COMMENT
Business Buzz
with Harry Pearson
FEELING POSITIVE ? YOU ’ LL GET OVER IT !
Columnist Harry Pearson reflects on a feeling that may sit uncomfortably with many in the Tees region ...
Positive points - prime minister Boris Johnson and chancellor Rishi Sunak on their visit to PD Ports .
What a time it ’ s been for our region . As if the freeport announcement wasn ’ t enough , we also had the news that GE Renewable Energy is building a £ 142m plant to make wind turbine blades and that Darlington had beaten Newcastle , Bradford and Leeds to be named as site of the new Treasury North .
All of this caused in me a strange and unrecognisable emotion which , having looked it up on the internet , I can now confirm is something called “ optimism ”.
It ’ s fair to say that optimism is not Teesside ’ s default setting . Teessiders tend to err not so much on the side of caution as of doom .
Back in the last century when I had a proper job down in London , one of my colleagues came from Stockton . His name was Neil and he was such a pessimist he made Eeyore seem like Little Orphan Annie .
At meetings he would come up with a worst-case scenario for every occasion . Eventually , one morning after Neil had injected more than his usual darkness into proceedings , one of the Londoners at the table hissed : “ Jeez , who ’ s your dad ? The Grim Reaper ?” Until that moment I hadn ’ t really noticed Neil ’ s tendency to find the dark lining in every silver cloud . To me it just seemed normal . Wrestling disaster from the jaws of hope was what we did . As my Uncle Tommy from Grangetown once observed after some minor financial disaster : “ If I ’ d have invented water , I ’ d have lost money on it .”
Intellectuals agree that the greatest pessimist in human history was Alfred Schopenhauer , a German philosopher who famously said : “ Life is a meaningless episode interrupting nothingness .”
But intellectuals agree on this only because they never met my grandad . He grew up in Essex Street at a time when Middlesbrough was so fearsome and fiery that descriptions of it make Dante ’ s depiction of Hell read like a holiday brochure . Faced with news of disaster , Grandad would curl a lip and say : “ Aye , as
one door closes , another one slams in your face .” If life handed Grandad lemonade , he made lemons .
Grandad took me to watch Middlesbrough FC for the first time when I was seven . Asked why , he replied : “ A trouble shared is a trouble halved .”
He ’ d started watching Boro play at Ayresome Park in 1912 . Over the years , disappointment had curdled into a bleakness so Arctic that his seat in the Bob End was frozen by half-time . Whenever the opposition got the ball deep in their own half , my grandad would growl : “ I don ’ t like the look of this .” When they crossed the halfway line , he ’ d snarl : “ This is dangerous .” Then , as they advanced towards our penalty area , he ’ d snap : “ Here ’ s a goal .”
He ’ d carry on like this for the whole game . When the opposition finally scored in the 89th minute , he ’ d dig me with his elbow and say : “ What did I tell you ? I could see that coming a mile off .”
Once , when I complained to my dad about this carry on , he replied : “ You have to remember , not everyone in life has had your grandad ’ s disadvantages .”
Later , I ’ d come to understand what Grandad was up to . He wasn ’ t actually a pessimist . He was a happy man . But when you grow up in a rough , tough place , sometimes it ’ s best to fear the worst . That way anything positive that turns up feels like a massive bonus .
We need to celebrate good news when it comes , though . So , if you hear any weird noises over the next few weeks , don ’ t worry – it ’ ll just be me and my family practicing how to whoop with joy .
Harry Pearson ’ s latest book The Farther Corner – A Sentimental Return to North-East Football is out now .
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