Fun Things to do While You're Waiting for Democracy to Kick in.

So…I’ve been clicking around the TDF site – giving due consideration to all sides of the argument concerning certain elected public servants and their ‘strategic’ decisions – and then I find this link to ‘Clause 4.16.9’ of the TCBC Constitution. And suddenly I go from mildly amused, to terribly intrigued. That same part of me that quite likes ‘The Da Vinci Code’ and gets all excited by cryptic puzzles and unsolved mysteries suddenly took over, and I found myself gazing in amazement at the list of conditions that now qualifies a public question as inappropriate, and therefore able to be rejected outright.

Wow. Talk about ‘Gordian Knot’ – you might as well replace the current list of criteria with one that reads:

‘Any question composed of words and/or syllables – constructed as a sentence or phrase, being either written or spoken, and relating to anything at all, ever. Clicksies, no comebacks.’

Seems to me that Clause 4.16.9 (apart from sounding ever so Biblical) was lovingly crafted to be a foolproof ‘get out of answering anything even remotely sticky free’ caveat – and I’m using the term ‘caveat’ in its root definition as a warning and as a mechanism to halt proceedings. It’s there quite simply to prevent people like us from opening our big gobs and exercising our right to question. It’s a censorship tool – nothing more, nothing less.

But it’s also a fun way to while away a few hours while you’re waiting for the Labour Party to implode. You see, I’ve come up with an idea for the whole family. It’s called…

BEAT THE CLAUSE!

And it’s really easy to play. All you have to do is come up with a direct, meaningful question to put to the Cabinet that can’t be shut down using Clause 4.16.9. Now I’m not saying for one minute that you should actually go and submit any of these questions to the Cabinet – ‘cause, let’s face it – that’d be pointless. They’d only go away and create Clause 4.16.10 and it’d probably look just like the one I came up with above. All you have to do is post them as a response to this blog, and we’ll see if we can prove beyond all doubt that there isn’t one single meaningful and direct question any of us can come up with that TCBC wouldn’t be able to reject using Clause 4.16.9…

And if anyone DOES manage it – could you then turn your attention to solving the problem of free energy and world hunger? Cos you’re obviously some kind of genius…

Join The Campaign For Democracy in Torfaen!

This blog post is specifically for anyone who wishes to express their support for the petition campaign to make the Labour-run council of Torfaen aware of how and why we will not accept them as our DEMOCRATICALLY elected representatives, and for anyone who wants to fight for democracy in our wonderful county! Although Cllr Wildgust is spearheading the campaign we can assure you that we the people (of many diverse backgrounds and political persuasions) are the driving force behind the desire to establish a better system of governance in our local area. Please support this issue with any comments or more if you want to get involved!

Democracy Petition is Coming (Argus 19th June)

"Councillor Wildgust is organising a Torfaen-wide petition calling for proportional representation, and is planning a major protest march from county hall in Cwmbran to the civic centre in Pontypool at the beginning of July.He said: "I have had dozens of letters and e-mails calling on me to act. I want to motivate the population and get people marching for democracy.
"My message to the Labour leadership is democracy is coming." "
South Wales Argus 19th June 2008

See full report here.

Well Done Labour

On the Free Press website yesterday a John Turner has made the following comment,

"Well done Labour for retaining control of the Council. Clearly the opposition could not agree to power sharing so labour showed them how it should be done. Hopefully this will give the Council some stability to get on with the job of governing and by those with experience and ability rather than by an unfocused rabble of an opposition."

I am guessing that this is former New Inn Councillor John Turner who was a respected member of the cabinet before the May election. Is he implying that labour would have been willing to share power? I am copying his words here to allow comment from others, and to ask a few questions of the current labour group/leadership and Mr Turner.

• Would they have been willing to share power with the opposition, ie in a coalition of all parties, with political balance on the cabinet?
• How small a majority would they have to have had before they might think that they should share power.?
• Due to reduced numbers all but one labour member has a position of extra responsibility. Does each and every one of those have the necessary dedication, experience and ability to perform those duties?
• Does Mr Turner consider all the opposition to be lacking the ability and experience to take a meaningful part in the government of Torfaen?

What you see (vote for) is not what you get!!!

Every election (local/regional/national) there seems to be the same chorus " Empathy is everybody's enemy" "People should vote for what they think!". Well certain (Famous Five/Labour) Torfaen councillors should be proud in their ability of killing any pride or respect that people had in them and confirming the worst beliefs that people have in all politicians. 

How can they hold their heads high knowing they have SOLD OUT themselves and everybody who voted for them. 

Vote Plaid or independent?? Why bother....? If you are sick and tired of Labour in the valleys, but I can already hear " its always been that way!!" I respond 'well look where it has got us', vote for a party that stands for something. Conservative or liberal at least you know they stand for something. 

I have seen what councillors get and the cushy chairs and committees - what I haven't see is the return on that investment. How about being accountable, being selected and keeping roles based on competence and results? No lets base it on party and.......lottery, personal preference, direction of the wind?? 

I must opologise to all those councillors that work long and hard on the behalf of those who voted for for you - I just don't know who you are, as you have all been tarred by colleagues actions or lack of them.

Councillor Cunnington answers his critics

Let me elay any fears that I am a Labour supporter, far from it, baring in mind that I still have the scars from when they stabbed me in the back!
On the face of it and the mis-reporting by the Argus (which they agreed was as a result of incorrect information given to them initially), I quite appreciate that the electorate will feel betrayed, I would feel the same, however my decision when explained will I hope, prove to get the best deal for our ward, which is what I promised to do - and to achieve this I had to seize an opportunity to gain what is probably the most important casting voting position in the County, which I intend to use as a lever to get facilities in Two Locks and Henllys in particular, not forgetting the rest of the county. continues....

Press Release from Councillor Fred Wildgust

As an independent councillor, I am free of any party whip and cannot be controlled by the restrictions of party policy. When I stood for the council my mandate was that I would work to secure better financial accountability, improved environmental management and where dubious or immoral decisions had been made I would root it out. more....

Only Labour Can EVER Lead Torfaen!

Well that is what senior members of the labour party think, by definition. No-one else has the experience to form a leading group. So in spite of a poor show at the polls, for the labour party and himself, leader Bob Wellington has justified his "arrangement" of eventually finding 5 former sworn enemies to support his next year in a very well paid office to bring "stability to local governance in Torfaen" See Argus report here dated Tuesday 27th May 2008

"But council leader Bob Wellington said the "arrangement" would bring stability to local governance in Torfaen.

Senior Labour councillor John Cunningham, cabinet member for operational services, called the independent coalition members "hypocritical" for joining with the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.

He said the five Cwmbran councillors would not necessarily support Labour, who he said were the most experienced party and the best placed to run Torfaen council."

So no-one but the labour party is experienced enough to run Torfaen, AND no-one but the labour party members will get any position that would allow them to gain any experience (yet every labour member, clever or dim, old, young or inexperienced gets some position of responsibility.) very clever, a bit of a catch 22 situation if ever there was one.

Add to that the opinion that Independents were hypocritical to even think of a coalition with Conservatives and Liberals (they don't mention that that would have been under the leadership of independents) yet it was in the public interest for the labour party to tout round with a chequebook for literally anyone to support their continuation in office and you can see what sort of mugabe-istic thinking is behind stable governance in Torfaen. How badly would labour have had to have done in the polls for them to begin to even think that they should at least share power?