neilm
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Post by neilm on Mar 26, 2014 9:43:42 GMT
JG, I have often wondered if Parish/Town Council are past their sell-by date and if they ought to be abolished and their responsibilities absorbed by the appropriate District or equivalent Council. Parish and town councils don't have any duties or responsibilities. They only exist to organise those local things which the parish wants done and no other public body is doing. Allotments is pretty much the only statutory thing. As you say, s.137 gives them all kinds of scope for things people want. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 27, 2014 20:43:27 GMT
Much as I thought so no wonder there is difficulty in finding candidates and a low turnout in their elections in many places. I have thankfully always lived in large boroughs and cities, and live in a large town now in France and next to a large City, so have never encountered a Parish or Town Council and would not be interested in standing for one. This proves my point that they should be abolished as being of little purpose and the District, Borough, Unitary etc for that area should take on their work. Our UA would run a mile at this suggestion. They dont have the manpower or the inclination to undertake work at our level. So we are doing more of their work for them... |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 27, 2014 20:52:47 GMT
Much as I thought so no wonder there is difficulty in finding candidates and a low turnout in their elections in many places. I have thankfully always lived in large boroughs and cities, and live in a large town now in France and next to a large City, so have never encountered a Parish or Town Council and would not be interested in standing for one. This proves my point that they should be abolished as being of little purpose and the District, Borough, Unitary etc for that area should take on their work. Our UA would run a mile at this suggestion. They dont have the manpower or the inclination to undertake work at our level. So we are doing more of their work for them... But you know stalinists prefer centralisation ...... can't let local people have any control ..... |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 27, 2014 21:51:08 GMT
It's along time since since I have been called a Stalinist, and that was in 1999 by a Blairite. Certainly I am a Centralist and a Statist not of course a "Centrist" and reject the phony Cameron "Localism" as dumping the responsibilities onto the Local Authorities whilst denying them the Resources both in funding and in Manpower and I also shun the equally Counterfeit Conservative "Big Society" meaning that people would still have to pay Income Tax and National Insurance but would have to "Do it Yourself" . Thankfully that silly gimmick seems to have died the death even after a number of cringe making attempts to relaunch it.
Am I a Stalinist? No! Some of the things that Uncle Joe did would have been considered on a par with those of Hitler had not Stalin been then on side of Britain and the Yanks who of course won WW2. Genocide, purges, deliberate famines, deportations, Gulags, the colonisation of countries such as Hungary, Poland, the then Czechoslovakia etc with Soviet Satraps nominally in Charge. Hardly a Role Model to emulate. He did however say one thing which I must agree is as true today as when he uttered it, "Get rid of the problem? Get rid of the man!"
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Sibboleth
Labour
'Sit on my finger, sing in my ear, O littleblood.'
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Post by Sibboleth on Mar 27, 2014 21:53:29 GMT
whatever, dude
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Post by No Offence Alan on Mar 27, 2014 22:01:58 GMT
JG, I have often wondered if Parish/Town Council are past their sell-by date and if they ought to be abolished and their responsibilities absorbed by the appropriate District or equivalent Council. I take the opposite view. Purely local things like residential streetlights, playing fields and village halls/community centres should be run, and funded, at the parish/town/community council level. |
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J.G.Harston
Lib Dem
Leave-voting Brexit-supporting Liberal Democrat
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Post by J.G.Harston on Mar 27, 2014 23:56:42 GMT
JG, I have often wondered if Parish/Town Council are past their sell-by date and if they ought to be abolished and their responsibilities absorbed by the appropriate District or equivalent Council. The ones that do work well often provide a bulwark against the District Council steamrollering over local residents against their wishes. Your argument could be equally applied all the way up - abolish the Scottish Parliament, how *dare* they try to do things differently to Westminster, abolish local councils, how *dare* they do things differently to Westminster (the latter is oft stated explicitly by Labour in my LA, they have an utter loathing of local coucnils). |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 29, 2014 16:55:49 GMT
Having been called a Stalinist, (I am still laughing at that) here is my chart from Political Compass  |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 29, 2014 22:08:42 GMT
In which case, you're probably the most Stalinist member of this forum.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 29, 2014 23:37:30 GMT
Having been called a Stalinist, (I am still laughing at that) here is my chart from Political Compass That is pretty stalinist in my book. I am quite happy to be the furthest away from you on this forum (well it would be close between Arthur and I) |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 30, 2014 8:30:30 GMT
I am what I am Benjamin and will not be shoehorned into a container I do not fit. I answered all the questions truthfully and did not try to force the answer. It seems to me to be very accurate indeed. It would be very interesting to see how some of the other regular posters here come out. I think I'll start a thread on it although I assume it has been done before at some time.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 30, 2014 8:37:17 GMT
Going out soon to do my food shopping and then to vote in the Second Round of the French Municipals. I'm sad to say that the Independent, a former PS Councillor who came second in the First Round, and the UMP who were third, have done a deal "The Marriage of the Rabbit and the Carp" it has been called, but I will still go and vote again for the PS.
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Post by Devil Wincarnate on Mar 30, 2014 9:39:38 GMT
I am what I am Benjamin and will not be shoehorned into a container I do not fit. I answered all the questions truthfully and did not try to force the answer. It seems to me to be very accurate indeed. It would be very interesting to see how some of the other regular posters here come out. I think I'll start a thread on it although I assume it has been done before at some time. It has indeed...it normally churns me out at the dead centre. |
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Post by Devil Wincarnate on Mar 30, 2014 9:54:02 GMT
Right, predictions for today:
- PS to narrowly take Paris and Strasbourg, UMP to edge Marseille and Perpignan.
- The PS dissidents/divers gauche to take Montpellier.
- FN/hard-right victories in Beziers, Forbach and Frejus, and in one of the cradles of French rugby league, Villeneuve-sur-Lot.
- Narrow PS win over FN in Avignon.
In other news:
- Melenchon's paranoid garbage continues, accusing Le Monde of being frontistes. He seems to be a man rapidly losing it as his self-image of a popular man of the people dies on its arse.
- In Beziers, the PS leader has refused to step aside for the UMP and has been disinvested by the party.
- The Green candidate in Grenoble has been assaulted in the street by a white van man (literally, someone leant out of a white van and punched him).
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 30, 2014 11:18:45 GMT
Be interesting to see how close you are. "The Green candidate in Grenoble has been assaulted in the street by a white van man (literally, someone leant out of a white van and punched him)."Not sure about the perpetrator being a White Van Man in the UK but I can see this and similar assaults happening in the May 2015 British General Election which I feel will be the dirtiest both verbally and physically since I became actively involved in Politics as a teenager in 1969. I am NOT condoning physical violence but I could understand it as there are very many unhappy and desperate people in the UK since May 2010 who have nobody effective amongst the Political Parties, apart from some Fringe no hopers under FPTP, to champion their cause and offer them relief from their sufferings and who may take it out on an activist for the Party they see as being to blame for all their miseries. I would NOT like to be a Tory or even Lib-Dem canvasser or leafleter in some parts of the UK then and hope that Party Agents and Organisers are responsible as to the safety of their members and do not send them into some areas. I DO hope I am proven wrong in this prognostication.  |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Mar 30, 2014 11:34:42 GMT
Just going out to vote PS, catch you all later mes amis.
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Post by Devil Wincarnate on Mar 30, 2014 11:59:30 GMT
Be interesting to see how close you are. "The Green candidate in Grenoble has been assaulted in the street by a white van man (literally, someone leant out of a white van and punched him)."Not sure about the perpetrator being a White Van Man in the UK but I can see this and similar assaults happening in the May 2015 British General Election which I feel will be the dirtiest both verbally and physically since I became actively involved in Politics as a teenager in 1969. I am NOT condoning physical violence but I could understand it as there are very many unhappy and desperate people in the UK since May 2010 who have nobody effective amongst the Political Parties, apart from some Fringe no hopers under FPTP, to champion their cause and offer them relief from their sufferings and who may take it out on an activist for the Party they see as being to blame for all their miseries. I would NOT like to be a Tory or even Lib-Dem canvasser or leafleter in some parts of the UK then and hope that Party Agents and Organisers are responsible as to the safety of their members and do not send them into some areas. I DO hope I am proven wrong in this prognostication. I suspect it'll be no worse than any other election. I think most people on here from all the parties have either seen or heard first-hand of some pretty hairy moments in the past. For every story of a Tory being punched in a tower block, you hear a story about a Labour candidate being punched by a farmer! |
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Post by greatkingrat on Mar 30, 2014 12:23:03 GMT
I suspect it'll be no worse than any other election. I think most people on here from all the parties have either seen or heard first-hand of some pretty hairy moments in the past. For every story of a Tory being punched in a tower block, you hear a story about a Labour candidate being punched by a farmer! Or a member of the public being punched by the Deputy Prime Minister  |
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Post by Devonian on Mar 30, 2014 15:05:32 GMT
From Electionista's twitter
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Sibboleth
Labour
'Sit on my finger, sing in my ear, O littleblood.'
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Post by Sibboleth on Mar 30, 2014 16:10:54 GMT
Three Paris area results to look out for:
Bobigny: the PCF have won every municipal election here since 1919, but the total Right vote in the first round was 54.9%. This in a suburb where 70% of first round votes in the 2012 Presidential election went to candidates of the Left...
Montreuil: longtime Mayor Jean-Pierre Brard (once of the PCF) was sensationally defeated by the Greens here last time as voters tired of his autocratic ways and overt racism. The Greens made a hash of running the place, and now Brard is back. And in a ridiculous FOUR WAY runoff.
Villeneuve-Saint-Georges: the mainstream Right and FN lists have merged here in an attempt to oust the PCF incumbent (elected by a split right vote in 2008). Total Left vote in the first round was 42%
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