Lost the Plot

When faced with tough questions to answer over the failed £32m Carrilion Contract fiasco on Northamptonshire County Council the ruling Tories come up with a rather unique if not totally plausible defence of saying that they could find no evidence, no paper trail as to what went wrong and therefore they couldn't decide who was responsible!

In 2007, officials from Northamptonshire County Council agreed an £8 million a year deal with West Midlands-based construction firm Carillion to take over the management of the council's buildings.

But earlier this year, the council unexpectedly pulled out of the contract. It later emerged the way the council signed-off the deal may have been illegal and many key documents could not be found at County Hall.

Cllr Bill Parker the portfolio Holder for Finance told the local newspaper that

"There are some big gaps in the investigation where we just can't find the information. But because many officers who were involved in the deal have now left the council, I suspect quite a lot of it went out in boxes when they walked out of the door."

His cavalier attitude to the whole affair was echoed by the Cllr previously holding the purse strings Cllr Robin Brown who said

"I don't think any documents have been lost on purpose and there's no justification for any disciplinary action."

And to sum the whole matter up the leader of the Council Mr Pastry himself Jim Harker calmed our concerns by telling us

"There's no evidence full stop and that's the crux of the problem."

Well not quite Jim, for whilst it might be convenient for the Tory administration that all the evidence has disappeared it leave the public wondering just what sort of show these jokers are running?

Recently when a freedom of Information request was submitted to the County Council questioning the amounts the authority had spent on Consultants we were told "Sorry we can't find the information on our computer" Its the equivalent of the Little Britain sketch where "The computer says no"

No doubt at next weeks Council meeting we will get the opportunity to question how hard they looked and remark at how convenient it is for the ruling administration for evidence to have been lost.

But it won't wash with me nor I doubt the public. An authority which has control of over £400m of our money a year needs to respond a little more professionally when challenged over its malpractice, as it is clear that what has been lost along with the paperwork is the Councils reputation and along with it the already tarnished record of the local Tory's Party in managing the County' finances.

Political fools and the taxpayers money it seems are far too easily parted!

Lest We Forget

Rememberance Sundays have always been days of mixed emotions for me. As someone who is too weak to be a pacifist and too opinionated to be a nationalist, I find my anti war sympathies clashing with the basic need to recognise the sacrifice others have given to secure ours and others freedom whilst at the same time also remembering all the victims of war on all sides of the conflict including the millions of civillians who have lost their lives without so much as picking up a gun in defence or anger .

Others of course will understandably think differently, some would be appalled at the thought of showing any respect in passing for the enemy, for others the very act of rememberence is a celebration of their national pride.

Yesterday however at All Saints, I felt the hand of unity fall upon those present as an elderly 98 yr old Pakistani war hero paid his respects at the War memorial, followed shortly after by our old friends the Polish Community resplendent in National dress, reminding us of the reasons we fought facism in the 2nd World War.

The unity of our purpose was a million miles away from the propaganda paraded by the far right with thier shameful use of World War II images to stir up nationalist ideals and to try drive us further apart.

Yesterday reminded us that Britain could not have won either of the World Wars without the contribution made by non-white and non-British soldiers.

This is nothing new. The British Empire had always relied heavily on non-white and non-British troops to secure victory. The largest amongst these was the Indian Army, whose troops served throughout Asia and Africa.

The British Navy also recruited widely throughout the Empire. At the Battle of Trafalgar (1805) there were 187 sailors from the Caribbean, 28 from Africa and 23 from India aboard ships in Nelson’s Fleet. The Death of Nelson, painted between 1859 and 1864 by Daniel Maclise, clearly depicts two black sailors, whom he included after meticulous research to ensure the historical accuracy of his composition. Figures such as James Africanus Horton (1835-1883), Oludah Equiano (c.1745-1797) and Mary Seacole (1805-1881), to name but three, all served in the British armed forces before 1914.

At the outbreak of war in 1914 Britain recruited heavily from her Imperial possessions. Over one million men from the non-white colonies served during the First World War. The greatest military contribution came again from India. Over 138,000 Indian troops fought in Belgium and France during the conflict. More than one quarter of them became casualties. In the first battle of Ypres in Flanders in 1914, a platoon of Dogra Sikhs died fighting to the last man, who shot himself with his last cartridge rather than surrender. After the bloody battle of Neuve Chapelle in 1915, the Sikh regiments had lost 80% of their men. Three regiments stood at only 16% of their original complement.

Khudadad Khan, from what is today Pakistan, served as a machine gunner with the 129th (Duke of Connaught’s Own) Baluchis, becoming the first native-born Indian to be awarded the Victoria Cross (VC) for bravery.

Fifteen thousand men from the West Indies (white and black) saw active service during the First World War. The British West Indies Regiment was formally established in November 1915 and 11 battalions served in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, suffering 1,325 casualties including 185 killed in action. The racial prejudice to which it was subjected contributed to a mutiny among its troops in 1918. Troops from Africa played an important part in the defeat of the Germans in East and West Africa. Others, from countries including Egypt, Mauritius, Fiji, South Africa and China, swelled the ranks of labour units, providing logistical support for frontline troops.

Walter Tull served in the trenches and became the first black British army officer before being killed in action in 1918 during the last battle of the Somme. Before the war he was Britain’s first black professional outfield footballer, playing for Tottenham Hotspur and Northampton Town.

Four Indians and one West Indian served as pilots in the fledgling Royal Flying Corps (RFC), which was to become the Royal Air Force. Lieutenant Indra Lal Roy, who was born in Calcutta, served with the RFC and recorded nine victories against enemy aircraft before being shot down and killed in 1918. He was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC). The Royal Navy also received invaluable support from the Hong Kong Naval Special Volunteer Reserve, the Colombo Minesweeping Force, the Nigerian Marine and the Royal Indian Marine.

(Pictured Left) is a Vintage historical World War 2 poster of servicemen from the British Commonwealth. Allied War Effort: Together

Over 2.5 million Indians – Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims – served with the British armed forces during the Second World War. The Indian Army (which included recruits from the areas that later became Pakistan and Bangladesh) was the largest volunteer army in the world. Over 36,000 Indian members of the armed forces were killed or posted missing in action during the Second World War and another 64,000 were wounded. Indian personnel received 4,000 awards for gallantry, and 31 VCs. The only VC winner from elsewhere in the Empire was Corporal Sefanaia Sukanaivalu, of the Fiji Military Forces, who earned this highest of all commendations in June 1944 at Bougainville.

One of the 31 recipients of the VC was Havildar Gaje Ghale, who in May 1943 was in command of D platoon, 2nd battalion, 5th Royal Gurkha Rifles. Although badly wounded, he continued to lead a charge against the Japanese forces on the Tiddim Road in Burma.

The citation for his VC stated that he had “dominated the fight” with “his outstanding example, doubtless courage and superb leadership … Covered in blood from his own wounds, he led assault after assault”. In total there were 2,500,000 Indian people in uniform during the conflict.

Approximately 6,000 men and women from the Caribbean served with the RAF during the Second World War. Some 300 or so West Indians served as RAF aircrew, and around 90 men received decorations. This included seven Distinguished Service Orders (DSO), and 64 DFCs.

Probably the most decorated was Squadron Leader Ulric Cross (pictured right), who was awarded both the DSO and the DFC. The citation for the latter notes his “exceptional navigational ability” and the “very large number of sorties” he had flown “against heavily defended targets” in Germany.

Sam King served with the RAF. He returned to Britain on the Empire Windrush and became the first black mayor of Southwark. He was later awarded an MBE.

Some 520 men came from the Caribbean colonies to work, mainly in munitions factories in the northwest. About 80 West Indian women, initially only white women, were recruited for the Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS).

By December 1944 around 5,000 black Africans were enlisted in the West African Air Corps as RAF ground crew. A very small number served as aircrew with the RAF. Tens of thousands served in supporting roles such as in the medical corps or as anti-aircraft crew, as well as in construction and other vital war work.

Some 372,500 African troops fought in East Africa and Burma, helping to defeat the Japanese.

Non-white, non-British people also made a significant non-military contribution to keeping Britain going in the fight against Nazi tyranny. Approximately 15,000 colonial merchant seamen brought vital food and raw materials to Britain and transported war material to various battlefronts. Five thousand of them perished. Some are buried in Commonwealth War Graves as far away as Murmansk.

One of the most famous agents of the Special Operations Executive (SOE), which fought behind enemy lines, was Noor Inyat Khan (pictured left), an Indian Muslim princess who worked as a radio operator with the French Resistance. Betrayed by an informer and arrested by the Gestapo, Khan refused to talk. After being tortured and beaten, she was executed by the Nazis in Dachau concentration camp in 1944.

The sacrifice made by many of these troops who helped to restore democracy in Europe was all the greater when one considers that many had no desire to return to the status quo ante, in which their countries were colonies denied self-determination.

Even when independence was granted to these countries after 1945 many of their citizens continued to serve loyally in the British armed forces, producing heroes such as SAS Sergeant Talaiasi Labalaba from Fiji, who was killed fighting in Oman in 1972 at the Battle of Mirbat, and Private Johnson Beharry, who received the VC (the first awarded since 1982 and the first non-posthumous award of the medal since 1965) for his bravery in helping fellow soldiers in Iraq.

During the 1960s an unofficial quota limited the number of ethnic minority personnel serving in the Army to a maximum of 3%. Today, however, ethnic minorities comprise 5.6% of the armed forces and 2.9% of the Ministry of Defence (MOD) Civil Service.

Ethnic minorities and people from the British Empire, later the Commonwealth, have a long and illustrious history of service in the British armed forces, to which they have made a vital and often unsung contribution. The British National Party aspires quite literally to whitewash this history, dismissing the notion that such troops, even if they were born here, are “British”. Indeed such is the BNP’s contempt for the contribution of these troops that Nick Griffin, the BNP leader, even dismissed the Gurkhas, the feared Nepalese fighters who have fought for Britain for generations, as nothing more than “mercenaries”.

The BNP even had the temerity to claim that Johnson Beharry (pictured above) only received his VC because he was black, and further defamed him and his bravery by stating that he was an “immigrant” who had merely driven away from the scene of a battle, implying that he was a coward.

So Lest We Forget, our rememberence has no colour bar, our heroes one and all fought for humankind not nation state alone.

It's a lesson the BNP would do well to take heed of.

(with thanks to Hope not Hate for the source material)

The most common of all antagonisms arises from a man's taking a seat beside you on the train, a seat to which he is completely entitled.

And so it seems the same antagonism resides in the hearts and minds of Liberal Democrat, Labour and Conservative Leaders on Northampton Borough Council, but not with seats on trains, but seats on Council Committees.

With Cllrs Jean Hawkins, Malcolm Mildren and myself having formed a new Independent Group of three, the make up of the Council changed dramatically and the Lib Dem majority on the Council was reduced from 5 to just 1, and as a consequence the membership of all the Councils Committees needed to be rearranged to accommodate the new groups members.

A simple enough task you would think, but no such luck, I have witnessed in the past the Labour Group fighting over where I should sit in the Council Chamber as an Independent Councillor and also refusing to sit alongside me (and now I understand the Regional Party are asking NBC's Labour Cllrs to sign documents agreeing not to cooperate with me on the Council!)

So I should have known that getting agreement from all concerned as to our rights to sit on committees would always be fraught with difficulty, and so it seems it is.

We have been allocated 6 Committee places as is our right, but what committees we serve on is normally a matter of consultation between all party's. Not so on Britain's Most Undemocratic Council. Here the three leaders of the Lib Dem, Tory and Labour Party discussed and decided between themselves that they should keep hold of as much as they can and then allocated spare seats to the new group as they saw fit!

So no surprise then that instead of the Independents being represented on the 3 main Scrutiny Committees the three main parties tried to dictate that we sit on Committees such as "The Tree Panel" and "The Licencing Committee" Nothing wrong with the business of either of course, but in order to hold the Council fully to account Independents should be represented on all the main scrutiny committees the same as other party's on a proportional basis.

So what are they so scared of in denying us a voice? And what leads them to take a view that consultation through the "Usual Channels" is to be denied to those not in a Party? Ignorance? Indifference? Fear?

As a consequence my group has decided not to take up any committee places until their has been proper consultation. Instead we will attend all committees as we see fit and speak from the Public Gallery. We did so last Wednesday and opted to speak on every item on the Cabinet Agenda. No doubt we will do so again at the next and also find other ways of ensuring our voices are heard.

The three main party's must understand that by trying to play King Canute and holding back a swelling Independent tide that they are simply at risk of drowning a lot quicker.

Myself and my two fellow Independents on the Borough Council will not under any circumstances be party to dictatorial decision making, and old boy network tactics on Council.

Its high time though that the other party's grew up and accepted that we are here to stay.