TOPICAL SHORTS 2

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?

BAD DAY AT THE OFFICE

We all have them I guess?

First off the local vicar calls to tell you that you and your new gang are evil and you must repent your sins and stop upsetting everyone by doing bad things to them without asking them first.

Then your GP tells you not to bother coming to the surgery again as people are complaining about the havoc you are causing in the waiting room

And then you come home only to find out that one of your staff has been touching up the hired help!!

Cheer up Dave, it might never happen again (after 2015 that is)

USA VOTES AGAINST WAR AS UK STUMBLES FORWARD

Further to my post below, I now hear via my American political allie Congressman Dennis Kucinich a Cleveland Democrat that whilst the UK Parliament and the Public  has been kept in the dark over military action in Libya that the US House of Representatives through their Speaker no less has moved a successful anti war motion on the floor of the House!

On Friday, 76 days after U.S. forces joined a NATO attack on the regime of Libya's Moammar Gadhafi, the House of Representatives got around to acknowledging that it should have a say in the President's decision. Those who believe the president should not have a free hand to make war can thank Dennis for even that small gesture.

Two days earlier, Kucinich  had panicked the House leaders by trying to invoke the 1973 USA War Powers Act, which requires a president to get congressional permission within 60 days of initiating combat operations  and mandate the end of American military action in Libya. Dennis told the House of Representatives that with spending by the US alone on the action in Libya approaching $1bn and NATO talking about committing ground troops that the issue was not going to go away, he declared his and many others view that the war is ilegal, unjust, misguided and not affordable during such difficult economic times.

Kucinich's resolution drew interest from such a large and unlikely bipartisan coalition united by a belief that Obama had put American personnel in harm's way with little or no congressional consultation that it might well have passed.

Instead, Speaker John Boehner, a fellow Ohioan, delayed the vote until Friday and, in the meantime, held talks with his own group and crafted a resolution of his own.

Boehner's alternative motion bars the use of American ground forces in Libya, It also demands that the President  Obama answer a series of questions regarding the Libyan rebels, U.S. objectives in the North African nation and the anticipated scope and duration of NATO's campaign against Gadhafi.

In a section entitled "Findings," it notes that Congress has not authorized military action in Libya and has the power to deny funding. The resolution passed, 268-145, with Kucinich among the supporters.

The House then rejected Kucinich's War Powers motion, 265-148. Congress cannot be a silent partner in matters of war and peace. Kucinich was right to force his colleagues to speak up.Its just a great shame that none of our MP's in the British Parliament feel duty bound to follow his and America's example

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST

Anyone reading today's Sunday broadsheets would wonder whether or not the news teams were regular readers of this blog as they all fell over themselves to warn the UK public of the pending economic doom due to the Tory government mismanagement of the economy and also of the ever shortening road to war in Libya due to step by bloody step engagement by UK troops into the civil war in that country.

But it was Danny Blanchflower's comments in the Observer which hit home hardest with me as they echoed the very points I was making about Tory ideology in the Council Chamber last year when nobody else wanted to listen.

This Danny Blanchflower didn't play for Tottenham and Northern Ireland, instead he was a former member of the Bank of England's monetary policy committee and in today's press he had some strong words for the Tories after it has been confirmed that government borrowing is rising and the growth and the economy are shrinking.
 He told the Observer

"How come George Osborne isn't the most hated man in Britain? He should be. It was never necessary to do this. I hold Cameron, Clegg and Osborne responsible for the collapse of the British Economy when it was never bankrupt. Consumer confidence collapsed, and the date of the collapse was April 2010 during the general election campaign"

He went on to criticise the government for having no plan B and no courage for a u-turn and added

 "The public finances are going to be in awful shape. I think this is a fundamental attempt, driven by ideology to shrink the state"

So its official, it's hurting, but it's not working and we are getter poorer as a nation with rising debts and will have a government borrowing more than the last one to simply keep people on the dole after decimating the public services we all rely on, who said Thatcherism had had it's day?

BACK TO THE EIGHTIES

Listening to Radio Four a few weeks back I was taken a back from an off the cuff  comment made by the Rt Hon Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osbourne when he seemed to slip up and announce that Government borrowing at the end of their term of office in 2015 will be higher than it was when they came to office!

Surely not, I heard a thousand people cry, this is the Government of austerity, the "tough love" masters of the national debt. The people who dumbed down the credit crisis by telling Joe Public, we have simply overspent on our credit card and now we need to make the repayments. So what is now going wrong?

Well that's a simple one, and some of us did hint at it before. You see the Government in their haste to cut the deficit has destroyed any growth in the economy 0.5% down in the last quarter of 2010 and 0.5 up in the first quarter of 2011 leaving the economy flat, and if we are not earning and we are still paying off the debt then where is the money going to come from for paying for an ever increasing welfare bill, growing by the day as people across the public sector lose their jobs?

In addition rising food prices as emerging nations demand more of the worlds production, and rising commodity prices for similar reasons are pushing up inflation far beyond any hitherto expected measures and therefore people understandably are keeping their hands firmly in their pockets.

So there we have it, we have hardly any public services left, the cost of living has risen massively, oil prices are up food prices are up, unemployment is up, growth is down and the economy is flat. All leading to us having to borrow more year on year and get ourselves in a deeper mess with less to show for it.

And to think, those of us who suggested investment in public spending to protect growth and spending and keep unemployment costs down were as good as declared insane by the Tories. If only we could turn back the clock? But that's not going to happen. Instead expect more cuts, heightened public unrest, high unemployment, and a return of inflation and massive cost of living rises. Its the 80's all over again!

Perhaps Cameron is far more Thatcherite than his party really thinks he is?

WAR BY INSTALLMENTS!

Let me first be very clear about how much better Libya would be without Colonel Gaddafi. I recently attended a fundraiser in Northampton with local Libyan families who are ever hopeful that regime change will be effected in their home country sooner rather than later, but despite their wishes and my support for that same outcome. I cannot turn a blind eye to the unfolding disaster the British Government have made of their input to the crisis thus far.

UN resolution 1973 demanded "an immediate ceasefire" and authorized the international community to establish a no fly zone and to use all means necessary short of foreign occupation to protect civilians on both sides.

To be blunt the British government alongside the French government and with assistance of the USA have extended their actions far and beyond any legal interoretation or boundary of the resolution. And to think that in all three countries thier leaders played such a huge part in protecting Gadaffi reign over all these years. I bet President Sarkozy of France regrets the picture here (left) as much as Obama and Blair do their own snaphots with the crazed dictator. Cameron it seems has only been spared the same humiliation by way of good timing!

First of all it was the West's interpretation of the no fly zone to enable air attacks on Gaddafi's forces on the ground if they looked to be threatening areas where civilians were congregated and then it extended the action to excuse attacks on Libya's air defences and then on their static defence positions and finally to attacks on government buildings and palaces which were being protected on a voluntary basis by civilian human shields!!

Then we took to sending over armed troops to assist in training of the rebels in flagrant breach of the foreign occupation ruling and now we hear that British Apache attack helicopters are to be deployed! We have step by bloody step purposely embroiled ourselves in another bloody civil war this time wholly of our own making and in doing so we have weakened the UN's position and also made a mockery of the governments so called defence spending reductions to help ease the national debt.

We have led brave freedom fighters from East Libya on the march to Tripoli by illegal use of attack planes and then left them in the desert to fend for themselves without protection, and we have (unbelievably) in doing so left Gaddafi in a stronger position now than he was at the start of the Arab spring. Don't be fooled Gaddafi still has his supporters in Libya in large numbers and the best outcome most can see is eventual partition of the country into pro and anti Gaddafi enclaves. Meanwhile back in Benghazi and in Misrata where the rebels still hold power, normal governance has come to a halt, medical supplies and care are in short supply, kids have no schools to go to and the rubbish is being picked up by football club supporters groups.

William Hague and David Cameron must be very pleased with themselves, I always disagreed with Tony Blair over our involvement in Iraq, but at least he took us to an illegal war with an air of competence about it rather than us ending up embroiled in an horrific human stew of our own making which will damage further relations within the Arab world for many more years to come (if that is possible)

One more depressing thought though is that no one in the UK seems to give a fig? Where are all the protests? from either side? Has Jeremy Paxman lost his nerve or his voice in questioning what is going down in the name of UK PLC, and what about the printed press? If we are at war then why no Sun headline declaring GO GET GADDAFI and if we are not at war then where are the Guardian or Independent headlines questioning the legitimacy of the military intervention?

Perhaps it is only me that is concerned?

TIME FOR A RANT

Elections always wear me out. Not surprising really, as if they didn't then you couldn't have worked hard enough!

Anyhow they also make you reflective, and over the past two weeks of inactivity I have been thinking a lot about the mess we are in.

So despite the wishes of some to stick only to local issues here follows a few posts on whats troubling me of late!

TIME FOR NEW BLOOD?

John Dickies call in todays Chronicle and Echo for "The Old Guard" at the Town Hall to stand aside to let new talent shine through reminded me so much of this video below, and if I can't succeed as an independent then perhaps this bright and upcoming young lady has a chance of changing the political landscape?

I must say her speech is more far more radical and inspiring than anything you will get from the Party Leaders at the Town Hall over the next 4 years!!

LOST - ONE COUNCIL SEAT - REWARD FOR FINDER

I could say that:

"it is far better to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs even though checkered by failure, than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy nor suffer much because they live in the grey twilight that knows neither victory nor defeat"

But that would be neither magnanimous nor would it cover the horrible feeling that defeat still brings no matter how difficult I knew the fight to be

I could instead wrap myself up in my election win averages, i.e. played 9 - won 6 - lost 3, but again that wouldn't be totally accurate as you need to split the elections pre and post transfer! i.e. played 5 for the Labour Party won 4 - lost 1 and played 4 as an Independent and Won 2 - Lost 2

I could continue with the Roosevelt theme as above and say to my detractors and those who talk a good election but never fight one that:

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is no effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat"

But brave words and emotive quotations won't change a single vote in my favour; the election will still be lost and the Borough Council chamber still inaccessible to me for four years.

Perhaps its best then to just say well done to the victors? After all I was really genuinely pleased to see my good friend Aziz Rahman and his wife elected to the Council Aziz having topped the poll and his wife winning very unexpectedly in Trinity against Andrew Simpson, and other Labour victory's for friends like Gareth Eales were also very pleasing. Comments from others that I should now "Come home to Labour" or at take the Labour whip on the County are perhaps best left alone before the Region finds out about them and ex communicates more members.

So in a way all of the above comments and quotes to a degree have some truth to them but it still leaves me asking myself so many more questions than I have answers for as to where do we go from here?

For the record I can now say what I thought would happen and the predictions I made to those closest to me.

I predicted a strong Labour recovery, I had them down for 13 seats and they got 15. I also believed privately that if their swing was big enough then it would do for us in Castle Ward and that they would take the 3 seats (although of course I hoped we would hang on) I predicted along with everyone else a collapse in the Lib Dem vote, but no where near the size it was I had them down to around the 9-10 mark with the Tories gaining but not enough to form an administration, but I was wrong on that one. A lot of the Lib Dem candidates I thought would go, went but not always to the victors I had in mind, and I also of course hoped and wished for the record number of Independent candidates to be elected or do well and to a point they did do well if not get elected. They all campaigned and polled well but came up short when it turned into total votes at the count.

Without a doubt one of the biggest disappointments for me were the very high number of "Block Votes" where 3 votes were recorded for the Labour/ Lib Dem/Tory in Castle Ward, because myself and Malcolm could never feature in them we found ourselves several hundred behind before we had a chance to catch up on the split votes, and even then Party loyalty cancelled a lot of gains out. It is soul destroying having put so much effort in to sometimes be left wondering if votes are still just cast en masse without a thought to the candidates standing. With less than 30%v bothering in the first place it is even more difficult to get past any three party loyalty ticket

Another crazy caper which must have cost the Lib Dem's dearly across the town was the massive effort they put into Castle Ward even though they finished 5th there in 2009. We now have it on good authority that this was an agreed tactic to make sure they got rid of myself and Malcolm for being thorns in their side over the last 4 years. I should grateful for the compliment, but I can't help but think it cost both vote for me and Malcolm in Castle Ward but also probably cost the Lib Dem's a couple of seats they could have saved elsewhere (i.e. Trinity?) if they had used their resources more wisely.

Will the public ever embrace Indeopendents in large enough numbers to make wins regular? Can you only really be succesful as an Independent by not being Independent and forming a new group of "Local Community Activists" under a single banner? Who knows, I would as always value your thoughts.

Anyway on to the election awards. My award for the most unscrupulous campaigning goes to the Lib Dem candidates in Castle Ward who sent an unforgivable letter out to council tenants on the eve of Poll without a Party logo on "official" looking paper signed by Cllr Jane Hollis warning tenants that unless they voted for the three Lib Dem candidates then the Tory's where going to sell off their council homes! One elderly disabled man was in tears when we visited him that night convinced that only a vote for the Lib Dem's would keep him in his home. It was full of the old "Its a two horse race here" this time they told residents the two horse race was between the Lib Dem's and The Tories who finished 5th and 3rd in Castle Ward respectively in 2009

My award for the most pointless and puerile comments came from Les Marriot who fought the Semilong seat for Labour against the Independent candidate Steven Richards. So despite me not even standing for election there he still managed to vent his pipe by attacking me as "Cllr Independent" saying I was only good at making a noise and getting myself in the press and then he attacked me again by informing the voters of Semilong that "Unlike Cllr Independent" he "won't be swanning off down to London" We can only think that was referring to the time that I was one of his parties MP's at Westminster? But what a strange comment.

The stark truth however is that the election result was a bad one for Independents and yet they all fought very hard and they deserved far more recognition than they got in the local media. Those who we printed material for Graham Walker, Steven Richards and Derek Jones mad sterling efforts in their first ever campaigns and I hope they wont lose too much heart at the results. Malcolm Mildren and his partner Maureen were both a rock for me in Castle Ward and as well as being very grateful for their support I would also thank them for their humour, we really did have a fun time!

I would of course also thank John and Marie Dickie, John for being our agent and Marie for putting up with John I would also single out Ann and the gang in Spring Boroughs Peter Witt in Cyril Street and Terry and many others for helping out with deliveries. I also of course thank my family for putting up with me.

Those last two paragraphs should of course have been said as part of a small speech at the count. But candidates, even winning candidates were denied the opportunity to do so in what was a very lack lustre count. No one at the count could really hear what was happening and it was also incredibly difficult to see what was happening and how the votes were accumulating. Gone it seems are the days when the rolls of 50 votes were put in a rack so you could actually see who was winning!

In fact having waited until the next day for the vote to be begin it was all a bit of an anti climax, and as a candidate I felt I was just in the way really, and perhaps that's where we are all headed elected or not? Perhaps the Council will do away with elections and Cllrs and just set up sounding boards to provide an opinion of the management boards intentions? perhaps being a Cllr or not or being elected or not is now immaterial? but if it is then I would like to know why it stings so much not be part of it.

So now you have it, my election ramble for you to digest and add to, and once again unlike other sites censorship will only be applied to either the vulgar and unfair.

I come near to a conclusion by sending my sincere congratulations to the victors Aziz Rahman, Winston Strachan and Danielle Stone. Good luck to you all in representing the people of Castle Ward on the Borough Council, I will of course be monitoring your progress from my position of County Cllr for Castle Ward, but I offer you cooperation in the best interests of the people we both serve and hope we can all bring some credit back to a Local Government system bruised by the electoral over ambition and administrative arrogance of the Liberal Democrats over the last four years.

I also offer congratulations to David Palethorpe and his Tory Group, I shall enjoy watching from the sidelines as another Tony newly elected to the Council in the administrations fold continues to promote the record of Independent thought and action in the Town Hall that I hope myself and Malcolm were reknown for.....

My last act this morning in the Town Hall was set my Council email to "Out of Office" It read "

Sorry but I am out of office!! At least until the next election in 2015. Can I thank all those 740 brave souls who voted for an independent candidate on May 5th 2011 and apologise to you that I was not successful in holding my seat. If you need to reach me on a personal basis my email address is tony.clarke@email.com or I am still in action over the road at County Hall as the Independent County Cllr for Castle Ward

Tony

ELECTION ADDRESS

Continuing the publication of election leaflets from this years NBC Elections here is the A4 trifold election address delivered over the Bank Holiday weekend.As always click on each picture to magnify. I hope you enjoy it.