SO YOU THINK THE EU IS DEMOCRATIC? WATCH THIS VIDEO!

Since writing the headline and posting the video on Saturday there has been a dramatic development. The Greek Prime Minister has called for a referendum of the Greek people to approve or otherwise the bailout conditions. So a little bit of democracy finally comes to a little bit of the EU.

However the Greek PM is getting serious grief from the other eurozone leaders for putting the matter to the people. It is a fact that the delay until the referendum result is known will create a great deal of uncertainty and events in the market may well overtake the referendum. And it does seem that he has sprung this referendum without telling the other leaders about it first. However, given the choice - either year, after year, after year of austerity and mass unemployment or the really short sharp pain of a default, leaving the euro with the massive devaluation of a new greek currency but the chance to rise again like Argentina (8% growth for a number of years post the default and devaluation) - the odds must be on the greek people choosing the latter.

Where will that leave the people of Ireland and Portugal who retain 100% of their debt burden, the yoke of the euro and years of austerity? That's the trillion euro question.

Update 3/11/2011 Referendum called off. Less than 24 hours after the Greek PM was called by his masters to meet them at the G20 Cannes, he has called off the referendum. The people again denied their say in EU matters. The Franco-German axis crushes Greek democracy.

WHIPPING BOYS (AND GIRLS)

As someone who believes strongly in the freedom of the individual one of the very first questions I asked my party before standing as a district councillor was "Do you have '3 line whips' at council meetings like they do at Westminster?". I found it very comforting to be told that councillors could vote according to their conscience although as a matter of good manners they should inform the leader if they are going to vote against a group recommendation. At the very first group meeting after the election this was reiterated. How very civilised and what a contrast to the situation at Westminster where the backbencher EU debate arising from the e-petition is being subject to a 3-line whip by all the major parties.

David Cameron has tried to defuse the situation with his own backbenchers by suggesting that treaty changes arising from the failed euro project could lead to some renegotiation and the return of some of Brussels powers back to Westminster. Well that would be a first in forty years! But Cameron's hands are tied being part of a coalition. To quote today's London Evening Standard website:-

"...he [Cameron] was immediately plunged into a furious public row with his Liberal Democrat coalition partners who do not support the repatriation of powers from Brussels."

The LibDems continue to be enraptured by the EU despite the euro project leading to rioting on the streets in southern Europe, frighteningly high levels of unemployment, stagnation, inflation and Berlin dictating economic policy to other 'sovereign' countries. Two things the EU certainly isn't - liberal and democratic!

Meanwhile, if you are still unclear of where I stand in regards to holding a EU referendum perhaps this photograph will clear things up!

I attended a Referendum demonstration at Westminster several years ago. I was handed this placard. I actually brought it home with me, as a sounvenir, on first the Tube and then the overground line to Ipswich. I felt rather self-conscious but proud.

At some stage in this country's future I truly believe they will erect statues to the freedom fighters against this evil EU Empire.

POSTSCRIPT : 111 heroes. 101 from across all three UK main parties, 9 from Ulster and 1 watermelon (green on the outside, red on the inside). No one representing Suffolk though.

THE AV CAMPAIGN

With such a resounding NO vote in the AV referendum I'm sure there will be no post-mortem by the NO campaign group. And those campaigning for a YES vote may well just take some comfort in deciding that the NO side "played dirty".

Alternatively, and more sensibly, they may decide to take a closer look at how their side ran their campaign. I've found a very well written analysis prepared on how the YES campaign was run. You can find it here.

Don't ask me how I came to be reading a "Liberal Vision" website - the beauty of the world wide web is that it can take you, link-by-link, to all sorts of places.

THE COUNT.....THE RESULT

I arrived at the counting centre at a quarter past ten and was followed into the hall by Kevin, the Conservative candidate from the neighbouring ward. It was Kevin's first time as a candidate and it took me back to 2009 where I was in a similar position in the County elections. The morning was just being used for ballot box verification (which I assume means checking that the number of ballot papers in the box equals the number issued). Also all the referendum ballot papers were being sorted, but not counted.

There were very few other candidates present so Kevin and I took a long walk down into Stowmarket and had an enjoyable cup of coffee in the outside courtyard of a cafe. Later after a brief look into the counting hall, I went home for lunch.

Arrived back just after two O'clock and the counting had begun. As there were two seats being contested, many ballot papers had two crosses on them. It was therefore quite a complex collation of various combinations to add all the various votes together. Although complex, it was well organised. However because of the complexity, it was very difficult to judge how the votes were stacking up. The count took a long, nervous (for me) 80 minutes. As it progressed I learnt that Kevin had not been successful although he had moved the Conservative votes in his ward up from fourth place to third. But with only two seats up for grabs, he had missed out.

Then came my result. And here it is:
Britt (Conservative) 469
Fairburn (Suffolk Together) 250
Penny (Green) 139
Redbond (LibDem) 502
Touman (LibDem) 296
Whitehead (Conservative) 573
Wilson J (Labour) 251
Wilson T (Labour) 233

I'd come first! And the two seats are split between the Conservatives and the LibDems which I think does accurately reflect the ward's political make-up with the hard-working LibDem deservedly retaining his seat. I've just realised that I got more votes than the combined independent candidates and more votes than the combined Labour candidates. So too did the second placed candidate. I think we can both be proud of that fact.

Overall our council has 21* Conservative councillors out of a total of 40. Gaining my seat therefore takes them past the 50% mark and gives them control. I suppose any Conservative councillor could make the same claim but as a "seat-gainer" I'll happy claim the role. [*Late amendment : the 21 figure should actually be 22 - it was an error on the MSDC website].

I only had a small band of helpers to whom I'm indebted for their support and encouragement. That includes our association secretary, the election agent, my local MP and his assistants/friends, our association President and his wife (my fellow candidate). Also the 10 locals who readily agreed to sign my nomination forms. Last but not least - my wife and young son for their support and help with leaflet distribution.

"I THOUGHT IT WAS CATS THAT WENT MISSING........"

Oh my feet are so painful! I don't think I have ever before walked in 9 hours even 25% of the distance I have walked today.

At the end of my last posting I was asking whether any one would be coming to my rescue to help get these second leaflets out. The fact is that I was actually expecting three people to call by during the morning and had lined up three distribution routes [about 600 leaflets] for them along with carefully drawn maps. The three were actually my local MP and two of his friends and they were due at 9am for a 90 minute slot. At 9.10am one person turned up and informed me that our MP had been held up at Westminster until 4am on a three-line whip. He would need to rest before being fit to drive out to Suffolk. That would be later in the day's timetable than my bit! So three became one and the mountains of leaflets suddenly seemed overwhelming. The two of us took a round each and got those out by 10.45am at which point I bade a thanks and farewell to my helper. I then got on with another round before lunch. I met up with my wife after she had finished work at 2pm for an 'all day breakfast' at a great cafe by a local fishing lake. I needed a big calorie input. Then whilst she went to collect our son from school I went off to blitz Henley and then Barham Green. Later whilst our son was having his football training we both put in a further hour's stint each and got a load more leaflets out.

Basically I just kept going through the pain barrier. My legs became so weary and my feet stung. But I found an almost evangelical zeal giving out these second leaflets. Someone I knew shouted across to me "I loved your leaflet!" and someone told my wife when she collected our son from school that "John's leaflet was really good". After football training this evening a parent told me "your leaflet was fantastic". Its not very often that political leaflets are described in such terms! But then it was a bit different to your typical leaflet.

The most surreal comment though came yesterday. A lady had just finished puting her child into her car seat as I walked up her drive and handed her my leaflet. She looked at it, exclaimed "Missing?!?!?" - a combination of exclamation and question marks in her voice before uttering the memorable phrase "I thought it was cats that went missing, not councillors". Priceless! The bold heading across the top of the leaflet was "MISSING!!" and it was a joy to hand it to people with a teasing "you'll find some interesting information in there!"

But there are no prizes for leaflets. Its the vote tomorrow that counts. And I really don't know how to call it. The Conservatives came bottom - fourth out of four last time (2007). This time there are eight candidates chasing two seats. The local pressure group "Suffolk Together" that took Tory votes back in the 2009 County elections have a candidate standing in this election and that is not at all helpful to my cause - although this time everyone has two votes (for the two seats).

Well I've given it my best shot. I learnt a lot standing in the 2009 County election which meant I hit the ground running this time. Short of having more helpers with canvassing and the fact I lost two days to illness, I'm not sure what more I could have done.

My house is being used as a "Area Headquarters" on polling day. That will be a whole new experience for me (and the family). I may blog about that tomorrow otherwise I'll be back with the result on Friday afternoon.

PS: This evening after football practice, one parent saw my 'No to AV' sticker and asked "What is AV?"

HUMOUR AND IRONY

Some on the left of politics jumped on a bandwagon last week after David Cameron's tongue-in-cheek "Calm down , dear!" to the faux hysterical reaction to one of his PMQ answers by one of the women on the opposition front bench. Cameron's later observation that they seem to take out the humour out when they put the socialism into these people was, in my view, spot on.

Whilst the socialists have had their humour removed, I'm pleased to see that the LibDems have firmly kept hold of their sense of irony. I received a leaflet of theirs through my door at the weekend with a catch-phrase logo "Working All Year Round" and which included the phrase "we need to make sure that you are properly represented". Difficult to argue with, surely? Yet I find both their catch-phrase logo and this particular statement both quite ironic. And why? The leaflet is co-authored by one of their candidates who has attended only 12 out of a possible 35 Full Council Meetings in the last four years. In my maths that's a 34% record. One year it was only 2 out of a possible 10 meetings [20%]. Here is that figure on the MSDC website:-

Its the line second from bottom in the photo. The worst attendance record out of all the councillors.

Perhaps we have different definitions of "working all year round" and "properly represented"? I feel most strongly (even passionately!) that the electors of Claydon & Barham Ward DESERVE BETTER than a councillor who frequently does not even bother to turn up to represent them yet still asks them to give him a second term of office! My second leaflet gives the electorate the opportunity to ponder this important issue whilst putting myself forward to fill this void. Democracy in action!

The only downside is that as of Tuesday evening, with 35 hours until polls open, I still have a phenomenal number of second leaflets still to deliver. Here's a photo of my campaign headquarters with a table still full of leaflets.

Will anyone be coming to my rescue? I'll never get all these out on my own tomorrow! Come back tomorrow evening for an update.

HOW BEST TO SUM UP AV?

I've been laid low with a nasty bug for two days but thankfully I'm better now. My son was quite ill starting Tuesday morning and that continued until late Wednesday afternoon. Then both my wife and I came down with it in the early hours of Thusday morning. I had another canvassing session scheduled with our MP which had to be cancelled and overall lost two days from the campaign trail.

But now I'm okay and we've delivered the first batch of our second leaflets today. The initial reaction when field testing these leaflets has been very favourable. Now we've got to spread that message between now and Wednesday evening. The people of Claydon & Barham Ward deserve better! The full story will be revealed on my next posting.

Meanwhile, here's an amusing ditty from Youtube which sums up the AV system. If you want the supporters of extreme parties and joke candidates -those who's votes don't presently determine the outcome at Westminster - to have a bearing on the outcome, then you'll support AV. If not, you'll vote NO on Thursday. The choice is your's - but first, enjoy this song.......