Then Bradford Council tried to swindle Dr. Richard North (from the EUReferendum blog…)

Thieves-charter

To-kill a bailiff

Attacking the money tree

The siege of bradford

Fighting back

Good advice

Siege-of-Bradford day two

Shaking the money tree

Siege of bradford day three

Rule of law

Suicide note from the centre

Result!

I have picked out the pertinent posts in order. I like this observation from a commenter-

“It is very simple; they baited you, they got hit by an exocet, they did not even feel the impact and now they are sinking. “

I’ve already asked LCC via FOI his question about numbers and costs to see if Leeds are playing the same game.

It is an interesting statistic that so many people don’t pay their Council Tax until the summons stage, and that the mainstream media don’t report it…

The economy is obviously much worse than people have been telling us…

I don’t blog very much these days as it is a very busy time at the moment, although it is rare that a day goes by without my outlining a blog topic in my head.

Back in 2007, after three years as an elected Councillor, I decided not to re-stand. There were several reasons for this, including a serious disillusionment with local politics and being in the undiagnosed stage of a chronic illness that left me with little energy or inclination to care. I did start up the Morleygate blog though, which gave me a platform to grumble about what shenanigans our local politicians were up to.

Anyway, I was bumbling along occasionally pontificating on the Morley Facegroup (under a theatrical pseudonym) when someone mentioned that the Town Council annual report was out but with some missing figures.

The story is all told at Morleygate so I won’t recount it here, but in a nutshell, expenditure and closing balances were redacted (i.e. censored) from the annual report published mid-august despite the figures having to be revealed by law by the 30th September. Digging into the matter further, the Council revealed through clenched teeth that they would have been prepared to break the law to keep these figures hidden.

Wow.

Arrogance, certainly, but what about ignorance? Well the wheels are in motion to remove the mud from their clarifications.

Now the Council did reveal the figures on August the 20th by posting up the statutory notice of completion of audit, documents up on the Town Council noticeboard for exactly two weeks. For that fortnight, on the left, the real figures, on the right the censored ones. Needless to say, all that remains are the ones with the missing numbers.

However, the statutory display was not without its faults- the page which showed the balance sheet was located by the scabbiest bit of the notice board which was obscured by grime, condensation, residual sellotape and scratches.

Strange that. Conspiracy or cock up? You decide.

Having given a totally piss poor set of answers to a set of perfectly straight forward questions (posted on day 19 of the obligatory 20 day response period), I was not amused, they picked the wrong man to piss off.

I’m now giving them a damn good kicking and they totally, thoroughly deserve it.

More soon.

The publication of a photo in the ’tiser showing a number of Councillors somewhat unlikely to use the equipment caused much merriment on Facebook.

I wandered over to have a look earlier today, here are the berrysnaps.

Meanwhile, in the adjoining refurbished playground, there has been much criticism of the use of sand under the space net. It is in the process of being replaced by (or topped up with) wood chippings. Notice the callous disregard for the safety elf fencing, which has been trampled underfoot.

It is very clean and modern, if a little utilitarian. Good to have the facility back though, as we had to do without for a couple of years whilst the new one was rebuilt on the site of the old one which was put up for a price in 1973 when Morley Borough Council knew it was going to be abolished and they didn’t want to simply give the assets to the newly formed Leeds Metropolitan Council (known as Leeds City Council for continuity).

This development is a Private Finance Initiative scheme, so we will still be paying for it long after it has fallen down…

If you are into shots of grinning councillors in hard hats then you can see some of the interiors here.

This new template seems to mung up the aspect ratios of pictures. Sorry the blog looks a bit like an MBI election leaflet at the moment.

I met the local UKIP Candidate on Saturday, he struck me as a bit of a Div.

The arena has 96 corporate suites on two U shaped levels between the lower and upper tiers of seating. Levels 2 and 3 are only accessible from VIP entrances and whilst it is hardly exclusive in that they must accommodate getting on for 2000 people,  the concourses feel spacious and quiet compared to the throngs below who paid good money rather than getting schmoozed.

Arriving at the suites themselves, they have a decent sized lounge with bar and sofas, with three rows of sets beyond stepping down to the balcony edge. Each row of seats (between 5 and 10 depending on the size of the box) has individual cupholders and are pleasantly comfortable, at least for an arena. Glassware is not allowed on the seating but you can take your drinks down in plastic glasses, or alternatively, there is a shelf and barstools if you prefer to hold on to your drink (& chat).

The staff from Virgin holidays told us that they share the box with Virgin Atlantic and it costs them a five figure sum as the catering and drinks are supplied by the venue, you can’t bring your own catering in. As it was a 21 seat box (three rows of seven) they chose nine lucky winners who could bring along a guest. We had specifically allocated seats and Karen and I were lucky enough to get the front row. (I had guessed that from the eTickets we had been sent, and also guessed correctly that the box would be almost opposite the stage rather than off to one side).

Our coats were swept away into the suite wardrobe and we were immediately offered drinks from their extensive bar and given free rein to the finger food. We had red wine before the show and in the interval, with a refreshing Magners iced Cider at our seats during the show (refreshed after the interval).

Now Karen loves Dancing on Ice whilst I am much more Blase’ about it (probably a side effect of relamping at the top of wobbly scaffold towers actually on the ice at Richmond Rink back in the 80′s.) I did, however, enjoy the performances of national treasures Torvill & Dean.

The trouble with ice shows is that they are a vast open stage and very difficult to fill, although they had a valiant effort at the start with large tent style cloths doing an impressive Kabuki drop afterwards . It was ten years since we had been to the Greenwich Peninsula (it was the millennium dome then and a bit of a touchy feely PC flop when crowds stayed away in their thousands but it did have one massive success – the opening ceremony Millennium Drop). Now the O2  is vibrant and thriving, the entertainment avenue feeling a little like Universal Citywalk, although the dome is still only half full in the doughnut around the arena and the British Music Experience was only drawing a trickle of people, probably because the tickets were £15. (It sounded a bit too much like an online interactive version of the ill fated pop museum in Sheffield that we managed to visit before it bombed.

As we had been to see a Matinee, we squiffily made our way to the Leicester Square TKTS booth and picked up some (slightly) cheap(er) tickets for Sister Act at the London Palladium, Stalls Row C right at the side. It doesn’t have any of the songs from the movies so if you went expecting that you might be a little disappointed but we already knew that and the new Alan Menken songs certainly rock. I also got a big scenery fix as the set changes are stunning. The wine wasn’t as good as Branson’s though and also rather expensive, stinging my Mum £21 for three glasses of red ordered for the interval.

Here are some low quality pics from the O2, they don’t let you take decent cameras in.

Last week, I saw a cracking blockpost about the four elephants in the room that none of the Political parties are mentioning. Trouble is, I can’t find it again. Does it ring any bells with either of my readers?

It wasn’t anything to do with Discworld and the great A’Tuin. The elephants were the EU, the National Debt, the Energy Crisis & something else that will be obvious with hindsight.

EDIT- Found it- Christopher Booker in the Telegraph.

I have a strong dislike of political parties based on experiences back in the 1970s, when my Dad Neil turned his local no hope seat around to within a handful of votes, at which point the local party snatched defeat from the jaws of victory by parachuting in a party hopeful (who did even worse than the paper candidate who preceded Neil). Parties trample over people and the politics of the schoolyard abound.

Seeing the Tories in action thirty years later, I suspect that not a lot has changed in the Committee rooms, although they are no longer smoke filled.

The launch evening featured four of the five local prospective Councillors, the leader of the Conservative Group on Leeds City Council (whom I heckled!)  and, eventually, Antony Calvert, the Prospective Parliamentary Candidate. I’ve met Antony several times and he stands up to my robust challenges very well, being an increasingly rare breed- a Libertarian Conservative.

The surprise event of recent local politics was fiercely independent Stewart McArdle announcing he was to stand as a Tory in nearby Ardsley & Robin Hood. Whilst he isn’t big on speeches or self-aggrandisement, he held his own with an off the cuff speech considerably more interesting than his predecessors.

Morley & Outwood is going to be very much in the eye of the Press over the next three weeks; it is a new seat and whilst on paper it is a Labour 9,000 majority safe seat, Calvert is being quite well received in Morley (for a Tory) and the Bookies odds are getting closer.

Antony is keen for me to put up a Poster, but Karen distrusts all politicians as being all as bad as each other. So, between us, we have come to a workable compromise…

Now it is on Guido Fawkes, he is starting to go viral and has had more then 300 comments. (Being Guido though, most of them are purile).

The first one was Iain Dale, at the Total Politics Question Time event in Leeds. (I got offered a late cancellation). The event was at a new hotel near to dark arches and parking was tricky, I was in danger of getting locked in so had to leave early. (This wasn’t helped by the event starting late but I enjoyed the thirty minutes or so of discussion, particularly the very perceptive David Davis, who very politely ripped Rachel Reeves a new orifice for using the perjorative term “Climate Change deniers”.

The second one was in Blackpool and I was delighted to meet Mr. Monkey. Mr. Rik (his handler) initially appeared slightly disappointed that I didn’t recognise Mr. Monkey’s URL The house of the orange monkey (apparently there are copycat sites) but after a brief discussion about a couple of interesting visits Mr. Monkey had made I knew that he was the real McCoy (McCoy Monkey, that is).

Mr. Monkey doesn’t like water, but fortunately we were indoors at the Winter Gardens.

(Hat tip- City Unslicker)

We now have a cabinet with seven unelected cronies, the makings of a quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisation. Craig Murray calls it the most undemocratic Government for over a century.

Meanwhile, the Prime Minister lies through his teeth on National Television. He is at best delusional and it would seem that the sky is brown on his planet.

Can it last until next June? Do we care?

Saturday night is music night. This seems appropriate…

We had a selection of leaflets through the door from six parties (from Labour, Conservative, Liberal-Democrat, BNP, Greens and UKIP) but on examining the candidate list ont’ ‘interweb I saw that there were actually twelve parties standing with a total of sixty nine candidates (one new party only fielded three names, although it is possible that this is not for financial reasons as apparently the deposit is £5,000 for an individual OR a party).

Anyway, no further leaflets being forthcoming, I thought I’d just do a bit of web sniffing about the various remaining parties, describing themselves as  Pro democracy:Libertas.eu, No2EU: Yes to democracy, Jury Team, English Democrats “putting England first”, Christian Party “Proclaiming Christ’s Lordship” and Socialist Labour Party (LEADER ARTHUR SCARGILL). (Actually, I didn’t bother with the last two, God botherers and Weetabix wearers don’t float my boat).

 As I worked through the sites, it was apparent that none of them were by any stretch of the imagination libertarian. Socialist, or righteous, certainly and often Eurosceptic to some degree, but often somewhat single issue. A look at the candidate biographies was often revealing as well, one lead candidate looked rather shifty to me and hunches are what we use for initial judgement.

I then took a closer look at the Jury Team. I have been following http://wwwthepartysover.blogspot.com on Google reader for a few months now and their view of individuals as independents over political parties is a one that certainly resonates. Indeed I put forward such a position before I stood on Morley Town Council and for a period, the collective individualism was an effective force. (Alas, that was frittered away once a party of independents was formalised and they got the whips out…)

So, having got past the front page, I checked out the three Yorkshire candidates, but alas, I found them wanting in various ways. They weren’t likely to rein in the EU Superstate,  their backgrounds weren’t particularly ordinary, their road maps were certainly not about rolling back the State , they didn’t even appear to acknowledge the iniquitous system, namely the 27 unelected Commissioners who actually made the 75% of law imposed upon us from their star chamber rather than the 785 MEP’s of the Europarl who merely tinkered with it.

My default is generally UKIP for the EU (or not bothering at all) but in many ways they appear to be  a bunch of cowboys who seem to forget their prime mission when the wheelbarrows of SISO cash become on offer once they make it to Brussels (or Strasbourg). It is probably the most pertinent protest vote though (other than the “don’t vote for the big three” or “anyone but Labour” which is more of a British protest vote, not really what Europe is about).

I saw the following quote on Facebook today and thought that the person who said it did have something of a point:

…trying to choose a political party in this country is like choosing which paedophile I’d like to dress as a clown for my children’s birthday party. 

So, visiting the polling station this morning, I was still in two minds. UKIP or Noneoftheabove? Or indeed something else?

On arriving at the polling booth at about 7:25, I noted that I was the fifth person to vote in my Ward. (That might indicate a big increase in turnout, often I’m the first!). The ballot paper was pretty big, about A4 width but A3 length. (I was advised that I had to fold it twice afterwards so that it would fit in the ballot box).

The polling booth had a sign saying something to the effect of:-  ”you have one vote- vote for a party or a person”, but I couldn’t vote for a person as they were all grouped together against their party. (Some places today do actually have independents standing but it is a high bar to clear for an individual unless (s)he is very flush).

I looked at the form, appraising the open spaces for writing in the spoilit party. Then I remembered what seems to happen to spoilt ballots at the count. They provide a source of mild amusement to the counting assistant depending on the sophistication of the message. They are seperated off for a cursory look by the returning officer’s sidekick and any possible but ambiguous ones are discussed with the candidates concerned (where the indication of the voter is mostly clear but it might be technically incorrect by having ticks, or perhaps extra crosses with some scribbled out). Otherwise the spoilt papers are counted  and logged then generally unreported by the media, sometimes not even published properly by the Councils unless pressed.

Of course, if vast numbers of people spoilt their paper that would be news…

Anyway, in the end, I held my nose and crossed the bottom box for UKIP.

It turns out that lots of people have been contacting UKIP because the polling clerks have been handing out the ballot sheets folded and the voters haven’t realised that UKIP were on the bit folded over at the back, rather than missing. A bizarre story and the comments over at Iain Dale’s place on this reflect a wide range of opinions, although mostly erring on voter stupidity.

I have to say that my ballot form wasn’t folded at all so I had no trouble finding them, but I don’t think that the clerks should be folding them when they hand them out.

Update: The Beeb has the story (and a picture of a folded ballot paper). Is it just me, or is the way it is folded rather odd? That might be how you fit it in an envelope using a machine, but you either third or quarter it in normal circumstances. I suspect that they might have had to bring out more ballot boxes during the day to some polling stations as well because it would get increasingly harder to get those folded pieces of paper through the slot.

Dig out that old shirt and send it to 10 Downing Street with a note of what you really think of this budget- let us know that you have done it on 1984@lpuk.org

Gordon Brown
10, Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AA.

I have one that is suitable which I have featured before.

I did take a picture of it but someone walked in front of the camera and then it was gone so I lost interest.

Anyway, I had completely forgotten about it until I saw today’s Morley Obtiser where it was explained by a letter from our local elected patriot socialist.

It turns out it was a BNP Plant.

(boom boom tish…)

Speaking of shrubberies, here are the Knights who say Ni!