Greenham Parish Council Options

[On the edge]

This is where it all goes wrong in local politics. What the Newbury LibDems or the Newbury Conservatives should be applying to their local parish council efforts is not what do my mates want me to do but what should I be doing for Newbury and how can I get my personal message across to the electorate without the ridiculous name tag and not asking which crappy local party I should join so that I can get my feet under the table.

I believe it might be fair for prospective candidates to declare what their politics are about but why do we need this party division at that level. A good example of the way it hinders is to just look at the recent playground bickering over who should be mayor.

Very true BUT how do you break the circle? The electorate seem only to vote for parties, even at local level. Our marketed product approach to politics means that local.politics are seen simply as a means to sustain the centre. That's made worse by our managerial approach to local government where local input is seen simply as managing established operations.

Only way to break out is to break in so to speak. Arguably LibDems are likely to be more receptive out of the main parties. Labour are still in thrall to the Trades Unions and the Tory party to the magic circle; neither want your ideas thanks! LibDems on other hand seem to involve local members.

[Exhausted]

So the only practical, short term, method of implementing change in the way Newbury is run is from inside one of the parties.

If you can't beat them join them. But and this is the big but, if you want to beat them and they know it(vis a vis Simon) they won't let you join them. Therein lies the rub.

[NWNREADER]

Don't get me wrong, the idea of someone fresh, with integrity and the wellbeing of the town community to the fore - no personal agenda (including allotments!), no fixed loyalty/determination to vote against the 'opposition', no ambition to be PM etc - is to be welcomed. While Simon may be such a person I doubt the Establishment within the LibDems will feel the slightest inclined to adopt him. That may be their loss but, if he is the Messiah, ours too.....

[Simon Kirby]

I do not disagree with you, but nearly every one of those 'wants' is something you have highlighted as absent from the local LibDeb administrators.....

Yes, sure, and I don't plan on being any less critical if I join the party, but I will be supported by party values if as Lib Dem I demand openness, honesty, accountability, efficiency, public service, and civil rights, and as those are the values that attracted others to the party then it might find some resonance.

[Andy Capp]

Simon, what values do Lib Dems have that the Tories don't?

^^^

[Simon Kirby]

Simon, what values do Lib Dems have that the Tories don't?

I'd say the significant differences are that Tories are reactionary establishment apologists whereas the Lib Dems are an amalgam of centre-right Liberal radicals and centre-left Socialists, being much more concerned with social conscience, civil rights, and personal liberties.

In practice at the local level the Tories live their values because they're the values of the lowest common denominator and don't take any conscious effort, altruism, or noblesse oblige, and they're the values of anyone in politics to serve themselves so the Lib Dems can look indistinguishable from this too if things go wrong, but there really ought to be an obvious difference with the Lib Dems engaging with parishioners, being open and honest and acknowledging failure, promoting consumer rights, rights to freedom of information, freedom of expression, freedom of association, holding themselves accountable, and generally not letting their local authority behave like North Korea on a bad day.

[Simon Kirby]

^^^

Blimy, give me a chance...

[Simon Kirby]

We don't - but that doesn't get rid of it. Over the years political parties have played the system and established themselves - there is no way to overturn this unless the electorate can be persuaded to vote them out - I can see little chance of this ever happening.

So the only practical, short term, method of implementing change in the way Newbury is run is from inside one of the parties.

I reluctantly agree.

[Simon Kirby]

Don't get me wrong, the idea of someone fresh, with integrity and the wellbeing of the town community to the fore - no personal agenda (including allotments!), no fixed loyalty/determination to vote against the 'opposition', no ambition to be PM etc - is to be welcomed. While Simon may be such a person I doubt the Establishment within the LibDems will feel the slightest inclined to adopt him. That may be their loss but, if he is the Messiah, ours too.....

I take that as a generous compliment, thank you.

Of course I do have an agenda because I want to see the town council reformed, and as I've suffered more than most at the hands of the current administration I would hope to gain more than most by its reformation, but I don't see that any of that makes my campaigning any less valid - I never took the council on for any personal gain and have never asked for anything for myself, my complaint has always been that the council was not serving the people of Newbury, and it became a personal battle because the town council made it so.

[Andy Capp]

I feel the eagerness for change in the council can be demonstrated by them re-electing JSH as leader (again).