A reader writes …
Hello,
I wonder if you can help me, I have been trying(without success) to find a list of the EU and local candidates for Bristol.
I have been through quite a few different sites but cannot get any satisfaction, perhaps they are all hiding seeing as the present climate is anti politics!!
Got a feeling that I need to do something drastic this time and see if there is anybody not in the top three parties that I can trust enough to vote for.
This lot in our local government are a bunch of liars whose noses are so far in the trough they could get a job in Westminster as advisors.
I spent a couple of years fighting them over the prefab project (another story) so I got to know them well, especially as the same ones just seem to change chairs and positions but stay there like bloody old outdated fossils (yes that’s you Peter Hammond, you bearded Tory boy tosser with an equalities policy, ed.).
Sorry, waffled a bit. The prefab project is still going on, I had to leave mine three years ago and the site still has not been re-developed, so much for the jobsworths haste to chuck us out.
The scandal is that like the new development at Elm Grove/Filton Avenue, apparently the rented properties on the pre-fab sites are being handed over to housing associations, so I’ve been told.
Look out then for council tax rises in a couple of years, without rents they will have to find their dosh from somewhere.
“The PRC homes were built mostly after World War II to ease a chronic housing shortage.”
Build in haste, repent at leisure. I wouldn’t be surprised of we’ll be seeing quite a few of the rabbit hutches that’ve been thrown up over the last few years getting demolished in the next few.
“… said one way forward would be to urge the Homes and Communities Agency (formerly Housing Corporation), a government quango which funds social housing, to change its rules so the council had more leeway in drawing up a new scheme.”
I wonder what that means, sounds a bit ominous. Like if the rules didn’t offer safeguards, for example, then why were they drafted the way they were in the first place? Leeway to do what exactly?
“Secondly to address those who still falsly claim that this has been decided for political reasons – I never decided to cancel the project. This decision was made by Officers who sit on the project board. “ Tim Kent.
Yeah, we know, the officers run the show, democracy is a sham …
I think PRC homes and Pre-fabs might be different issues.
The remaining pref-fabs are being demolished, even to the extent of compulsorily purchasing those now in private ownership, including one in Dorian Road, Horfield, which is the home of an elderly couple in their 80s.
James Barlow has covered that shameful story in some detail. http://www.jamesbarlow.co.uk/incongruous-insertion
And I also have a list of all the European candidates:
http://www.jamesbarlow.co.uk/southwest-region-%E2%80%93-candidates-european-parliament
I’ve met most of the Conservative slate and I think they’re a good bunch, but obviously I’m a tad biased.
If you’re desparate to make a protest vote, you could always try that woman off the Apprentice.
Here is the list of local candidates for Bristol:
http://bit.ly/Dpi90
James Barlow swiftly posted up not only the Euro candidates but had a doozy of a map for the local authority ones too.
If you want to register a vote that is more meaningful than simply protesting then try Green.
But as I’m standing as a Green candidate in Wiltshire, I too may be a tad biased.
I’ve met a few of the LibDems and think they’re a good bunch… and I’m not biased!
In an ideal world it would be great to cream off the best councillors and create a completely new party for Bristol.
Here’s the map of candidates at the local election:
http://www.jamesbarlow.co.uk/map-candidates-bristol-city-council-%E2%80%93-election-day-4th-june-2009
The local mainstream media reporting of elections is pretty hopeless. They are a long way from helping people with who is standing, where and why. The Bristol Evening Post for instance has been producing whole page local election ‘wards in focus’ pieces but they dont list the candidates standing as part of it and make only a sparse, poor quality attempt at describing the local issues. Todays coverage of Eastville Ward should for instance say that the candidates are:
Steve Comer (Lib Dem);
Derek Fey (Con);
Glenn Vowles (Green);
and Mike Wollacott(Lab).
I agree the election coverage in the Post is dire. They haven’t mentioned The Bristol Blogger once yet. Can you believe it?
I shall be voting on June 4th, and the Evening Post haven’t mentioned me either… terrible coverage.
My vote’s with Glenn. Steve Comer’s done a decent job in Eastville, but I can’t stomach any of the main parties any more.
Vowlsie’s got a vote!!!!