The chances are that at some point over the next five weeks you will hear a knock on your door from a representative of one of the political parties. It’s local election time! Before you let out a volley of abuse at your doorstep canvasser just spare a thought for them.
No one pays them to do walk the streets in the rain and the cold, they’re doing it out of loyalty to the political party they support. They’re not actually there to persuade you to vote for their party. All they want to do is find out how you’re intending to vote in order for their party machine to ensure a maximum turnout of their vote on May 3rd. The quickest way to get rid of them is to tell them! It’s all part of our great democratic process.
The sad thing is that only about a third of the people reading this article will bother to vote on May 3rd. The other two thirds trot out well rehearsed excuses for not voting – “you’re all the same” or “we can’t believe a word any of you say”. The fact of the matter is that there IS no excuse for not voting. It’s an abdication of responsibility and those who fail in their democratic duty have absolutely no right to complain about what their local council does in their name. It’s nonsense to say that all political parties are the same, or that all the candidates are the same. Grill them on their views and you’ll soon see how wrong that view actually is.
In 1973, or thereabouts, Margaret Thatcher appeared on a programme with lots of children, who put questions to her. Gordon Brown repated the experience last night on a Channel 5 programme GORDON BROWN MEETS THE TEN YEAR OLDS. He admitted he has cried over the health of his son Fraser, his favourite singer is Leona, that Churchill and Lloyd George are Britain's two greatest Prime Ministers and that he will talk to the FA about girls being allowed to play football with boys.
All in all, he put in a rather good performance. Appearing on a programme like that is full of risks with few rewards. To come out of it unscathed is a major achievement. I suppose my only questions is: why on earth did he do it in the first place? Are his advisers really so desparate to show his human side that they put him in situations where he could easily fail? Whatever the reason, it's to his credit that he didn't.
This week MPs voted themselves another £10,000 on their expenses so they can bombard their constituents with leaflets explaining how wonderful they are. It’s a disgrace. It adds further to the growing power of incumbency. All three Norfolk Labour MPs voted in favour of feathering their own incumbency, while all the Norfolk Tories voted against it. LibDem Norman Lamb didn’t vote.
It may seem like cutting off their noses to spite their faces but I hope the Tory MPs who voted against this outrageous abuse of taxpayers' money will refuse to take their allowance. It would send a real signal that things will be different under a Cameron government. A further signal would be for David Cameron to announce that this decision will be reversed as soon as he comes to power.
The Norwich City Council bid for unitary status looks dead in the water. The government rejected their preferred option for a “Greater Norwich” and instead shortlisted the City on the basis of its existing boundaries. This should kill the proposal stone dead. I find it difficult to see why it would be a good thing to rip the heart of Norfolk and try to let it beat independently, apart from pure, naked political prejudice. There would be more bureaucracy and the move would cost the council tax payer £50 million. I don’t know about you but if there is £50 million going spare I can think of many more ways to spend it to improve the lives of Norfolk residents. Anyone who cares about the future of the great County of Norfolk should let their views be known during the short consultation process.
I’m sure many of you had the same feeling as me while watching Andorra’s team of butchers, bakers and candlestick makers hold England to a 0-0 draw in the first half of Wednesday’s match. I found myself almost willing Andorra to score and finally seal the fate of Steve McLaren, an England manager who makes Graham Taylor look good. This man should never have been given the job in the first place. He has the charisma of an amoeba and the motivational skills of Mr Bean. The only thing the three second half goals achieved was to delay his inevitable departure.
