Welcome to the Slough of Despond

You would have thought that a major political crisis is what has brought me back to this blog after nearly 6 months, but it isn't. It has nothing to do with Liam Fox and his bestest ever buddy; it has nothing to do with the anodyne party conference season, which seems like a lot of idiots preaching to the converted and it hasn't really been the economic crisis, although as a member of the great unwashed, the 2½million official unemployed, I probably have an opinion about it. No, the thing that has spurred me to open up this blog for what might be a final hoorah, is the growing feeling amongst people who aren't earning more than £40k a year, that the bottom is going to drop out of their worlds.

I'm actually a perfect example of this; as we hurtle towards Christmas and 2012, I am bringing such an insignificant contribution to my household that we are facing the distinct possibility of losing everything we've worked the last 25 years to achieve. I don't mean we'll lose our house, but I do mean that if there aren't jobs out there for me to do that bring in enough money to keep our heads just bobbing on the surface, we might have to consider some drastic actions. The problem is there are very few drastic actions we can take and that applies to so many people in 2011 Europe.

For the first time in my life and interest in politics, I look at all the parties and there's nothing there that installs even the barest hint of optimism. The Coalition is running to stand still - largely. Gideon Osborne's austerity drive seems to be floundering and the Tories, once considered the best people to handle Britain's economy, seem to be all at sea. They blame Labour for everything when they should be sorting out the mess. Labour could do with standing up as a united front and saying, 'Yes, we borrowed too much money, but look at the work we did and the fact that while the country is in debt, your kids have new schools, new hospitals and new homes to live in.' Surely the happiness of the many outweighs the elation of the few?

Labour should say mea culpa and like the long Conservative administration before Labour came into power, they lost the plot around the end of their second term. People have lost faith in politicians; they don't believe they have the interests of the many and evidence suggests that not only doesn't the government (any of them) have your interests at heart, but they believe that keeping the people with economic interest in this country sweet, even if the poorest get poorer and become even more alienated against politics and worse, society. If the Coalition has proved one thing, it's that we need a new kind of political system in this country.

Recently, I had all kinds of hassle trying to sign on the dole. It was like a 2 hour visit to Dr Mengele, the dentist. I was so incensed by the pfaffing about I had to go through I wrote to my local MP - Michael Ellis (Con, Northampton North). It is the second time in my adult life I have written to my local MP and both have done excellent jobs in helping me and both were Conservatives. It sort of created an interesting dichotomy for me - I have no liking for Tories, but as constituent MPs I have no evidence they're anything more than superb. Yes, it's just sugar coated vote catching, but that applies to any party. I have heard stories of local MPs going the extra mile for constituents and causes, and it's amazing that these imbeciles who run the country can do such excellent work on their own patches. I'm not suggesting that either Michael Ellis or Peter Fry who helped me in 1992 are imbeciles, but one wonders how they can do so much good at a local level and yet support policies designed to cause the maximum hurt to people who don't deserve it?

Two years ago I was so up for running for the local council that I declared my intention to my employer; I went public with my intentions and even sort council with local councillors to discuss strategies and what I needed to do to ensure I got your vote. Then I changed, almost over night. The General Election of 2010 obliterated my ideals. If I'm honest, a Coalition government was what I was really hoping for. Labour had been in for too long and I don't believe that Gordon Brown would have taken this country into new fertile pastures; he would have been bogged down by all the things bogging down the current administration and people may have grown so hateful of him and his party's policies that Labour might have faced a worse wilderness than it did during the 80s and most of the 90s. But, I expected a Labour/Liberal coalition, with the Liberals there to stop stupid decisions being made and to come up with policies that were fare to the poor and less so to those who have it all anyhow. We live in a classless society according to former PM John Major; no wonder he is gradually becoming the forgotten prime minister; he didn't have a clue and his party allowed him to continue without said clue.

George Monbiot, who it seems is the voice of reason in the country and doesn't appear to have any political affiliation apart from being fair, writes columns for The Guardian that provoke thought and sometimes anger. A recent column, which can be seen at www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/03/bins-roads-wars-osborne explains where our money is and isn't going - it is depressing reading and isn't rubbish, it's completely true, properly researched and not some socialist propaganda. Even the hardest nosed Tory would have to (reluctantly) agree that the way our government is distributing money it claims it hasn't got, is a little more than disturbing. But the Liberals are stage struck and the Tories have never invested in the future when they can make money NOW!

A new politics? Yes, a new system designed to have the country's best interests at heart. We have grown accustomed to our elected representatives doing all manner of things we have no wish for them to do. I'd propose that governments are only allowed two terms in office; I'd even propose that MPs are only allowed two terms in office. There would still be elections at the midway point, but that would act as a referendum on whether the party in power were actually doing a good job. At the end of the two terms, every MP has to stand down and be replaced by someone new; who then has to go to his constituents and make his case for why they should elect him as the former's successor. That would mean new cabinets every 8 years (at the most), new people running the country, injecting new ideas and not being allowed to change things so much and so detrimentally that it takes the next administration four years to sort out just the beginnings. MPs and governments should be held accountable for the position they leave the country in. If the people don't like a policy and it has been a failure to the majority of them, then that party is penalised by not being allowed to have a candidate in a safe seat for a minimum of four years.

Drastic action? Yes, but these people are elected to serve us, not serve banks, corporate businesses and the aristocracy. MPs should be doing what they can for the people who elected them and also for the greater good. MPs should either relinquish associations with business or take a maximum of an 8 year sabbatical away from their interests. MPs should be MPs and not have any associations with anything that could compromise their position - even if that means someone is involved with a charity or voluntary organisation. MPs should concentrate on being MPs 24/7. There should be longer parliaments; more time spent with constituencies and less time swanning off around the world on jollies that are paid for by us but we get no benefit from. MPs should be given four weeks holiday a year and bank holidays; they should be taking an active role in local government, either in an advisory capacity or as a kind of House of Lords overlord, deciding if a major council decision is in the best interests of his constituents. In other words, MPs should be made to work; that way those thinking it'll be a jolly jape or a wheeze to be an MP might think twice about it, or better still be ousted from their role if they fail to do what is on the job description.

There should be a balance between helping those who are struggling and allowing the rich to get richer. I'm not saying the rich shouldn't get richer, I'm just saying they shouldn't be allowed to if it is making a disproportionate amount of poor people poorer. The plebs make the country run and if you continually take the piss out of them you'll get to the point where people give up on politics because they feel they will get nothing out of whoever is in power. And perhaps that's what all parties want; a population that is so disillusioned with their politicians that they can get elected with a turnout of less than 50% - not really a mandate in any one's eyes, but it could happen, especially if our young people continue to be bemused by the entire business.

We should look at our position in the world and realise that it isn't 1850 any longer and we're just a bit part player and not much else. We shouldn't be the USA or NATO's deputy sheriff; we shouldn't be spending our money and risking our soldiers lives for countries that mean nothing to most of us. We should have armed forces, but they should act as an apprenticeship for people who want to learn trades, find discipline or need it. Our armed services should be grooming the grunts for real life, not training them to get killed. The amount of money we could save by just becoming a country like Germany would ensure growth in all the right places. What is it about PMs - from Thatcher to Cameron and all in between - that means they feel that getting involved in a war or a conflict is going to endear them to the masses or possibly secure a place in the history books?

This country has always been resourceful; how else would a piddly little island control most of the world for as long as they did? If taxing the big banks and corporations heavily means they bugger off to a country that is more receptive to their greed, then so be it. Something else will step in and fill the void. I can't understand the reticence of not taxing the people who got us in this mess in the first place; the arguments is that without their money we'd struggle - most of us don't see that money any how. It lines the pockets of the already wealthy and it does not trickle down the way it is claimed it does.

A friend of mine, a Labour activist called Mike Sivier had a great idea. The couple who live in Cambridgeshire who won the £101million on the Euro lottery; if he had won it, he would have made half of the money available to local and small businesses - cut out the banks - and charge them a ridiculously low interest rate, mainly because if he lived to be 200 he probably couldn't spend all that money. I suppose the problem with winning big on the lottery is that human nature dictates that we suddenly change our core values; we're all right Jack - the ethos created by Thatcher - takes precedent and only the most altruistic and philanthropic would even consider using a big chunk of a windfall to help others make money. The thing is, even if the Old Lady of Threadneedle Street is injecting billions into the economy, banks still refuse to lend money to anything that might have the slightest risk attached - surely starting your own business is fraught with risks, that's the gamble you have to take. That's the gamble the banks have to take.

Briefly touching on the Liam Fox issue; if a minister or a bog standard MP is seen to be in breach of his regulations then they have to be punished. Claiming you didn't know it was a problem or claiming ignorance is not an issue. If my wife - a civil servant - was found to be discussing her job with an outsider, she would be sacked; surely MPs who involve independent people in their public lives should fall under the same jurisdiction? The same way every MP should be held accountable if they screw up. We have to have impeachable people running this country; I'm not suggesting they have to be whiter than white - six years of working with young criminals taught me that sometimes the best people to work with the disenfranchised is someone who has been in the same boat. As an ex-bankrupt, I feel that I learned more from the pariah years I suffered than I probably could have learned had I not gone bankrupt. As a former retailer, I feel I'm better placed to advise small retail outlets than others. Yes, you can argue that the most successful people are best placed to do this role, but temper this with the fact that economies rise and fall and you have to be prepared for the rough as well as the smooth. As a failed businessman, I give a perspective that successful people don't experience. Therefore, if someone is available to give even-handed and sensible advise and guidance, then they shouldn't be excluded from it.

I don't think any of my ideas would even be treated as more than rantings of a borderline communist; but I don't think sensible ideas by far more qualified people than me are going to be considered either. Politicians now have their ideas; are tied down by their own dogma and are pretty much isolated from the real world. It is a form of megalomania - another human trait we're never going to stop.

My gut feeling is that everyone is walking around believing that the western world is not going to crash and burn in a full scale depression - after all, whenever that happens, we have wars - but the harsh reality is that in the next few years we might see the collapse of economies, governments and even countries. We look at 3rd World countries and wince at the pain and suffering they contend with; but we console ourselves with the fact that we're Europeans and we're not going to suffer the same fates as these poor unfortunate souls. But what if Greece collapses? Does another country take them over - Soviet style - and force the population to work for peanuts and slip into such extreme poverty that children will die of starvation? How would we react if the scenes we have seen in Africa suddenly happen on the streets of places we once called holiday destinations? How would you feel about going to Corfu or Crete and being accosted in every town or village by beggars and children with bloated bellies from malnutrition? What if it happened in Spain or Portugal? What about Ireland?

I am a pessimistic bastard, but I think dystopia could be the next great social adventure the human race embark on. The riots of the late summer might have been instigated and mainly involved people with criminal records, but in Greece, people like you and me are campaigning every day because they are getting poorer and poorer and there doesn't seem to be any good news on the horizon. Germany and the EU can try and aid Greece by ploughing money into it, but my mum always said 'you shouldn't throw good money after bad'. What happens when Greece can't pay its debts and the people are expected to bail out a country that can't find its arse with a map and a torch? Even a peoples revolution in Athens and across a country that gave us democracy won't solve the problem. Greece will still be in debt and have no way of repaying it unless the people literally work for nothing. You can lead a horse to water; you can beat a donkey with a stick; you can impose all manner of punitive measures, but ultimately its the people who will sort out the problem and when they lose hope, there is no hope any longer...

We're all going to die, but instead of the way we'd hope, it will wallowing in filth, scraping the insides of the haves bins for leftovers. That's me being optimistic...

The Doldrums

Boy, am I glad that I didn't throw my hat into the ring! The rise of the Independent didn't happen; in fact, it went backwards. It seems that with this election the prime target was to punish the Liberals. Punish them for Nick Clegg, for supporting budget cuts - which it seems is much worse than implementing them, for tuition fees and, it would appear, for abandoning their ideology for a shot at power sharing.

Despite all of this, many people still went into last week's elections thinking that the country would support a change in the way we vote and would slap the Tories down as hard as they were going to the Libdems. Talk before the election was that the Tory party would lose 1000 seats, the Libdems 500 and Labour would be the big winners. None of that, quite amazingly, happened. The Tories actually gained seats and control of councils; Labour were shunned in a Scotland that is growing further and further away from mainstream politics, won in Wales and made headway in the North and some unexpected areas, but overall, the only victor was the Conservative party - no escaping the fact, regardless of how bitter it makes me feel.

My take on this chain of events is for a while the AV referendum was a definite Yes vote; but there were obviously more people, like me, intending to use the vote as a political weapon rather than as a way forward. 67.9% of the people who voted were unanimous in their wish to say No.

The Human Shield analogy has been raised a lot and probably is correct. The Tories exploited Clegg's unpopularity; the lack of cohesion within the Labour party, that essentially saw safe Labour MPs vote Yes and those in marginals opt for No. This isn't an exact science, but if you look at the figures you will see a definite trend. I think what happened was bizarrely the core of Libdem voters are not actually liberals; there's a huge percentage of them that are either disillusioned Labour or Conservative voters, unhappy with the way the party they support is operating at that moment. Socially conscious Conservatives and right leaning Socialists vote Libdem, but went back to their spiritual homes for these elections. The Liberal Democrats aren't finished, but they're not going to be in the game if they survive the coalition's 5 year plan. Nick Clegg better hope for a knighthood or a peerage because he's not going to keep his seat at the next election. His kids are going to be asking why Papa is at home all day every day, growing his hair, not shaving and becoming fixated with Jeremy Kyle.

Political commentators are saying that the Tories are almost hoping to be able to call a snap General Election, because the feeling at Millbank is they would win it with a healthy majority; but the NHS is a key debate at the moment and no one, even Tories, trust their party with the health of the populace; the NHS could mean they end up not winning outright again and the prospect of a Labour, Scottish National Party, LibDem pact becomes all too apparent.

What the No vote might have done to English politics is turn it back into a two party nation, at least for the next generation. With Scotland and Wales having more appointed politicians than most corporations have directors - MPs, members of the Welsh Assembly, MSPs, mayors, councillors, parish and district councillors - that country is becoming more synonymous with politicians than leeks and sheep!

What a No vote did was keep fringe politics where it was and in the case of the BNP that is a good thing, but what about the Green Party? In an ideal world, every council in Britain should have two or three Green councillors. But, you see, we have to accept that the BNP have representation in these lands. We might find it and the people who follow the politics abhorrent, but this is, the last time I looked, a free country and we're tolerant even if the target of our ire isn't. Perhaps the question on May 5th should have been to decide whether or not council elections should be decided by PR - Proportional Representation. Then a four term study over 16 years could decide if it works and whether or not there was the ability to introduce it as an alternative vote. The councils run the country on a daily basis, surely that would have been the logical place to start with a voting and electoral reform idea? 20 years sounds like a long time, but I remember 1991 like it was yesterday...

The Lib Dems are going to hold onto what they've got and will make a good, if not vainglorious, attempt at looking like they are tempering Tory excesses; they'll get concessions on bills, but you can bet your life the concessions will already have been decided by the Tory policy makers before the Liberals make them. I expect politics to take a turn in the calm waters of wait and see; I don't expect much to happen for the next few months; the Treasury will sit back and watch to see if their radical plans are working and there'll be the occasional dog fight, probably to do with lack of services or a new Lansley idea to be torn to shreds by the left. The first year of this coalition is over and it's still alive; it's probably best for all nothing much happens for a while.

***

When Sean Connery returned to the Bond film franchise, the film he made reflected what he'd said in the late Sixties when he quit the role - Never Say Never Again. Throughout my life I've fallen victim to these four words on numerous occasions.

My intention is to take a break from this blog. I'm feeling a mixture of disillusionment about politics and struggling to come to terms with my own impending redundancy, because of the cuts. The politics thing is because I think it's all a bit pointless at the moment. I know that's a cop out and we should have challenging voices all the time, but factor in my personal position and you can understand why, hopefully.

I'm not closing it down and I will probably still post links and will be incensed by something enough to get my soapbox out. This has never been a regular thing, any how, but it's likely to get more irregular. My other two blogs are different beasts; one is already finished and just gets automatically posted and my personal blog isn't going anywhere.

Let's all hope it doesn't get worse, eh?

Ahem...

The local Liberal Democrat candidate for my ward, Nazi Slam, probably lost his deposit. The lack of Labour candidates in 'pointless wards' possibly handed overall control to the Tories. Tony Clarke, who has done more for this town in recent years than, I dunno, anyone, lost his seat. Northampton became blue and I lost my faith in human nature.

I'm glad that I didn't stand as an independent; by the looks of things I would have been crushed by voter apathy and the Tories ability to mobilise their minority support, where other parties just don't bother or, more realistically, can't. The political landscape of Northampton has just become a hostile and ultimately destructive place. The new keepers of the Borough Council are not benign; they will be looking at how to drag Northampton back from the brink of bankruptcy as quickly as possible and that means in four years time you will be left wondering just what the party has done to have deserved to get the majority vote. This is not bad blood or sour grapes. The last Tory only administration NBC had screwed the town up so badly they became something of a laughing stock and there were huge calls for a unified council.

The Libdems took a kicking. Every one knew they would and former councillors must be looking at their results this morning and thinking two things - how can they consider trusting Nick Clegg ever again and probably more likely, they'll be wondering where it all went wrong. The brutal defeat of the Liberals and the failure by Labour to bother turning up in 14 of the wards will not explain why the Tories - the stronger party in government - increased its share and gained strength from it - bucking a trend that never gets bucked. Incumbent parties never do well at local elections; it's almost a God given. Yet, the Tories shone will they're coalition partners disappeared into the ether and considering the cuts, the job losses, the support of another Arab war, the many faux pas, Andrew Lansley and Michael Gove, the Tories will be sitting in their ivory towers, with smug grins and wondering whether or not holding a general election in September would see them return with a working majority and the ability to spend 5 years fucking up the country even more.

But that's just me being a prophet. The sad truth is that even though most people who live in this town know someone who has lost their job because of government and council cuts, they either didn't vote or decided that it was time for the Tories. And boy is that sad. It doesn't matter whether you disagree with labour's ideology, whether or not you can allow yourself to be bothered by others less fortunate than you, the people of Northampton have spoken and reflected the national feeling and Britain has become a scarier and less safe place to live in. If you voted Tory, I really truly hope that you suffer for it over the next four years. I mean, really suffer, because perhaps you'll be swayed to never vote for them again. They don't like you; they don't care about you and yet you fall for them like a hirsute bad boy, every time...

The Mourning After

What have we learned?

Scotland no longer trusts the three main British parties. It wants to see how it handles things itself.

Labour is still suffering from a power hangover.

People appear to be blaming Nick Clegg and the Libdems for the coalition decisions.

The Tories must be delighted to be in cahoots with the Libdems.

I think it's time we got off the Libdems' backs. It's the Tories that have caused the cuts and the disharmony around the country; they're the party with the most seats. Had they had a majority in the Commons then they could well have been facing humiliating results.

It's time to turn our ire to Blue. Clegg is finished, his 15 minutes of fame have gone. The AV vote will be a potentially fatal blow to the heart of this coalition. The Libdems will have lost all they believe in over two days in May.

Part of me just can't fathom how people seem to have conveniently forgotten that Cameron, Osborne, Gove, et al are basically a bunch of millionaires who don't give a shit about any of us and are destroying lives to get themselves into the history books. We have to focus on these self-serving Tory charlatans, the time for kicking the disabled and disaffected Libdems is over.

Wipe Out

Two major political decisions will be made next week. The first will possibly be the complete wiping out of the Liberal Democrats from the councils of the UK - this, it seems, is what a lot of political commentators believe will happen. The Libs will suffer the brunt of the backlash and the Tories, while still unpopular, will possibly (and amazingly) benefit.

The second and arguably far more important is the first referendum in this country since about 1971. You have a choice - you can vote YES or NO and you don't have to put a 1 in the Yes column and a 2 in the No.

I've sat very much on the fence as far as the AV referendum is concerned. I started out very much on the No side, started wavering at the beginning of April and planted myself firmly in the Yes camp by the middle of the month just gone.

This vote is a mixture of what YOU feel and speculation. It is a difficult issue and as many have said, the wrong question has been asked. For me, the time for debating whether the right question has been asked is moot, the important thing is, to be quite crass, how can you vote to ensure the coalition suffers hardest?

As far as I'm concerned, and I can point you in the right direction if you need swaying, a Yes vote will ensure that Political Voting Reform will continue to be part of the agenda for the foreseeable future. You might find AV confusing, but a Yes vote means that the thing can be honed, chiselled at and generally tinkered with until it's easy to understand or it becomes something more akin to PR - Proportional Representation, which, I think is the ideal that most of the Yes campaigners are aspiring to.

If you vote No. You are saying you are happy with First Past the Post and you don't mind the fact that the Tories have ruled this country umpteen times without the mandate of the people. 54% of Brits continually voted against Margaret Thatcher, yet she won 3 General Elections and this allowed her to tinker with county and town borders to ensure that the Tories had an easier chance of winning again. A No vote removes the subject of Voting Reform from the political agenda and it will languish, unspoken of, for another 30 years and you and me will continue to have pompous arses like David Cameron ruining our country.

Going back to the council elections briefly; in an ordinary world, the voters have an option when one party is in power - vote for one of the other main parties. This time Labour stand on their own; people will look at two things - Ed Milliband who hasn't got the gravitas of a proper statesmen yet and that councils are better off run by coalitions or the Tories. Just remember the new school your kid is in, or the new hospitals built around the country, or the development that doesn't EVER happen when Tories run the country or your local government.

If you can't bring yourself to vote Labour on May 5, then vote Green or Independent or for someone who actually gives a shit about the ward you live in. Councils should really be run by the people who need them the most.

My final word on the AV debate is that a Yes vote might not destroy this unholy alliance that runs the country, but it will be a vote against David Cameron, George Osborn, Michael Gove and a host of other millionaires who like FPTP because it keeps them from doing a proper job. A Yes vote gives us all the chance to elect the right person, not the person who gets the most votes in a 30% turn out, effectively winning with a lot less than 30% of the entire vote.

Vote for AV; vote for change. Vote for the chance to debate the voting system in the country. Don't vote No and box the entire country into a corner for a generation or two.

The Winner Takes it All

Ever had a bet? A few quid on the Grand National or The Derby? No? Would you bet with someone else's money, if there were absolutely no strings attached? No? How about this one, then: would you bet with an entire country's finances, on what is essentially the flip of a coin - a 50-50 chance?

I was sitting in the garden reading Ed Balls spell out how Osborne is steering the good ship Blighty into economic oblivion and marrying this up with the grinning, evil sneer of the chancellor and it dawned on me what is happening in 2011 not so Great Britain. George Osborne is playing roulette.

No other country in a deficit is following in our example; many moderate economists are jumping on the doom and gloom bandwagon and we're all waiting for the country to slip its moorings and sink into the North Sea. However, there are a number of radical economists who think we're doing the best thing and a smaller number who seem to think we're not suffering enough. What if they're right?

Osborne has nothing to lose, has he? He's inherited a treasury that's so far up shit creek with its chocolate paddle that everybody was scared of their own shadows and no one wanted to do anything. He's not exactly got a bucket load of ideas to play with as he takes the keys to #11; so he calls in his brains and does a spot of storming with them and comes up with two scenarios - slow and steady - a Labour approach which will have him remembered as the chancellor who slowly steered Britain out of recession, oh is that the time? Or Super O, the radical chancellor who said 'fuck this, we're going blow this mother off the map'. The John Shaft of British politics comes in, gets radical on yo ass and if it works he's the person everyone remembers from this coalition of doom. If it fails? Well, he's just another of Cameron's cronies who had a go and buggered the country just a little bit more.

Osborne is in one of those no-lose positions, which is probably why him and that smug little cock Danny Alexander always look so full of themselves - political history has a tendency to breeze over component parts of failed governments. I'm just surprised no one else has noticed...

Meanwhile, Back in Northampton

I received a circular from Michael Ellis, the Tory MP for my area of Northampton. It appeared to be a questionnaire designed to attack the Liberal Democrat members of the County and Borough Councils, which I found quite amusing. One of the themes was what worries us about the areas we live in and I took great pleasure in mentioning the cuts in public sector workers leading to cuts in essential services; because these things are the issues within the town that concern me the deepest. I expect my reply will be consigned to the bin, especially as I said my intention was to vote Labour at the next local elections.

One of the specific questions was aimed at the current decision not to allow Northampton Saints and Asda to develop Franklin's Gardens so that our rugby club can host big European cup matches rather than having to take the business out of the town and over to neighbouring Milton Keynes (which of course had usurped Northampton's prominence in the last 20 years by virtue of nothing more than a big shopping centre and a main line rather than a branch line railway station). It appears there is a concern among local and regional politicians that we're destroying the town centre and allowing the development of our rugby club will be detrimental to the development of the town centre. Okay...

Northampton Town Centre is dominated by the eyesore that is Greyfriars Bus Station. The plan is to knock this monstrosity down and replace it with a huge extension of the Grosvenor Centre, which already has a number of empty shop units; in a town that has plenty of space and not enough business to fill them. Apparently the thinking is if they increase the size of the town's premier shopping mall then more shops will open and more people will come flooding into town to spend the money that none of us will have in 6 months time.

We seriously believe that some of these pillocks we elect to serve as councillors actually have brain cells. They don't!

Take the thorny issue of parking. If you want to come to Northampton to do some shopping you either pay through the nose to park in one of the pretty shitty car parks or you go somewhere that's free or has a decent enough ratio of shops to car parks to make it worth your while. Leicester might be a city, but you can get lost walking around its centre because of the huge amount of diversity and choice of shops and areas to shop. Northampton, with its proliferation of pound shops, sex shops, pubs, mobile phone outlets, amusement arcades, bars, fast food joints, coffee shops and computer gaming stores, doesn't exactly advertise itself as a place to spend a hard day's shop in. Especially as it is choc-a-block full of either anti-social Brits or Eastern Europeans. The market square with its ridiculously pathetic water spout and its ever dwindling amount of traders was once the biggest outdoor market in Europe; we're probably struggling to be the biggest in the region now. All of these riches are available to us if we park our cars in the poorly kept car parks where we'll discover at the end of the day that we've spent more getting and staying here than we spent in any of the shops.

Retailers have been complaining for ages about the ridiculous parking policies that NBC has adopted. They might not want to see any further development of outlying areas of the town so that the emphasis is placed back onto the town centre, but why are they gradually increasing the radius of parking exclusion zones? The latest 'free' road to be targeted is Georges Street, the one that sort of runs parallel with Grafton Street. It's the road that has the small mosque, the Sikh temple and a few other Asian places of worship; it also has a school and not a lot else. it was, for people who work within staggering distance of Regent's Square, a haven of free parking and for weekend warriors it was a place, not that far from the centre, to park for free and therefore feel more inclined to spend money in the town rather than in parking metres.

Georges Street is now a minimum wait zone; only a few spots by the places of worship have been made exempt, everywhere else is a two hour limit until 1pm. It is nothing more than an attempt to make the people who work in the town to use the extortionate car parks or park even further away from their places of work. It is, essentially, an attack on people by a council that already doesn't really understand the concept of your arse being different from your elbow.

Northampton has an underlying policy of extortion to anyone that needs to use it. The price of a bus journey from where I live to the centre is unbelievable; so unbelievable that it is actually cheaper for me to drive into town and then park as far away from my desired destination as is humanly possible, because the time, discomfort and aggravation is still markedly cheaper than catching a bus. The town is running alive with traffic wardens, whose brief appears to be screw as many people as is possible and they'll get a bonus - my word, that is encouraging people to come into the town, isn't it? This is a town that has harboured aspirations of becoming a city; give me a break, this place could never be a city; it is too colloquial and provincial to even contemplate it - it is run by small and petty minded idiots who have no concept whatsoever about what the residents want and need and will go out of their way to alienate people without a second thought about the long term consequences.

What Northampton needs is a few more councillors from places like King's Heath, Eastfield, Thorplands and Camp Hill, people standing as councillors who up until now have felt disenfranchised by the entire political and social scene. The Big Society is essentially the government saying, 'we're going to give people more say in how things work; if you don't get involved then tough titty, you had your chance, you didn't say anything, live with it.' So the only way for this council to ever be progressive is for its parties to start looking for people who give a shit to stand for local issues, rather than the massive amount of home owning wankers, sorry, councillors, who live in suburbia and hide their heads and consciences away from the crap that goes on in areas the Chronicle and Echo refuse to even acknowledge exist.

People, we are seeing the gradual erosion of our entire country and Northampton appears to be a test case for this. There will be a ridiculously low level of front line services available for use by 2013; the councils will be run by HR departments and 'managers' who think they know what we want better than we do. Your council tax might not go up, but what you get for it will disappear or we'll be charged independently for it. If you think life is crap at the moment, wait a couple of years and suicide will suddenly be a blessed alternative...