This May I lost my county council seat. Luckily I had realised I had probably lost at the verification of votes the night before, so had time to think things over. I still held my Llanelli Rural Council Seat and will be seen joining the local chain gangs as vice chair of the that council this year and as chair the following year. The Rural Council selects its chairs on seniority and I've been a member since 2001. I was vice chair before but resigned when both the Clerk and some other councillors objected to my autistic child being my consort after they started reading a book in a very boring WEA lecture. If there had been a spare book I would have taken it, I was asked me to change my consort but I decided to just pack it in. Now I've been around so long its my turn again. This time my mother is my consort and her right wing politics and embarrassing stories about my childhood will be far less likely to cause offence.
Losing my County Seat leaves me more time for other things, and completely free of any guilt from the actions of the assorted slime bags, ostriches,nice but dim, well meaning but ineffective and generally gutless former colleagues, most of whose company I honestly will not miss. Most importantly my ambition is to write up and finish researching a large pile of local issues which have been languishing around my home and computer. I hope to blog more frequently.
As to yesterday's election, after waiting up until the early hours of the morning to see results which were important to me in one way or another, I found the picture here from the post by my friend Gillian Anderson today in Aye Mac summed up my general viewpoint on the process also.
I'm getting older, and will be 60 later this year and recall my first political activity which was delivering election leaflets in the 2 elections of 1974, the first chapters in a slow, political car crash for Labour ending in the plague of 1979. I doubt this new government will live up to the "strong and stable" label.
I also cannot abolish the evil thought that Theresa May should grasp her only advantage in her probably short premiership and send in a brexit negotiating team containing at least half of her DUP new friends as I truly believe that after a few weeks of their company the EU would give us very favourable terms just to get rid of them!
I have always been a nationalist. During the 2014 Scottish Referendum I worked for Yes in Dundee where I used to live and work, and later spent some time in the neighboring Perth and North Perthshire constituency where, unlike in Dundee, where the "Yes" vote was the largest percentage in Scotland, it clearly was not going so well .They had a 60% No vote in 2014. This SNP seat was clearly at risk in an election where INDYREF2 was the major issue and the Tories doing well. Shortly after 3.00 am and after 2 recounts and despite a 20% swing from the SNP to the Tories, the SNP's Pete Wishart, a man of notable courage and persistence, won the seat by 21 votes. I shall be playing nothing but my Runrig CD's in the car for weeks.
Siân Caiach,
Losing my County Seat leaves me more time for other things, and completely free of any guilt from the actions of the assorted slime bags, ostriches,nice but dim, well meaning but ineffective and generally gutless former colleagues, most of whose company I honestly will not miss. Most importantly my ambition is to write up and finish researching a large pile of local issues which have been languishing around my home and computer. I hope to blog more frequently.
As to yesterday's election, after waiting up until the early hours of the morning to see results which were important to me in one way or another, I found the picture here from the post by my friend Gillian Anderson today in Aye Mac summed up my general viewpoint on the process also.
I also cannot abolish the evil thought that Theresa May should grasp her only advantage in her probably short premiership and send in a brexit negotiating team containing at least half of her DUP new friends as I truly believe that after a few weeks of their company the EU would give us very favourable terms just to get rid of them!
I have always been a nationalist. During the 2014 Scottish Referendum I worked for Yes in Dundee where I used to live and work, and later spent some time in the neighboring Perth and North Perthshire constituency where, unlike in Dundee, where the "Yes" vote was the largest percentage in Scotland, it clearly was not going so well .They had a 60% No vote in 2014. This SNP seat was clearly at risk in an election where INDYREF2 was the major issue and the Tories doing well. Shortly after 3.00 am and after 2 recounts and despite a 20% swing from the SNP to the Tories, the SNP's Pete Wishart, a man of notable courage and persistence, won the seat by 21 votes. I shall be playing nothing but my Runrig CD's in the car for weeks.
Siân Caiach,
I'm not sure you are right about another election soon. The PM is clearly weakened and Steve Crabb (314 maj) and Guto Bebb (635 maj) and their many other colleagues with small majorities in England will not look forward to what has essentially become a two party system again with an energised and successful Labour. BREXIT negotiations and security are reasons for the government to say they need to get on with the job to allow them to time to understand and fix what went wrong for them. Another significant factor will be the DUP. As they will be keeping the Tories in power there will be more attention paid to their "friends" and the policies they support which are far closer to the right wing of the US Republican party so the shadow of the nasty party will come back into focus. Difficult to fight an election these with things swirling around.
ReplyDeleteI was so sorry to hear you lost your seat on our Toxic Carmarthenshire County Council as you were one of the few to question its actions and tried to hold it to account and up to the light. I couldn't vote for you as I'm not in your area. Look forward to more of your blogs. I don't agree with leaving EU, as you know, or the complete separation of Wales away from being part of UK as in this day and age dialogue and closer ties with other Democratic countries is more important than (put our country first) mentality which makes for an (I'm alright Jack) situation. What with Global Warming and the big arms businesses in the west putting profit before Human Rights of the countries, where the people have no voice, the world is going to need stable and ethical countries to actually stick together and show a different way. Trump in America gives false hope to the "forgotten" masses by brainwashing them, as Hitler did, that a certain race of people and migrants were the cause of all their troubles; basically as UKIP did for us to get out of the EU. EU was and is not perfect but if you're in it you have a voice to make changes and others in the EU are now wanting change too. If the democratic countries become more insular and think only of themselves then that will give the Tyrants of this World more freedom to abuse their power. Working together is the only way. Jaw Jaw not War War solves more problems and as we have found War and threats to others only feeds terrorism and makes for more refugees fleeing undemocratic countries where the weapons the west have supplied is used against them. Also these weapons and the terrorists created by our past and present actions have now been turned against us on our home ground. Basically when people are treated with distain and their human rights ignored they will turn against the people in authority who abuse the power they were given by the people. On a smaller scale the way Carmarthenshire County Council behaves towards its constituents has caused a great deal of harm to individuals whose only way of redress is to publicise its wrongdoing. An LA who can act against the Public Interest, with impunity, breeds dissent. Human Rights allows us the right to shout out against such wrongdoing yet even here in our democracy we are penalised for doing so whether as a whistleblower, complainant or blogger; the UK needs to start forcing our public bodies to follow, as they should by law, the Human Rights Act and the Seven Principles of Public Office. Jacqui Thompson, Trisha Breckman and Delyth Jenkins' stories illustrate the need for wrongdoing public bodies and servants to be held accountable and not protected. You too suffered for acting in the public interest as a whistleblower in the NHS. We in Carmarthenshire have our own mini Tyrants who can rely on the protection of others to never be held accountable and this breeds resentment too.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Anon that another election is not immenent at the moment, especially as Orange is the new Blue and no-one wants the uncertainty and expense of a new election within the next few months. Unless May really does turn things round and get a Brexit deal, the economy stabilises,and the project at least looks good enough to get the Tories re-elected, and the DUP stay sweet, there is a good likelihood that the five year term will not last. I've selected 18 months in the household sweepstake on the subject. In reality I suspect more luck than judgement will be in play but certainly not a stable situtation.
ReplyDeleteThanks Jen for your good wishes and I agree with much of your analysis. The relief of no longer having to take any responsibility for what goes on at CCC and not having to associate with a large number of individuals frustrating on many levels is overwhelming at the moment. Some were not exactly pleasant company and others totally frustrating to try to work with, a few actually supported some things we needed but it was not a good atmosphere nor as productive as it should have been. I am probably more effective on the outside of the tent p**sing in.
There are many of us who have tried (how'd you put it)pissing in but these wrongdoers in County Hall are Teflon coated and protected against any form of accountability. I do hope you'll put yourself forward for election again as you gave us ignored and frustrated citizens hope that not all our representatives can be gagged by CEO, LRJ and the Executive. Good luck with whatever you try to do in holding our CCC to account. Abuse of Power: Because Councils Can (Title of a book by whistleblower Julie Grace) Our CCC is not the only toxic LA by a long chalk!!
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