WANTED: LATIN TRANSLATION

The people of Spring Boroughs have endured so much over recent years. Drug dealers and prostitutes have been driven from the area by residents assisted through succesfuly managed CASPAR programme only now for the Borough Council to begin to let them access back onto the estate through their new "choice based" letting scheme.

Likewise green areas and wasteland having been neglected by the same Borough Council for years have now been reclaimed by the residents, who then have to endure the Council using their efforts to claim their own corporate success under Britain in Bloom.

All this has happened against a background of negligent indifference from the Council who have done nothing to address the lack of Decent Homes standard in the 81% of Council owned homes in the Area.

So when Caspar (Castle Partnership) together with local teachers, health workers, the police, faith groups and most importantly local residents combined with Northampton University to seek government funding to pilot a " Local Development Plan" for the area which would put local people in control of the Planning processes which will ultimately affect them, the future looked at least a little brighter.

All we needed was the Councils support to submit the bid to government by the July 8th deadline.

Instead though we got shafted. The council spoke to the government and come up with a fudge, meaning that instead of any real power resting back with the people, the Council would only work with us at a future date on supplementing their own plans. Nothing it seems is going to interfere with their obsessive desire to railroad through their own "Joint Core Strategy" and "Central Area Action Plan" They know best, and we the people must fit in with their plans as they cannot let the public tail wag the corporate dogma.

This crass decision it seems was not even taken by elected Councillors, (is any such decision, these days?) The portfolio holder Cllr John Yates was simply told what the planners wanted him to agree with, and the silencing of a whole community was rubber-stamped under delegated powers. Meanwhile the views of newly elected local Cllrs were at best silenced and at worst manipulated. Council officers it seems, think that local politics is far more about preventing the people from taking part in affairs that properly concern them rather than working with them.

We shouldn't be surprised I guess, as we have all been here before, over the plans to demolish parts of the Eastfield Estate and the failed PFI bid, over the manipulation of Housing Tenants representatives, on the silencing of residents through injunctions, and the indifference shown to Market Traders and our local sports clubs.

There was a time when Local Government had purpose, integrity and above all elected accountability, now however it is but a shadow of it's former proud self and is simply a finishing school and career stepping stone for over ambitious Local Government Officers who hold and abuse all the power given to them without ever having to worry about any electoral consequences of their actions. Meanwhile we the public keep changing the colour of the Party we think are running the show at election time, when the reality is that any attempt to really change things is stimied by an incongruous elite who believe that public consultation means simply telling the people what's they think is good for them and then silencing them if they dare to disagree.

I was saddened to lose my seat on Northampton Borough Council in May, but having taken a step back I can now see that at present it is not a council fit to serve on, nor to bear it's latin legend "Castello Fortior Concordia" friendship is Stronger than a Castle.

I therefore suggest it changes that as well to something more fitting, how about "Copulas et Populas et Oficium es in Tutela"

Civility prevents me from offering a translation, but do feel free to try

THOUGHTS FOR THE DAY

SHONA DEANS (MESSINGER) Born 29/10/1963 Died 19/06/2011

Another funeral today I am afraid, they say that the older you get the less weddings and the more funerals you attend, but what shook me today I guess is that we were saying goodbye to an old school friend Shona Deans.

So is this a new chapter in my life where those of the same age start to depart stage left?

Well hopefully not too quickly, Shona was only 47 and died of cancer and as such left this life far far too early, but I guess in any group of friends some will go too early and other will seem to be around forever and always manage to look younger than you do?

Shona was a real star, full of life and energy, always thinking of others whilst also enjoying her own life to the full. At school she was drooled over by the boys for her looks and respected by all because of her strong will and character.

Shona got me in to real trouble at School after I had bought the current Mrs Clarke three red roses for Valentines day, Shona wanted to know where hers were. I suggested to Carole that as I had given her three that she might want to share at least one of them with Shona. As I remember neither Carole nor Shona were too hot on that suggestion and it was not one of my more better diplomatic inputs!

Carole finally relented, and a couple of weeks back took three red roses up to Shona in Cynthia Spencer, unfortunately, Shona was too ill for visitors on that day and passed away on the 19th.

Today at the funeral Shona's son Ross was a real credit to her as he calmly yet obviously emotionally told us all what a great job his mum had made of bringing him and his sister up as a single parent and how the lessons she had taught them would go on to help them both throughout their lives.

I believe Ross is only 19, but he has had to grow up very quickly since his mum was diagnosed, he was a rock today, and his mother would have been very proud of him and of her daughter who also helped to lead the mourners with an obvious love and pride for a good mother taken away from them way before it was her time to go.

Sleep well Shona XX

FIGHTING FOR PEACE

Luckily today's Trade Union action has passed with only minor scuffles breaking out in London as Anarchists, helpfully having dressed themselves up in all black so they could easily be identified, failed to get past police lines and cordons.

Unlike some peope I am happy to give my full unequivical support and soidatory for those taking industrial action. Why shouldn't they do so. There pay has been frozen for two years and now a sorry mixture of Tory, Lib and Labour muppets in parliament tell them that they need to pay a lot more each month for their pension which will be smaller than they were promised and that they cant retire until they are 66! Breach of contract Full Stop. And if Local Government cant afford it then they shouldn't have been so keen to take so many pension holidays in the 1990's or used their non paid contributions to offset council tax rises

The troubles however in Greece continue to escalate. But if I am allowed a slight giggle at what is a very worrying time, it is because of a classic live interview given yesterday lunchtime on Radio 4 by a Greek protester.

The unknown women was asked what she had witnessed following what seemed like a massive brawl on the streets outside of the Greek Parliament and she told the beebs reporter without any sense of irony:

"It was nothing much really, we are all peaceful protesters and we had found amongst us a man dressed all in black who was clearly there just to cause trouble, so we all decided to beat him up"

Fair enough I guess? who needs total pacifism whilst there are still just causes to be fought for? Trouble is from the shots I have seen the rioters are in black, the police are in black and many of the local muslim community wear black, so its not an easy call!

Still anarchists in Britain should beware!!


IT GETS DIRTIER AND DIRTIER

Some of you may remember this post:

http://tonyclarkeindependent.blogspot.com/search?q=dirty+little+secret

In it I outlined how thousands of tonnes of contaminated waste had allegedly been dumped onto Delapre Abbey in 2005 within the two giant earth bunds by a local contractor (Thomas Haulage) right under the noses of the Borough Council and the officers who were supposed to be monitoring the works.

Despite Northampton Borough Council having been given signed affidavits from both one of the Lorry Drivers involved who tipped the contaminated waste and also another from one of those who had loaded it on the wagons, they had still failed in their statutory duty to take proper legal action to bring the polluter to justice and to make them pay for the clear up of the site. Because unless they do it will be and you who picks up the bill in the long run through our council tax

I also raised this matter in the council chamber on several occasions only to repeatedly hear from the then Liberal Democrat Administration that there was no contamination!

So I was interested to read in Saturdays Chronicle and Echo that the same company has just been fined £27,500 for dumping more illegal waste (10,000 Tonnes) into a lake at Billing Aquadrome last year! This action was taken by the Environment Agency, well done to them. But what about Delapre Abbey?

In addition I recently got sent anonymously some photos of the said waste in situ, and I have asked for more!

The continued failure by the Council to take any action, despite the overwhelming and growing evidence pointing to an even bigger crime having been committed at Delapre Abbey suggests that they are either Spineless, Gutless cowards unwilling to tackle the polluters and to make them pay, or even worse it suggests they may have something themselves to cover up regarding this whole sorry affair?

Either way I think a new Conservative Administration should take the opportunity afforded to them in being newly elected to make a statement declaring their intentions.

As I have said before this one will not got away!! No matter how deep some people want to bury it.

WHAT'S A GREEK URN? IN BLACK SWANS?

Speaking about the Wests inability to see the Arab Spring coming Nasseem Nicholas Taleb said recently that:

“The upheavals in the Middle East had much in common with the recent financial crisis: both were plausible worst-case scenarios whose probability was dramatically underestimated.”

Nasseem Nicholas Taleb is best known of course for his book the Black Swan a couple of years ago. It has as its central and compelling thesis that there is a pervasive tendency for history to be shaped by unpredicted events, and especially by occurrences that have not taken place in the past. His vivid central metaphor is the assumption that all swans are white because no other colour had been seen until the black swan variety was discovered in Australia. This is an interesting alternative approach to what is often referred to as ‘the politics of impossibility,’ a phrase meant to suggest that the impossible repeatedly happens, making future studies based on past trends and statistical projections almost certain to be wrong.

So whats this to do with what a Greek earns and life in Blighty I hear you ask? I apologise in advance for those who don't like the answer.

You see, as much as the European Central Bank tries to save it, the Greek economy is in collapse. The Greek people will not accept the austerity measures laid down on them from their Government and they have taken to the streets, the Government will inevitably default on it's debt payments to the Banks, the banks as always will look to their own governments to bail them out and the Euro Zone will enter a period of meltdown.


The effects of that meltdown will be felt across the globe,  but Britain as the third largest lender to Greece in the EU is in it up to its eyeballs. Meanwhile at home despite the IMF's best efforts to talk up the recovery at home, borrowing still spirals out of control as the UK government now borrows more to payfor  higher welfare bills rather than keep public sector workers in employment paying tax and spending on the high street.


And then just as the UK's white swan is starting to look already as if it has a bit of the night about it, along come more Tory Ministers (some with little yellow hats on)  in there size nines goading the trade unions into industrial disputes over the summer. Ed Balls plays a bluff, double bluff by asking the unions not to fall into the the trap of strike action because the coallition will then blame the unions for the economy nosediving and say if it wasn't for the Lefties, we would have won through. What a farce!


And then on the sidelines sit the anarchists, knowing very well that a disaffected Britain, and  student body fed up of being lied to can soon go from throwing just insults into throwing rather heavier missiles.


And so the trade union day of action on June 30th 2011 becomes our potential Black Swan, not because we want it to be, nor because it need be, but because a ham fisted Tory Government have used the cover of a recession to bulldoze through their ideological plans for a smaller state and slimmer government by cutting services nationally and locally to the bone, and putting hundreds of thousands of civil servants and council workers out of work at a stroke. Not to mention the £1bn+ we have wasted in breaching  UN resolutions in Libya (with another £1bn to take us through to Christmas)


Cameron and Co have gambled heavily, and with growth still flatter than a Lincolnshire mountain range his numbers just haven't come up, we now face heavier borrowing to pay for waste, not jobs and we face for the first time in a long while the prospect of unnecessary unrest on our streets bought about by political stupidity of the highest order. Of course the government will blame the unions and the press will probably and more accurately blame the mindless few who infiltrated the peaceful protests, some will blame people like myself for even predicting such events could happen in the first place.


But that's the nature of Black Swans, unless you accept the possibility of them existing in the first place then you will never expect them to turn up on the pond when they do.

I hope I am wrong, I hope that the powers that be will not be caught off their guard and do all they can to protect our peace but we are in for an uncomfortable few weeks and maybe months ahead, it seems it will be less of an Arab Spring and more of a very sticky British Summer.

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!