Today, I discovered that Aldi doesn’t just sell beans out of cardboard boxes. I happened to read a copy of the Daily Mirror (distainfully, of course) last night and was surprised to see that they have weekly bargains in computing and all sorts of stuff. This morning, I caught my Boss browsing to the Aldi site as he was lamenting not being able to get over at 9am due to a meeting. I offered to go for him as I was curious.

The first problem, however, was their website- it said our nearest Aldi was in Tong Street, a couple of miles away on the other side of town. This surprised him as he always thought the more local store did well and was surprised it had closed.

Anyway, I made it across to Tong Street for 9am, but was stunned to find that the Aldi was in fact a Netto!

It seems that they closed the Tong Street one down but the plonkers in Head Office deleted the wrong one from the Website…

They have an interesting approach to Customer Service- you can ring them to find out where the nearest store is but they can’t advise on stock levels and all of the stores are ex-directory so you are advised to visit the store to find out availability and deal with problems. This is the antithesis of Argos (where they can quite happily fail to deal with your problems by multiple contact methods including phone, web and inept screens in the store) but it probably saves shedloads of money for Aldi by being honest…

I caught some of a radio programme on Radio 4 tonight about men with obsessive hobbies, particularly the New Yorker who had recreated a Subway Train Cab in his apartment bedroom.

This reminded me of a few people I have met with equally engaging hobbies.

Whilst I haven’t visited, one man on the Strowger List collected old telephone exchange equipment to the point where his entire flat was full of it to the ceiling, with only narrow walkways to get to the cooker, toilet, bed etc.

A keen projectionist had a full size 35mm Cinema projector in his spare bedroom, and was busy converting his garage into a home Cinema. I was involved (in a paid capacity) to advise him on how to wire up a salvaged controller for the screen tabs (curtains)and masking.

Jim Laws in Suffolk is a man who collects old lighting equipment and controls, ostensibly as a business. Last time I visited, he had two huge barns full of the stuff. If it is a heritage item, he probably has it. Somewhere…

I have been accused of collecting a radio station, but it is actually for Morley FM & will be moving into the studio shortly, fingers crossed. Then I’ll have room for the Hammond Organ… (Only joking dear!)

Today marks the end of an era, the last Morley Advertiser to be published. The paper has had a nearly 75 year history (it was first published on December 6th 1930) and next Wednesday, it will become the Morley Observer & Advertiser.

Sadly, the Advertiser has been the poor cousin to the Observer in recent times and despite being the same price (26p) it has generally been thinner and less informative.

Today, however, it goes out with a bit of a bang, with a full 24 pages, a few colour photos, a local history article called “The Advertiser Years” and a fair bit of election coverage.

The election coverage, however, is both enlightening and disappointing. There are letters from four of the five candidates but some of the PPC opinions seem to have been lifted as boilerplate for the front page article. An example of this is that Colin Challen’s share of the vote was down “slightly”. Slightly? It is down from 57% to 48.4%, and if you actually factor in the increased voting strength it is actually 15% lower than it should have been.

The article is also slightly odd in that it says this: “The Labour vote came out on top in every ballot box in the constituency for the first time“. This is crap journalism as the voting process does not work like this at all, they are counted by box, then they are sorted into candidates en-masse. This statement is only speculation by the fevered activists who do chart-ticking of every ballot paper they see tipped onto the counter and has no official substance.

In a thank you letter, Colin attributes the increased turnout to be mainly due to postal voting which is known to favour the Labour Party. He is still banging on about saving the planet but I’m with the sceptical environmentalist on that one. His majority did indeed go up, but that was an artifact of voters deserting both him and the Conservative candidate.

Nick Vineall (Con) writes, congratulating Colin Challen and thanking the 8,227 people who voted for him. He is pleased they remained in second place as the only credible challenge to Labour (his words) but those words also sound a bit hollow when his figures are extrapolated, his vote is down 25.5% on what he should have got based on the increased voting base. He plugs the local Conservative Association and also mentions that the Independents didn’t stay for the declaration & speeches. He also claims that the Conservative Party is on the ascendent in Leeds (it may be, but not in Morley) and describes an independent platform as “wishy-washy”, on the basis of not knowing what you are getting. Sorry Nick those of us who don’t vote for the big three do so knowing exactly what we are getting from mainstream Party Politics and we don’t like it- Jaded, partisan, confrontational politics, all wanting big government, spin, lies & raiding our pockets. He says we would be “appalled” to find out that independents regularly vote with Labour. Pull the other one, we want them voting for the right thing to do regardless of whose idea it is.

The letter finally shows his ignorance of his parochial audience by encouraging all Conservatives to pull together to return Conservative Town & City Councillors, in next year’s elections. There are indeed 33 City Councillors up for grabs next Summer, but Morley Town Councillors all serve until 2006.

Stewart Golton the Lib Dem doesn’t have a letter published and he didn’t attend the mock election at Bruntcliffe High school (Challen, Vineall and Finnigan did), however, he made a good analysis of the results post-election, other than the bit about the Lib Dems being the obvious alternative! Based on proportional share of the vote, he was effectively up 14%, rather than the 9.4% suggested by the BBC.

Robert Finnigan, the Independent, described the election as a “deeply humbling experience” and has pledged to continue holding others to account. He omitted to congratulate Colin Challen & thanked the 4,600 predominantly Morley voters for beating the BNP and keeping his deposit with 10% of the vote. He actually polled 4,608 votes, maybe he should have stuck around for the result on Friday morning!

Chris Beverley from the BNP made capital of keeping his deposit (so it looks like you need 5% of votes cast, he got 5.34%) and claims that the BNP is now indisputably the fourth political party in Britain.

There is a letter of support for Robert Finnigan from Paul (Tingley Troll) Cockcroft & family encouraging him “to continue to provide an alternative to the boring mainstream politics which exist in Leeds”. I’d have to disagree there, sidestream politics is also boring to most people!

As a service to both of my readers, I have represented the Morley polls as a Pie Chart, first as % of vote cast. Red is Labour, Blue is Conservative, Mustard Yellow is Lib Dem, Green is Independent (Morley Borough independent house colours) and Pink is other, being UKIP in 2001 and BNP in 2005. I can’t do stripes so pink is a suitable mix of red, white and blue.

Note the decrease of the Labour share to less than half the pie, the Conservative chunk being a Pizza slice rather than a Pizza quarter, the minor change on Lib Dem, the Independent vote appearing on the pie and the other vote doubling.

Now contrast the figures when the pie includes everyone entitled to vote. This time, the changes look much less significant and the obvious winner is the Grey pie chunk, the “none of the above” candidate for the Apathy Party.

An interesting perspective from Blogger Andrew Sullivan, an ex-pat watching the election from afar.

A number of Town Councillors joined our town Clerk for a Training day held recently at nearby Caphouse Colliery, a cross between a museum and a theme park.

The event wasn’t in the workings, it was in the modern Caphouse Suite which is clean, modern and well equipped, the antithesis of every real pit I’ve ever visited.

The trip to the museum isn’t far from Morley, and it passes through Horbury Bridge which proclaims itself as the birthplace of Onward Christian Soldiers, written (in haste) by the Rev. sabine Baring-Gould (who was the Curate), for the Whit Sunday procession up Quarry Hill to the church at St Peter’s, Horbury.

The training event was an interesting and varied day, although something emerged that caught us unawares. It seems that every Parish must hold at least an annual Parish meeting (more if there isn’t a Parish Council) and invite the whole of the Parish to attend. In the event of having a Town Council, it is known as a Town’s Meeting.

It is a requirement of the Local Government Act 1972 s9(1), but it seems many Parishes don’t actually do this. As the law says it has to be held no earlier than 6pm in the evening and before June 1st each year, it seems we will be holding a meeting on Thursday May 26th at 7pm, somewhere in the Town Hall. My guess is the Morleian Hall which could hold 100 or so comfortably, the Council Chamber struggles with more than fifty although the Alexandra Hall can cope with several hundred.

The problem is, who is likely to turn up? What will be put on the Agenda? What will we talk about? We know that the Town Council Chairman (the Town mayor) is expected to Chair the meeting and the quorum is only two members (three for the execution of documents). It can discuss any affairs of a Parochial nature but they may not necessarily be binding on the Council.

If there has to be a meeting, how can it be of use to the people of Morley?

I think it would be a good opportunity to present the annual report, discuss the contents and take contents of a general nature. Is the Town Council achieving its purpose? Is it good value for money? What services should it look to take on with quality Council Status?

In practice, however, I suspect that in 2005, it will be poorly prepared for and poorly attended, as let’s face it, we didn’t know we were having one a few weeks back so it doesn’t align with our timetable. We only have to give seven days notice which is hardly going to make people beat a path to our door.

However, it will be a very useful opportunity for 2006.