I have left the Green Party

[observer]

Perhaps it qualifies her as a Lib Dem?!

[Chrissy]

You're mischief making. I have been entirely open about my membership of the lib dems. I'm a campaigner therefore I help lib dem councillors, MPs and MEPs to get elected.

I am not a councillor or officer.

[P J]

You're mischief making. I have been entirely open about my membership of the lib dems. I'm a campaigner therefore I help lib dem councillors, MPs and MEPs to get elected.

I am not a councillor or officer.

So you're not a Lib Dem you just help them out when they are busy?

[Bazj]

Can you be a part time Lib Dem?

[Chrissy]

Not sure if you understand local politics guys! All parties have campaign groups, researchers, activists. At least I work for what I believe in. You obviously have alternative views, but instead of the usual moaning, whingeing and muppeteering, while don't you tell us what you do to support your community?

[observer]

It might be easier if you were to tell us, as a Lib Dem fellow traveller; just what they believe in; as it apparently changes with each political enviroment - one thing in one constituency, something different in another. A couple of things we do know about the LibDems; are their full support for immigration, the EU and sparing the rod.

[Chrissy]

Are you deliberately ignoring my question Obs?

[P J]

Not sure if you understand local politics guys! All parties have campaign groups, researchers, activists. At least I work for what I believe in. You obviously have alternative views, but instead of the usual moaning, whingeing and muppeteering, while don't you tell us what you do to support your community?

 

I am an independent Parish councillor for Callands Chrissy. I support my community not a political party.

 

Now if passing on the concerns of residents about the dangers to schoolchildren from ill concieved road alterations is moaning then I am guilty .

 

If reporting and getting action regarding damage to a residents property done by Council workers is whingeing then again I'm guilty.

 

Also if reporting dangerous kerbs and pavements outside old peoples bungalows is muppeteering then I suppose I'm guilty of this too.

 

On a personal level I am presently trying to get this Council to provide more allotments to satisfy a huge shortage throughout the borough.See here http://www.warrington-worldwide.co.uk/articles/2693/1/Thirty-year-wait-for-an-allotment/Page1.html

 

These are all very small and to some seemingly insignificant matters when compared to the noble pursuits you undertake, but they matter a great deal to the people concerned and if I can help them then I see it as doing my job as a parish councillor properly. All the little things can make a big difference to people and should not be overlooked or sneered at by political activists or whatever it is you do.

 

My personal view is that local politics need party politics like a new hole in the head.

[Geoffrey Settle]

Looks like he's got you there Chrissy - and your reply is?

[Bazj]

Not sure if you understand local politics guys! All parties have campaign groups, researchers, activists. At least I work for what I believe in. You obviously have alternative views, but instead of the usual moaning, whingeing and muppeteering, while don't you tell us what you do to support your community?

 

Well maybe if the Lib Dems had more MP's and not as many researchers, activists and campaign groups; you might get somewhere.....

[Chrissy]

PJ-my comment was not addressed to you. Its obvious from your posts that you're a 'do-er' not a whinger. I've been following your posts about the allotments in particular, as its a subject close to my heart. I also sympathise with the view that a parish councillor's role doesn't always sit well with party politics. However, that's the system we are all stuck with, so we have to work within it. The only way to work for community without getting mixed up in party politics is to push locally and nationally for things to be done, or stand as an independent. Parish councillors elected from political parties do, I'm sure you'll agree, have to balance the local and national agenda.

I note that Obs (whose posts are always very interesting) Baz and Peter T haven't told us what they do for their community.

Perhaps, unlike you, they only talk the talk?

[observer]

As I've said before Chrissy; this forum is just that, a talking shop, so just enjoy the banter!

[Chrissy]

Ergo - you don't walk the walk?

[Bazj]

I note that Obs (whose posts are always very interesting) Baz and Peter T haven't told us what they do for their community.

Perhaps, unlike you, they only talk the talk?

 

Oh dear Chrissy.... unfortunately I too am about to blow your boat so the only people you have left to criticise are Peter T & Obs.....

 

I own a local small business which in the past has employed many people from the so called deprived areas of the town (Bewsey, Dallam, Longford etc.) and have taken young people straight from school and college to train and try and give them a start on the ladder of employment.

 

My company also takes personnel who are about to leave the armed forces and who are taking classroom based training courses in order to learn skills for a life back on civvy street. We take said personnel and give them on-site experience to back up the classroom skills they have learnt. We do this for no renumeration at all so in other words it does not cost the government a penny.

 

We have also given full time jobs over the past 8 years or so to half a dozen or so ex forces lads who have come to us just initially for the two weeks site experience.

 

We do a lot of work with local schools and special needs schools; installing whiteboards and other educational aids. We were also the company responsible for the installation of a cctv system into a local primary school (initially at no cost to the school) which managed to slash their ?30,000.00 a year vandalism costs down to a few grand. I felt really good when the first images got the young vandals convicted....probably unlike your lib dem chummies who would have given them a hug and told them not to do it again?

 

and as a final thing (and I am sure mr Kennedy will back me up on this one) as a business owner, my tax contribution would make your eyes water as we have to pay tax on everything including cars, vans, higher business rates, we pay bank charges and cough up god knows how much every year so that the swines in Parliament keep their trough topped up.

 

So when you asked what I do for the community etc, I think you have your answer. It may not be as rewarding and as important as saving the odd bat and newt and sticking campaign letters through peoples doors but hey, I like to think it is something........

[Jerry]

Forgive an interjection please, re: swine and troughs. On my very first job long ago, the president of the bank often said this about political candidates: It is cheaper to keep a fat hog fat, than it is to fatten up a lean one. It was his way of saying he voted for incumbents only.

 

However, in that time period incumbents could be ousted depending on the mood of the electorate. Today, all districts are party SAFE so that rule no longer applies here.

 

Reform strategies should be aimed at homogenized districts so that parties do not have safe seats, IMHO.

 

Hmm. Just now re-reading that, I wonder if homogenized districts would be susceptible to demagoguery and media driven hysteria. ???

 

My favorite poli. sci. professor seemed to favor an enlightened despot form of government.

 

Wasn't it Winston Churchill who said, "democracy is a bad form of government, but do not forget, all the others are so much worse!"

[observer]

Democracy is a little game we're allowed to play by the Establishment; in order to give us the sense that we're in control.

[Jerry]

Obs, you have nailed it! Excellent summation. I've always suspected you are a keen observer, but sometimes you just want to provoke, and perhaps are willing to argue either side just for the exercise.

[Chrissy]

Yay! That got things moving. I'm much happier when I know who I'm talking to.

What do you do in your spare time Bazzy?

(ps, wasn't it David Cameron who wanted to hug a hoodie?)

[Bazj]

Chrissy,

 

Thank you for your well thought out reply... and so in the future, no doubt you will be a little more careful in your assumption? Mind you, you wouldn't want to read my assumptions of your character!!

 

As for your other point, in my spare time I buy, run and restore a few 1960's Ford Corsairs. That is a car; you know, one of those planet killing machines that the Government don't like us to have, but love to tax us when we have them; the machine that the Police see as a cash cow and an easy target for box ticking...!

 

But, In my spare time I would really love to form a political party where we bring back the death penalty, get out of Europe, eliminate all benefits except for those in dire need (and that doesn't include the need to buy fags and run a car) make "doo gooding" a criminal offence, actually build more prisons so that we can lock up these gangs of feral youths for at least 10 years a stretch and just generally do what the grown up right minded majority in the country actually want rather than they way it is now where groups like Liberty and amnesty who have about 10,000 members between them can have a disproportionate effect on policy. (and as for hugging a hoodie? It was Cameron who said that, however I am sure it was more tongue in cheek than policy, unlike the Lib Dems who would probably make it a manifesto pledge!)

 

Oh, and I would string Gordon Brown up from the nearest lamp post for good measure

 

and as for the crested newt? I would build it a new habitat in Orford and build as many bloody houses and factories as I could in Lymm and Stockton Heath (or nimbyville as it is known over here!!)

[Shelley]

But, In my spare time I would really love to form a political party where we bring back the death penalty, get out of Europe, eliminate all benefits except for those in dire need (and that doesn't include the need to buy fags and run a car) make "doo gooding" a criminal offence, actually build more prisons so that we can lock up these gangs of feral youths for at least 10 years a stretch and just generally do what the grown up right minded majority in the country actually want rather than they way it is now where groups like Liberty and amnesty who have about 10,000 members between them can have a disproportionate effect on policy. (and as for hugging a hoodie? It was Cameron who said that, however I am sure it was more tongue in cheek than policy, unlike the Lib Dems who would probably make it a manifesto pledge!

You could, but first you need to join the Lib Dems in order to support the electoral reform (proportional representation or at least STV) necessary for it to get any voice.

[Peter T]

Chrissy,

The area I volunteer in, KNOW what I do and contribute, so I don't think it right that I should publicly blow my own trumpet.

 

When not helping the destroyers, what else do YOU do?

[Bazj]

But, In my spare time I would really love to form a political party where we bring back the death penalty, get out of Europe, eliminate all benefits except for those in dire need (and that doesn't include the need to buy fags and run a car) make "doo gooding" a criminal offence, actually build more prisons so that we can lock up these gangs of feral youths for at least 10 years a stretch and just generally do what the grown up right minded majority in the country actually want rather than they way it is now where groups like Liberty and amnesty who have about 10,000 members between them can have a disproportionate effect on policy. (and as for hugging a hoodie? It was Cameron who said that, however I am sure it was more tongue in cheek than policy, unlike the Lib Dems who would probably make it a manifesto pledge!

You could, but first you need to join the Lib Dems in order to support the electoral reform (proportional representation or at least STV) necessary for it to get any voice.

 

There is no answer to that which doesn't include lots of swear words and desire to poke needles in my eyes before joining that bunch of toga wearing numptys.

 

The almost rans have no place in British politics aside from being a protest vote party with no other useful function

[Chrissy]

Nice one Shelley!

[Bazj]

Oh blimey... now there's two of them. Keep this up girls and you will have more of a voice in the town than the Green Party

[P J]

Chrissy, thanks for clearing that up for me.

 

As you say I am a doer and as you also claim to be a doer and to hold the subject of allotments close to your heart would you please consider sending me your details and you can be one of the minimum of six people I need to write to the Council to demand our rights to an allotment?