Mayoral election.

[Inspector Knacker]

I notice the lady challenger for Labour is talking of creating 26,000jobs in the culture and tourism sector in the Tees Valley....?
Does tourism mean minimum wage bar work and what 'culture' does she refer to...?
She talks of a steel heritage centre, all sounds great but producing steel is a very boring procedure so the public is hardly going to drag the crowds in on a Bank Holiday is it? The reason I mention it is because  of talk of a group wanting to retain the Redcar blast furnace. That's one huge industrial relic that would be a costly way to spend money, even though it's now decommissioned and dead, it would need constant maintenance to survive. We already have the transporter constantly eating money as a most expensive bungee jumping experience, another relic is not needed.
It's time has been and gone move on.
With this talk of a Freeport south of the river, it's time a crossing of the river at Cargo Fleet was investigated to open it up to those in the North of the Tees Valley. Getting from Hartlepool by the present road system is slower than getting to Gateshead..... in this case the river divides us not unites us.

[Lucy Lass-Tick]

Isn't there something Orwellian/Eastern Block about a leisure trip around an industrial site? Hate to think what was sold in the gift shop at the exit.

[Inspector Knacker]

I remember a sketch in the 90's where someone decided to visit an Eastern bloc country, Bulgaria I believe, and on the first day was a guided tour of  'Barbed Wire Factory No 23'. 
The trouble with people who have never been anywhere near places like a steelworks is they get some misplaced nostalgia and try to empathise with those who have. They cannot begin to imagine how bloody awful it is, the steel plant and blast furnace are like scenes from hell.
You cannot make the steel making process a tourist magnet. Now you can call me a cynic, but I suspect this is little more a calculated nostalgic appeal to ex steel employees to garner a few votes.

[Topcat]

When I was an apprentice at the steelworks South works in the late 1960's one of my duties (perks) was acting as a guide to visiting parties. The parties were mostly school kids or students but occasionally groups of dignitaries, usually politicians at election time came along for a photo opportunity.

[Inspector Knacker]

I can't see the coach company's offering of a nostalgia weekend tour of 'Bang Iron' steelworks catching on. A guided tour of the coke ovens where your footwear self combusts could be popular, surfing in the rolling mill would go down a treat, lunch in the canteen, then a stroll along the steel plant when loading the furnace . As an option, a climb up the blast furnace is on offer but breathing apparatus is needed in case things go t*ts up. After high tea in the canteen, the ceremony of the tipping of the molten slag will take place lighting up the night sky in a myriad of enchanting colours, however if it's tipped into water, accidentally, vicious pieces of shrapnel like slag fly off in all directions mowing down anyone who fails to hit the deck.
It's the future, what next Abattoir Breaks, Mortuary Mystery Weekends or even Sewage Works family fun days....?

[Inspector Knacker]

When I was an apprentice at the steelworks South works in the late 1960's one of my duties (perks) was acting as a guide to visiting parties. The parties were mostly school kids or students but occasionally groups of dignitaries, usually politicians at election time came along for a photo opportunity.

All the kids had glazed eyes and looked wary but it was better than being at school.

[akarjl2]

The trouble with people who have never been anywhere near places like a steelworks is they get some misplaced nostalgia and try to empathise with those who have.

Bit like ships and the sea- ships are dangerous places to work often dirty breaking down and plain miserable.  The seas an entity and everything that is in it is just waiting to kill anyone who floats on it or gets into it the second they let their guard down....the clue is in history we crawled out of the sea millions of years ago to get away from the bloody thing. lol.

I have spent my working life on or near the sea and hate it.

[Inspector Knacker]

The trouble with people who have never been anywhere near places like a steelworks is they get some misplaced nostalgia and try to empathise with those who have.

Bit like ships and the sea- ships are dangerous places to work often dirty breaking down and plain miserable.  The seas an entity and everything that is in it is just waiting to kill anyone who floats on it or gets into it the second they let their guard down....the clue is in history we crawled out of the sea millions of years ago to get away from the bloody thing. lol.

I have spent my working life on or near the sea and hate it.

As my instructor pointed out to me, "The idea is to be on the bloody sea, NOT IN IT".