Is my vote worth more than yours ?
"Voting LibDem is just a protest, a wasted vote"
"LibDems voters have no idea what the party actually stands for"
"LibDem voters are too poorly educated to know what they're doing"
Insulting and patronising statements no mainstream politician or broadcaster would make in public and yet change LibDem to BNP and they neatly sum up the public position of every major party, newspaper and broadcaster.
The BNP may have objectional policies and unsavoury leaders but every one of the 943,500 votes they received is as valid as those cast by you and I.
Clearly many thousands of primarily working class, inner city residents feel they are not being represented or helped by the mainstream parties. They believe they and their concerns are ignored and they are right because the mainstream parties know that these issues are toxic. Immigration, unfair housing policy, "British jobs" have all become beacon phrases that make the middle classes recoil in horror. But we are lucky, for many others these are real issues driven by the struggles of life in Britain's poorest communities. The concerns of BNP voters may not be ours but they are as real and are arguably more pressing. Since the European elections both media and politicians have tried desperately to walk a semantic tightrope attacking the BNP but repeatedly saying that they don't criticise those who voted for them. Such verbal gymnastics and hypocrisy ill serve our democracy and do nothing to address the underlying problems which have led to this situation.
We all love labels - Labour voters are passionate about social justice, Tories are driven by reforming zeal but BNP voters are misguided, disillusioned and vote to punish the "real" politicians. This catch phrase politics is not only insulting but it allows the main parties to continue failing people who have been served so badly in the past.
I wouldn't vote for the BNP but I want to make that decision for myself, we need them on the ballot paper and we need to acknowledge that they address very real concerns for an increasing number of our fellow citizens.
Did the heroes of Normandy make their sacrifice so that 65 years later people could squander their vote on extremist nutters - Well actually they did. In our democracy every vote must be respected and every vote must count or none do.
Published Date:
10/06/2009
Modified Date:
16/06/2009
County Elections
Last Thursday's county council elections have been lauded nationally as a once in a generation swing. Labour losing control of Derbyshire for the first time in 28 years was certainly an eye opener for everyone concerned. A lot of people are now saying that they saw this coming but those of us who were at the election count can testify to the surprise and shock that both winners and losers felt at the extent of the change.
Having told High Peak Radio during the count that labour would hold the county, MP Tom Levitt then had to watch as only one of the eight wards that make up his parliamentary constituency returned a Labour majority. A sobering result for any candidate.
What really interests me however is not the political switch of power but the geographical. For the decades of Labour control their great political powerhouse was the industrial and mining areas in the East and North East of the county. Naturally both councillors and issues from those areas have dominated the agenda at many times. Old Labour heartlands returned Old Labour candidates and set Old Labour agendas.
Now we not only have a new set of councillors but the major cabinet positions are going to people representing rural wards where the economy centres on tourism, farming, high tec industry and commuting to well paid jobs in neighbouring cities. How this geographic power shift plays out over the next few years will be fascinating.
Will the Tories have the confidence to shift the county's priorities or will they try to build a consensus on the middle ground?
Will they try to downsize the county council bureaucracy itself and can they afford not to?
Published Date:
09/06/2009
Modified Date:
09/06/2009
Inferno surrounds Buxton
By some twist of history Buxton, Matlock, Macclesfield and Ashbourne are almost as much neighbours in Australia as they are in here in the Peak District. And now another twist of fate has put them in the path of the unimaginable bush fires sweeping Victoria.
Of all those familiar names Buxton is most central to the firestorm. Significant loss of life has been reported in the towns immediately North and South but even if Buxton has escaped fatalities we must assume the losses in property and livestock will be appalling.
A region of rural settlements scattered across rolling hills and areas of national park, farmers, commuters to the cities, popular with walkers and motorcyclists, that part of Victoria sounds so much like our own. Buxton is or was only a cluster of properties around a country crossroads with a population of fewer than a thousand. We are so much bigger but essentially we are a country town gathered round a road junction.
Mayor of the High Peak Robin Baldry has today launched an appeal to raise money for the Australian relief fund. I hope and think a great many of us will want to contribute but I also hope that when the immediate crisis has passed we can build links with this area. The place names suggest some long lost historical link between our areas and we seem to have much in common. Perhaps in time we could even twin with the area.
Published Date:
10/02/2009
Modified Date:
10/02/2009
What if the weather turns bad ?
For those people still struggling with the concept - snow is just a different kind of weather. Thats it, no mystery, get on with things.
It snows in February, here in the Peak District it snows a lot in February, almost every February. It's nobody's fault, and it shouldn't bring life to a standstill.
Which brings me to - The worst snow for twenty years ! .... I don't think so.
Meteorologist Philip Eden writing at the weekend made the excellent point that the original statement from the Met office said "the worst snow in central London for 18 years". Television news crews then played chinese whispers with this until by the end of the week it was "Britain's worst snow for 20 years". More importantly these bogus statistics are then used by the ministers and councillors and transport operators as an excuse for why our national infrastructure is so pathetically fragile and as an excuse for their failure to do anything about it.
The snow has been unusually bad in half a dozen counties, everywhere else it's just normal and its our response which is unusually bad. Don't let the politicians tell you we can't prepare for "events that happen only once every 20 years" - up here at least winter comes around every fourth season.
As recently as the 80s we had regular big snows in the Peak, God help us when the next one comes. A 1947 or 63 doesn't bear thinking about.
Published Date:
07/02/2009
Modified Date:
10/02/2009
Snow joke
Having spent all winter trying very hard not to complain about gritting, I've just been stopped in my tracks by the site of two council employees using a hedge clipper to trim shrubs in Fairfield. Not only have none of the pavements up there been cleared despite it starting snowing six days ago but people on the estate have not had their bins emptied this week. What kind of insane priorities are the council following.
At least forcing pedestrians to walk down the middle of icy streets will help calm the traffic.
Snow in February ? at a 1000 feet up ?
High Peak, the clue is in the name, we live at altitude and are prone to bad weather.
Until ten years or so ago this kind of weather was normal and frequent and we all coped, schools stayed open and we got to work. Councils had enough people and the right equipment and ordinary people showed a bit of initiative and determination. What has happened in such a short time. Are we all turning into the kind of southern softies who expect 30 minutes on the six o'clock news every time a few flakes drop.
Published Date:
06/02/2009
Modified Date:
06/02/2009
Lighting up time
Like millions of husbands the world over I spent part of last weekend searching the loft for a set of ancient, under powered fairy lights. The mystery was solved on Monday evening when I discovered they'd been borrowed by High Peak Borough Council for the illuminations outside Buxton Town Hall.
The Market Place lights have been famously bad for years but I don't believe anything so embarrassing and pathetic has ever been unveiled before. It would probably have been more affective if the the town hall staff had stood on the steps waving cigarette lighters. They are so appalling they defy description here but lets show some sympathy for the hundreds of poor souls who stood in the sleet for an hour waiting for them to be turned on. The groans of disapointment must still be ringing round the ears of many parents. Most of the frozen little mites will have more excitng displays in their front windows at home.
Please, please if we can't do this in a proper manner lets spare the town the embarrassment and not bother at all.
Christmas lights should go up early enough in the season to entertain shoppers and stimulate Christmas trade and enough money should be spent to make them visible. If the budget is as ludicrously small as it appears to be then why do we have to spread it so thinly across so many streets. Decent lights strung across Spring Gardens would give a festive feel to our major shopping area and we could give up on the low energy lights scattered elsewhere.
Published Date:
13/12/2007
Modified Date:
13/12/2007
Binnovation or Innovation
Anyone listening to local radio recently will have heard a jingle in which the phrase Binnovation, Binnovation is repeated as if it is the latest wonder washing powder. Binnovation in fact is the boro council’s compulsory recycling scheme and it’s going to affect you whether you like the sound of it or not.
Rolling out from Glossop southwards it will be in Buxton by the autumn.
Very shortly a council employee will be delivering to each of us an extra green bin and a short sermon on the theory and practice of recycling, after that they just say the magic word Binnovation and hey presto! Your normal bin only needs emptying once a fortnight. And like all the very best magic tricks there is even a surprise ending that will leave you stunned – apparently it will lead to no increase in fly tipping, rubbish burning, rats, mice, flies or any of the sanitation problems that led our Victorian forebears to introduce weekly refuse collection in the first place.
As Paul Daniels used to say “That’s magic!”
Seriously, I live in a household of five who fill or over fill their wheelie bin every week. We already recycle our paper, glass and tins and have no garden waste, so the Binnovation scheme will do nothing to reduce the volume of our weekly refuse. Nevertheless we will now have to try and fit a fortnight’s rubbish into the same bin or find a convenient railway cutting to throw it into.
What my bin and my neighbours’ bins are full of is plastic, particularly milk cartons, bottles and other plastic packaging. It takes up a lot of bin space and its manufacture is expensive and harmful to the environment.
Very many local authorities now collect this plastic material and even supply householders with mini wheelie bins to put it in. However the leaflets on High Peak’s scheme don’t even mention plastic.
The real magic of Binnovation seems to be to transfer the problems associated with hitting recycling targets from the local authority to their voters.
Binnovation is 10% innovation and 90% rubbish!
Published Date:
09/07/2007
Modified Date:
09/07/2007
Food Hall Finale
So the food hall fiasco has finally reached the conclusion which it was surely destined to from the start. Everyone concerned are congratulating themselves but now it's time for them to step up and actually put forward a plan of their own which can actually secure the long term future of the Garden's buildings.
No one can now doubt the importance the people of Buxton place on the Pavilion Gardens and the affection they hold for the landmark buildings but those feelings will count for nothing without a viable business plan and restoration funding. Council tax payers across the rest of the borough must be shuddering at thought of signing a blank cheque for the future of something which could become an enormous drain on the already meagre funds.
How ironic though that the food hall scheme should be withdrawn on the same day that a local business consortium proposes a magnificent 34 acre leisure complex for the outskirts of Buxton. Lets remember that the Pavilion Gardens were not built by any public authority but by the Buxton Improvement Company, another consortium of local businessmen who were prepared to take a huge risk to secure the town's future. If Buxton and indeed the wider area are to have facilities for the future we need people who are prepared to follow the lead of our victorian forebears and be forward thinking, highly ambitious, and prepared to take risks.
Published Date:
10/03/2007
Modified Date:
10/03/2007