I'm told Richard Church has been seen up and running too, hastily stuffing leaflets through letter-boxes, dashing around complete with rolled-up sleeves and brown trousers. He'll need bicycle clips as well before I'm finished with him.
The people of Kingsley have got a brilliant opportunity to send a message up the motorway to London to tell politicians to clean up their act. They can see what a mess Church has made of Northampton Town Centre, including the Market, and this is their chance to register their disapproval of Church as an inept politician, and the Liberal Democrats as an inept and bumbling political party.
I find politics very exciting at the moment, both locally and nationally. Locally I see poor Brendan Glynane got chucked out of his job as Lib-Dem Deputy Leader by Church and Woods. What a shame; Brendan is one of the best orators they've got, and convincing, too. A brilliant bull-shipper, he's even convinced me a couple of times, which is going some. A back-stabbing crew, the local Lib-Dems. You too, Brutus; or is that Richard?
I see the Northampton Liberal Democrats have been having a publicity campaign recently in the local papers, trying to convince people of what a fine job they are doing in wrecking the town. It shows the degree of contempt they must hold for local people, if they think many will swallow that. You've only got to talk with market traders about the results of their recent enforced move: everyone is doing badly, most traders are between one-third and a half down in takings compared to before the move, and the events that have been run so far have been a disaster as far as trade is concerned. Since the move six traders have left, two were very long-standing traders of 18 and 27 years market service. We warned NBC about all this for months before they moved the market, but they were too stupid to take notice.
'There are none so blind as councillors who do not wish to see' as the saying goes.
The NBC are supposed to interview us after every event, to get some idea about if the event boosted trade or not. We've been moved two months now, have had two big Saturday events and several smaller ones, and no market trader has been asked anything. They are supposed to ask the shops, pubs, and restaurants around the town centre the same question, too, and keep careful records. Have they hell! All this is supposed to be a part of complying with the terms they signed up for when they got the grant, but now they have the dough they aren't bothering. It all goes to show what sort of a caring council we've got. It's high time the funders - EMDA - looked closely into this.
Nationally what can one say? Most of Parliament caught with its feet in the trough, blaming each other, excusing themselves, and generally convincing nobody. High time for a General Election, I'd say, with nobody who's been caught fiddling able to put up again. That would clear a good many out, to start with.
They should bring in some sort of treason law, too. Anyone in Parliament fiddling their expenses should be up for treason, crimes against the State. At one time in China you would get shot for embezzling from the State; I'm unsure if they still do that, but it would certainly put a damper on what our MPs have been doing. Even the threat of a few years in Pentonville would stop most of them.
Well, time to pick up my leaflets, and get cracking. If there's anyone out there in Kingsley who'd like to give a hand by taking a few around, or putting a poster up, just let me know. I'm usually on Northampton Market, rain and shine, Monday through Saturday, near Peacock Place. See you there!
