POP THE KETTLE ON IT'S VICTORY TEA

Well that's that then, less than a week into the "Tea War" and hostilities have come to end as Northampton Borough Council surrendered and declared an end to their proposed tea drinking ban in the Walled garden at Delapre Abbey.

Not though before many an attempt to try and make out they had no intention of doing so in the first place, let alone the odd comment or three suggesting it was all a slip of the tongue by an officer and nothing to do with the politicians.

But lets not carp on about the past, victory is as sweet as Earl Grey with three sugars, and amazingly 414 people had joined the campaigns facebook group in just 3 days.

The planning officer who let this slip though, has done everyone a huge favour, because if this had of gone by unchallenged then I believe FoDA (Friends of Delapre Abbey) would have been in real trouble in the coming weeks when trying to negotiate their lease with Northampton Borough Council. You see they have been banned from the walled garden since November of last year and the new conditions on the lease being proposed by NBC had in it the following inexplicable clauses banning FoDA from using the walled garden for any of the following purposes:

Community Events
Volunteering Activities,
Tea Room Seating,
Fruit, Flower or Vegetable growing, or
Greenhouse Restoration

I can now exclusively reveal to you that as part of the surrender treaty negotiations that FoDA have also now been given permission to pick their Leeks which have been growing happily away without interference in the greenhouses, (this is really all true) So lets now hope that the rest of the above ridiculous list of restrictions are now banished forever.

As I have said before if the Council has real concerns about say Marquees being erected or big events spoiling the ambiance or tranquility of the garden, then lets put in a serious clause about having to have permission from the council for such occurrences, but don't ban them out of hand because who knows? maybe NBC and FoDA might want to arrange a jointly held Victoria Sponge competition in a Marquee on the garden only to find they had banned themselves from such potentially dangerous activities.

Many have rightly guessed though that there was a lot more to this dispute than meets the eye, and I am certainly happy to confirm that a small minority within the Lib Dem group have been agitating for some time to upset FoDA and trying to cause trouble for them and their volunteers, but hopefully all that can now stop? A truce? and an agreement for all Councillors from all sides of the Borough Council to work together with FoDA and others to ensure that our hopefully shared objective of seeing the Abbey restored to it's former glory and accessible to the public now and in the future is achieved.

We can but live in hope.

By the way, thank you to so many of you who joined our campaign on facebook, and also thank you to those Lib Dem Councillors who responded so predictably and thus made our tea in the sun all the more enjoyable.

Through The Keyhole

Having suffered aurally during the 1980's under Lloyd Grossman's irritating plum in mouth accent asking us all "Who would live in a house like this" I thought I would refurbish the genre and ask all of you politico's:

WHO WOULD CAMPAIGN UNDER A BANNER LIKE THIS?

"So..................Lets look at the clues:"

The patriotic yet slightly disturbing prominent use of the union flag (it's only a jack when it is on a ship) shows us that this party is serious about it's BRIT appeal whilst the absence of a party logo makes us suspicious of their intent. More right wing than right on.

"This should tell us something about the person who sent out this literature"

But let our journey through the leaflet continue and look beyond the picture on the wall

So...................Lets look inside the clues are there as we go through the content of the leaflet

Quote

"I continue to be in touch with a number of ********* and SPADS to arrange visits"

(I have removed the word in asterisks to make it more difficult for you, but SPADS? what in god's name is a spad? and do we want them visiting?

Obviously this party is down with the eusystolistatists and likes us to LOL and made me LMAO

The leaflet printed locally in er.................. Newcastle Upon Tyne, goes on to tell us of the "much welcome news for council tenants" of substantial PFI credits and promises personal involvement in potential spend and benefits to tenants

So an advocate of all things borrowed and bought by the market then? no social conscience for these folk.

and who can resist the temptation of joining the groups local Facebook site which now has "132 members"? which is only 3200 less than Northampton infamous but now sadly deceased lady of the streets 50p Lil

So who would send out a leaflet like this? Pro PFI, wrapped up in the union flag, down with the kids on Facebook (and the oldies) printing by local workers on Tyneside and tempting us with visits from SPADS (I won't spoil it by telling you what they are I will let you research that yourself.

So whose candidate is hiding behind the electoral door wrapped up in the clothes of all their neighbours

The BNP? Cameron's New Tories?, PFI crazy Local Liberal Democrats?, Nude Labour?

The clues are all there............................. Its over to you our internet audience......................................

Whose candidate? whose party can live with an image like this?

Answer in comments below please.

FREE - The ultimate money spinner

Free is the new Capitalist mantra, everything it seems, from Airline seats to Laptops computers are now available for all, for free.

Free is a question of when, not if, as corporate bodies wake up to their inability to compete on price and accept that in a competitive market, price falls always ever downwards until it reaches the marginal cost.

When abundance creates new scarcity when a product becomes free, value migrates upwards. Companies don't want customers anymore they want fans. Why sell 1m widgets costing 10p each to make at £1 to 1m customers and make £900,000 profit when you can give 50m widgets away to 50m people and sell on to them or derive from them advertising revenue of at least 50p per person and make mega millions? Or convince just 5% of the 50m to spend more to upgrade their free widget?

The Internet has redefined 'Free' with Google, Facebook, and Twitter (and indeed blogger) all providing free social networking platforms for millions of customers who they can then sell to, and then sell advertising space for. Microsoft now also realise they can't compete against 'free' as they prepare to launch free versions of their "online" software such as Word, Publisher and Excel to the public.

People like 'Free' and once they are hooked they will then pay more for additional add on costs to either a) save time or b) improve their status. In fact 'Free' is often the most expensive product out there.

The airline ticket may be free, but the admin charge, the extra baggage cost, the sell ons (cars and hotel rooms) not to mention the on board monopoly on £3 cups of tea and £5 sandwiches, more than compensate for 'Free'. One of these days the pre flight advice will come with directions as to where to insert your coins for oxygen supply in the case of an emergency! or a life jacket as an additional extra!

Free. also comes in the guise of the "part product" not the whole version but 'upgradable' at a cost, or the 'free trial' or even craftier the 'limited free use' with whopping great bills for anything used above the limit.

So where does it all end? Well, where corporate Britain leads Local Government eventually follows, as so it was that as a County Councillor I was asked last week for my views to possible changes to the Registration Service (Births Marraiges, Deaths) . They want to amalgamate the current district based service making it Countywide and make it more 'customer focused'.

Still a free service of course, but hang on let me read the small print? It says that 'enhanced services' could be provided at a premium? For instance the standard wait for a replacement certificate (which used to be about 5 mins) is now to be 3-5 days! but you can have it while you wait if you pay a premium! Likewise, want to marry in the Registrars Office on a Saturday? Of course Sir/Madam, at a price that is.

So beware, although none of our Council services are ever free (We already pay for them through the Council Tax) 'Free' looks like becoming an ever tempting commodity, with services being tiered and graded and customers broken down into 'can't afford' and 'can pay extra' .

Imagine where it could all lead? "We can only pick up your rubbish for free once a fortnight , but for a premium we could manage once a week?" Or maybe even free education being delivered in schools owned by Multi National Companies who then charge the local community a fortune to use the facilities out of hours? (oh sorry, the Tories already dropped that one on us in Northamptonshire 4 years ago)

Health and Education under Blair's choice agenda is already half way there of course, How much longer will it be before all this new choice in the Health Service and access to quicker services and appointments will come at a premium?

And can every parent really choose which school they want their child to attend unless they can afford the price of a house in the agreed catchment area and the cost of "additionality" for ever exotic school trips and top up tutoring and equipment.

Our society risks becoming even more divided into a nation of 'haves a little for nothing' and 'haves what they want' on receipt of a top up payment

It's becoming less a case of keeping up with the Jones' and more a case of keeping up with the Barrington - Alexanders. (Of course if you are really posh like HMQ then you can have a triple barrelled surname Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and a top up double barrelled surname Mountbatten -Windsor chucked in for 'Free' to help you sound less German!)

Our councils though, through their data bases have more access to potential top up paying customers than most, if not any of the blue chip companies so beware 'Free' is coming through a letterbox close to you, and when it does don't be surprised if it has a Council return address on the envelope.

This advice is given to you FREE with thanks to Chris Anderson and WIRED for getting my brain warmed up