I've had very good support in Kingsley in the past, and I even had Churchy bricking it last time when the county council results were being counted, before he squeezed in ahead of me by a few votes. I don't know yet which unfortunate Lib-Dem will be standing against me this time, but no doubt time will tell.
I don't give much of a chance for the Lib-Dems in these coming elections to be honest; they've got up everyone's nose in one way or another over the last three years, whether you're a Cobblers' supporter, Town Centre shopper, Market trader or customer, or just someone who likes to see your council tax spent wisely. The local Lib-Dems will be seen as the party that spent everything and achieved nothing. Their spin and hyperbole was second to none, their practical achievements almost nil. The Lib-Dems have given Northampton half a fountain, and a few coloured lights around the Market Square which nobody sees most of the time. Over two million pounds have been wasted on the Market Square, and the traders are worse off, and there are less of them than ever before.
Looking around, what have the Lib-Dems done to be proud of? Nationally they have betrayed us, and locally they have made a mess of whatever they've touched, King Midas in reverse. Take our Market as an example. I told them that it would go downhill as soon as they started kicking it about, re-arranging it in a manner the traders didn't want, and replacing our strong stalls with poxy popups. We even got 11,000 signatures from the general public and shoppers supporting us, but it meant nothing to the Lib-Dems, who did what they wanted anyway, and gave us half a market, complete with a low-life 'cafe culture' that has been nothing but trouble since it began.
Now, with the elections looming, the Lib-Dems will be vainly looking for the votes of those 11,000 shoppers they ignored, and they won't be getting them. For the Lib-Dems it is payback time, and I expect the long-suffering people of Northampton to send them packing, just as they were sent packing recently by the good people of Barnsley Central, where they trailed in at the local by-election in sixth place behind the BNP!
