Just an update on a few "what's been happenings" in downtown Nampton over the last few days and weeks:
ANN FRANK AWARDS
I was humbled on Saturday in receiving an Ann Frank Award from Northampton Youth Forum, the awards recognise young people who have achieved great things and also educators and community activists who have supported young people in their lives. I was delighted to receive the award for my work both as Cllr and MP for supporting young people through my actions and also in my role at NTFC in supporting disabled youngsters and others through sport. I told the young people present at the award presentation at Northampton Carnival that they shouldn't make a habit of giving awards out to politicians as usually it us that cause most of their problems not resolve them. My congratulations also go out to the other recipients including Dostiyo for their work with Asian girls and also my partner in political crime Ann Timson for showing an example to young people through her brave intervention in that infamous smash and grab robbery last year!
IT'S HIM ALRIGHT
An anonymous poster to this site was very upset at the picture of "Dave" (below) looking all glum and suggested that it was certainly not the Prime Minister at all? Well yes it was I am afraid. It was taken after his election defeat in North East Leicestershire in 1997. It also seems that there are a large number of less than flattering shots of the PM doing the rounds, most provided to the press by his ex chums at Bullingdon and beyond. The shot included in this post is just one of many many more that we will need to get used to seeing even if we don't want to believe it is the PM. I think this pic is very "Beckhamesque" as "Dave" sports a very fashionable male sarong, but somehow footballers seem better able to carry off this look than politicians can. But at least it shows that the great man is just as capable of making a dick of himself as the rest of us.
SPECIAL AGENT
News reaches me of alleged unfortunate election irregularities by at least 4 successful Cllrs in this May's Borough Council Elections being investigated either internally by their party and/or by Inspector Knacker of Campbell Square. Some of these investigations may be as a result of harmless or genuine errors, one reported to me by the BNP was not even of the candidates making as NBC show they are just as capable of making gaffs as the parties are. Another it seems involves alleged fraudulent signatures being placed on candidate nomination forms and if true is far more serious, and of course if found to be proved could inevitably lead to a by election. The most serious accusations though that have come to my ears involves the age old time practice of "Postal Vote Farming" where candidates sign up willing voters on the doorstep or in their homes and process their postal votes for them when they arrive!! One potential victim told me he told the candidate where to go and said he would cast his own vote at the Polling Station, but the candidate in question it seems still took away his mums, his sisters and his dads votes, his dad's Postal Vote return had only just been filled in and freshly signed that very minute, even though his father wasn't even home at the time! And to think me and John Dickie were reported and questioned by plod for simply leaving an imprint of of a letter in the 2007 election! It would be improper to name the candidates or their parties but I can't help but think that a lot of the above wouldn't have happened if the Party Agent was on the ball, or even present during the election!
STARSHIP ENTERPRISE
There is a certain irony about the fact that only Malcolm Mildren and myself (both now ex NBC Cllrs) at the time challenged NBC's deal with Enterprise to take over street scene and refuse collection services from the in house team at the Council in what could be a 14 year contract. The Lib Dem's were very proud to be pictured signing the deal and boasting about it to all and sundrie in their election material, The incoming Tory Party also then" resigned" the deal in front of the Chron's cameras to suggest it was in fact all their doing. And yet despite us warning them both on many occasion of problems galore just up the road in Peterborough where the same company were running into difficulties with their Council, no one was willing to listen. The leader of the Labour Party even said at the time that she was happy with the contract as long as the colour of the wheelie bins didn't change and that the garden collections continued. Well now that hiccups are turning into coughs and rubbish still lies waiting for collection and recyclables sorted by householders at source lie mixed together in heaps at the Council yard, we are both waiting to see if the incoming Tory's will eventually blame the Lib Dem's for signing the deal before the election or if the outgoing Lib Dem's will blame the Tory's for signing it after?
I was humbled on Saturday in receiving an Ann Frank Award from Northampton Youth Forum, the awards recognise young people who have achieved great things and also educators and community activists who have supported young people in their lives. I was delighted to receive the award for my work both as Cllr and MP for supporting young people through my actions and also in my role at NTFC in supporting disabled youngsters and others through sport. I told the young people present at the award presentation at Northampton Carnival that they shouldn't make a habit of giving awards out to politicians as usually it us that cause most of their problems not resolve them. My congratulations also go out to the other recipients including Dostiyo for their work with Asian girls and also my partner in political crime Ann Timson for showing an example to young people through her brave intervention in that infamous smash and grab robbery last year!
An anonymous poster to this site was very upset at the picture of "Dave" (below) looking all glum and suggested that it was certainly not the Prime Minister at all? Well yes it was I am afraid. It was taken after his election defeat in North East Leicestershire in 1997. It also seems that there are a large number of less than flattering shots of the PM doing the rounds, most provided to the press by his ex chums at Bullingdon and beyond. The shot included in this post is just one of many many more that we will need to get used to seeing even if we don't want to believe it is the PM. I think this pic is very "Beckhamesque" as "Dave" sports a very fashionable male sarong, but somehow footballers seem better able to carry off this look than politicians can. But at least it shows that the great man is just as capable of making a dick of himself as the rest of us.
How come you got to know about NBC's cock up before me when I was the one that made the complaint?
ReplyDeletecharm maybe? or contacts? or perhaps I just asked the relevant questions of the relevant people?
ReplyDeleteWhat is clear though is that we need to weed out the unintended errors from the serious breaches in order to protect the innocent and make the guilty take responsibility for their actions.
Poor Dopey 'patriot'
ReplyDeleteEven yates of the Yard would have spotted a misprint on the electoral register.Over the years it has happened frequently,but then the BNP have only recently become interested in electoral politics,and won't have seen many electoral registers.
As they split and fragment into more and smaller fascist grouplets their interest will wane anyway-soon they'll all be back on the streets with their EDL chums anyway!
Sorry John, The BNP may be splitting and fragmenting elsewhere but in Northants we're holding together quite nicely thank you. I'm sorry we do not all have your years of experience, but we all have to start somewhere unless of course you do not like opposition? Regardless of whether it was a misprint or not the candidates were on the electoral roll twice with two different electoral numbers and therefore could have received two voting cards and been entitled to vote twice, for instance once by post and once at the polling station. Unless people point out these errors who is to know where fraud has been committed, even if it is on a small scale. I'm not surprised that a man that likened the BNP to rats in the Chron a while back as the Nazi's did to the Jews, has taken this opportunity to have yet another dig at us, I think this says more about you than it does about us.
ReplyDeleteNot getting involved with the name calling stuff, but I have to agree slightly with you Northants...
ReplyDeleteIt is fraud whatever way you look at it.
Yes mistakes happen, but someone somewhere should have seen this and once it was pointed out, should have owned up and apologised.
Children are (meant to be?) taught to own up when they do something wrong, it should be second nature.
Gary (I haven't a real profile)! BNP are not rats, they are scum
ReplyDeleteNice generalisation Gary, how many actual BNP members do you personally know to form this opinion?
ReplyDeleteGary (still haven't a real profile) I have researched BNP and followed the news carefully, BNP and not very nice people, they are racist.
ReplyDeleteSo you know no members to have come to that conclusion. Do you believe everything you read in the papers?
ReplyDeleteIf it looks like a rat,sounds like a rat,smells like a rat-fair bet it is a rat!
ReplyDeleteThe truth is you don't even have to know the rat personally to know that it is one.
The BNP is simply the latest manifestation of waht used to be called the National Front,the National Socialist Movement,the League of Empire loyalists,the Union Movement,and the British Union of Fascists.
There is a continuity of racism and bigotry that is the whole purpose of the BNP.
Mind you as they fragment many will re-emerge as the EDL-an even more mindless variant.
There is a certain irony in seeing a posting that begins with the message of hope that shone across the world from Anne Frank, ending up in a discussion about National Socialism.
ReplyDeletePatriot, surely to know more than one member of the BNP means that you are either short of friends or hanging with the wrong crowd?
I take a slightly different tack to john, we both abhor the far right and their many manifestations, but I hope that all including maybe you patriot? eventually see through the rhetoric espoused by a nutty few and see that the majority of their members are nasty violent fascists who care little for democracy and just want to fight against foreigners.
Nicky, it wasn't a fraud as no one voted twice, and it was an NBC error that any party agent woth their salt who had actually seen the papers should have picked up on.
It is the other cases which are more more worrying in my view, and both could have been avoided with an agent on the ground.
If it helps I was at the hustings meeting at the Guildhall before the election when someone from the BNP got up and said they believed in Northampton we should learn to be better neighbours and then went on to say immigration has got out of hand. Some missed the irony.
ReplyDeleteIt does seem Patriot that you are different than most of your fellow BNP members as you can string more than a sentence together.
Please do tell me you disagree with your Leader Nick Griffin who said in Burnley there should be a wall seperating the Muslim community from others as there is in Northern Ireland for Catholics and Protestants.
There are a few issues here I'd like to respond to.
ReplyDeleteFirstly Tony, you say that you hope that I "eventually see through the rhetoric espoused by a nutty few and see that the majority of their members are nasty violent fascists who care little for democracy and just want to fight against foreigners". There are nutters in all walks of society, and the BNP does probably have more than its fair share. However, in Northamptonshire there is not one member that I know of that fits your description. We are most definately not violent, we do not 'just want to fight foreigners' and I think that calling us fascists would be a push compared to the actions of last Labour government. The media will only report bad things about the BNP, so I can excuse many people their ignorance in the matter
CastleWardMafia, I am not aware of these words that you attribute to Nick Griffin, but if he did say these words, or something similar, then I do not echo his view. History tells us that putting up walls to segregate people only makes matters worse.
In John's list of 'far-right' parties he claims that the British National Party are a continuation of the National Front. It is true that the BNP were born from the NF, however, the NF, who are still an active party, still believe in compulsory repatriation for all non British citizens and do not allow non-white members amongst other things. It does not take a rocket scientist to be able to see that the BNP have moved a million miles from where they began.
Finally Tony, A few members of the BNP attended the Anne Frank Memorial service in Wellingborough last year, much to the surprise of many local councillors. I am partly of Jewish descent while another member in attendance was a Sikh. Not exactly your stereotypical BNP reported in the media is it?
Patriot, I would be the first to say that I have always personally found our exchanges to be amicable, but no matter how much the Northamptonshire Branch want to present themselves as the moderate face og the BNP nationally, you will always be tarnished with your leaders brush and the actions of those members who you admit to having a fair share of.
ReplyDeleteThe BNP will never have respectable face, it's not achievable, too much water has sailed under that bridge I am afraid.As for members who arevSikhs and yourself having Jewish decent that just begs the questions, why? And how? If I gas Jewish Descent I couldn't share membership in a party whose leader is a holocaust denier and nor should you.
There are more worthy causes that could use your talents
Tony you're far too generous.just read Walker's 'Northants Patriot' blog and there the BNP's vitriolic bigoted racism suppurates from every sentence.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that there are a few Neanderthal NF members around does not invalidate the point that they all come from the same tree.There are cherished members of the BNP who were in most of the grouplets,split off for 'ideological' reasons-often an obscure racial definition and carried on under a new label.
We know that quite a number of loyal BNP members are now loyal EDF members.They got bored with the respectable image and wanted to get back to their old well honed ways.Intimidation and physical violence.
Once a fascist rat-always a fascist rat!
John, you do have a habit of overexaggerating which does you no favours whatsoever and makes you appear like an old fool. Please give me any examples of intimidation of physical violence perpetrated by a any member of the BNP in Northamptonshire, and before you start ranting on about Darren Francis he was never a BNP member, neither did he attend any meetings.
ReplyDeleteEDF, what has the French power company got to do with it? No fool like an old fool.
fascistpatriot,
ReplyDeleteOf course I meant EDL,you knew that of course because you mention then on your blog.It is I suppose possible that every Northamptonshire member is an innocent law abiding citizen who loves his neighbour to death.But given the frequency with which your fellow members nationally,including many of your national leadership,have convictions for violence and intimidation-is it possible that you are all paragons of virtue?
Better an old fool than one more fascist bigot!
Respect to Patriot for coming on line and sharing in debate.
ReplyDeleteLet's hear more from you on what you do believe rather than what you don't.
Glad you dont agree with Nick Griffin (the eyes of that man always give it away for me)and the rants of Mr Dickie have never helped him deliver his views in an understandable or supportive manner.
Good to see Jews and Sikhs involved in the BNP. Any muslim brothers and sisters?
John, obviously other parts of the country are not run in the same manner as in Northamptonshire. I have written about the EDL on my blog before. I do not agree with the way they are setting about their aim, but I do have sympathy towards them much as you probably have in the past with certain street activists.
ReplyDeleteCastleWardMafia, Nick Griffin's eyes look strange because one of them is a glass eye. I do not know of any Muslim members personally, although I have heard of one, wheteher this is true or not I do not know.
I have taken up enough of Tony's blog, but by all means if you want to see what we are talking about locally and nationall feel free to visit our blog.
Kind of an unfortunate and careless slip up Tony in your post at 13 48 above !!!
ReplyDelete"If I gas Jewish descent"
)ops!!
Anon, thanks for pointing that out, so much for predictive text! My apologies to all, i cannot edit it without removing the whole post, but obviously no I'll intention is present.
ReplyDeleteIt does make you wonder how predictive text works though?
Predictive text is great... unless you cannot type (or spell) anyways! I am not saying anymore on that front, I get in too much trouble.
ReplyDeleteStill not getting into the name calling stuff, John knows my views ~ as I hope does Tony...
If it was an error made by NBC, who is at fault? If one of the officers didn't pick it up, and the agent(s) didn't pick it up; should not the candidate themselves see it and pick it up?
But then you have to look at the fact every candidate wants to win right? So then, if a result is looking to go their way; why challenge things?
If that is the case, then in my eyes that is still fraud. I think I have heard more than my fair share of things about you Tony; but that's the one thing I am could never hold up ~ I would hope the same is true of others...
But hey, what do I know.
Nicky, the council putting your name on the register twice cannot be anything other than an error, and in no way a fraud by anyone.
ReplyDeleteOnly if the person/s involved had voted twice would there have been any electoral irregularity, and as the marked register shows this not to be the case then the case is closed.
But as I said that was not a case that concerned me, unlike the others I have mentioned.
But if there is more than one case of this type of error, surely there is more than "just an error" kinda case to be answered?
ReplyDeleteThough I see your point, our politics is broken ~ where have I heard that before? (teasing)