busting or hear his gorgeous voice?”

“Take it up with their editors in Chadderton not me Lollipop,” I absent-mindedly reply as I  click on another story on a Libyan school girl in Manchester who is backing British military action against Gaddafi as her father was killed just two weeks ago in the rebel held town of Brega.

“You should be more interested in Britain’s involvement in Libya as all three major party leaders are behind David Cameron in authorising military action and a no fly zone in the country. This could affect our economy Lollipop and we end up losing more innocent lives over another foreign conflict.”

“I know all this already sis, our geography teacher at school keeps banging on about Gaddafi and giving us the latest on Libya and Japan’s nuclear crisis. So between you, the news and my geography teacher I’m almost as clued up on the Middle East as I am about Justin Bieber,” complains my sister as her voice becomes throaty again. As usual though she does have a point. Civil war and natural disasters have completely taken over our media and the papers are becoming even more sombre. So it’s quite refreshing to see teens across Manchester turn into crazy Beliebers and laugh at their banners and purple sunglasses instead of listening to the next update from the Middle East.

“Alright, alright calm down Lollipop, we don’t want you to entirely lose your voice after all that screaming last night,” I laugh as my sister starts wheezing and coughing into a tissue. “I don’t care sis it was totally worth it. I’m just disappointed that I wasn’t chosen as his one last lonely girl. I was so jealous of the Blondie he chose.”

“Yes weren’t we all Lollipop, weren’t we all.”

Are we heading to the London 2012 Olympics Lollipop?

As I flick though the pages of today’s Times it is not the dangerous Japan radiation leaks due to the nuclear catastrophe at the stricken Fukushima power station that attracts my attention. The ongoing TV news coverage and video footage of the devastation looks like a scene from disaster movie 2012 or the Day after Tomorrow- not something that happened a couple hundred miles away.

The London 2012 Olympics however will be happening in my capital city with some events taking place in my hometown and the Times have issued a 12 page special supplement on the games. Lollipop and I have already registered online for tickets and my sister is almost as excited about the schedule as she is about Justin Bieber’s My World UK tour that she of course has tickets for.

“I’m so excited sis!” exclaims Lollipop, “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity!”

“I know, but this lifetime opportunity definitely does not come cheap Lollipop,” I reply as I show her the ticket prices for the Athletics at the Olympic stadium.

“What! Is this one of those unofficial websites where they try and rip you off sis?”

“Unfortunately not Lollipop, This is the official ticketing website.”

The lowest price for the final day of Athletics at the Olympic stadium is £50 yet the highest is £725.00. With this event  probably being one of the most popular London 2012 will use an automated random selection process (ballot) to ensure the fairest possible allocation of tickets on a session-by-session basis. So even if you are prepared to pay the highest price you may not get a ticket.

The Times revealed that two million people had pre- registered their interest in attending athletics at the Olympic stadium. “The figure would suggest that the 15 track and field sessions in the 80,000 seat stadium will on average be oversubscribed nearly twice over,” claimed the broadsheet newspaper.

In their A-Z guide to the games World Heptathlon winner Jennifer Ennis expressed her hopes for 2012 and Britain’s promising young female athletes. Despite her ankle injury she is still thinking positive as her, “target is to make the first big heptathlon of the year in Gotziz, Austria at the end of May.” However you might have to be very lucky if you want to see her in action next summer at the London Olympics. Successful applicants will be told of their allocations in June and any remaining tickets will be sold in another sales window. Although there is a six month period to apply for tickets and there is no first come first come serve basis my Lollipop still thinks we should bid for tickets straight away.

“What if there are technical difficulties on the website because so many people will be trying to get the same tickets? We might not be able to apply later, so we have to put our names down now.”

“Lord Coe, Chairman of the London Olympic Organising Committee is pretty confident that they’ll be no technical issues or “fraudulent activity.”

“Whatever sis, We could get to see Usain Bolt run the 100 metres in London, we can’t take any chances. Now give me your Visa card!” Orders my Lollipop, who as always definitely seems to have a point. Already on the first day of ticket sales sports fans with Visa cards which expire before the end of August were experiencing problems as they logged on to discover the ballot website could not process their orders.

With organisers predicting the Olympics will be a sell out my chances of seeing the lightning Usain Bolt are already looking slim. Suddenly £725.00 does not seem like that much money as I dream of doing his lightning victory pose with him on the 5^th August 2012- the day of the Men’s 100m final.

“Quick Lollipop, apply for the tickets. I’ll go and get my card,”

“On it sis! Oh have you seen Justin Bieber’s wax creation at Madame Tussauds? It’s obviously not as gorgeous as he is though. Maybe we can go and see it whilst were in London for the Olympics next year sis.”

What do you think of my first published article Lollipop?

Mill owner kept his lifesaving labours in house

The year is 1861 and Middleton is not as we know it.  Overseas the American civil war has just begun, pitting the north against the south in a symbolic struggle over the abolition of slavery. In the United States this war cost over 62,000 soldiers their lives. However in Middleton it cost many mill owners their factory and their businesses.

This week Bygone Days takes you back to the cotton famine from 1861-1865 when entire families suddenly found themselves out of work seeking relief from the Poor Law Guardians or relief committees.

If you and I lived in Middleton during the 1860s you would probably find work within their thriving silk industry in one of their many factories or cotton mills. In fact your entire family would probably work in the same mill together. Therefore you were totally dependent on the cotton trade and the supply of raw materials that were often imported from America.

President Abraham Lincoln blockaded southern ports in the USA as a protest against slavery and to prevent the South from obtaining military supplies. The main source of raw cotton was no longer available to Middleton mills.

Although on the eve of the war the Lancashire cotton trade was flourishing and abundant with raw supplies this only lasted for a few months. By 1861 most local spinning mills were now only working four days a week and others were forced to close down temporarily.

To use the word famine to describe such a tough economic period was no exaggeration, whole families would have been left jobless with no form of income.

During this calamitous time Thomas Broadbent Wood was the accomplished mill owner of Park Mill on Suffield Street – father to famous Middletonian Edgar Wood.

He too soon had no alternative but to close down his mill due to the limited supply of raw cotton. However he managed to lease some land on Sunny Brow Road and assigned Manchester architects to construct plans.

He re-employed his own workers to build Sunny Brown House and its grounds as a form of relief against the great hardship most families were suffering.

Sunny Brow Nursery is often remembered as a war nursery in the 1940s for women to send their children to while they were employed doing essential war work. It is also remembered for being the house where the architect, Edgar Wood spent his childhood.

Now we can look at it and remember it as a lifesaver for most of those who worked at Park Mill during the conflict, which had caused such high levels of unemployment throughout Lancashire.

Your local newspaper would have also reported on the famine. On February 2 1861 – 150 years ago – The Middleton Albion claimed how the silk trade was considerably worse than it was a month ago and in consequence many hand-loom weavers were reduced to a state bordering on destitution:

“It may be safely said that they have not had the work for twelve months. We hope that a generous hand will be again held out whilst the ordeal continues, a little temporary relief is much-needed in many families.”

America also recognised Lancashire’s hardship throughout the Civil War.

Lieutenant Governor George docked at Liverpool in February 1862 in a relief ship with some much-needed supplies.

The barrels on board contained food and flour from President Abraham Lincoln and the people of New York. The only remaining barrel is currently at Touchstones Museum in Rochdale.

When I visited the museum to see this barrel I soon began to see it as a symbol of most family’s suffering and triumph over the American Civil War that cost so many weavers their way of life. It caused a ripple effect across the whole of Lancashire and our ancestors of Middleton also paid the price.

(published in The Middleton Guardian, 3/o3/2011.)

Should we really be excited about the King’s Speech Lollipop?

 As I flick through today’s newspapers I can’t help but be mildly excited about our success at the Oscars. The Brits are clearly reigning supreme thanks to the Kings Speech.

“The King’s Speech has taken America by storm,” raves two-time Oscar winner Tom Hanks after this year’s ceremony.

Everyone seemed to be proud of the Brit’s success apart from Lollipop who is more interested in the glamorous gowns the celebrities are donning on the red carpet.

“Doesn’t Jennifer Hudson look stunning sis? I wish I could afford Versace,”

“I know, I also wish I had busts like hers too.”

“Yeah they are definitely out there,” remarks my 15- year old sister whilst continuing to critique each star’s dress sense.

I however have already analysed each of the star’s outfits and am still in awe of Anne Hathaway’s incredible dress-athon. After reading about her multiple costume changes in the Guardian another article grabs my attention. Entitled, “We have the statues, now what?” the news piece questions if the King’s Speech success will even help the British film industry especially with the axing of the UK Film Council which will no longer exist in 2012 thanks to the Coalition government.

The council invested £1m of lottery money in the King’s Speech during its early development practically ensuring the funding and making of the Oscar-winning film.

Although the council stands to recoup 100% of its investment in the film plus “significant net profits” it still won’t be enough to save the public body. Now many are concerned about the future of British film as Academy award winner Colin Firth at the Oscars said, axing the UK Film Council was “short- sighted.”

I show Lollipop the article who is still uninterested and unimpressed by the film’s success.

“Why should I care about a film that is telling the story of a King I hardly even know about? I was not even born than sis. This has clearly been made for an older and wrinklier audience.”

“What? I liked it,”

“Exactly we have totally different tastes sis,” explains Lollipop shoving the newspaper straight into my face.

I sneer at my younger sister who clearly does not understand the importance of the UK Film Council or the British film industry. Without it stars like Colin Firth or Carey Mulligan would not have got as far.

The King’s Speech has attracted an older audience, encouraging them to go to the cinema more often and invest in British film. With the imminent axing of the UK Film Council these type of “uninteresting, old-fashioned” movies are exactly what the film industry need in order to keep its crown at next years Oscars.

“Did you mention that it’s Justin Bieber’s birthday on your blog sis? Seventeen today, aren’t you going to wish him Happy Birthday?”

Happy Birthday Bieber ( I write through gritted teeth).