Why I think It Is Worth Voting In the Notts PCC Election

So, we have the elections for the Police and Crime Commissioners coming up on the 15 November. You can see the line-up of chaps (and yes, it is all chaps) for the Notts job here. I'm claiming this post as not 'off-topic' because as far as the police are concerned, Nottingham City is included in Nottinghamshire.

So, I'm somewhat ambivalent as to whether PCCs are a good idea. I have reservations that having a high profile single person being elected will lead to populist policing policies and of course, there is the danger that policing becomes a party political plaything.

But the thing is, they are happening whatever you or I think. This is not like the elected mayor question, this is not a referendum on whether Notts will have a PCC. Our government has 'benevolently' decided on our behalf that a PCC is what we are going to have and whether 20 or 200,000 people vote in this election, there will be a man in post on the morning of the 16th.

So, in my view we are in a damage limitation exercise. Long-term readers will know I am not a fan of not voting or spoiling your ballot paper (though I confess I'm really struggling to think of what to do in the next general election). So here are my recommendations of who to vote for, using the time honoured principles of picking the least worst option.

Now we have four candidates, Labour, Tory and two Independents. Now, starting from the point of view that letting mainstream party politicians get their mitts directly on the police is a no-no, that leaves us with the two Independents. My view on this is that Labour's candidate, former MP Paddy Tipping, is, according to what I've heard, very much on the 'useful idiot' wing of the Labour Party and, given that there will also be 'Police and Crime Panels' including members of the force area's local councils 'scrutinising' their PCC, Tipping is likely to spend his entire term with JoCo's hand up his arse.

So, the two Independents then, Raj Chandran and Malcolm Spencer. Firstly Chandran is a former Tory PPC and, although he says he is no longer a member of the party, he is likely to still be a Tory at heart. More worryingly perhaps, he happens to be a Freemason. Quite why anybody connected with the Police is still allowed to join such secretive boys' clubs is beyond my reckoning, suffice to say that in my mind, this disqualifies him from getting my vote.

So, without even going into their individual policies, we are left with one candidate that I can conceivably imagine voting for, let's hope he's not a horror story eh? In fact Spencer is a former copper himself and appears to be proposing nothing that will frighten the horses policy wise. My main concern about him is that he doesn't appear to have any experience of high level leadership so may be at risk of being dominated by both the small and large 'p' politicians. Still, as far as running the police is concerned, solid and conventional beats frothing ideologue any day of the week.

So, not exactly a ringing endorsement then but I hope I've presented a reasonably rational argument for going out to put your cross on the piece of paper. Turnout is expected to be very low so there is a real likelihood of your vote making a difference.

And remember, there are a lot of Tories out in the County and they are probably the people most likely to vote...

Was It the Astroturfers Wot Won It?

One thing about any election is the amount of waste paper they cause to arrive through your door. At least the rest of the time you get phone numbers that will result in high calorie food being delivered to your residence.

One leaflet that was delivered to homes in at least part of Nottingham (think Nottingham South mainly, I certainly didn't see it up north) was this one -

(click for big version, fairly big file mind)

It was the second in a series of two, there was an earlier edition sent out around 18 March. The one above was sent out some weeks later.

Now electoral law states that any candidate is limited in their spending for campaigning and has to declare all expenses spent after the date that the election is declared, which is normally also the date that anybody declaring themselves as standing in the election officially becomes a candidate. For the 2011 local elections this date was 25 March, therefore, if you were standing in that election and you send out a leaflet before this date you don't have to declare it, send one after and you do and its cost counts as part of your limited election expenses allowed.

Another requirement of election law is that certain information must be included on the leaflet, including the names and addresses of the printer and the promoter of the leaflet and details of any 'person on behalf of whom the material is being published'. If you look closely you'll see our above leaflet has been promoted on behalf of the 'ConDem Campaign'.

Or has it? If you check the link to the older version you'll see that suspicions were already raised. For a start the promoter is said to be Carole McCulloch, now one of the Labour members for Aspley.

I have since had sight* of another elected Labour councillor's declared expenses which includes a payment of £43.60 for '2nd ConDem Leaflet', the supplier being listed as 'Nottingham Labour'. A note says this was calculated from an invoice for £1993 issued to 'Nottingham Labour Party'. The invoice comes from 'Digital Printing Services', who are at least properly named on the leaflet.

So, putting all that together, it looks very much like our leaflet was not prepared for the 'ConDem Campaign' at all but was in fact a Nottingham Labour Party product. Unless of course they are referring to a completely different '2nd ConDem leaflet' I suppose.

So what Nottingham Labour seems to have done is to send out a bunch of leaflets which claim to be from a fictitious** grass-roots campaign, the motivation presumably being to attract non-Labour voters who wouldn't respond to an openly partisan campaign. Nottingham South is known to be a bit woolly for the Labour Party so you can see how such an approach might make a bit of a difference. There's a phrase for this sort of thing in the trade and that phrase is 'astro-turfing' (from false 'grass-roots' see). The classic and most successful example of this technique is 'The Taxpayers' Alliance' who frequently manage to get quoted as an expert source in newspaper articles despite being an obvious Tory front.

The thing is, this isn't only dishonest and underhand it also breaches election law. The law is quite clear that any election leaflet must include an imprint naming anyone on whose behalf the leaflet is produced and, in this case, it appears pretty clear that that would be Nottingham Labour Party.

A breach of this condition is a criminal offence so what are the chances of Cllr McCulloch getting a knock at the door from the rozzers? Sadly none, it is more than six months since the offence took place and what's more, JoCo is Chairman of the Police Authority.


* Decided not to post it up as there may be privacy issues that I don't really want to deal with. Anybody involved with this leaflet can see from the figures quoted that I'm not making it up.

** At least I presume they don't exist, I couldn't find anything on them. If anybody is a genuine member please feel free to get in touch, you can invite me to a meeting.

Nottingham Plays 'Pin the Red Rosette on the Donkey. Any Donkey'

Well it's pretty clear that nobody listens to me.

Whatever your views as to which party is best for Nottingham I defy you to argue convincingly that the virtual removal of all opposition to Labour on NCC is a good thing.

As you probably already know the Lib Dems have paid the ultimate price locally for their national leadership's hunger for power. Former Leader Gary Long has made no secret as to what he thinks the solution is, although he's apparently bottled out of repeating that on the national stage too knackered to do Newsnight. The loss of decent campaigning councillors like Tony Sutton and Alex Foster is a real source of regret and gives the impression that voters don't want to know about corruption in the council and will punish you by voting you out if you wake them from their slumbers.

There are still five Tories which means that Nottingham's golf courses continue to have their advocates in the city, although they will have to find a new leader as Andrew Price got his marching orders.

In my ward the odious former 'high class' (self defined) escort Cat Arnold kept her seat. My bet is that she'll be on the new Executive as she's been crawling up JoCo's arse for years. Mick Newton, who ran as an independent, didn't make it which I think is a shame. Again, a red rosette means more than a record of actually getting out into the community and doing your job it seems.

It has to be said that, despite some best efforts, the corruption issues haven't gone away. The District Auditor is set to report on alleged Future Jobs Fund dodginess, the Harold Tinworth affair is still ongoing (and hasn't he earned his money) and as Tony Sutton has a bit more time on his hands I suspect he won't let that go. I've got FoI requests regarding the funding cuts to CEHRNN and whatever went on between NCC and Nottingham Studios over Radford Unity Complex. These issues could be embarrassing for JoCo and his sidekick Chapman. Could there be resignations?

Addendum - nearly forgot, the NCC website has a rather impressive results information portal. It's only missing turnout figures so far (as a %) but the votes cast numbers indicate a much higher turnout than 2007.

Some More of My Opinions on the Local Elections

If anybody should care here are some of the issues that I believe are important when deciding how to vote in the local elections on Thursday.

My first thought is that, before deciding HOW to vote, it's vital to first decide TO vote. Local elections are notorious for their low turnouts and this is a serious threat to true democracy. Turnout in 2007 was 32.4%, up from 29.1% in 2004, an improvement but still nowhere near a majority of those eligible to vote. And that increase is more than explained by the increase in postal votes which bring in their own problems.

I have to say it, voting for someone is nearly always better than not voting at all in my opinion. Nothing encourages complacency, self-interest and downright corruption in our elected representatives than them knowing that they are in a safe seat and not enough people care about their poor performance in order to bother voting against them. Whatever your political views I firmly believe that just turning up for each election and voting against the current incumbent will improve the health of democracy, at least it would keep them on their toes.

So, presuming that you have decided that you are going to vote, my next piece of advice would be to be sure to avoid voting on national issues at the expense of local. It's tempting to assume that they are one and the same and, while there is clearly overlap, it's not necessarily so. For example, I believe very strongly that the biggest local issue in Nottingham City is the out and out corruption and cover up within the Labour establishment at NCC (housing scandal etc, see the blog passim) and voting Labour to teach the coalition will not solve this. I'm not necessarily saying that Labour in local government is intrinsically bad, and I'm certainly not saying that I would never vote for a Labour politician again, it's just that the current Labour establishment consists of three groups; a small controlling core that has no respect for democracy and due process, a small group of lickspittles desperately trying to get into group one and lastly, a larger group of useful idiots/vote fodder who do as they are told regardless.

Again, I should emphasis that this is not a syndrome that is exclusive to the Labour Party, I firmly believe that if the Green Party won three elections in a row you'd end up with a very similar situation but with different colour hats. You'd probably find a lot of the same names as the politicos changed allegiance to the party that could deliver them into power. The important thing here is that when these cliques do establish themselves the important thing is to bring them down.

So for me at least I will not be looking to vote against the Lib Dems simply to punish them for selling their national souls to a poor-hating disablist right wing government. Locally they have been effective constituency representatives and sources of opposition, their effectiveness limited mainly by their numbers. The Tories are a little different of course, while they have taken on certain issues such as the Radford Unity Complex but I'm quite sure that was for cynical electoral reasons as they were targeting the Nottm South seat in the general election at the time. If a comment on Alanadale's blog from one of the candidates in Radford and Park ward is anything to go by they still see some mileage in this issue yet. In power, the Tories wouldn't give a shit about RUC but most importantly, everybody who's nice hates Tories anyway, that's just a fact.

So, to be a bit more prescriptive and specific, I've made no secret in the past that I strongly believe that a Green Party presence on NCC would be a good thing and if you are lucky enough to have a candidate in your ward I would urge you to vote for them. Those against Tesco on Eastside might want to look at Dave 'Lord Biro' Bishop in Dales ward too. In Basford, former Labour councillor Mick Newton is standing as an independent and seems to be good at getting stuck in to local issues so he will probably get one of my votes.

But in the end I suppose that it is pretty much inevitable that there will be a Labour majority in the end so what to do? My personal opinion is that a 'decapitation' strategy is the best bet i.e. get rid of those who are at the top of the dodgy clique. Luckily, we have already seen the last of Hassan Ahmed for a while so the priority is to get rid of JoCo and Graham Chapman. If you live in either St Anns or Aspley ward I implore you not to vote for these two even if you are a Labour supporter, their removal will result in an immeasurably improved local Labour Party I'm certain. We can but hope...

So that's what I think, see you at the ballot box.

Local Elections

Yep, the local elections are approaching and I just know that you are all clamouring for me to tell you who to vote for.

No? What do you mean you can think for yourself? Oh alright then, I'll just whittle on randomly about a few issues without drawing any firm conclusions and you can jolly well decide for yourselves then, see if I care.

Lets start with a look at who isn't running. I've already written about a few rumours here and there but it seems that the numbers leaving the ship are higher than I thought. Here's the list -

Hylton James (Aspley)
Rob Lee (Basford)
Hassan Ahmed (Berridge)
Eileen Heppel (Bulwell)
Zahoor Mir (Dunkirk and Lenton)
Michael Edwards (Mapperley)
Mo Munir (Mapperley)
Katrina Bull (Radford and Park)
Afzal Khan (Radford and Park)
Penny Griggs (Sherwood)
Dick Benson (Wollaton West)

That's 20% of currently sitting councillors not running, all except that last one being Labour, two of them Executive members. Of course the best news is that Hassan Ahmed isn't running, possibly because some of his fun and games are catching up with him. He still features quite visibly among the pics on Labour's manifesto mind, not sure that was wise.

Actually, that manifesto has a few design fails if you ask me. I'm sure they could have got hold of a pic of a scaffolding free Council House for example and the tram pic heavily laden with adverts for train tickets out of Nottingham might end up looking a little bit symbolic in retrospect.

I'm a little disappointed that I'm still not going to get a chance to vote for a Green Party candidate and it looks like there's only four running citywide. I don't think the 'Elvis Turns Green' candidate in Berridge is quite the same thing. At least Dales ward residents have the opportunity to vote for Lord Biro, this time standing for the 'Militant Elvis Anti-Tesco Popular Front' ticket. So if you fancy giving David Mellen a bloody nose...

I should also mention that former Labour councillor Mick Newton is running as an independent. That could be one to watch.

Of course the Lib Dems will be hoping and praying that the national hate against them won't be reflected locally. That said, it seems that Dunkirk and Lenton candidate Alisdair McGregor seems to have had to nominate himself*. I don't hold out much hope for his ability to attract votes if he can't find two other people willing to nominate him.

One last thing. If you vote for JoCo you deserve to have your gonads removed with a rusty spoon. The single biggest factor that would improve NCC would be his removal if you ask me.

The full list of nominees is here.

*It could be a misprint

What to Do?

What with the latest developments in the housing allocations scandal there have been numerous comments on the blogosphere etc wondering what to do, with many suggesting that the solution is to vote these chancers out. Leaving aside the question of who to support in their place, I have to point out that there may be a few difficulties with that.

A major problem is that turnout in local elections is shockingly low and Nottingham is no different. In 2007, turnout was 32.1%, up from 29.1% in 2003. So, in response to my blogging colleague Alanadale's question, I fear that yes, this city is too apathetic to effect significant and lasting change at the ballot box in the near future. But please don't let my pessimism stop you trying.

Strangely though, while turnout is only slowly creeping up, applications for postal votes are rocketing. In 2003, there were 10,893, by the 2007 elections this had risen to 19,601 and by April last year the number of postal vote applications stood at 31,591, out of a total city electorate of 191,994. This means that 16.5% of potential votes are postal and the numbers are increasing rapidly.

The problem is that the Electoral Reform Society sees postal voting as a major source of electoral fraud so it follows that more postal voting will mean more fraud. Comparing the actual voting figures from 2007 with the number of postal votes cast there are few if any constituencies where the majorities of the elected candidates exceeded the number of postal votes meaning that postal voting could be pivotal.

Clearly this argument is based entirely on potentials, coulds and what-ifs but it is surely enough to raise concerns. After all, I wouldn't have believed that the housing scandal could have happened until it was reported and if there are enough willing to actively engage in fraud or follow orders supporting that amongst housing staff there are probably enough to do so within the elections service.

A final thought. In 2007 when support for Labour nationally was in decline, the vote for Labour actually increased in the NCC elections that year. Postal voting had nearly doubled since the previous election. As evidence goes that's circumstantial at best but I smell a rat.

Mayor Collins to be a Reality

OMG.

The Post is reporting an announcement from Communities Secretary Eric 'Pieface' Pickles that Nottingham WILL have a referendum as to whether to have an elected mayor, despite JoCo's 'recommendation' that we don't. This was sort of expected and the publication of the 'Localism Bill' has confirmed it.

I wonder if the Extraordinary General Meeting were told in time?

As if that's not bad enough JoCo will be made a 'Shadow Mayor' (more of a night mayor surely? Badum tish!) next summer to get us used to the idea before the referendum is held in 2012. I'm sure that JoCo is just as unhappy as I am because he's said in the past that elected mayors are a stupid idea. He may not be unhappy about being an unelected one however, even if only for a temporary period.

Of course, this temporary appointment does rely on him remaining as leader after the local elections next May and that, in turn, relies on him being re-elected as one of the councillors of St Anns.

People of St Anns, you know what to do...

For more on some of the measures in the Localism Bill see Alanadale's take on it.

And from the Dept of Communities and Local Govt.

Update - council funding settlements now released (MSExcel file). Nottingham faces overall cut of 8.44%. Ouch.

Please Register to Vote!

Please can I request and remind all readers, especially those of you actually living in Nottingham, to register to vote? Yes, I know it's a crap system and all but I truly believe that we should grasp what little means of influence we have, even though we should be given more.

The forms are coming out about now, I got mine last week and have just registered using the online facility. How TERRIBLY convenient.

The reason why I particularly urge Nottingham readers to register is that the Nottingham City Council elections are only 8 months or so away. It is therefore our chance to put the wind up some of the jokers who populate this blog and, of course, to support the honourable exceptions who do actually do a good job. Yes, there are a few one or two.

While we're on about elections, can I remind you about the 'Take Back Parliament' campaign? I know their focus is national politics but many of the arguments are relevant to local elections too.

I'm Going to Stand For Election! - Am I 'Eck as Like!

This is, of course, an April Fool. Mock executions at the Galleries of Justice? Not sure that would pass the 'family friendly' test.

Sadly, the Eve Post don't seem to have featured my press release. Whether that's because they just wouldn't be interested or whether they saw through it I don't know.

My apologies to Friar Muck in the comments and to one of my followers on the Facebook page. Oh yes, and of course to one current City Councillor who did the hook, line and sinker thing.

Update - A good sport tweets...



Ok, I know it's over a year until the next elections for Nottingham City Council but I've decided to stand for election as a councillor on an anti-sleaze type ticket.

I've sent out a press release in the following terms -

"Nottingham Blogger Announces Plan to Run for Election to City Council as 'Anti-Sleaze' Candidate

The next Nottingham City Council elections may be more than a year away but Nottingham Blogger Andy Platt, author of the 'Nottingham City Council LOLs' blog, has already announced plans to run for election to Nottingham City Council in 2011 on an 'anti-sleaze' ticket.

“Having experienced the way the council operates at first hand, I feel I can make a difference by challenging the cosy status quo and make real changes' said Andy. “I will do my utmost to prevent such scandals as community groups being thrown onto the street and council workers unjustly being forced out of their jobs.”

Andy also plans to campaign for greater recognition of Nottingham's past history of radical politics.

“Nottingham elected the only Chartist MP in 1847. In 1831 there were serious riots triggered by the Duke of Newcastle's decision to vote against parliamentary reform and the castle was burnt down in the protests. We celebrate Robin Hood so why can't we celebrate that? I would want the Council to sponsor a commemorative day on the 9 October, the day the riots took place. We could have fireworks from the Castle and the Galleries of Justice could perhaps stage mock executions to recognise the three rioters who were put to death.”

Andy will be looking for volunteers to help with his campaign. Further plans will be published to the blog in the next few days.

Ends.

Notes for Editors

1. The 'Nottingham City Council LOLs' blog can be found at http://ncclols.blogspot.com/

2. In November 2009 Andy successfully took Nottingham City Council to an employment tribunal for constructive unfair dismissal, after resigning his job as Team leader in August 2008."

JoCo's Pledge Card

You may have seen that the Labour Party are issuing 'pledge cards' so their candidates don't forget which meaningless cliches to spout at those difficult media moments to present their 'core values' in a simple and effective way to the electorate.

What you may not know is that candidates can make their own.

Following news that Jon Collins may be standing in Nottingham East I can exclusively reveal that he has already done his


Cheap and a little bit obvious I know but I am very easy to amuse and it does keep me off the streets.

Off Topic Electiony Votey Stuff

Well I've been and done my sacred duty. Was a bit intimidated by the size of the ballot paper, you could have worn it as a scarf.

Daft story of the day goes to UKIP who are aparently convinced that there's a conspiracy to put them at the bottom of the ballot paper and then hand them out WITH THEIR BIT FOLDED OVER so voters don't see them. Here's a tip - change your name to the 'Aardvaark Army'. Twats*.

Bloggerheads have invited bloggers to join in with their fisking of the BNP's manifesto so here's my contribution on their welfare and housing policy. I'm afraid I don't link to the BNP so do a search yourself or go to Bloggerheads who have a stronger stomach than me if you want a read of the origial policy I'm quoting from.

"Ultimately there must be only one category of welfare recipient: those who genuinely deserve or have earned it. The scrounger entitlement mentality must be discarded. Those who can work but refuse to do so, must face the consequences of their actions on their own."

This fails to consider the needs of sick and disabled people. Although didn't one BNP twat say there wasn't any point in keeping such people alive?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/may/31/bnp-european-elections-facebook-expose

Or for that matter the needs of children of the people the BNP would regard as 'scroungers', after all they haven't done anything wrong yet would presumably starve if their parents didn't receive financial support.

Wouldn't the fact that an army of unemployed people being put to work for free mean that the people previously doing the work for a wage would find themselves unemployed?

"Immigrants come here and are immediately given council homes while Britons are pushed further and further back in the queue."

Well, thats just bollocks isn't it? Homelessess assistance is subject to the habitual residence test which eve EU citizens struggle to pass. And my local council has a local connection requirement in its general council house allocation policy and I'm damn sure it won't be the only one to do so.

"A BNP government will restore the earnings link with pensions and ensure that elderly people who have paid a lifetime of taxes and reared families should not have to sell their homes to pay for care in their old age."

Lovely idea but I'll take it seriously when I see the costings. Approx half the welfare benefits budget already goes on pensions and associated older person's benefits, way more than any other group. The single biggest item of spending is Retirement Pension.

So don't vote BNP cos it means you'll get a load of racist twats in.

Sort of only semi off topic, although we in the City haven't got local elections (you'll know when we do cos there'll be a load of extra 'Proud to be...' banners up everywhere) the County has.

The Tories have pledged to halt Phase 2 of the tram if they get in which is pretty dumb of them and suggests that they only talk to their natural constituency of nimbys and country squires. I really don't think this is much of a votewinner myself.

LibDems are apparently hoping for a hung council as they are likely to hold the balance of power ("Go back to your constituencies and prepare for a minority role in a dodgy coalition that will collapse within months..."). Bless 'em, who says they lack ambition? That said I reckon its the likeliest outcome.

Update; just been having a look at the County's website and there are quite a few Green Party candidates standing. This is probably their best chance of gaining a presence on the County Council. Go Greenies!

* But not as big a bunch of twats as the BNP obv