OLD IT..... FLASH, BANG, WALLOP WHAT A PICTURE

The Mack, as in Local Tory Council leader Cllr David Mackintosh has been looking a bit too pasty of late, he needs some sun on his cheeks and he should remember the old adage of too much work too little play making mack a sad lad  etc etc,

But undeterred by his inability to remove himself from his plush Guildhall Office and the pressures of office it seems that the local Chronicle and Echo has come up with a cunning plan and a whole new props department to ensure that their readers on line and in print can still get their fair quota of Tory friendly Mack based photoshoots.

TIE OFF, WEMBLEY TICKETS ON THE DESK - SMILE

At a time when without our printed nightly paper, local politicians are struggling to get their mugshots printed anywhere some have had to go to some extraordinary lengths to encourage the paper to send out a snapper. I personally haven't had my picture in the paper since the great Johnston Press Share price crash of 2009 and people still think I am a relatively young man!

                     

                                         BLACK TIE ONLY, WHITE LILLY'S, FRAMED IRON LADY,  DON"T SMILE!

TIE OFF AGAIN, FINGER ON THE BUTTON, SIR HUMPHREY LOOKING ON

But no such photo shortage problem for the Mack, in true Mr Benn (do you remember the children's series) style he, and it seems his whole office are suitable dressed and redressed for every occasion, tie on (business like)  tie off (man of the people) suitable desk based prop everyones a winner.

TIE ON AGAIN, LOOK PENSIVE, MUST CLEAN THOSE BLINDS

So tied up in Council business is the Mack that whole Holiday seasons just come and go and if the decor didn't change in the office no one would know any different!

“If I could work my will, said Scrooge indignantly, "every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips, should be boiled with his own pudding, and buried with a stake of holly through his heart. He should!"

A quick step over to the fireplace and no one will guess its the same office

But then it seemed as if the cat might finally be out of the bag and Daves fear of open spaces, meeting the public and sunshine called for even more props to fool an ever gullible public

TIE OFF, AND WHATEVER YOU DO DON"T MAKE YOURSELF LOOK STUPID BY WRITING ON THAT IPAD

Believe it or not there are many more mackpics out there, never before in the history of Council Leaders have so many photos of one leader been taken in one office with so many different props.

Which is all such a shame as the Mack looked far happier in long gone days when he wasn't such a prisoner of the Guildhall and had the local paper lusting over him for ever more snapshots of pine veneer and vertical blinds and his cheeky grin

SO ESCAPE DAVID ESCAPE, ITS NOT TOO LATE, A WHOLE NEW CHAPTER CAN BEGIN

The day lays bright, with cloud laden sky, I sit and think, as time passes by. Where art though now, dark desk of destiny, no ties to tie me down and tell me why to laugh or grin or muse and cry

U KIP IF YOU WANT TO, DEFEAT IS OUR TEACHER NOT OUR JAILER,

Defeated candidates should always think carefully before examining election results too closely through fear of only finding what they want to find, giving them the excuse to blame somebody else for their failure. Winning candidates on the other hand are best not looking at the reasons for their success at all, they should simply bask in the glory of their win, as the seeds of any future defeat often lay sown very deep in their current flowering pots.

But last weeks County Council Elections just felt all wrong, from start to finish, I am not just talking about Castle Ward which has its own unique set of circumstances to cope with, but I mean wrong in the sense of participation and outcome. Often the wrong candidate got elected for the wrong reasons, rises in some candidates votes simply skewed the figures overall and made prediction a difficult art form.

My main concern, which I hope would be shared across the political divide is that the results were less predicted and more proclaimed. UKIP of course did incredibly well, no lets rephrase that they did remarkably well winning seats all across the Country just as the press told us they would! and therein lies the problem. UKIP's staggering success was not just predicted it was announced as a  fait accomplis (They will love that European reference!) by the national and local press as long ago as November and December 2012.

Having encouraged the swing voter to support UKIP in the Rotherham By Election (Labour Hold) and the Eastleigh By Election (Lib Dem Hold) the press secured them a second place in each, allowing them to proclaim thereafter UKIP as the new force in British Politics. This was the same UKIP of course who secured just 3% of the vote in the 2010 General Election losing their deposits up and down the country including in Northamptonshire as voters failed to understand what they were there for. But the right wing press with its own anti European agenda needed UKIP as a stick to beat David Cameron with.

So the Torygraph and the Daily Mail had soon "Galvanised" Nigel Farage back into action, a tall order in itself for a man with little charm, terrible halitosis and the worst taste in trousers this side of Texas. But Galvanise was indeed the word as in Shelley's creative novel Frankenstein a new monster was created by  the process of galvanism, the ability to bring inanimate objects to life through the power of electrical currents. This time via the 240 volt printing press rather than any lightning above Castle Frankenstein.  Publication after publication, commentator after editor all queued up to inform us that "UKIP are set to win record number of council seats" This before they had even considered how many candidates they would stand. UKIP of course happily played their part by declaring in February that "We will stand the most candidates ever" By March the TV had followed the printed presses lead and Project UKIP took another big leap forward.

The announcement by Johnston Press in the Chronicle and Echo in early February was indeed echoed throughout their publications nationwide and by their rivals who all pronounced how mighty fine the King Farages new clothes were and how we the public would be pretty stupid if we didn't also jump on board the bandwagon. Voting UKIP was safe they said, almost suggesting you could be racist without being shouted at and anti gay and just a good old fashioned Brit sticking up for their country. And even when a little boy in the crowd shouted "He is as naked as the day he was born" he found that 70 % of the people couldn't even be bothered to listen to him and that thereafter the Press refused to print his comments to the 30% who might just be interested. They instead were treated to more photographs of Nigel Farage drinking more beer in more middle England pubs on his "Common Sense" tour

And so eventually an apathetic and politically uneducated British Public did what it it proving itself extremely good at it followed the trend rather than look to set it, it tugged its collective forelock in reverence to its masters and either sat on its hands at home not voting or went out voted the way it was told to vote.

Or as Ray Davies is attributed to have said:

Money and corruption are ruining the land.Crooked politicians betray the working man, Pocketing the profits and treating us like sheep, And we're tired of hearing promises that we know they'll never keep.

More than one voter informed me on the doorstep during the election campaign that, 

"Tony I will either be voting Green Party or UKIP"

What in Gods name does that actually mean? I haven't a political thought in my head and I am just as likely to vote for Ghandi as I am Hitler? 

But the reactionary poison that flows from UKIP has found a resonance with the increasingly embittered, divided population. They reflect, as all such movements have done historically, a contradictory set of social forces. On the one hand they are a party that appeal to a middle class, driven into a frenzy as a result of the economic crisis. Their anger is focused on the work-shy, the immigrant and on the European unions super state: all of whom are holding back the hardworking, pure of blood Brit who needs the help of no one to make its way in the world. 

This is then exaggerated by  white flight communities who fear (actually fear) migrants will threaten their rural idyll. I thought it was just amazingly crass to see that self confessed right wing Tory Cllr Michael Clarke polled 1553 in Hackleton and Grange Park only just seeing off a challenge from a UKIP candidate even further to the right who polled 1504. 1504 who are more right wing than the Tory candidate who won! Heaven help us.

But of course with just a 20% turnout in Castle Ward I save my real despair and my disquiet for the 80% non voters, a heady of mixture of lazy, non committal, apathetic, politically ignorant and impotent shower all committed to doing there bit by er...... not doing their bit.

Harsh? not really, if they read this piece and are upset with my comments then good for them they can always come out and vote against me at future elections and my rant will have in some way served a purpose. in the defence of a few there will be in that number those who couldn't through illness get to vote, or were perhaps working away, equally there will be some who felt that none of the candidates could muster their support, and they are all excused from my wrath, but the rest? Well they are a special sort of ignoramus half wit who think that life owes them a living and a helping hand without the need for them ever having to put anything back in.

I write this on the Tuesday after last Thursdays election and already the phone calls are coming in from people in Castle Ward asking me to continue to help them with their Housing needs and to secure "better" places for their children in "better" schools. 

They have absolutely no idea that I was not re-elected last Thursday, and probably have little idea that an election even took place! I remember last year talking to a guy in a pub who asked me about my MP's expenses! I politely told him I had had lost the election years ago in 2005 to Brian Binley and then he went on to say "Yes but your still the Labour MP aren't you"  Apparently it seems (according to my new found drinking buddy) at every election each constituency votes for a Tory, Labour and Lib Dem MP and the one who gets the most votes goes to Parliament whilst the other two hang around the town on full salary representing our respective voters! and there was me thinking Sally Keeble had simply been on Holiday since 2010!

So apathy and the inability of people to think for themselves played a massive part in last weeks weeks defeat, but was it just that that and the UKIP factor which cost me my seat? No not really. The fact is that months ago I predicted that Labours vote would rise at the election in line with their national share with the Tory's and Lib Dems in Government. I predicted to friends that they would double their low vote of 440 in May 2009 and told a select few that I expected them to poll around 880 votes this time round. They actually got 806, I told my new colleagues in the Green Party that it was an uphill struggle for us to win and that we would need to keep as many of the 760 (Independent) and 201 (Green Party)  votes that we each polled in 2009 to give us any chance of winning, we couldn't do that, and our end result of 437 (albeit on a reduced turnout) was simply not enough. Yes of course UKIP taking 273 votes without putting out a single leaflet didn't help, equally having another Independent on the Ballot Paper was not useful but none of these factors would have denied the Labour Party a deserved victory. I lost a lot of hard won support in the Semilong and St James areas when they once more moved the ward boundary and Winston Strachan it seems is strong in the area he has represented for some time, so my congratulations as they did last Thursday go out to him.

So did I make a mistake joining the Greens? Not at all, you see for all of those who can't be arsed to vote and for all of those who change their vote it seems as frequently as they change their underwear, there are those of us who are really very comfortable in our political skins, we know what we are about and we are loyal to our political convictions. I ironically have the exact same set of political values and ideals which I held 30 odd years ago when I first joined the then Labour Party, the Labour Party have coursed moved to the right, not me. And I also believe that the 437 brave soles who voted for the Green Party last Thursday in Castle Ward also include a high number of politically motivated voters who don't just look the other way, or turn up and vote how they have been told to vote, but are people of deeply held political conviction and belief and as such I was proud to have given them a choice at the ballot box.

I thank each and every one of them and urge them to email me in order that we build our data base of those wanting an alternative future

The Green Party can do better, we can work harder, in fact we will have to if we want to see success at the ballot box, but we more than doubled our vote from the same election four years ago, and we held the honour in Castle Ward of helping to ensure that the right wing medias new toy UKIP secured their only fourth place in the County having come first second or third everywhere else. 

Of course I wish I had won, as I believe I was doing my bit in holding the Tories to account at a time when the only other opposition seems to come from outside of the Council.

But perhaps I can have just as much fun with having the prefix "Cllr" before my name. The press asked me if I would be taking a rest after 22 years in active local and national politics? A rest I asked? I am not 50 until September, I have only just started to get going! I just need to decide now with the support and consent of my new Green colleagues which Labour candidate I want to upset the most now by standing as an opposing Green candidate at the 2015 General Election.

Any thoughts gladly received

 

1 VOTE 1 DAY 1 CANDIDATE 1 PARTY

So heres the 3rd leaflet in this years County Council Election Campaign, or its the 6th Leaflet if you count the "Easy Read" "Muslim Voters" and "EU Voters" versions

But be it 3, 4, 5 or 6 its really all about the number 1

Hope you enjoy, and please feel free to print the poster and stick it in your window, and all you Green voters and friends who have Facebook or email friends in Castle Ward please share or forward it on

AND NOW FOR SOME EASY READING

I have often had comments made to me on the content of my leaflets! mostly good, some bad.

One continuous dividing opinion that arises is that some say that they are either far too long or far too short, have too many words, or do not enough words?

It is of course horses for courses, some voters like to be well informed, others just prefer a snapshot.
Some read the Mirror others prefer a broadsheet.

So what is the perfect compromise for a political leaflet? And how can we be certain that anyone reads them anyway, long or short, wordy or graphic?

Well if I was tell the other party's that 25% of the electorate couldn't read any of their leaflets  irrespective of the design or length then I wonder if they would start to sit up and take notice?

Some of you will know that before I entered into politics I worked closely with the learning disability community in Northampton and I worked hard at trying to make information clear and easy to understand.

That 25% figure mentioned above is made up of those with learning disabilities or educational difficulties or those who simply never had the benefit of a standard education.

So how do we engage them in the political process? How do we ensure that their vote is not taken for granted but earned and worked for? who will give them a voice if no one informs them of their choices.

It was with the above in mind that I decided to write an "Easy Read" leaflet for the forthcoming Local Elections, the topics included are broader than the County Council, but then again people rarely vote on single Council issues but vote instead on how a candidate or party thinks and acts in a broader sense.

Easy Read is a national standard, used by many organisations to ensure important information is accessible for all. 

It is by no means perfect, it never can be, what do words like candidate and election really mean to those who do not use such words every day? And if you explain each and every word than when does the information given stop being interesting and start sounding like Peter and Jane? So readers may need some help, may need to be understanding of those whose reading difficulty is greater than theirs? but isn't something always better than nothing? Isn't the longest journey always started with the shortest of steps?

So if you have a relative with an educational or learning difficulty living in Castle Ward, or if you work in a community home in the area whose residents would benefit from some plain english speaking material which enabled them to better engage in the political process then I would hope you will print out and share my leaflet for them.

Of course I am just one candidate from one party, and people should be given a choice, and perhaps my attempt at full engagement with the electorate might make the rest sit up and take notice and hopefully follow suit.

After all do they really want to continue to ignore 25% of their electorate?

I hope you enjoy reading it and that you do pass it on!

County Council Election 2013 Castle Ward Leaflet 2

The second leaflet is off the printing block and ready for delivery. This one is for all those who wanted less words!

All of our leaflets are printed in house (literally, in my back room) on a old recycled Risograph printer using vegetable ink,  our paper is sourced from FSE certified paper.

Delivery begins along with canvassing after the Green Party photo call at 6.30pm County Hall, St George's Row

WELCOME ABOARD FITZY

Local Market Trader, and long time political campaigner Eamonn "Fitzy" Fitzpatrick has become the latest Independent politician to join the ranks of the Green Party and will campaign for them in the forthcoming County Council Elections in the newly formed  Dallington - Spencer Ward.

Fitzy has fought in many local election campaigns as an Independent candidate and stood in a parliamentary by-election against Tory David Davies in 2008 when he correctly predicted the Green Party's second place showing.

Having worked Northampton's Market for over 50 years it is the Green Party's commitment to localism and their drive to "THINK GLOBAL  but "ACT LOCAL" that has attracted him to join up.

He said " We need to encourage more people to shop and trade locally, treat them better as customers and trade on trust rather than greed, of course that means shopping more on the local market and cutting down on the air miles our food travels but it also  includes things like supporting community banks, credit unions, and local exchange schemes.

"I have done my homework and they are about a lot more than simply protecting the Environment, they're top on that, but they also have great policies on fairness and protecting local public services, and offering a real alternative to the CUTS programme.

The Green Party supports local markets and wants the power of supermarkets restricted to help support a more sustainable local growing and selling policy, stopping farmers and producers being put out of business by greedy supermarket chains.

They also want to campaign to change the rules to ensure that Local Schools and local Hospitals can buy more Local Food

Fitzy's move comes just a month after former Northampton South MP Tony Clarke also joined forces with the Greens to defend his Castle Ward seat on the County Council.

Fitzy said, "Tony got it right, the Green Party is the only party that respects our Independence and also wants to speak up for the average man and women in the street, We don't need people in London telling us what to think and say, we have got enough to say for ourselves thank you very much.

Fitzy will be campaigning from his Market Stall throughout April, and proudly displaying his Green Credentials alongside his Green Produce.

Meanwhile the membership of the Local Green Party has seen an upwards spike in recent weeks making them well placed to make a mark at the forthcoming election

BEDROOM TAX: THE FIGHTBACK BEGINS

Last Saturdays Bedroom Tax  protest outside Northampton Town Hall was very welcome as a way of beginning to coordinate a joint campaign to force this wicked government to scrap its latest attack on Social Tenants (waged or unwaged) who will now see their Housing Benefit cut by 14% or 25% for simply being deemed as under occupying their homes.

There will of course  be many ways and means identified in coming weeks as to how to challenge this discriminatory CUT to what is in the vast majority of cases earned benefit, but I couldn't help but think that too many people went away from the protest or where not there but sitting at home still in real fear of building up spiralling arrears that they could not pay and also living under the shadow of possible eviction from their home.

So for their sakes we all need to act NOW not just by protesting but by buying time, and to clog up the system and to begin the fightback.

People who know me appreciate that I am a dedicated advocate of direct action when the circumstances warrant it and this is such a circumstance. I will have no qualms in joining others to prevent evictions forced on tenants through arrears built up by bedroom tax where needed, but we also need to fight over zealous bureaucracy with our own version of political red tape.

To be clear:

The Conservatives on Northampton Borough Council have made it very clear that they will implement this iniquitous tax on behalf of the Government.

The Labour Party on Northampton Borough Council have to date failed to use the Council chamber to force a motion condemning the tax and on non eviction for Council House tenants affected.

The Liberal Party on Northampton Borough Council whilst guilty by association with their Tory masters at Westminster for its introduction are now simply sitting on the fence waiting to see which way the wind blows and trying to work out if any action by them will win votes.

But like my Green Party colleagues in Brighton who became the first Council to declare a policy of non eviction for bedroom tax arrears, I believe it is NOW time for direct action.

I would therefore ask all of you who care enough about keeping people in their homes and have fight in your belly to take on this Council and the Government by forwarding the content of this blog on to those affected and those who can help them. Cut and paste or copy the following model letter to every tenant of Northampton Borough Council and or any Housing Associations who they know to be affected by the bedroom tax for them all  to fill out and then send into the council without delay.

ITS TIME FOR DIRECT ACTION:

ITS TIME TO SHOW THEM THAT ALL OF THEIR ACTIONS HAVE POTENTIAL REACTIONS:

ITS TIME WE STARTED FIGHTING BACK:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I received your decision letter dated (INSERT DATE) and reference (INSERT REFERENCE NUMBER) that imposed an under occupation charge or bedroom tax of 14% 24% (DELETE AS APPROPRIATE) on my existing award of Housing Benefit

I am considering challenging this with a view to considering a formal appeal. However to enable me to understand fully the Councils position I require further information as listed below to be sent to me within 7 days of this letter to ensure that I have enough time to formulate any appeal, and that I am in full knowledge of the facts of my case within the time allowed.

Or in the alternative I request that the deadline for any such formal appeal be moved to 21 days after I receive the requested information below:

1.     A written copy of the Council's policy and decision making procedures in relation to referring a socially housed claimant decision to the Rent Officer Service.

2.     A full explanation of how the council decided that (INSERT ADDRESS) was determined to be a (INSERT BEDROOM NUMBERS) bed property for the under occupation charge and this to include what involvement if any of my landlord (INSERT LANDLORD NAME) in the process.

3.    A copy of the decision calculation undertaken by the Council as to my individual circumstances and the basis on which this was calculated  (please include a written evidenced declaration of what you believe my personal circumstances to be in order for you to determine that my property is under occupied)

Please state by way of covering letter with the requested information any changed deadline from above with regard to any formal appeal.

Yours Sincerely

(INSERT SIGNATURE)

(INSERT NAME AND ADDRESS)

 LETS GET TO IT:

A LITTLE BIRD TOLD ME A SECRET

The first of a small series of "Mini Broadcasts" to be published throughout the County Council Election campaign. I hope you enjoy them. Tony

THE GREEN UN

Please find below our first Independent Green production and hopefully the first of many "Green Un's"

For those not aware the Green Un was a Saturday night Chronicle and Echo supplement  in addition to the  6 daily copies (2 editions) covering all the local Sports Results, printed at 5.15pm and available to buy about 6pm.

And to think they call a single one week production printed a 120 miles away progress.

Anyway I hope you enjoy and please forward on to all interested friends particularly those in Castle Ward.

Additional delivery volunteers are always very welcome

click on pictures to open in new window

I GUESS I AM ONE BIG GIANT WATERMELON, GREEN ON THE OUTSIDE AND RED TO THE CORE

Our parent’s always told us that what is really important in life can never be bought, that love and true happiness  are not products to be consumed, or simply commodities to be purchased.

And yet for the last 30 years we have all sat back and witnessed an orgy of world wide spending, in a consumer led world where buying a new car, a bigger TV, a larger house all seemed to define who we were, and made us slaves to a society hell bent on reaching the point where the world eventually consumed itself.

But then came the crash, and we now live in a world of consumers who could no longer consume, without the money and without the credit, and increasingly without the security everyone relied on to ensure that the mortgage and credit card bills were paid, and we started to  think again as to what is really important to us.

People have started to redefine, who they are, and what it is they really value, and in the current cold light of austerity they realise, as our parents warned us, that life cannot be bought, and they now look to reorder their lives, and set new priorities.

This cultural shift in life pattern is happening all around us, it is redefining not just who we are as a society it is also educating us, making us reevaluate ourselves and our lives, making us question things such as what we should and should not be eating, how we should be living, who we should be helping, how we should use our free time to enrich ourselves not make ourselves.

The current recession has also made us ask some critical questions about trust, the two big players in our lives the banks and the politicians all of a sudden seem far less wise, we don't trust them with our money anymore and we certainly don't trust them with our vote.

But in communities like the one I represent in Castle Ward, austerity and hard times are unfortunately no strangers, and we are  better prepared than most to deal with the consequences of recession.

We are people more likely to be sociable to our neighbours, more protective of the vulnerable, more likely to step in rather than stand aside when the time comes for us to act. Studies find that despite having the least, communities like ours are where you are most likely to find people more social, face to face, more likely to lend a few bob to an acquaintance outside of our family, more willing to befriend others rather than retreat into our own homes.

From my vantage point as a Cllr and MP representing the people of Castle Ward at all levels, I have learnt that true power, true control, can only ever come from within, and I am fed up of fighting against politico’s for votes rather than fighting alongside the community for real change.

I left the Labour Party, and then discovered that really it had left me, I have battled on as an Independent to try to make a difference for local people and have had some successes,  but now it is time to truly give the power back to the people.

For this reason, recently the local Green Party and myself have been holding discussions as to how we might join forces and together offer a real alternative to Castle Ward’s voters and non voters alike, 

I have now joined the Green Party as a statement of my commitment to them, they in return have acknowledged my long standing political independence and agreed that we should now both campaign together locally under an “INDEPENDENT GREEN’ banner, and I will stand at the election as a Green Party candidate

Interestingly enough, the Green Party is the only Party in the UK which you can be a member of and yet still stand at an election as an Independent (but not against an official Green candidate) But as I say above I have chosen to campaign and as an Independent Green and proudly display the Green Party Logo on the ballot paper.

I am now in a party once again whose policy objectives support high-quality public services run for people not private profit. A party willing to protect the NHS and Post Office from privatisation and return our energy, water and rail networks to public ownership, supporting our education system by providing free school meals, abolishing tuition fees and ensuring all schools are accountable to parents. Committed to separating  retail and investment banks and empowering communities with a network of not-for-profit lenders, supporting cooperative, diverse and resilient local economies, reversing the status-seeking wealth concentration that is deepening social divisions and destroying our natural world. 

A big move for me? Well funny enough when reading the Green Party Policy documents and manifesto, I actually found myself rejoining the Labour Party I first joined in the 1980's ! How times change!