A couple of letters, but not eactly earth shattering.

The first is from Derek Bradley and I think his flowery prose obscures the message somewhat.

Stewart McArdle’s valedictory letter encompassed many views which he has long held and, more importantly, has long applied.
Indeed Rudyard Kipling may have coined the phrase “true to his salt” for such people throughout the world, not just the Indian continent.
His is correct also in his forecast that being “a true independent” is to commit political suicide in Morley, think Slingsby, think Welham!
Would your readers, if not Stewart, accept that “a rose by any other name
would smell as sweet”?
The larger picture on Morley Town Council is that, yes, they all come under the same banner, but the various elected councillors have different issues introduced to them by our citizens which they must pursue if they are true to the promise they made to supporters during the run up to the last election.
Stewart infers that now we are congregated under the one party banner then the party will decide what to push and what to discard.
This must not be confused with a councillor independently pursuing a citizen’s concerns, either direct to the relevant department of Leeds City Council or, by choice, within the committees of Morley Town Council.
This keeps the citizen informed and safe in the knowledge that will apply to future concerns also.
I have been following this simple axiom since council year 2000.
DEREK BRADLEY
MBI, Scatcherd Ward
MORLEY TOWN COUNCIL

Meanwhile, Chris Beverley of the BNP City Councillor responds (but not to follow up any of the allegations he made). A strange mixture of tongue in cheek parody and pot calling kettle blackism.

Stewart McArdle’s letter in last week’s Observer and Advertiser shed some well needed light on the inner workings of the Morley Borough Independents Party.
Mr McArdle spoke about the endless press releases and letters sent out by the MBIs in order to create the illusion that they are responsible for the work of others. A perfect example of this can be found in last week’s paper with the article entitled ‘New move to solve motorcycle problem.’
The implication is that the Morley Borough Independents have been responsible for these measures. As usual, however, that is not the case. For a start, the ginnel that is to benefit from the A-frame deterrent is on Millside Walk, not Millbeck Approach. The MBI’s have not even checked their facts before trying to claim credit for other people’s work.
I have been in touch with a number of local residents from this area over the past year regarding the continued problems with anti-social behaviour associated with this ginnel, which includes the issue of the illegal riding of motorbikes through it.
I have liaised with the local police and also youth workers who have targeted this area, and I have also been in touch with various council officers and departments with a view to the possibility of having the ginnel closed altogether (which a considerable number of local residents want) or at least to have the issue of illegal motorbike riding addressed through
such measures as those discussed above.
I was happy to recently find out that an ‘A’-frame has been approved for this location, which should at least stop motorbikes being ridden through this ginnel, if not address the other related problems. Whilst I am happy with this result, I had not intended to send out a press release about this, as I believe that councillors should spend their time just getting on with their job and helping people with issues like this, and less time crowing about such achievements in the press.
Nevertheless, if people would prefer to see an MBI-style comedy press release from me regarding this issue, complete with a photo of me grinning and pointing at the newly-installed A-frame, please let me know and I will see what I can do. I might even invite the MBIs along for the photo-shoot!
COUN CHRIS BEVERLEY
British National Party
MORLEY SOUTH, LEEDS CITY COUNCIL

Meanwhile, Morleytoday.co.uk gives errors whilst morleyobserver.co.uk goes through (although the site is actually still widely based around morleytoday.co.uk URLs at present).

Perhaps the paper have wised up that “MorleyToday” was more realistically “MorleyLastWeek” and maybe a name change might be in the offing?

UPDATE: Morleytoday.co.uk working again- it just seems rather flaky at times.

Being sponsored by the Guardian, you’d expect a bit of planet saving at Hay on Wye.

Here is a bit- Sky’s minimum carbon footprint house (& they don’t mean live in a tent!)

The writing is on the wall, or ratrher, the mirror. The message is- take a look at yourself.

Lots of handy hints & tips from nanny.

A combined mulcher and worm colony!

A kettle that only boils as much water as you need- you pump a cupful to the element.

These balls go in your dryer & help the process. (Of course, a washing line and airer are much better approaches)

There they are- the eco-balls. Own up; you thought the article title was an opinion, not a product! (Well, it turns out to be both!)

(Seen in Cardiff Bay)

I joined the informal Blogpower collective back in January. Within the social sphere that it creates, forty or so minor league bloggers (like me) support each other so that we are not voices in the wilderness. (This is where a lot of my comments come from).

Whilst I’ve been away on holiday, Nourishing Obscurity has, in a rebellious act of counter-anarchism, persuaded the others to support our very own set of awards. There are twenty categories, from the sublime to the ridiculous.

The big difference with the Blogpower awards is that they are considerably more transparent than the dead paper variety and have evolved via discussion within the community rather than be contrived in smoke filled rooms.

You can find them appearing HERE, summary below.

1 Best Britblog or Column
2 Best North American Blog or Column
3 Best Blog or Column outside North America and the U.K.
4 Best Fisker
5 Best Ranter
6 Best Political Blog or Column
7 Best Blogpower Blog or Column
8 Best Layout and Style
9 Best Post of All Time
10 Best Little Blogger [i.e. under 100 uniques a day]
11 Most Articulate Wordsmith
12 Most Under-rated Blog or Column
13 Most Over-rated Blog or Column
14 Most Politically Incorrect Blog or Column
15 Most Sadly Missed or Whom We Feel Sorry For
16 Most Unintentionally Humorous post
17 Most Consistently Entertaining Blog or Column
18 Prettiest or Tastiest Blog or Column [refers to food or domestic bloggers]
19 Award for Shameless Self-Promotion
20 Award for Services to Blogging

Hopefully, he will put up some clear guidelines for people so they don’t have to go looking for them, in the meantime, look here.

(Cut & paste:)
How to nominate someone

1] Copy and paste the number of the category and its name directly from the appropriate post header into your e-mail message.

2] There are no restrictions on how many categories you nominate for, how many people you nominate and how often. The only restriction is that once you have nominated someone for a particular category, you may not nominate that person again within that category.

3] Nominate the person by name [if possible] then by blog name or column.

4] Please don’t include extraneous words in the e-mail as I have to wade through this to get to your nomination. It’s not necessary that you justify your nomination - just nominate!

5] Send this e-mail to: jameshighamatmaildotcom .(note for the thick- change “at” to “@” and “dot” to “.”! Ian)

6] If you have no e-mail or wish to not reveal it, then create an e-mail just for this time at some freehost like MSN or Maildotcom or Googlemail.Nominations close tuesday 9pm and I’ll post when it is possible to vote.

Zaftig has a post about irritating punctuation, something that I concur on, especially by intelligent people who you would expect to know better.

As seen at the Newcastle Eldon Square Shopping Centre…

(It was next to the new temporary Green Market bit so the old adage holds true)