FOOL AND THE GANG

Yesterdays debate in Parliament over England's week of unrest saw Tory speaker after Tory speaker trying to create as much distance as they could between there being any political dimension to the events of the week and the behaviour of young people on our streets.

Yes, I agree  it was blatant criminality, Yes I also agree that this was also a case of crass opportunism and greed, an element within our society that thinks it can just take what it wants, how it wants without any consequence or moral conscience.

It was also I agree "Gang culture" that orchestrated and conducted the proceedings, and lets take David Cameron at his word when he said

"For too long there has been a lack of focus on the complete lack of respect shown by these groups of thugs, For me the root cause of this mindless selfishness is the same thing I have spoken about for years - it is the complete lack of responsibility in parts of society"

And he is right! some in our society have no respect for property or a sense of right from wrong, some feel as if they have a divine right to do whatever they please and to hell with the consequences, they gang together, drink themselves into a near stupor and then commit mindless acts of wanton vandalism and arson, just for the sheer hell of it.

He is also right that he has been speaking about this for years, lets look for example what he was allegedly reported as saying back in 1986 explaining away a gang led vandalism and arson attack in Oxford.

"Things got out of hand and we'd had a few drinks. We smashed the place up and Boris set fire to the toilets"

Bullingdon Club D C, top 2nd left. B J, bottom far right

Of course the "gang" involved in that particular act of mindless and wanton vandalism was the Bullingdon Club of which he, Boris Johnson and George Osbourne amongst many others were members. But they were never held to account for their actions, no court appearances for them, no criminal record to prevent them climbing the ladder in years to come and Daddy probably picked up the bill for any damage. The quote above has since been challenged, but what remains are story after story about the antics of this particular gang including Boris or should we give him his proper name Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson  being involved in an incident where a pot plant was thrown through a restaurant window after which he freely admits to spending a night in the cells. There rather basic chant belloowed out in local restuarants which usually ended up being trashed was:


"Buller, Buller, Buller! Buller, Buller, Buller! We are the famous Bullingdon Club, and we don't give a f*ck!"

And if you have got the time this is worth a view: 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNVEhMCshD0&list=SL&feature=sh_e_top

So what separates their crass and reckless behaviour from that witnessed on the streets this week? and should we draw any parallels? Well for a start Gang membership is a more potent attraction, and recruitment far more easy when youngsters are away from any influence of parental control. For the PM and Boris et al it was because their parents sent them away from home to Oxford as the latest expedition on their boarding school/university careers, whereas in the inner cities there is often no parental control because in too many cases there are no parents, and in others the parents have little or no control of their own lives let alone their children's.

So in the absence of parental control these kids look to role models or diversion to keep them out of trouble, but when the local council has withdrawn all the funding for youth provision and all the local sports and social clubs have long since closed then they are easy prey for the gangs looking for fresh blood to carry out their drug running and other criminally based dirty work.

The rise in gang culture, and gang membership can be correlated directly with recent rises in youth unemployment and social deprivation, these factors are underpinned by economic and fiscal cut backs in public service. Jobless youths simply become more detached from mainstream life and quickly learn to disrespect its rules. In the first quarter of 2011 the unemployment rate amongst 16 - 24 year olds rose to 20% compared to a UK overall unemployment rate of 7.7%. As a result the numbers involved in street gang activity continue to rise.

Yes our kids are out of control, yes their behaviour is sickening, and yes whenever they commit an offence then they should be punished, you will not find many people leaping to their defence, that is understandable, but government and parliament have a duty to do more than simply be outraged, they have a duty to identify the causal link between the unacceptable behaviour young people engage in and social environment they live in.

I despair for the future of our estates in coming months and years, and I worry what sort of children these children will raise! but I can understand far more how they have got the place they are in  than I can explain how those who have every privilege in life show the same lack of respect for property and public order.

And cutting back on youth services on those very same estates is not a good start.

WHEN HOPE IS OUT OF REACH AND THE GOVERNMENT OUT OF TOUCH WHY ARE WE SURPRISED THAT OUR STREETS ARE OUT OF CONTROL

I have been criticised in the past for predicting on this blog unrest on Britain's streets during this summer despite my plea for the police to prepare and my wish that any unrest would be quickly controlled.

I also share the anger of so many when looking at the blatant looting going on in High Streets across the nation, it seems the riots of 2011 are for far too many, more about personal gain than community despair.

And no doubt the whole role of Social Media in the planning of events will be questioned when we finally get round to trying to understand what went so badly wrong.

The right will just condemn the criminality, give unequivocal support for the police and belittle anyone trying to explain the events with any reference to wider social and economic factors including unemployment, poverty, historic tensions with the Police etc.

But for now let us face some uncomfortable truths.

Today's youth have no respect for authority, why should they have? They have seen in recent years our politicians on the make as MP's fiddled their expenses,  they see our police service shamed by the actions of both rogue officers taking backhanders and senior officers covering up for them. They see a government cutting off any route they may have had for higher education (unless you are wealthy) and their chances of simply holding down a job or god forbid getting their own flat. Youth unemployment is rising and services for young people are being decimated by cuts on top of cuts.

Today people are calling for more police officers on the streets, but I can't help but think that if the government had not have cut youth services and youth worker posts on our estates in recent years then maybe some of those caught on camera last night might not have been such easy prey for the criminal fraternities on the same estates who have since recruited them to a their cause.

There is at this moment in time a desperate need to bring our streets back under control, and everything must be done to achieve that in the coming hours and days. We also need to ensure that those responsible for looting are seen to be brought to the courts and punished.

But we must also remember that riots don't just happen, the risk of public unrest is a built in factor in the decision making of politicians when they agree to cut services too far too soon. When I wrote of this unrest being wrongly seen an unpredictable "Black Swan" moment is was for the very reason that many of us could see it coming a mile off.

Unfortunately the Prime Minister, the Cabinet and it seems the Metropolitan Police where not so ready for action. Gone are the days when Dave wanted to hug a hoodie. Now he is in power it seems he just wants to ignore them and hope they will just go away

But If you think the kids are angry for what the nation is not doing for them, then what can we expect from the rest of us who are seeing our communities torn apart with little resistance from a police service which has been cut to the bone and can only contain unrest rather than deal with it properly.

Perhaps we need less troops in Libya and Afghanistan and more Police in the UK?

Perhaps we need less cuts and more jobs?

Perhaps MLK had a point when he said

"When you cut facilities , slash jobs, abuse power, discriminate,drive people into deeper poverty and shoot people dead whilst refusing to provide answers or justice, the people will rise up and express their anger and frustration if you refuse to hear their cries. A riot is the language of the unheard"

 But I can't also help myself thinking that the concerns of the majority of hard working, law abiding, tax paying citizens of our nation are also going unheard. If I want my tax take spent on youth diversion rather than flower tubs in Abington Street then who is listening to me? If I want less troops in Libya and more police on our streets at home then who will represent my view? My sister in law and others in her street had their cars stripped of catalytic converters last night leaving them with bills of £150+ to pay today with no guarantee that the scum responsible wont come back again to do the same. After all their crime was easy enough to carry out as the County Council had turned off all the street lights in her street! How angry is she today? and how can she vent her anger? And how angry am I at wondering how no one seemed to see all this coming!

As I said on the 26th June 2011  http://tonyclarkeindependent.blogspot.com/2011/06/how-many-black-swans-does-greek-urn.html

"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."

THE HOLA IN THE EURO ECONOMY

Spain is gloriously hot at present and noticeably "Brit reduced" as ex pats have started to return home (if they can afford it) and UK holiday makers are holidaying at home or outside the Euro Zone (Turkey where you get more Lager for your Lira)

But it is also supposedly in deep economic peril, owing €130b to the euro banks. In fact Spain's debt is second only to Italy at €350b making Greece (€50b) and Ireland (€10b) look relatively well off! Property prices have taken the hit in Spain with Villas now worth less than 50% than there build price. Young people have also paid a heavy price as new jobs and new homes are out of their reach. The "indignants" as they are labelled continue to protest for a better deal.


Wages here remain low, and it is clear that some of the Spanish are staying at home rather than spending any disposable cash in restaurants or bars. But they are still spending and they are still working. The streets are still cleaned, the rubbish is still collected (daily in the summer) and low and behold they still have street lights! Unemployment, particularly among Young people and migrant communities (The Brits) is still very high, but a de centralised government has seen regional parliaments invest in public jobs in order to encourage growth. Growth 2011 is around 0.8% still low but four times the 0.2% offered by the UK and despite the massive debt Spain remains confident on it's repayments. Whilst the worlds economic commentators look to Greece, Portugal, Ireland or even the USA as the next economy to hit the rocks and default on it's payments it seems as if Spain is taking a siesta and saying "preocuparse por el dunero mañana"

Meanwhile back in Blighty the National Institute for Economist and Social Research the leading economic think tank tells George Osbourne that there will be "No meaningful recovery this year" it further predicts that "Public finances will not improve as quickly as the OBR expects" and the IMF chips in by telling the Government there is "significant risk" to inflation, growth and employment targets.

As predicted earlier on this blog (we are indeed trapped by our predictions) growth has been killed off and the squeeze on public services is effecting spending beyond anything that is desirable.

When I return from holiday the County Council budget deliberations will begin in preparation for next years cuts! On top of the £70m of cuts so far unachieved this year, and I am beginning to wonder what the Tories are going to do? After all when you have turned out the street lights, turned of the safety camera and privatised Social Care, there are not many pips left to squeeze

As British immigrants in Spain scramble for a return back to the UK (the country they left because many said too many immigrants didn't adopt local customs and language!) I wonder if they really know what they are letting themselves in for when returning home?

The Spanish I feel won't be too upset to see many of them leave after all how much "Grande beer por favour Manuel" can a country really take?

If all the Brits do leave then I might migrate over here in the opposite direction, after all the Costa Blanca would be quite nice if it wasn't for all the tourists and the Irish/British Bars.

And an added bonus is that after a few glasses of the local vino too many, at least I would still be able to find my way home at night safely under an ornate street lit Spanish sky


THIS HAS BEEN A CALM BEFORE THE STORM HOLIDAY POSTING FROM THE NORTHAMPTON INDEPENDENT. BEWARE STORMS PREDICTED IN AUGUST AND SEPTEMBER!

AN HOUR IS A LONG TIME IN LOCAL POLITICS

Whilst we are on the subject of Tory Manifesto pledges, do you remember the one about

"AN HOURS FREE PARKING FOR SHOPPERS IN ALL THE TOWNS CAR PARKS"

Difficult to administer said some of us, "its a pledge and it will happen said the Tories".

So on Thursday I parked in the Ridings car park and here is the sign (left) clearly stating £2.40 for 3 hours parking.

So in goes my hard earned cash and what comes out?

This!!!

That right not 3 hours for my £2.40  but just 2!

From 15.24pm (bottom right)  till 17.24 (top left)  not 18.24 as expected and paid for.

So much for a free hour, it was at my expense! is this a forerunner to adding it back in to tell us we have got back for free what we had already? Malcolm Mildren reports to me a similar swindle in the Albion Place car park.

How many other citizens of Northampton have been short changed? or even worse issued with a parking ticket for overstaying when they thought they had paid their dues?

Answers please NBC

TORIES IN TURMOIL AS MANIFESTO HITS ROCKY WATERS

We still have a fortnight to go before the Conservative Group(s) on the Borough Council can give us their own verdict of the the first "100 days" in office, but what a fortnight it may turn out to be.

There Nemesis is seems may well be the West Northamptonshire Joint Planning Unit, set up 3 years ago by the previous Lib Dem administration and supported by both the Tories and Labour groups ever since. There was one group showing dissent in the chamber when it's formation and funding was agreed at the time, I am sure you can guess who?

Anyhow the WNJPU has been busy over recent months receiving public consultations on its revamped rewritten and rehashed "Joint Core Strategy" the leading strategic planning document which set the planning framework for the whole of West Northamptonshire for the next 20 years. On Monday at the Guildhall this totally unnecessary Local Government Quango will approve the plan to then be put onto deposit. Cllrs  David Palethorpe, Tim Hadland, John Yates and Penny Flavell will be there to represent the Borough Council, but as I explained to them at the time they supported its setup NBC Cllrs will be outnumbered by their counterparts in Daventry and South Northant's who may just feel that they have got a decent deal on the table, after all it seems as if they continue to get all the benefit from any expansion in grant funding whilst Northampton still takes the development brunt of the increases in new homes.

So, remember the pledge in the Tory's Borough Council Manifesto to seek an urgent review of new house building numbers for Northampton? If not let me remind you exactly what they said

"Northampton Conservatives will demand an urgent review of the Pre-Submission Strategy produced by the West Northants Joint Planning Unit and will call for a full and open justification of the housing and job numbers. We have strong reservations about the current plan including the number of houses, jobs and infrastructure that it considers appropriate."

Well here is what they will be signing up to next Monday

To meet housing need " a housing provision total of 50,153 dwellings for West Northamptonshire has been identified" and policy S4 states that "provision will be made for 33,680 net additional dwellings within the Northampton related development area (Northampton and its boundaries) in the period 2001 to 2026"

It is estimated that only about 30% have been planned for but not yet built or completed since 2001 in massive developments at sites including Upton and St Crispins' leaving over 20,000 new homes still to be crammed in somewhere else.

So much for the promised housing  review and the localism bill for all that

And remember all that talk in the manifesto of scrapping the Town Centre First Policy and allowing out of town retail to support the ambitions of the towns sporting clubs. Well despite the urgent meetings within the first week of the administration, one of which I attended, it seems that the only important meeting will be next Mondays. Again as a reminder heres what they said in the manifesto

"a Conservative administration would abandon the „Town Centre First‟ policy in favour of a „Borough Wide‟ investment and regeneration pol-icy. A „Borough Wide‟ policy would mean we can continue to champion the Town Centre without having to abandon other parts of the town, to which Northampton Borough Council has equal responsi-bility, and would be more flexible and responsive to the unique needs of Northampton."

Lets see what the Joint Core Strategy if agreed on Monday says about all of the above shall we.

"Northampton town centre has suffered greatly from a decentralisation of retail, leisure and employment uses and there is a need to redress this imbalance as a critical strategic issue for the JCS to ensure the vision for Northampton is not jeopardized. Policy S2 seeks to focus new town centre development firmly back to Northampton town centre and the central area and Policy S9 seeks to focus retail development on the town centre."

"The importance of the Grosvenor Centre redevelopment and the focus on retailing within the town centre as a priority within Northampton Central Area requires that comparison retail outside the town centre must be heavily restricted to ensure that town centre proposals are not jeopardised"

NO FURTHER COMPARISON GOODS FLOORSPACE IS REQUIRED OUTSIDE NORTHAMPTON CENTRAL AREA OTHER THAN AT AN APPROPRIATE SCALE TO SUPPORT THE VITALITY AND VIABILITY OF LOCAL CENTRES.

So whats it to be guys? the Joint Core Strategy or your manifesto pledges? Do you keep the promises you made to the voters and to the Saints and the Cobblers or go with Tory flow in Daventry and South Northants, and what if you want to say no to its adoption but are out voted? what will happen then? and who was it who supported the setting up of this unelected quango in the first place?

Monday nights meeting it seems could be a key turning point for the new administration, lets just  hope they have the courage to remind the faceless planners and the Cllrs from other districts just who is and isn't elected within the Borough of Northampton.

NORTHAMPTON IN GLOOM

At the risk of sounding like the little boy who told the emperor that he was stark b*ll*ck naked, I am now going risk cries of "shame on you" by pouring scorn on one area of Northampton Borough Councils activities which is universally praised and feted by all three political parties at the Guildhall.

Of course I refer to Northampton in Bloom, isn't it fine, isn't it grand, the best display in all the land!

They clearly see something that I don't!

I am not in anyway against the competition, in fact if you do your homework you will find that the Borough Council entered the competition every year when I was Chair of Environment Services in the early 1990's and like the present day we won our fair share of awards, but then again you always do, and if you don't they will make one up for you just to keep you coming back to enter next year, how about "Gold Certificate in the Large Town category for Town's beginning and ending in the Letter N award! or the Platinum plate for the East Midlands Market Towns population 200,000-210,000 category?

My gripes against the current  awards are many and varied, but for starters lets look at what happened in the early 1990's and match that against what happens now. Then the Councils own gardening staff worked all year round at our own plant Nursery in Cliftonville to provide plants for the bespoke planting of raised beds and roundabouts and also planted displays in our  parks, cared for by our own grounds maintenance staff in order to provide a display for judging  that was unique to any other entrant. Nowadays the Council but in a selection of off the shelf tubs, hanging baskets, and roadside boxes full of almost painted on petunias and begonias all with a ridiculously short growth cycle to add a pretence of colour to a backdrop which for the other 10 months of years looks drab and grey.

It's another example of thier B&Q society I guess, all right I know we all do it..... go down to B&Q and but all the pre planted tubs for the Garden on the day of the BBQ, but shouldn't we expect a bit more originality from the Council

I travel a lot around the UK and Northampton's current display is all too familiar, its as if they want to match the chain stores and traders in turning every high street in Britain into one soulless lookalike landscape, and  I guess the judges must also get fed up of seeing these same old green plastic boxes hanging off of very similar traffic barriers and the familiar upstanding tubs craftily placed to trip up every blind resident in every town and city in Britain.

Even worse though is the way that the Council treat the community entrants in this charade. Our proud guerrilla gardeners in Spring Boroughs took to making the most of the land after the Council had failed miserably for years to maintain it themselves, even though they were paying a contractor out of our council tax to do it. And then when they showed the Council whats possible if you try the Council respond by popping the Mayor and Portfolio holder down for a Photo Call in order to pull the wool over the judges eyes in pretending that this community spirited enterprise was all their idea in the first place! And then when the judges are all gone they start charging the volunteers to tip garden waste which they themselves should have been clearing up in the first place!

So in honour of our Borough Councils gallantless efforts and also with grateful thanks to a few of my FACEBOOK friends who have posted pictures of their street scenes in July 2011 I am proud to present this years inaugural entrants for the

2011 NORTHAMPTON IN GLOOM awards, or THE PARTS OF TOWN THE JUDGES NEVER GET TO SEE

This prestigious prize will be awarded to the Borough Council by yours truly along with a framed photo of the winning entrant.

THIS WONDERFUL STREET SCAPE OF ST JAMES WAS SUBMITTED BY ST JAMES RESIDENTS ASSOCIATION

A WELL MANICURED FRONT LAWN IN THORPLANDS ENTERED BY NORTHAMPTON FEDERATION OF RESIDENTS COUNCILS

DOWN OUR WAY IN EASTFIELD, COURTESY OF SHERON WATSON

"AN ARRANGEMENT" IN ETHEL STREET FROM YOURS TRULY















To enter your street just send me photo of your neglected greenscape, in order to remind our elected councillors that whilst they continue to congratulate themselves on the displays of Pansies outside the Guildhall, and pat each other on the back for passing off the communities work as their own, that the rest of us are having to put up with the same old cr*p out on the estates, which now threatens to get worse under our new friends Enterprise PLC They should all be so Blooming proud of themselves.

PLEASE SEND YOUR ENTRIES WITH A DESCRIPTION AND AREA THE PHOTO WAS TAKEN TO:

tony.clarke@email.com

FROM BIG SOCIETY TO THE B&Q SOCIETY

Curiosity got the better of me last night as I joined Malcolm Mildren in attending the first Borough Council meeting of the new term to check up on how the new administration and new members were fairing.

Overall it was rather a turgid affair, Cllrs were shown a propaganda piece telling them all how wonderful the Housing Department are (true in some areas, but woefully untrue in others such as sheltered housing) and the skateboarders, no doubt urged on by ex Cllr Paul Varnsverry turned up en masse to call for action from the new Council to match the promises made to them before the election.

I expect (as we always said) slight differences of opinion on this one. It is true that £250,000 has been set aside in the capital programme towards such a facility, but the last Lib Dem and the current Conservatives expect this to pay for consultants and design costs and kick start some further match funding towards the overall project, whilst it seems the skateboarders think that the land will be given free and that the £250,000 will cover all of the initial build cost? I told them before the last election when they last wheeled into the chamber that they should take a leaf from the council oppositions ABC mantra of   ACCEPT NOTHING, BELIEVE NO ONE AND  CHECK EVERYTHING

There were a number of lack lustre oral contributions mainly from the old guard (worrying as they should be showing the new Cllrs the way!) The Tory new boys and girls mostly sat on their hands, the Lib Dem's haven't got any new blood, (not a lot of old blood either) but special mention must go to Labour's Gareth Eales and Elizabeth Gowen, who both put in confident and challenging contributions in what was their first meeting, if the Labour Party has a future then I believe it will be well served by letting young Cllrs like Gareth and Elizabeth off the leash as often as possible.

However the high and low point of the evenings political muse must go to Cllr John Yates, the only person in the chamber to have served in the last and the new administration, Questioned by Labours Winston Strachan on a pet subject of mine from the past, RATS, Winston informed Yatesy that an increase in the rat population had become apparent in the town centre and asked him if the Council, who sacked its rat catcher in 2009 and closed the Pest Control department soon after, would reinstate both.

"Let me tell the Councillor that I know all about rats" Said Yatesy "I keep chickens and they are attracted to them" and then he made the most extraordinary comment which should have been the headline in today's Chronicle and Echo when he suggested "People should do as I do and go down B&Q and buy some strong rat poison"

So there we have it, caring conservatism, the Big Society, in the absence of a town rat catcher and a rise in the rat population as a result, Northampton's hard working council tax payers should become more involved in civic matters by spending our dwindling disposable income down at our local B&Q on rat poison to chuck around the Market Square to help NBC to banish the vermin!!

A shocking response to be given to both a disturbing and very important question by the opposition, unfortunately for us all, nobody came back at him and having easily drawn out the worst side of the new administration the combined opposition let him off the ropes.

We can be wait to see if this incredulous suggestion from Northampton Conservative Group does reach the pages of the Chron in days to come.

IF BRITAIN IS INDEED BROKEN THEN WHO BROKE IT?

And what sort of lives do these people, who pose as being moral, lead themselves? My dear fellow, you forget that we are in the native land of the hypocrite.

A quote of course from Oscar Wilde's Picture of Dorian Gray, and also my facebook profile on Friday night when under a red wine haze I was trying to make sense of the shifting events unfolding around Hackgate and also trying to contain my anger at how we had all allowed matters to go so far in the first place and also wondering exactly where and with whom the buck stops?

I remember talking to Tom Watson MP in 2004 when I was sure my phone was being constantly hacked during the period when I was holding all the cards over that leaked "minute" between Blair and Bush, which ultimately led to a good friends imprisonment and probably started my troubles with the Labour Party which would in the end lead to my expulsion.

Tom and others like Chris Bryant were searching and campaigning for the truth, over both hacking and police corruption but the party leaders, the police, the media and as a result the public were showing little interest. In fact Tom and Chris were both allowed as a result to become victims of the press they were challenging with little support being given to them from on high. it seemed as if Inquistive MP's were fair game for the press and an unforgiving public scarred by the MP's expenses revelations

And that is where I have slight fall out with Joe Public over this whole affair, you see, as long as it was only politicians and celebrities that were being hacked, and on who the police also sold dirt on, then it seemed as if society could turn its back on any crime having being committed, they were indeed fair game, and they deserved all they got surely?

Well no they didn't, some of you may remember the time Joe Ashton was arrested in a massage parlour in Northampton. It ended his parliamentary career in my view, but the News of the World at the time never mentioned that he was a very happily married man, married to a wonderful wife who unfortunately because of her disabilities meant they couldn't share a sex life, they never mentioned that in the NoTW, you see Joe only visited massage parlours (with his wifes knowledge) because he would never dream of having an affair, or getting involved with another women due to his devotion to his wife. And they also did not mention that after Joe had given his real name to the police (John Ashton) and his London address, that the News of the World alledgedgly bought the information as to his true identity from a corrupt copper at the Met who had noticed a VIP flag on his car licence plate when the Northamptonshire Police made enquiries.

But in the end it was the same level of criminal behaviour albeit with far more serious consequences by both the media and the police in selling info on victims and or the phone hacking of those suffering great distress in the Southam Case, the Milly Dowler case, or 7/7 victims or the families of fallen soldiers that has finally brought all of these cases out into the open.

But not in my view before almost ireversable damage has been done to both public trust in our democratic and national institutions.

Think for a minute if you will at the damage caused to our society by the fact that the Deputy Prime Minister of the country at the time John Prescott, asked the police if he had been a victim of hacking, only to be told that" no he hadn't", even when the police and the CPS were holding information at that time that he had been.

So it seems that it is ok for the police and CPS to lie to our elected leaders?

Remember if you will, that parliamentry Select Committees were lied to on more than one occasion, by leading key figures in the media and in the police over the overall extent of any hacking that had taken place, over the extent of paying the police for information and also on who and how many people were involved.

So they can also lie to Parliament

Remember Andy Coulson standing in front of the cameras telling the world that he knew nothing about the hacking, when it now seems through leaked emails that he both did know, and that he is aledged to have also authorised payments to corrupt police officers.

It is also now in the face of so much freash and emerging evidence, inconcievable that Andy Coulson knew as little as he wants us to believe he knew, and it is equally inconcievable that the PM was also as much in the dark as he suggests at the point at which he appointed Coulson as Chief of media at number 10, after all it now emerges that enough people had warned Cameron of the potential consequences of his appointment at the time.

This story is of course far from being over, no doubt this week further revelations will surface and with the NoTW out of the way, expect other papers to fall under the spotlight. After all an Independent review into the press in 2006 shows that the Daily Mail employed almost twice as many private investigators as the NoTW, and we should not be naive enough to think the buck simply stops with Glen Mulcaire.

Editors of other papers would do well not to repeat the excuses given by owners and senior staff at the NoW including Richard Murdoch, Andy Coulson and Rebecca Brooke that they were either "unaware" of what was going down or that emails had "gone missing" or even that they were "on holiday at the time"

I spent a good deal of my life climbing a political mountain to get to the very top of our national parliament only for me to find out when I got there that the air was fresher and far more cleaner and the view much more aspiring from the bottom of the mountain than it was at the top.

Since leaving parliament in 2005 I have also watched as our Bankers have robbed of us of our economic future, our politicians have been competing with each other in fiddling their expenses and damaging the reputation of our whole democracy through their own greed, and our police showing themselves to be above the law set for them to administer and unwilling along with the CPS to tackle crime if they felt a cover up was more in the favour of the ruling classes, and also a media bring more shame on itself far beyond the very low, low point it had already reached previously.

But I have also witnessed a public which unfortunately in the main has stayed indifferent. And I am afraid that until enough of us are willing to take a real stand and make far more noise about what they are all doing to us, then than those who currently control our lives and make our laws will continue to trample all over us.

And what sort of lives do these people, who pose as being moral, lead themselves? My dear fellow, you forget that we are in the native land of the hypocrite.

**************************STOP PRESS**************************

Never let it be said that Northampton Borough Council doesn't get its priorities right. Or that they fail to understand who their friends are.

Further to the story below where the Council refused to work with the Community of Spring Boroughs to help them take control of the planning process in their area, we now hear via press release that they have instead agreed to back bids to the government for £20,000 each for the same scheme in other far more worthy and needy areas of the town.

WOOTON and EAST HUNSBURY.

Now don't get me wrong, I offer them my congratulations and bestbwishes for their project butbwho was it that said class politics is a thing of  the past?

In the Councils's arms they fluttered;
Like a bird wot's broke its wing.
But they screwed them and then left them,
On the street without a thing.

It's the same the whole world over,
It's the poor that gets the blame,
It's the rich that gets the pleasure,
Ain't it all a bleeding shame.

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