Thursday 18 March 2010

LABOUR MOVES ASIDE AS CANDIDATE CONCEEDS

Staggering news reached me last night from Waltham Forest and via comments on this blog that Clyde Loakes (remember him) Labours Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Northampton South has seemingly thrown in the towel before the general election has even been called!

The Waltham Forest Guardian leads with this story as follows:

WALTHAM FOREST: Loakes admits he is "paper candidate"

FORMER council leader Clyde Loakes has admitted he is merely a “paper candidate”, with no realistic prospect of winning the parliamentary seat of Northampton South for Labour.

Cllr Loakes stood down as council leader in May to concentrate his efforts on the midlands seat.
But he has now admitted he is unlikely to win the seat, which is currently held by the Conservatives with a 4,419 majority.

He said:

“It is no longer classed as a marginal seat.

“I am doing this for the experience.”

The Guardian understands relations between Cllr Loakes and Northampton South constituency party activists have broken down amid anger at the amount of time Cllr Loakes has spent away from the area.

Cllr Loakes admitted there are "complex issues” with the constituency party.

NO LONGER A MARGINAL SEAT!!!

It has a notional Labour majority of just under 2000 after the boundary changes, and with all the issues surrounding the sitting MP's did he didn't? MPS expenses record, then you would expect Clyde and the Labour Party to go at the seat with vigour?

But they won't because they know that the only candidate that can challenge Brian for his Parliamentary seat is writing this blog!

Labour members in frustration have told me that he won't be around until after the election is a called and then only paying fleeting visits, as he needs to fight to maintain his Council seat in Waltham Forest which is also been elected to on May 6th.

I wonder if he feels that is marginal?

And as for him gaining experience, the first lesson he has learnt is not to blow your cover before the campaign has begun!!

No doubt, Northampton South Labour Party will continue to resolve it local "Complex issues" but the electorate can't wait for them to do so and now they need an alternative to the Tory candidate, who is willing to fight for the seat and fight to win, not just go through the motions as a paper candidate expecting to lose and gaining "experience"

So Clyde Loakes may have thrown the towel in but if he hasn't got the stomach for the fight then I will work even harder to give the non Tory voters of Northampton South a chance of taking the seat from Brian Binley.

Indeed it would be better for all concerned if he just stood aside, but then again the Labour Party would simply parachute in another photo fit candidate.

But that won’t happen, but at least voters now know where they stand when they cast their votes later in the Spring.


Sunday 14 March 2010

MEETINGS: THE PRACTICAL ALTERNATIVE TO DOING ANYTHING USEFUL

I am not quite sure just who is going to be best served by the planned public meeting 25th March on the future of the town centre and outer town planning? Certainly the Liberal Democrats and the Local Tory Party will be most happy as they seem to be controlling both the agenda and the crowd!

10 minutes for Slugger Church 10 minutes for Binners and just three minutes from any of those in the audience lucky to get noticed?

This isn’t going to be a public debate, it will be a manipulated political theatre production planned and acted out by a very select few, indifferent to the views of the many and then acted out in front of a selected audience carefully picked out and invited mainly by the two parties themselves. It reminds me of the Alan Van De Hiede quote "Meetings are an addictive, highly self-indulgent activity that corporations and other organizations habitually engage in only because they cannot actually masturbate"

And so it was that on Friday night I received emails from the Lib Dems and the Tories informing me that of the 300 tickets available one is to be reserved for each councillor (47) which leaves at most 253 available to the public to be booked only via email at 2 tickets per applicant. Therefore if each party (and they had a head start on everyone else) simply gets 63 of their supporters to order their allowed 2 tickets each pronto then we will have a full house of friendly picked listeners.

Needless to say the email trees were out in full bloom Friday evening and I would be interested to find out exactly how many tickets were left for Joe Public by the time the event was advertised in the Chronicle and Echo the next day.

I spoke to Brian Binley on Saturday and he agreed with me on the unsuitability of the process, and we agreed that if the Council want a real debate, then let’s have all sides of the Council at the top table and let’s have an open door and an open mind policy.

From a personal point if view having discussed this very topic for the 6 years with 5 different Council Leaders 4 different Chief Executives and 3 different politically coloured administrations I too have more than a bit to say!

Let’s have a balanced panel asked and be forced to answer some real difficult questions on the future of our town rather than just giving the Tories and Lib Dems another pre election platform for their own previously failed ideas.

I said recently in the Council chamber that the Planning Process should never be used for political purpose, and I also warned of the dangers of any politician becoming too entrenched in a particular view to the exclusion of any compromise and to the detriment of the town.

And just imagine what we could achieve if instead of a having a Town Centre First policy or a Sports Club First Policy, we had instead a NORTHAMPTON first policy where all potential development was carefully considered on balance and taking into account all of the issues involved, including the future of the town centre, impact on employment, the need for improved leisure provision and a planning policy that was owned and delivered by the Council rather than a blueprint handed down from Whitehall.

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Thank you for visiting "tonyclarkegreenparty" The views expressed here are mine and mine alone. They are made by me personally in my own capacity as free citizen and not as representative of any outside body or council that I may serve on or be employed by. However if anyone is offended by any of these comments or feels that they should be corrected then please contact me in the first instance at tony.clarke@email.com and I will do my best to consider your comments and correct any errors.

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