Both Mandy and Andy don't turn up to Council Meetings

The Council Meeting on 23rd February 2011 is an important meeting on the District Council calendar. St Neots stay away Conservative Councillor Mandy Thomas didn't turn up for this meeting. The "going to work hard for Eaton Socon" District Councillor is once again missing from a meeting. The last meeting at Council or Committee that Mandy attended was on 15th July 2010. Mandy is elected until May 2012.

What of Andy Monk, the other stay away Councillor for Ramsey. Andy is the other member of the UKIP group on HDC. His seat is up for election in May 2011. As with Mandy he was also absent.

This is a bit more of a revelation. Because if Andy Monk stood down it would do a couple of things. Firstly the UKIP group on HDC wouldn't be a group any longer and the leader Peter Reeve wouldn't be a minor leader any longer!

As can be seen in the current Members' Allowances Scheme Peter Reeve gets an extra £723 for being leader of a minor party. The scheme changes in May 2011 to a minor leader being only able to receive this allowance if the group has 5 members. If Andy resigned now and UKIP won the election Peter Reeve would be £60.25 a month lighter until 3rd May when Andy Monk 6 months runs out.

With all this money being wasted (plus any council own computers etc) on stay away councillors and extra benefits for another, obviously both the Conservatives and UKIP are very comfortable with paying people to do virtually nothing. Especially from the Conservatives who are cutting the staff and services.

Both Mandy and Andy should resign now and let their seats be fought at the elections on 5th May 2011. In the case of Mandy this is doing a big disservice to the people Mandy is supposed to represent. A stay away Councillor isn't fighting for their ward and is just a burden on the council taxpayer.

Or is this what the New Homes Bonus will be used in St Neots for? Propping up this stay away councillor!

Ian Curtis IS a paper candidate!

A source let me know about this link. On the site for UKIP candidates there is a page for Ian Curtis. Joe Webster, Branch Chairman has stated on the UKIP page:

According to the Joe Webster, Ian is a "Paper Candidate". So what is "Paper Candidate"? The term is used for a candidate who is to put their name on the ballot but doesn't want to win. Therefore there is little campaigning as they don't want to win. This not only applies to General Election candidates but to local election candidates.

A better description is here of what a Paper Candidate is for.

Vandals target UKIP posters

St Neots News and Crier - 22/04/2010 digital edition

So vandals are targeting UKIP posters. This is wrong. UKIP has the right to display posters and even has the right with those enormous 8ft by 4ft billboard.

I always feel UKIP has a bit of a chip on their shoulder thinking everyone has it in for UKIP. I would suggest there is a general level of vandalism of political banners and not UKIP being singled out.

Fenstanton By-election UPDATE - Candidate profiles

David O'Neill - Former Councillor on St Ives Town Council. Runs David O'Neill Cars.

Colin Saunderson - Currently a Town Councillor on St Ives Town Council. Stood at the 2009 County Elections in The Hemingfords and Fenstanton Division. In 2008 he came second in the St Ives West ward.

Angela Richards - Stood for Labour in 2009 at the County Elections in St Ives and came last behind the Official Monster Raving Loony Party candidate. Angela stood in 2008 in St Ives East where she came last. At the 2007 Angela stood in Fenstanton where she came last.

It is a pity that UKIP didn't put up a candidate. To do well the Liberal Democrats need get shed loads of votes. Election date 25th February 2010

Local Party websites - update

Another month of nothing happening in St Neots according to zero updates on the local party websites aimed at St Neots. There has been a bit of movement on the www.huntslibdems.org.uk website which has had 5 new articles placed on it from the Liberal Democrat candidate Martin Land.

The 5 posts contain articles on: The selection of Martin Land; Congratulating Julian Huppert; Taking the P out of Djanogly; Campaign to stop charging at Riverside CP and, finally, LD schools policy.
My view is whilst the Liberal Democrats have started to update their site it is still slow and scarce. It is better than all the other sites.

Snow excuse! Another month without political literature

Winter is still here. Snow has been on the ground. There was a bit of traffic disruption. But all this made it onto my doormat via people delivering to each house. This month I even got a District Wide.
So what is missing? Not one leaflet from any of the political parties who want me to vote for them. Nor, it seems, has the winter leaflet from Djanogly got through. This cost £2,867.47 and was paid from the taxpayer funded Djanogly's Parliamentary Communications Allowance.

If anyone has had this delivered please e-mail me here: snrednek@rocketmail.com

Letters in the Hunts Post 27/01/10

Rather than doing a separate piece on each letter so I thought I would lump all I want to comment on into one article. Link to Hunts Post.

It's time to make a stand - If all these people are using the church, why does the taxpayer have to pick up the bill for a church car park? Something that I feel the letter writer Mrs K Robertson missed.

Web of intrigue - Cllr Andy Monk's letter shows a fundamental misunderstanding of local government. In it he looks at trying to have a go at the Conservative run HDC over spending money on a new website. The Editor's note is good but doesn't go far enough.  When Monk says:

"Could not the extra money spent developing this site have been better used ensuring more roads in the district were gritted, or helping the elderly and others whose needs were great keep warm during this extended cold snap."

The simple answer is NO. As a UKIP District Councillor you should be able to come up with specific costed alternative proposals. But you didn't. This is just a very poor political attack against his former colleagues. Maybe the UKIP group leader should forego the extra £723 he gets for being a minor leader?

No change - Cllr Peter Bucknell has a go at Cllr Monk about becoming a UKIP Councillor. Whilst this wouldn't cost much money as there is an election in 2010 in Ramsey anyway, I have to say Cllr Monk was elected by the people of Ramsey and he is not bound to do so by political convention. Otherwise all those Councillors who defect from other parties to the Conservatives in other parts of the country would have to do the same.

Air of resignation - Paul Dakers has a go at his former colleagues over their response to his resignation. Well DUH! Politics moves on. You have resigned. That is it. I feel your resignation has embarrassed the Conservatives and HDC so they ain't going to send you letters of sympathy.

The trouble with letters to the weekly press is they can be out of date when printed. This is the case. As I reported in an article on this blog dated 21st January 2010 a by-election has been called in Fenstanton.
Obviously the Hunts Post is behind the times.

Whilst HDC has gotten round to editing Dakers out of its website the same can't be said for the Conservatives. As found on the HCCA website today!

Council Tax reduction is a ploy - Cllr Bird reiterates her problems with the Town Council budget for not having enough contingencies. But no proposals on how much these contingencies should be! I agree with Cllr Bird the newly annexed residents are paying for this cut in Council Tax. As for the ECC estimates, I do have a degree of agreement. But the budget is ONE BIG ESTIMATE. Full of small estimates.

Again, Cllr Bird blames the Liberal Democrats for closing the public loos when it is the Conservative run HDC that decided to do this. This is a dreadful misrepresentation.

As for Rodney Bird (her husband) weighing in accusing Hunts Post of being pro Liberal Democrats I feel this is wrong. I feel the Hunts Post is pro Djanogly/pro Conservative newspaper. That is probably why the Hunts Post publishes Cllr Bird's dreadful letter.

2009 County and Euro Elections analysis

The 2009 Euro Elections were held in tandem with the County elections. This gave a chance to compare local election results where few parties stand to the Euros where many parties stand. This analysis can show where voters moved from the main parties to minor parties.

The County results were roughly the following: Conservative: 23,950 Liberal Democrat: 14,150 UKIP: 3,900 Labour: 2,984 Green 1,440 Others: 566	At the Euro elections: Conservatives: 16,543: (-7,407) Liberal Democrat: 6,498 (-7,652) Green: 3,332 (+1,892) Labour: 2,421 (-563) UKIP: 10,422 (+6,522) Others: 7,812
The difference between the two elections are as follows: Conservatives: -7407: Liberal Democrat: -7,652 Green: +1,892 Labour: -563 UKIP:  +6,522 Others: +7,246	The others are: BNP: +2,377 ED: +930 UKF: +1,354 Animals Count: +343 Christian Party: +656 Jury Team: +226 No to EU: +482 Libertas: +354 Socialist Labour: +280 Independent: + 332 OMRLP: -566

Conservatives: They lost a large minority of their support between the local elections and the Euros. I would suggest much of this support went to UKIP. But not all. Some went to the Jury Team, Libertas, UK First and the BNP.

Liberal Democrats: A total disaster as their local vote didn't translate into their Euro vote. 54% of their local support went elsewhere at the Euros. Some of the vote went Green but many others must have voted UKIP or even BNP.

Labour: This was a bad election for Labour who were beaten into 5th place in the Euros behind the Greens and not much in front of the BNP. The loss in Labour vote is not explained by a transfer of voters to the BNP. It can be explained by the transfer of votes to other left wing parties.

UKIP: They did very well at both local and Euro elections. With the Euro vote UKIP is the number 2 party behind the Conservatives.

At the Euro elections the Conservatives got 35% of the vote. The Liberal Democrats failed translate their local vote to their national vote. It was UKIP gaining support for both Conservatives and Liberal Democrats which saw its vote rise to become the second party in terms of votes.


In conclusion: At the General Election the electors vote to return a candidate to Parliament. It is obvious that if you vote for Djanogly you vote for this expenses scandal tarnished candidate. Voting for the UKIP candidate you will be voting for change in Parliament. I say vote UKIP.

Was the defection of Andy Monk truely a defection?

I was amazed to see the headline that Cllr Andy Monk of Ramsey had defected from the Conservatives to UKIP. But this isn't as it seems. Monk, elected less than 9 months ago, resigned the Conservative whip back in October 2009. So rather than being a Conservative Councillor down, Monk was already subtracted from the Conservative numbers. So all this effects is the Non-aligned councillors which now becomes the 2 member UKIP group.

As for the boost it gives to UKIP, yes it must do, but I'm not too sure whether such a Councillor is going to give a real boost to the electoral prospects.

A quick review of local political websites

Having had no political literature through my door since 4th June 2009 Euro elections I thought I would look at how the local parties are doing on the web.

St. Neots Conservatives Website

The incumbent St. Neots Conservatives have moved exactly nowhere. Their site is still calling on visitors to vote Conservative on 4th June 2009.

St. Neots Liberal Democrats Webpage

The Liberal Democrats have updated their website. Well a bit. The old picture of Sam Kemp has been removed and replaced by a picture of the Town Mayor getting in an X5 coach. The content still drones on about 2008.

Huntingdonshire Green Party

Not much has changed here. The last article is dated on 6th June 2009. Green Party website.

Huntingdon Constituency Labour Party

The Huntingdon CLP website hasn't gone anywhere either.

So the activity on the local party websites in very, very minimal. No wonder voters are turned off voting.