December 29: Independent gets harsh treatment
I regularly attend Northampton Borough Council meetings as a member of the public, and I write to concur fully with the recent letter by Mr Brian Oldham in the Chronicle & Echo, regarding the attempts by the Liberal Democrat administration to silence independent councillor Tony Clarke.
I was there when they childishly tried to throw him out of his seat earlier this year without consultation so that one of the "party" representatives could get their way.
I was also at the last council meeting where the mayor, in my opinion, allowed the constitution to be broken so that a Liberal Democrat councillor could move a vote to censure and silence him.
His crime? He stood up to the council, asked questions and said the very same things that most of us in this town are thinking about the council, but can't say to them.
This time he asked Councillor Brendan Glynane the following in respect of the Christmas lights: "Can he provide the evidential proof behind his written statement to council which reads: 'this year's decorations have proved more attractive and more visible than either of the two previous years?'"
The fact that Councillor Glynane refused to answer a straight-forward question and had to rely on his colleagues to rescue him to try and silence Councillor Clarke, speaks volumes as to current administration's contempt for democracy and their fear of just one man, prepared to speak the truth.
Too often at council meetings we learn that the three parties have left the independent out of any discussions or consultations and then try to force their will upon him.
As a Labour Party member, I was sad that the party treated Tony Clarke so badly when forcing him out of the party for perhaps being too forthright and independently-minded in his views, and I wish he was still a member.
But it seems that the Liberal Democrats take an even harsher view of those who speak up and tell the truth about their poor record as an administration by trying to silence them by any means.
A Timson,
Spring Boroughs,
Northampton.
It's like living on HMS Bounty
I really do not like to bash this town as I am a Northamptonian born and bred, but I hate what the politicians have done to it over the years.
Not only have they decimated the town itself, but they have created a downtrodden populous that have nothing to look forward to, nothing even on the horizon.
Living here feels sometimes like being on HMS Bounty.
It's as if everyone is in a state of mutiny and would gladly cast the captain (the council) adrift.
Whatever planet the council and the overpaid directors and executives of the council are living on, it bears no resemblance to the reality of those of us who actually live here.
Every idea that is muted by someone not on the council is dismissed out of hand and replaced by some irrelevant scheme that usually is later discarded after costing a fortune, so that by then nothing is done at all.
As far as running the executive, I am sure that there are many people in this fair metropolis who could do just as good a job at one 10th of the cost.
I do however live in optimism that one day we will get the council we really need, but I am just as afraid that it will be after everything of worth in the town has been removed or decimated.
Doug Buckle,
Kentstone Close, Northampton.
Think of town as a whole or hole?
The WNDC is the biggest waste of taxpayer cash ever to be spent in this town and for what?
Failed infrastructure and thousands of new houses that serve nothing more than to congest the town.
Can someone tell me what those car parks are for at the back of Franklin's Gardens? I've never seen a car in them.
OK, they have built a couple of new roads that serve no purpose to the long suffering gridlocked residents of the town.
The proposed upgrading of Gold Street makes me laugh.
It is supposedly to give better access from the train station to the town but more like better access to the train station so folk can get to Milton Keynes quicker, although I'm sure there must be hundreds of folk who would come here on the train from all parts to see the pound shops, amusement arcades and the Goth gatherings.
Finally Richard Church is about the only one who has spoken sense in all of this when he said "we need to think of the town as a whole".
Too right Richard, although you have spelt "whole" wrong.
Merry Christmas Northampton.
Make the most of it.
The council tax bills are on their way.
Ian Townsend,
Boughton Green Road, Northampton.
Al-Anon put me back on track
I write at this time of year to let others know that help is available if they are suffering from the effects of someone else's drinking problem.
While for most of us this is a time of joy and anticipation, for some, if they have a drinker in their life, it is a time of anxiety and fear.
For a long time fear and anxiety dominated my life as my world revolved around the drinker in my life.
Would he turn up? What sort of state would he be in if he did? How would he behave, what would he do or say?
I spent endless days and nights waiting and worrying.
Not to mention all the times that we were supposed to being doing something together and I would inevitably be let down.
There is hope in Al-Anon.
There I found people who understood what I was going through. They explained that my drinker was a sick person who was the only one who could help himself, but that I needed help too.
My life had become unmanageable.
I began to realise that while my friends and family thought my drinker was a fun person to be around, they found me uptight and irritable.
Of course I was, I was not sleeping and found it difficult to eat.
In Al-Anon I found the tools to help me get back on track, to be able to live my life in a calm serene way.
I now have hope for the future and would like your readers to know that they do not have to suffer alone if they have this problem they can contact; Al-Anon - Family Groups, 61 Great Dover Street, London. Helpline 020 7403 0888 10am-10pm, 365 days a year.
Name and address supplied
but withheld by request.
Little Englander denies heritage
Colin Bricher is quite right that I seek to attack Roger Helmer at every opportunity.
However, he is quite wrong about the reasoning behind it.
There is nothing incompatible with being pro-European and pro-English, Scottish, Welsh or Irish, dependent on where you were born or brought up.
A Frenchman is no less French because he or she can walk unhindered over the border into Germany rather than wait for hours at a crossing point.
By virtue of our geography, we are a part of Europe and it makes sense to get involved and get it right for us, not whinge ineffectively from the sidelines.
The British nations have a proud history of diplomacy, trade and world leadership.
It is a shame when persons such as Roger Helmer adopt their little Englander approach and deny their heritage.
David Brede,
Blossom Way, Little Billing, Northampton.
Whitehall messes up farm payment
THE European Commission has announced it will be fining our Government a whopping 74.5 million thanks to the calamitous way it handled reform of the Common Agricultural Policy.
In 2005, DEFRA introduced a new system for making payments after the EU reformed its farming policy in 2003.
Most countries were able to make the transition easily, however our Government introduced an unnecessarily bureaucratic method under the Single FarmPayment, against the advice of Conservative MEPs.
As a result, many farmers who were supposed to receive a payment in January 2006 did not receive a penny until the summer at the earliest.
Even when they did, the calculations were often incorrect and only partial payments were made.
While there is a need for further reform of the Common Agricultural Policy, the incompetent manner in which our Government introduced the last one put many farmers through a summer of misery.
Thanks to our Government's incompetence, we have been forced to hand over another 75 million to the EU that is should be spending here.
How much longer must we keep paying hand over fist for this Government?
Emma McClarkin,
Conservative Euro Candidate for the East Midlands.
Good memories of Phipps IPA
As someone who played in the Phipps skittle league and used to follow the Phipps NBC sing-song unit, I visited all the public houses in the town with the exception of the really old ones.
I was very interested to see the revival of Phipps IPA.
If my memory serves me correctly, as I am in my 69th year, this was called best and had a yellowish hue and looked a lot like draught lager.
The most popular Phipps ale was Starlight, this was SPA.
The brewery also did a bottled larger Stein and this was advertised in an amusing way by a plastic dinosaur at South Bridge, but this always suffered as a result of high winds and after bad weather the Steinosaurus was usually in a bad way.
Paul Wilkins,
Wycliffe Road, Northampton.
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Weather for Northampton
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 18 mph
Wind direction: East
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Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 24 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
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