OUR POLITICAL SYSTEM IS BROKEN BUT YOU CAN HELP FIX IT
And they're off!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This morning’s expected announcement of the General Election, didn't really surprise any of us, in fact from the rise in numbers visiting this site and the numbers of comments you could say it had already begun.
So over the next few weeks I will posting here regularly to discuss a whole range of issues with you, the general public, and unlike the other candidates, on here you will get a right of a published reply, I will only delete any posts which are over personal or attack others unnecessary, I want a fair and clean election and won't engage in dirty politics. Our political system is far too dirty already to risk it being involved in any further mudslinging.
So over the next few weeks I will posting here regularly to discuss a whole range of issues with you, the general public, and unlike the other candidates, on here you will get a right of a published reply, I will only delete any posts which are over personal or attack others unnecessary, I want a fair and clean election and won't engage in dirty politics. Our political system is far too dirty already to risk it being involved in any further mudslinging.
We were all outraged over MPs' expenses. But this scandal was only a symptom of a much bigger problem. at the heart of our parliament So simply cleaning up the expenses system and asking a few MP’s to pay the money back is not going to be anywhere near enough to fix our broken politics.
Our whole political system is broken; our Parliament is full of placed candidates who represent their Parties first rather than the electorates that they should serve. I spent 8 years in the House of Commons and I witnessed firsthand how the whips and the national party staff manipulated and controlled constituency MP’s to represent the party’s view to their electorate instead of ensuring that the public’s view was heard in Parliament. I was also on the receiving end of that same manipulative system, no Junior Minister appointments or PPS post for me, despite the fact that many of those appointed were well out of their depths. The small price I paid for my Independence was my Parliamentary career. Others had it a lot worse!
Ultimately the cost of that subservience led to a decision to take this country to war on a vote in the Commons where large numbers of MP’s from all parties voted for a war in Iraq, even though they didn’t believe in it. A few (too few) voted with their conscience, but too many were thinking only of their future career prospects. Sadam Hussein needed removing, but only an international coalition backed by a fresh UN mandate could have won the war, and the peace in Iraq. Without a shadow of a doubt if all those who I spoke to afterwards who said "I don't agree with the reasons we are going to war but felt duty bound to vote for the government" had voted with their conscience then the vote would not have been carried.
Likewise the other serious challenges we face today, from climate change and financial breakdown, to attacks on our civil liberties, can only be tackled with a healthy democracy that works for all of us and not just a powerful few. Our politicians need to be accountable to you, not their Party leaders.
By putting my constituents first and refusing to be manipulated, I was expelled from the Labour Party. It set me free from their shackles, it has made me more determined to serve my town and speak out. So are you with me? Isn’t it time we took our political independence back? Isn’t it time to clear out the sty and clean up our parliament once and for all? If you want to support real change then on Polling day I hope that this time you will vote for Northampton and vote for an Independent MP to represent you in Westminster
Tony
how about your top 5 policies Tony?
ReplyDeleteNo one doubts your commitment to the town or the citizens. It'd be nice to know what your FOR as well as what your against.
Gilf,
ReplyDeleteGood to hear from you. On a top five? Well I probably have more than five, and I guess I would call them priorities.
The other issue of course is that Northampton's priorities will be different to the Country's in some case.
Everyone will have Jobs/Economy and Housing at the top of their lists but no one bothers to explain further. In Northampton we have a reasonable job market, but it is overloaded with too many jobs within the service sector and not enough skilled and semi skilled manufacturing and or science and research based opportunities and we must work with partners locally and regionally to do more to readdress this imbalance.
On Housing although the County is awash with new houses they are mostly of the wrong sort in the wrong places, we need a much more stable rented sector with more family 2/3 bed homes being built rather than single person private flats.
Another priority for Northampton is to join up its efforts across all the authorities in the Town. We are a University town where the dialogue between the University and the elected members is almost invisible. We need policies for post grad students to encourage them to live work and set up business IN Northampton after leaving Uni not just leaving for good.
Another priority for the town has to be to clean up the mess our planning system is now in, some will not see this as a top issue but it is stopping us moving forward in so many directions that until we deal with it we will suffer.
A decent public transport system fit for a city of 200,000 plus is another issue high on my agenda, and as I have mentioned before one of the main priorities for any Northampton MP must be to fight for fair funding for all of Public Services based on today’s population figures, not those of a decade ago!
Then as a "Bread and Circus's" politician I would want to look at how we reconnect people in Northampton, at the moment we are drifting as a whole town community and are becoming very insular, I want a Northampton which has a sense of place and a sense of belonging, and that needs working on through innovative social policy and through outreach work where needed.
I then want real changes in Local Government which help to reconnect the public with the Councillors responsible to them, this is as much a national issue as it is a local one and only a push for unitary status at Town Hall and at Westminster will see us achieve this.
That's probably more than five but it will be a good start.