Half Full?

Are you a glass half-full or half-empty person? Do you always consider the past better than the future? More of that later.............

Clearly there were many full glasses when the Sunday Times magazine reporter A.A. Gill visited Cleethorpes in October. There has been much comment following on from the article he wrote for last week's Sunday Times magazine that gave a less than flattering, and in some ways totally inaccurate description of both Grimsby and Cleethorpes.

The author had a bad start to his visit. As someone who travels to London and back most weeks I know better than most that we urgently need a direct rail service to the capital. (I'm writing this piece en route from Birmingham where I met with Virgin Trains and I took the opportunity of pressing the case to them as they are bidding for the East Coast franchise). But back to Mr Gill's efforts to get to Cleethorpes which he says took longer than a flight to Moscow. For some bizarre reason his office booked him to travel to Peterborough and then to Lincoln via Sleaford and then Lincoln to Grimsby. No wonder he was a bit grumpy when he arrived!

Gill’s phrase ‘a meagre high street’ is, of course, not referring to the Town’s main shopping street; St. Peter’s Avenue which is certainly not ‘meagre’ and is indeed a thriving ‘high street.’ This sort of inaccurate statement is unacceptable.

‎He clearly chose to ignore easily obtainable facts about the importance about the fish market and that the Grimsby/Immingham dock complex is the largest in the country.

Our area is not without problems; some of them very significant, such as under-achievement by many of our young people who are not obtaining the required educational standards. Of course we need to be addressing these failings but we mustn't pretend it's all doom and gloom.

Cleethorpes, as a resort, has succeeded in turning itself around. The days of decline in the 70s and 80s when the steady expansion of foreign package holidays was damaging for so many UK destinations are gone. 

Did Mr Gill mention our successes in Cleethorpes in Bloom? We certainly mentioned it to him‎.

He says that this corner of Lincolnshire is ‘thin, worn-out, underprivileged, unlovable.’ The scenes he describes could have been in any town in the country. Is there a town without its worn-out and underprivileged area? Of course not. Gill rightly states that there was a friendly sort of atmosphere on the streets and I had the distinct feeling that he was warming to the people he met and was going to produce article similar to the one that subsequently appeared. Take away the reference to Grimsby & Cleethorpes and view it as a commentary on contemporary society and it highlights some issues that can’t be ignored We can't ignore the fact that allowing clubs to open until 3,4 and 5 in the morning costs the taxpayers huge amounts of money and we need to ask if that can be justified.

Will it impact on the tourist trade? In South Yorkshire where many of Cleethorpes’ visitors come from I doubt that on a sunny Sunday morning next summer when considering where to go for the day they’ll be saying ‘we better give Cleethorpes miss – remember that article by A.A. Gill, we better go to Skeggy instead. (If they do they’ll certainly be disappointed!) The best response is to relax, take note of the serious aspects, focus on them and treat the rest for what it was – an article by a waspish journalist who is known for his critical style.

Back to optimism and pessimism; another article I read last week was about what makes a political party an election winner at any one time. The answer, and the accompanying statistics did bear out the conclusion which was that the party must have an optimistic message and the leaders who could deliver the vision.

Too much of our politics is negative and ‘against things’ – the Conservative message at the next election will rest on having seen through the recession and having created conditions to allow businesses to grow. Far from being an underprivileged corner of England we are entering one of the most exciting periods in our recent history. Happy new year.