And so it begins...........................................

From yesterdays Northampton Chronicle and Echo:

http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/Dog-owners-facing-tough-line.5554023.jp

http://www.northamptonchron.co.uk/news/Fines-issued-for-people-littering.5554024.jp

As predicted the easy and probably deserving targets come first, but Black Sack Offenders and Barbecue fans everywhere be on your guard, the Council fixed penalty notice is coming to a street near you very soon.....................................

Stealth Tax fear is very real

I cannot say that I have ever been a fan of the Daily Express, it always seemed to me to be the polite Tory voters version of the Daily Mail. In other words another racist, bigoted free market loving rantsheet but one which chooses its words more carefully.

But yesterday it's headline struck a chord with me. I had posted below about the dangers of 'FREE' and I shared my concerns as to the future of tiered local Council Services where the basic service remains free (but paid for in your council tax) whilst enhanced services will be charged out at a premium. And It seems now that the Daily Express agree, particularly in respect of how future refuse collection services are to be delivered and charged all in the name of 'efficiency' and 'recycling'

So with the revelation by the Local Government Association that there is already a £4bn black hole in local councils accounts ( £2.7bn loss on development deals and £1.3bn in lost interest on bank deposits) and tough government settlements expected for at least the next 4-5 years where will local councils find the ways and means to squeeze that extra cash from us?

Well, first of all expect more parking fines (if that is possible in Northampton!) Figures reveal that last year that Westminster Council bought in more cash from Parking and parking fines than it did in Council Tax! and overall £10bn was collected by local authorities in the name of keeping our streets clear of inconsiderate drivers.

And expect more fixed penalty notices for a wider range of misdemeanors, dog foulers and litter louts probably deserve a good dose of fiscal punishment, but how long before we all risk getting an £80 fixed penalty notice for accidentally putting the rubbish out on the wrong day or dropping apple cores for the birds?

Perhaps schools will issue fixed penalty notices to parents for late or non delivered homework or how about a letterbox tax for non compliant letterboxes? (you know the ones they are either the silly sort side on where you have to twist your whole body to deliver anything, or even worse the bottom feeder where you bend to deliver and drop everything you are holding.

Maybe they will introduce a local Barbecue Tax or fixed penalty notices for invasive cooking odours, or an annual limit on visits to the Park with top up vouchers available for frequent visitors.

I of course have my tongue firmly in my cheek when suggesting some of the above measures, but not all of them.

On the issue refuse collection charges I would hazard a guess that the truth is coming to a wheelie bin or black sack near you very soon. Already Northampton Borough Council has started limiting who does and does not get a black sack delivery (to save money spent on sacks) and thier recycling services are dependent on your post code and wealth (believe it or not only those with drives and large gardens can receive garden waste and glass collections whilst residents in terraced streets get neither)

What all this will inevitably lead to is the creation of multi tiered services with fixed penalties introduced for any who then fall foul of the new regimes and service conditions, with less Council staff delivering services and more delivering tickets and summonses. Our Councils will go from their past incarnation of being providers to all become enablers and then on a step further to becoming enforcers

You have been warned!

Free the Castle Ward Two - Update

Well, thankfully myself and John are still at liberty, still awaiting the careful consideration from the Crown Prosecution Services finest minds in their York Based electoral Fraud Office, (See post below, Labour tough on Crime Soft in the head) But the stupidity of our foes it seems knows no limits or bounds.

First of all let me apologise to one or two members of Northampton South Constituency Labour Party who were upset at my general swipe at the party in the last post, it is clear to me now that they or the collective local party, had no hand in "grassing us up" or the decision to do so!

The real snitch and defender of the public good against malicious imprint crime it seems was Tess Scott's agent Les Marriot who we are told acted alone as an individual, although when questioned by unhappy members as to his actions and also for effectively shooting the party in the foot he said that if he "hadn't have done it then, someone else would have" The mind boggles.

Anyhow to my delight I was recently given a copy of Labours latest leaflet that is doing the rounds in Castle and Ecton Brook Wards. It is a shiny little number from 'Clyde and Tess' or 'Clyde and Keith' with scripted text telling us that they called round today (they perhaps would have done better if they called around during the election)

The leaflet is pretty inoffensive, the usual knocking copy and grumble sheet, but it wasn't that which caught my eye. It was not surprisingly the imprint.

The all important legally necessary imprint on the leaflet tells us that it was "Promoted by David Brede. On behalf of Clyde Loakes and Tess Scott all at 97 Charles Street, Northampton NN1 3BG and printed at The Labour Club, 97 Charles Street, Northampton NN1 3BG"

All fine apart from the fact that the Labour Club is a separate business to the Labour Party and has no print facility. The print facility is NLPP (Northampton Labour Print and Press?) and is situated upstairs at 97 Charles Street in the "Labour Halls" office Their printer an aging but well used risograpth doesn't print on glossy card and cannot produce any colours apart from black red and yellow.

So where was this glossy blue, black and white card printed then? it certainly wasn't printed at 97 Charles Street that's for sure? It seems Clyde is unhappy with the quality of their output? And if it wasn't printed at Charles Street why say it was? At least my heinous crime was committed by omission (i.e. I forgot to put an imprint on it) instead of like theirs being an outright deception to hide its true origin, and as a result any expenditure on it.

It was suggested to me that I report this scandalous breach of the imprint law to the boys in blue, as an act of revenge, but of course I won't as I can't be bothered and mores the point I wouldn't waste the time and resources of the Police or the CPS on such a petty misdemeanour. Perhaps Les Marriot will dob em in? Or one of the other caped crusaders of the peoples print police he refers to.

But whatever happens I do hope that someone will learn the lesson relating to stones and greenhouses and I also believe that Clyde and Tess they should concentrate their minds on explaining their actions to NLPP and why they feel it is OK to use their name and company address on a leaflet that was clearly not produced by them. After all the Tax man just might ask NLPP where the invoice is?

In the meantime myself and John are plotting an escape to Dubrovnik in the event that the news from York isn't good

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

Norwich North, and the winner is?

With Parliament in recess it will be some months before Chloe Smith the Tories 'Vous êtes belle, mademoiselle' and declared victor of last weeks by election in Norwich North takes her seat in the Commons Chamber. And perhaps November or December before she makes her maiden speech, and then just after the Christmas recess she will no doubt be preparing for her defence of the seat at the general election.

So what comfort can she take from her victory? surely her 7000 majority over Labours Chris Ostrowski will be enough to soothe her? even though the seat next year will be fought on the revised less favourable boundaries than was the case at the by election. (the new parliamentary boundaries only applying from the next general election)

Well, only time will tell but the real winner from last weeks poll is difficult to determine when you compare the votes cast for each of the main parties last Thursday with those from the 2005 election. Look for yourself:

Labour 2005 21,097 2009 6243 a loss of 14,854 votes

Conservative 2005 15,638 2009 13,591 a loss of 2047 votes

Lib Dem 2005 7616 2009 4083 a loss of 3533 votes

That makes a staggering drop in the votes for the three main parties from 44,300 in 2005 to 26700 in 2009 a drop in support for the combined tally of the big three of 17,600 lost votes

17,600! thats enough to win the contest outright, and at a by election prior to a general election that David Cameron's Tory party look favourites to win it is inexcusable that the Tory vote that turned out to support their candidate should fall. Labours loss was down by a staggering 70% from their 2005 support and with turnout only marginally down from 60% to 45% this was far more than a simple case of their loyal and faithful staying at home. The Lib Dems meanwhile seem to be shrinking before our eyes, becoming also rans and struggling to pick up any floating voters who now seem to prefer to vote elsewhere.


Of course UKIP (1122 to 4068) and the Greens (1252 to 3350) both did well accumilating an extra 5044 votes between them since 2005. But the bigger picture seems to be one of major discontent with the main three parties.

I believe my old friend Ian Gibson should have stood last week as an Independent, and perhaps he will do so next year. Despite the claims that he was wrong to allow his daughter to live with him in his London flat (I would have done the same) or that he shouldn't have sold the flat to her at a reduced rate (slightly more controversial, but are people saying that if he had sold it for more profit to a stranger then that would have been OK?) Ian is still well respected in the town.

It seems that Labour Party supporters in Norwich when asked on the doorstep felt that he had been harshly treated when compared with certain others in Labours higher ranks, and they were right. The kangeroo court which barred him standing for re-election cared little for the facts and only wished to take the opportunity of getting rid of one of the awkward squad who actually stood up for his constituents and refused to be controlled by the whips office. There will be MPs from all partys standing in the general election next year with far more guilty consciences than Ian, and with so many people deserting the main three parties in such huge numbers and a need for more Independent members at Westminster then I hope he considers standing again, but this time without the party straightjacket.

It's less troops we need in Afghanistan, not more helicoptors

Those of us who both voted against and opposed the war in Iraq and also questioned our over commitment in Afghanistan faced harsh critics in Parliament, and in the media. We were labelled 'disloyal', and as 'acting against British interests', and we were told more times than I choose to remember that we were 'unpatriotic' and in acting in the way we did, putting the lives of British Soldiers at risk.

All of this of course was hogwash, and as an example my refusal then to disclose papers leaked to me of Blair and Bush's secret pacts and crazy plans had little to do with me defending the dynamic duo, but everything to do with the need to protect the lives of British troops whose lives would have been endangered at that time if the document had been released.

Today though, 9 years on, the world certainly doesn't feel any safer? Iraq is still divided, Afganistan even more dangerous and Iran and North Korea have been added to the list of potential future engagement zones.

And yet we as a country, and as individuals seem confused and drawn between conflicting needs of both giving praise to those calling to better arm our troops and at the same time retaining a distaste for war which led millions to oppose it in the first place, and many still calling for quicker withdrawal.

My own opinion for what it is worth, is that at a time of austerity and of high unemployment and of threats to cut public spending on our public services coming from all three of the political parties, than an additional invoice to UK Government for more helicoptors, more military hardware and an upgrade to the Trident programme is fundamentaly wrong and about as welcome as the world outbreak of Swine Flu.

Britains problem isn't that its armed forces are under equipped, it is that they are overstretched and forever performing a role as "World Policemen" which far exceeds our capability, our purse and our true standing in the world. Our troops are some of the finest, if not the finest in the world, but there are too few of them and the cost of keeping them in the theatre of war is greater than the country can afford and the cost of losing them too high a price for families to pay back home.

So is it simply national pride which continually places us and our troops on the frontline? or is it a misguided notion of us still being the world power we were in past centuries?

Whatever it is, the cost in pound notes and in the loss of British life gets higher and higher by the day and someone in Parliament at some time will need to be brave enough to question the constant calls for more money, more equipment and more troops and say "can we really afford all this? isn't there a better way? Shouldn't other NATO Countries be doing there bit?

There can be no military solution to the problems of religious extreemism be they Islamic or Christian, problems of indifference by minorities in whatever country are best dealt with on home soil by those in authority and who have been given authority through the accepted will of the majority within there respective nations. Iraq and Afghanistan will only begin to heal their wounds once American and British Soldiers who are seen as occupiers, are removed from the scene.

In the meantime chasing the Taliban around the Pakistani mountains is only aiding their ongoing recruitment campaigns and driving a further wedge between the West and the Islamic world.

And Britain needs also to realise that we are no longer the biggest kid in the playground and that we can no longer afford to involve ourselves continually to the levels we do. I would rather we played a smaller part in a bigger Nato engagement than continue to put British lives at risk by asking our troops to enter the theatre of war hanging on to the coat tails of our better equipped and more cash rich american cousins.

And we would do well to remember that whilst no war is ever truly won, humanity is always, inevitably the loser

Scrutiny, It does what it says on the tin.

I woke up this morning with a sharp stabbing pain in my side. No doubt somewhere deep in Northampton Lib Dem HQ a loyal yellow belly peon was busy sticking pins in their Tony Clarke effigy as punishment for my involvement last night in co-authoring a call-in of the Local Lib Dems plans to "Market Test" (privatise) all of the main public services in Northampton, and in doing so deliver them in partnership with Daventry District Council.

I was very grateful to Labours Joy Capstick in sponsoring our joint request for a call in and I felt she performed extreemly well last night and she will have gained herself a lot of deserved credit both in the eyes of council and also those she serves in her ward and those still loyal to Labours traditional values and roots.

Our shared concerns (which were upheld) were that the administration had been less than truthful over their intentions and contrary to all their warm words about "only investigating the options" and "the need to test best value" and our preparations for the call in exposed further their plans for what they really are.

Backbench Councillors (including many Lib Dems) were annoyed and angered to be told by the press and by myself at full council on June 29th of the plans, as up to that point their had been no discussion or now inkling of what the executive had planned for the Council. The item didn't appear on the Councils Forward Plan until June 30th and then only appeared as a 'Non Key' Decision.

The cabinet decision on the 8th July was accompanied by soothing assurances that nothing was set in stone and that the "in house team" would also have the time and the right to bid. So imagine the surprise on some faces last night when I was able to tell them that the whole process started way back in April 2009, and that the tender document had already been written, printed and advertised in the EOJU (European Journal) on the 9th of July. And that a project manager was already in post, and that the contract for all services was proposed for a period of 14 years ( 7 + 7 by agreed renewal) and that despite not being told of their involvement that Northamptonshire County Council were also part of the partnership.

Imagine the thoughts running through the head of the Lib Dem Portfolio Holder for the services to be tended when I reminded the Committee that she had told Council only last Monday that no advert had been placed and that no meetings with other councils on the tender had taken place, and yet I produced a copy of the advert placed on the 9th July and minutes from the meeting with other councils agreeing the partnership and announcing the appointment of the project manager?

And why they even want to go down this road god alone knows, a cursory glance at refuse collection costs (as but one example) shows that Northampton Borough Council has the second lowest per household cost for refuse collection in the East Midlands at £46, against a national average of £56 when Daventry District Council (our chosen partner) has the highest cost in the East Midlands at £84 !

The success of the call in (on the grounds that the leader says it was wrongly designated as a Key Decision and should have been a non key decision!) now means that this report must be revisited at the next Cabinet meeting in August andthat will give us another opportunity to further expose the folly of these plans and the underhanded deceit that has dogged this project to date.

The administration will say we were simply opposing for opposition sakes and risking the financial Security of the Council.

I say that we were simply doing our duty, I don't want all our services contracted out, and then delivered in tandem with a rural council until 2023 without this Council or those which follow in 2011, 2015 and 2021 being able to reverse the decision.

I don't want Councillors of any party including the administration left in the dark as to the Councils true intention, and I don't want Northampton Borough Council reduced to the status of the largest Parish Council in England on the back of partnership arrangements with surrounding Councils pushing us nearer and nearer to a Unitary County Council run by the Northamptonshire Squirocracy.

And do you know what? I think a large number of the Lib Dem group agree with me, and I also believe that in 6 months time even the Cabinet members will see that this call in saved them from their own folly rather than simply exposing them to cold truth as to what has gone on in their name and without their full knowledge and consent.

So we live to fight again. We have more revelations to come, more call ins to write, and more opportunity for Councillors of all party's to do what they were elected to do, take decisions based on all the information being available to them in order to guide that decision, not sold a line and then forced to go along with the decision out of blind party loyalty.

The other positive outcome from last nights meeting was that the opposition party's acted as one in defence of the common good, long may it continue.

We all want what is best for the Council, and the people we were elected to serve, but we do not expect the decisions to be taken for us, or on our behalf by officers working behind the scenes and committing expenditure and enacting decisions before the authority has been given to them through the votes and decisions of 'all' the elected members.

All Councillors of all Party's should be able to agree to that.

Here is the News. Or not as the case may be.

Counter terrorism detectives investigating plots in Yorkshire have seized the largest suspected terrorist arsenal in England since the early 1960s. The haul includes over 300 weapons, ranging from rocket launchers to firearms and pipebombs.

They have been found in the last six weeks during raids of over 20 properties. Some People have been arrested. Several have been charged and reports suggest more arrests are imminent.

The police investigation is linked to arrests in Europe, New Zealand and Australia. The police are examining allegations that many of the guns were manufactured or reactivated, then sold over the Internet.

Detectives have also discovered maps and plans of target buildings in the the homes of those arrested.

All of the above took place in a series of raids and arrest in Yorkshire in the last 6 weeks.

So why hasn't it hit the media in a big way? Surely the biggest arms cache seized in nearly 50 years, including the discovery of rocket launchers is big HEADLINE news at a time when terrorism is such a national concern and obsession?

And the media have not been shy in the past at exposing Britain's "Home Grown Terrorists" and the threat they pose to our country.

But the difference here is a simple albeit inexplicable one. You see all those arrested were far right extremists, the investigation was part of a campaign against Neo Nazis, and amongst the finds less dangerous but more worrying were membership details of the BNP.

In addition to the finds reports of attacks on Mosques (the focus of those discovered maps and plans) are on the increase.

All this points to a concentration of far right terror activity set in Yorkshire, where the BNP won a seat in the European parliament last month. A Whitehall official said: "We are not picking them up anywhere else in the country like this and it may be related to the strong support for the BNP."

And it also suggests that todays conviction of NF member Neil Lewington for the manufacture of improvised bombs and last years conviction of fellow Nazi Martin Gilliiard are just the tip of a very nasty iceburg.

So why the news clamp down? why do the media publish Lewington's conviction and yet seem keen to hide the evidence of even worst planned atrocities in Yorkshire?

The only national politician seemingly willing to speak out seems to be my old work mate and fellow once expelled Labour Party member Ken Livingstone!

Ken is now chair of Unite Against Fascism and he was clear in stating his concerns when he said

"It is extraordinary that the entire national media are not galvanised by the discovery of the largest terrorist arms cache in Britain since the 1960s and clear statements by the authorities that there is a rise in violent far right terrorism.

"This is clearly a threat to every Black, Asian, Muslim and other minority ethnic and religious group in Britain, as shown by the firebombing of Muslim targets which could easily have led to deaths. This shows the reality behind the election of the BNP to the European parliament and the effects of the drip, drip, drip of Islamophobia in the media.

"We need an all-out campaign to politically defeat the extreme right, the media to expose the threat of far right terrorism and the police to relentlessly pursue those responsible for every attack."

I agree with him wholeheartedly and perhaps some of need to be asking some serious questions as to how our broadcast news is selected and transmitted. It seems not a week goes by without news reports of suspected Muslim Terrorists being led away from their homes for questioning, usually set against a framed backdrop of the local community carrying out tasks that are little more offensive than shopping or playing in the street or simply going about their daily business.

If we are going to win the war against terror, and ensure that the 'Prevent Violent Extremism' agenda is successful then we need to ensure that equal attention and focus is given to the obvious dangers coming from the white supremacists and the far right in our own back yards instead of only focusing on Muslim Communities and fueling further the Islamaphobia that exists almost unhindered in our country.

A role model, but to whom?

At this afternoons County Council Cabinet the local Tories nodded through without dissent their latest plans to push forward with Academy status for Unity College in Northampton.

Those unaware of the recent history may be surprised to hear that they dropped the last failed plans just 3 months ago following protests from parents pupils and staff as to a lack of meaningful consultation and also a plea from all for some stability at the school and a hope for a period of relative calm in which the school can improve its performance and the pupils can prosper.

A new executive board had been agreed for the school and yet before it has even had time to meet, the County Council are once more throwing the school into a period of further uncertainty, and a consultation period that once again coincides with the School Summer Holidays (really helpful)

So here we go again......................................

This time step forward their new preferred partner the David Ross Foundation, and let us give praise for this mans entrepreneurial spirit. This afternoon at County Hall Cllr Michael Clarke (Hackleton) reminded us that this was the man who was responsible for the mobile phone! (Hardly he simply was a co founder of Carphone Warehouse) and that he was someone that would inspire pupils and someone they could look up to.

Unfortunately for Michael I had to inform the chamber that David Ross has another less palatable and less celebrated side to his character.

Mr Ross is a close friend of David Cameron and a big donor to the Tory party he hit the headlines recently for rather different reasons to those trumpeted by local Tory Cllrs. For instance the Guardian of 11th June 2009 tells us that

"Ross was forced to resign as a director of a number of companies, including Carphone, Big Yellow and National Express, after breaching stock exchange rules. He had admitted using his personal shareholdings in the businesses as security for millions of pounds worth of personal loans, but failed to notify his fellow board members. Under the rules governing directors' disclosure, any director must notify the company's chairman of any share dealings, including the use of shares as security for loans. Ross also quit his prestigious role advising the London mayor, Boris Johnson, on the 2012 Olympics"

The American Hedge Fund Millionaire was a key member of Boris Johnsons Olympics team where he oversaw the Olympic budget and advised on legacy issues for the Mayor, but he quit his position following his shares difficulties in December 2008.

The Financial Times indicates possible trouble ahead for Mr Ross when it reported on the 12th June that:

"Mr Ross had a Gilbraltar-based commercial property joint venture with Morgan Stanley called Kandahar Real Estate, but he has bought the investment bank out for a nominal sum. Accounts filed this month for Kandahar Group Limited, a British subsidiary of Kandahar Real Estate that funds several UK property interests, show that auditors have highlighted uncertainty about the company's ability to continue as a going concern. Directors of Kandahar Group expect it to be in breach of covenants on its £247m loan facility with HBOS if the company's property portfolio is valued next month."

So, all in all he sounds like a great role model for our secondary schools kids, I hear you all cry!

The other school the David Ross Foundation manages is the Havelock Academy in Grimbsy where Mr Ross's father built his frozen food empire. It has recently published GCSE results 3% below the national average. Life at Havelock however sounds spiffing with the school broken up "Public School" style into various houses, Tiger, Eagle, Archer, Vanguard, Ramalies, Illustrious, Jaguar and Fortune. The Academy takes its name from the folk-heroic legendary figure called Havelock who was saved by Grim, a Danish fisherman.

But whether or not Unity can be saved once again from whats seems like endless upheaval and continual imposed and flawed County Council consultations or whether its future like Havelock's saviour is grim will now be decided in the coming months.

My own view for what it is worth is that Mr Ross's well established links to the Tory Party and his own well documented problems make him less than an ideal candidate to convince an already hesitant parent and staff group that the future of the school is secured. In fact some might wonder whether the Tory Councillors themselves as members of a Party who may have benefited from Mr Ross's political largess should themselves declare an interest?

I would guess that a number of those opposed to the original Academy bid may well also share my view, and once more the focus will be on not what is best for the kids at the school (stability and a chance for the new executive board to raise standards) but instead on the County Councils gift for getting it so badly wrong in again choosing unsuitable partners for Northampton's most challenged Secondary School.

Labour, Tough on Crime, Soft in the Head.

OK its a fair cop, we will both come quietly, we have no choice, they have us bang to rights and as we speak black arrows are being sewn on two over sized grey prison suits and Mrs Clarke and Mrs Dickie are busy baking cakes shaped like files (or files shaped like cakes?)

So heinous is the crime that we have committed that both of us are at this very moment considering our respective positions.

John, is concerned as to whether or not he will ever be able to show his face again in St Peter's Church where as the only atheist church warden in Britain he ably assists in the organising of small arts programmes for the masses.

I, likewise feel it only fair to inform my fellow members of the Woody Guthrie appreciation Society that I may have to relinquish my membership to save them any future embarrassment.

My foes will no doubt take great delight in hearing that last week I was asked to present myself at Campbell Square Police Station, where in the hands of two of the constabulary's finest Senior Fraud Detective Officers I was questioned for an hour and 15 minutes and then duly processed, photographed and fingerprinted ready for Justice to have its wicked way with me.

Thankfully, I was then released, a free man once again, to now await the decision of the Crown Prosecution Service in York who will no doubt ponder over the severity of my offence and whether or not the public will be best served by a trial and a possible financial punishment or our incarceration.

So what was our crime? what evil acts did myself and JD inflict on the good people of Castle Ward.

"WE FORGOT TO PUT AN IMPRINT ON A LETTER SENT OUT IN THE COUNTY COUNCIL ELECTIONS"

There, I have said it, admitted my guilt. For those who think I have gone mad, or that the police have equally lost their marbles, I will explain all. I was cautioned under section 110 of the Representation of the People Act, which makes it an offence to send out unsolicited mail during an election which may seek to hide the identity of the sender and/or defame another candidate.

All of our leaflets (bar this one) carried the imprint:

'Printed by NIV Press 30 Ethel Street, Northampton and Published/Promoted by John Dickie, 2 Western View, Northampton'

The offending leaflet (which was in fact a letter) was sent to 1200 postal voters within the ward asking them for their support, it carried my name, home address, phone number, email, website, and a photo and my personal signature (we were hardly trying to hide my identity) and it did not mention the other candidates. Our other five items of election material were all properly imprinted, and on this occasion there was simply an error of omission on our part, with clearly no ulterior motive or intent.

So surely the Returning Officer, the Police and the Crown Prosecution Service are all wasting time and your money chasing myself and John around the town and preparing us for our possible time in pokey?

Not so. You see they had no choice, once a complaint had been made and an offence reported they were duty bound to follow it up.

Last Year in the 2008 elections across the UK 26 such offences were processed. 25 resulted in no further action and the one that proceeded to court was part of a much broader breach of the act where offence had been caused to other candidates.

So step forward those brave souls and vigilantes responsible for bringing us to book, or if you prefer step forward those responsible for wasting Police and CPS time and money on frivolous complaints. We give praise to ..........

THE LABOUR PARTY

We know not whether the brave soldiers who grassed us up were from the Regional or Local Party, neither can we guess what their motive was? or what they hoped to gain from their endevour? but we are sure that you are feeling a lot safer in your beds in the knowledge that the peoples party is still willing to be tough on the criminal classes and ready and willing to pounce on the guilty.

In the meantime if I disappear from the blog scene for a while or you hear that I have gone on an unexpected enforced holiday can someone please set up a campaign to:

"FREE THE CASTLE WARD TWO"

As keeping myself and John in Pokey for a month or two will cost the taxpayer a fortune.