The Face of Local Politics

May 17th, 2004 - 13:14 | 21 comments

Claire's Lib Dem Councillor Sign I spotted the sign on the right while driving into Dorridge yesterday, and a quick glance at the Lib Dem literature confirms it (there’s a photo). I can’t find Claire listed on the Solihull Lib Dem website other than a quick mention here.

The Solihull Lib Dem website could do with a decent spelling / grammar checker, but the front page indicates the narrow margin between the Conservatives and the Lib Dems in the Solihull area. If you know me it probably doesn’t come as any big shock to find that I vote Labour in the parliamentary elections. However the council elections are another matter. They’re a bit tricky, really. I don’t know what the idea is. Are you meant to vote for the party you want elected, as is the case in parliamentary elections, or do you vote for the person? I’d imagine the latter, but given that the coverage in the local papers isn’t great (and there’s no point reading the local party literature), how do you decide? Claire’s always been a friend, and as one of the most intelligent people I know I’m inclined to think she’d do a good job. Is that enough, though? You need to be extremely proactive to make a fair comparison, it would seem.

Because of my limited knowledge of individual candidates, in the past I would have just voted Labour if there was a Solihull candidate who even bothered trying - hell, if he/she put up some damn signs it’d be enough - but there’s never been any indication of this happening, so I’ve always voted Lib Dem. I’m a bit dubious about tactical voting and, much as I’d like to see the Conservatives lose seats, don’t really want to play it that way. I take an interest in politics and try to know the views of the various parties on matters that I have some knowledge of, and nearly always find myself disagreeing with the Conservatives and agreeing with Labour / Lib Dems. So should I use this method this year?

A particularly thorny issue in Dorridge currently is the closure of the Post Office. The PO is inside One Stop, a chain which Tesco recently bought out and are replacing with Tesco Expresses. Tesco don’t want a Post Office inside their shop, so it will have to be closed. Now, I can see why Tesco would be unwilling to have a PO on their premises. There would most likely be large queues, particularly on pensions day, and the PO would take up a fair bit of their space, I would imagine. Nevertheless, it’s not very popular with local residents. While I don’t think that travelling to Knowle would actually be terribly difficult (plenty of people have to travel further to their local POs), various local candidates are joining the chorus of complaints and setting up petitions, etc. I can see that it’s disappointing to lose a PO, so anything that they can do would help. However, Mum recently visited a nearby town (can’t quite remember which one atm) with a Tesco Express that contained a Post Office. So it obviously isn’t Tesco’s general policy. This would be an excellent point, I think, but all the newspaper reports / candidate literature that I’ve seen simply contain rhetoric about how annoying it is. I’d be very impressed with a candidate who asked Tesco why Dorridge is different (and it’s very possible there is a good reason). There are also empty shops across the road - would it be possible to move the PO to one of those? There seem to be various ways of dealing with the situation, which may for all I know be going on behind the scenes, that aren’t getting through to the local populace. I can’t make decisions based on rhetoric - I need more information. Given that I know Claire, I’m sure she does know a lot more detail than is written about in the papers; how do I find out, though? I was wondering whether setting up a blog would be a good idea for candidates - that would be a cheap (hell, Blogger’s free) but effective way of getting the message out to lazy people like me who aren’t very good at communicating

On the personal front, however, go Claire! Though it’s not a job I could face, I admire her very much for trying. As it stands currently, it’s likely she’ll get my vote.

-----

21 Responses to “The Face of Local Politics”

1 Simon May 17th, 2004 at 4:22 pm

I am often confused as to where my local residence is at the moment. Can I conceivably vote in two places, or am I only registered in one? I mean, I am only a temporary resident according to Dorridge surgery even though I spend more than half the year there. I hate politics. I mean, which ever way it goes someone gets fucked. So, I get things my way if I vote and my candidate wins. Thats a bit unfair on the people who wanted something different. Besides whoever I vote for in a more general sense is going to turn around and shaft me anyway. With regards to this election, well it has occured to me that the smarter someone is the more hidden agendas they have I mean you could spend all day arguing with the fuckwits going round in circles and never deciding anything, orrrrrrr you could make shed loads of cash. At the end of the day honesty gets you no where. Since there are no consequences to your actions after life the only possible flaw in cheating the system is getting caught. But if you play the system properly, well, thats the game isn’t it? He who dares wins.
2 Andrew May 17th, 2004 at 6:11 pm

An interesting philosophy, but not one I agree with
3 Claire Berry May 17th, 2004 at 6:42 pm

Have a star A (as Mrs. Johnson would say) for the observation skills. It is indeed true- I am standing for the local council. I would really like to get elected as there is a serious lack of representation in our ward. The only time the Tories do anything is in the run-up to elections, BUT i will work for the electorate all year round. I promise you now a vote for me will not be wasted. If anyone has any questions then please ask….

Simon- you are allowed to vote both here and your university town in the local elections, but you have to choose where you would like to vote in a general election.
4 Nodster May 17th, 2004 at 9:38 pm

woohoo andrew has a famous visitor and also ‘Go claire!’
5 Claire Berry May 17th, 2004 at 10:46 pm

Famous- if that was referring to me, lol!!!
6 Lynsey May 18th, 2004 at 11:34 am

What’s happened to Caroline Spelman? Can’t see her on the Conservative poster…I don’t think I’m in Solihull ward though (Meriden?? Packwood??) :/
7 Andrew May 18th, 2004 at 11:44 am

She’s an MP rather than a councillor afaik. There’s something funny with the boundaries around here - I don’t think the sections are the same for council and parliamentary elections.
8 Simon May 18th, 2004 at 12:22 pm

I’m still not convinced by this voting malarky. Is it really worth the trudge up to the voting booth? You know, I would personally have a great fit of laughter the day voter apathy lets a party like the BNP into power. That would be a great thing to see. It will hopefully coincide with the day I get really bored with my pitiful existence and kill myself. So, we are looking at a 3yr time scale here. Hmm, don’t think its going to happen. Do any parties running support assisted deaths and/or suicide? That might be a good one. Then, when you run into trouble instead of trying to stop you, they could give you a push, assisting like. Maybe thats not for you, I just happen to be pro-death.
9 Nodster May 18th, 2004 at 3:52 pm

hehe it was claire =) all the best of luck. dunno if i will be around to vote at the time =) but better the devil you know eh (heheh)
10 Claire Berry May 18th, 2004 at 6:34 pm

I have three words for you- VOTE BY POST!!!!!!!!
11 Simon May 18th, 2004 at 6:50 pm

Make me
Its hard enough trying to decide between special chips, cheese burger or double cheese burger at Ahmed’s Kebab Van. I know what each of these contain. I know the pros and cons of each. I know how hungry I am. I know what I bought yesterday. I know how much its going to cost me. Still can’t decide. Now, council elections etc. Hmmm. Tbh, I don’t know who the last person was/is. Until Andrew posted I didn’t know who was running. I still don’t know what any of the candidates stand for. I don’t know what I would want a candidate to stand for. And I don’t know how much its gonna cost me. I think i’ll have the double cheese burger, please.
12 Lynsey May 18th, 2004 at 7:36 pm

Claire, just ignore Simon, he’s always this apathetic! So what are you campaigning for in good old Knowle / Dorridge / The Heath?
I’ve got a feeling my vote might be all messed up this time because I requested a postal vote but I’m coming home early so it’ll get sent to Lancaster and I might miss it :’(
13 Claire Berry May 18th, 2004 at 9:38 pm

Summary of issues:
*Recycling- have proper road side collections
*Windfall Developments- increase consultation with the residents and have no UNSUITABLE developments
*Post Office- Obviously I am against the closure of the post office, but tescos don`t seem to want to budge. We need Spelman to put her weight behind it like MPs have in other parts of the country.
*Youth facilities- increase provision
The list could go on…
Really I want to improve communication between the electorate and the council, then hopefully the ward will become an even better place for us all to live.
And i want to increase young peoples involvement in politics!!!

Lynsey- i am sure you would be able to change address your postal vote is sent to.

Simon- watch out with the cheese burgers- in 1996 watchdog or equivalent got a hamburger from Co-op and it contained 2g of spinal cord material. 1g of spinal cord contains 10^8 infectious doses of BSE if from an infected animal. And you may say but there isn`t BSE in our cows- oh but there is… and even worse it is in our sheep too, but they can`t tell it apart from Scrapie…. so watch the burgers you may get more than you bargained for!!!!
14 Nodster May 19th, 2004 at 12:13 am

lol… im thinking bse explains a lot regarding simon.

as for postal vote. i thought even if you registered for postal u could vote at a booth and itd overwrite the postal? or perhaps thats just by proxy. probably is.
15 Simon May 19th, 2004 at 12:43 am

As long as whatever is in the burger kills me i don’t give a shit. One thing I don’t want is to have a long wasting disease. Life is a long enough disease as it is
It has always been my opinion that the reason we have politicians is to be interested in politics for us. If I were interested in politics I would still be left with three choices. Vote, don’t vote, become a politician. The latter is, of course, not a real option. Voting brings us back to the original problem whereby I realise that the only person I can trust to 100% represent my ideals is myself, but I ruled that out so I am left with others instead. I consider myself an abnormal individual and as such I don’t trust the majority of the populace to make a choice appropriate for me. Even if they were to pick the person I would have picked that person would have to do the things the majority want, which will inevitably not be what I want. What I would really like is for somebody who can actually get things done and knows the best course to just step up and take power. Fuck everyone else, just do the right thing. We need to be environmentally friendly? Do it, tell the mob to be nice to nature or have them shot. Its a simple plan. Effective too. Plus, most people won’t like it, and that makes me far more interested in it. What can I say, I’m subversive At least then there would be something decent to complain about instead of the minor annoyances that plague me and I can’t have a proper moan about it without someone informing me how fortunate I am. At least there would be a proper reason for seeing life as a grey dull goo which is slowly consuming my essence rather than just knowing there is something horribly wrong with all this but not being able to find out what.

I found an envelope in my pidge today containing information about depression. Apparently 1 in 10 oxford students have depression at any time. Having read through the material there is a mid to high chance I am depressed. It suggested going to see my doctor if I thought I was depressed. I have decided to fuck that and take whatever comes. Lifes too long to try and dodge something interesting when it happens.
16 Lil May 19th, 2004 at 1:00 am

Recycling!! =D You’ve got my vote then Good luck =)
17 Simon May 19th, 2004 at 1:07 am

Oh. is there any safe meat btw? or am i meant to become a vegetarian? Do tigers have any weird diseases? I heard they taste quite nice. You hear all these people complaining about farm animals and eating them. I’m just wondering, but if we all became vegetarians would the farmers have any reason to keep those animals around? Just for fun maybe? “Hey, Jim, Besse here ain’t producing no milk” “Well shit, its a shame no one eats meat any more, now she’ll just have to be a rotting corpse.” Of course that only works if we are still allowed animal produce at all. Otherwise they consume far too much of our crops to keep around and with all these people needing to keep up their consumption well, we would need all the crops we can get. Also, I suppose those activists would want medical science to keep researching animal diseases so we can help the buggers. I don’t know why we would want to do that.

I realise you weren’t advocating vegetarianism, but I felt like ranting. Its just my policy that if it looks good and it tastes good then the god i don’t believe in put it there for me to eat it. Maybe he put it there to tempt sinners, but since I don’t believe in him anyway then I have already secured my residence in hell. In fact, by eating these walking temptations I am saving people from eating them themselves. I am actively getting souls into the afterlife I don’t believe in. Isn’t that something.

I probably hate the environment as well. People discuss the idea that animals are in balance with nature but we just destroy it. It is my current train of thought that animals have no morals, they just lack the imagination to use what they have been given. I, on the other hand, have the ability to spend every moment dreaming up new and interesting ways to blow shit up.
18 Lynsey May 19th, 2004 at 5:17 pm

The paper recycling scheme that’s in existence at the moment seems to be really popular, practically everyone puts full bags out In Worcester there are about 4 different recycling collections so if it could be extended to plastics, cans etc in Solihull that’d be great And also composting! There is a composting bin scheme by the council already, I’m not sure how popular it is though.
19 Lil May 19th, 2004 at 10:34 pm

*extreme amounts of ignoring simon* ;D
20 Simon May 20th, 2004 at 12:37 am

Hmmm, i might just sign up to live journal so i can spam you if you ignore me

—
21 chalk of chalkland Nov 15th, 2005 at 12:34 am

ha ha ha claire berry is famous that is so cool , im happy to see she has so many fans. i work at reading university looking after a disabled guy and it is a nightmare finding disabled access how would you improve that in knowle? is it easy? if u read dis message then luv ya loads c ya when ur prime minister.xxxxxxxxchalk

-----

Commenting Policy: Thoughts, observations, argument, debate and all other conversational wonderments are encouraged, but personal attacks or general trolling will result in your comment being deleted and your account/IP banned. If you're nice, however, you get strawberries.