Town Council Elections

[Pat-H]

If you want a local candidate stand or persuade somebody local you think would be good to stand. .

No point, they won't get in unless they are blue.

People don't stand because they know they are wasting their time not because they don't care.

If you don't give people the choice then how could that ever change?

Granted a lot of blue voters will still vote that way but more and more people are being impacted by the choices this coalition made. Even in Hertfordshire.
So yes the Blue vote may continue with zero contract jobs, blow away the value of pension annuities and force housing associations to sell off their valuable properties (how they imagine they can then raise funds for future purchases know body knows) and far more than that.

But I suspect at least some of the "Blue" vote will see the hole in the Tory finance plans and the fact that the claims that we've already seen massive cuts ignores than most of those cuts have yet to be applied or felt. And if some get the choice they make change. However knowing the sort of folks that reside in Tory areas I suspect UKIP to pick up any wavering minds. UKIP and Tory are so close you literally can't tell them apart hence why they jump parties so easily.

Scary.

[The Masked Woler]

If you want a local candidate stand or persuade somebody local you think would be good to stand. .

No point, they won't get in unless they are blue.

People don't stand because they know they are wasting their time not because they don't care.

If you don't give people the choice then how could that ever change?

Granted a lot of blue voters will still vote that way but more and more people are being impacted by the choices this coalition made. Even in Hertfordshire.
So yes the Blue vote may continue with zero contract jobs, blow away the value of pension annuities and force housing associations to sell off their valuable properties (how they imagine they can then raise funds for future purchases know body knows) and far more than that.

But I suspect at least some of the "Blue" vote will see the hole in the Tory finance plans and the fact that the claims that we've already seen massive cuts ignores than most of those cuts have yet to be applied or felt. And if some get the choice they make change. However knowing the sort of folks that reside in Tory areas I suspect UKIP to pick up any wavering minds. UKIP and Tory are so close you literally can't tell them apart hence why they jump parties so easily.

Scary.

Strange, the damage to my pension was done under Labour.

As you know none of that has any relevance to WTC though. I don't believe there is any place for party politics there - many elections ago I had some eejit at the door bleating on about Blair - I just said I didn't know he was running for WTC and he went away puzzled.

(ps you live in a Tory area)

[mb1]

The damage to all pensions wascdone by Tory supporting bankers, stockbrokers and hedge fund managers. Labour can take some blame for failure to properly regulate the City, but since the Tories and Lib Dems wanted less regulation even than Labour it's only some blame. The relevance to Town and District Councils is tge huge budget cuts inflicted on them by the Tories as a recession was turned into a depression through isdeological zeal to undermine the existence of government in Osborne's little clique.

[The Masked Woler]

The damage to all pensions wascdone by Tory supporting bankers, stockbrokers and hedge fund managers. Labour can take some blame for failure to properly regulate the City, but since the Tories and Lib Dems wanted less regulation even than Labour it's only some blame. The relevance to Town and District Councils is tge huge budget cuts inflicted on them by the Tories as a recession was turned into a depression through isdeological zeal to undermine the existence of government in Osborne's little clique.

You will note I said under, not by. Although the large cut in income was down to Labour.
As I said I am worse off whoever is in because I am not in either's target group, None of the money thrown comes in my direction I just end up paying for it.
But, as you say, Labour can't (or wont) control the city and therefore the economy even when they are in power.

[JCB]

Am I the only one to be bored rigid by mb1 repeating the same old Tory bashing tripe that is irrelevant to the thread? As PatH says, we should be looking forward to the future and what this town council should be looking to achieve for local people and the local area. Let us for once, adopt a positive attitude that with an election looming, it is indeed possible to elect a council representative of the local community, providing those candidates actually put their money where their mouth is and stand for election not just vent their spleen online

[Whereaami]

Well said JCB.

I stil think party politics has no place in local elections, We should be electing people who will protect our town & contribute to the many organisations in it which makes Ware such a nice place to live, Not because they wear a particular coloured rosette.

[mb1]

In what sense is it Tory bashing tripe to put facts out there. If you can find one thing that I wrote that is factually incorrect, then you might be able to describe it as such, but simply throwing around ad hominem insults with no back up of any kind is ridiculous and childish. As it happens I also think that Town Council elections should be national politics free, but they aren't - and in this town they are totally dominated by the Conservative Party so critiquing the record of the Conservative Party where it applies to local government is entirely to the point.

[The Masked Woler]

Very little through the door as yet - just the Con leaflet which takes credit for everything positive over the last years - presumably as they were almost exclusively in power they also have to take the blame for all the negatives too, they don't mention them. Not impressed with Mr Oldridge, much about his connections with Hertford and Broxbourne but no mention of anything he does in the town, so I must assume he has no involvement.

Only the green candidate for WTC/EHDC has come round so far - (the Cons never have in the 30 years I have been here, the Lib Dems usually do at some stage) he seems keen and is young, both positives and to be encouraged, he also lives in Ware and has bothered to come and speak on the doorstep so will get serious consideration. I vote for the person not the rosette colour and so have voted for most of the parties at some time (and indeed three different ones at the same election)

Trinity is the only ward to currently have a non Con for WTC (having succeeded in chucking out one of the incumbents last time ) and is the only one where there will definitely be one this time, which might explain why we have so many running.

[Ian]

The problem with elections is that often the people who make poor decisions either aren't elected or don't live in the area they make changes in. For example, there have been quite a number of poor planning decisions over the past few years in Ware, but the planning department are not elected.

Another example is the District Plan to build far more houses in Ware, far more than the projected shortfall and projected increase in population for the town with no plans to improve infrastructure, but the Ware representatives who vote on this will be a tiny minority and therefore have little say.

A third example is the number of waste disposal sites that will be dotted around the edge of Ware, again, the plans were put together by people who represented other parts of the county council.

I will vote with my conscience because I always have but I have little hope that my views will make any difference.

[The Masked Woler]

The leaflets give an impression of working together but there is little party solidarity shown by EHDC towards their colleagues in Ware - the Southern Maltings being a case in point.
Although the Conservative heartland on the south side escaped the (Conservative prepared) District Plan - so they think - (anyone who thinks they will not be affected is fooling themselves.)

As for not voting - if everyone voted it would make a difference the numbers are so small. In many wards 50 votes would change the result.