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News and Comment April 2015

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23 April (Part 2) - Eenie and Meanie but no Minie or Moe

Somebody has just told me he knows which way I will vote in two weeks time. I wish I did, I’m still dithering and trying to rationalise a sensible choice.

If Nigel Farage was standing in Erith & Thamesmead there would be less of a dilemma. Teresa Pearce was right to call me a plague on all your houses sort of bloke. I am also utterly sick of the main stream media’s blatant bias, especially the BBC’s, and feel like rebelling against it. Alas there is no Nigel Farage character in E & T. UKIP has been a total let down here so far.

Yesterday I found myself coming to the conclusion I would have to vote for Teresa Pearce and pretend she doesn’t belong to a party whose main policies appear to be still as I have always seen them; based on envy and a desire to bash the wealth creators. I found myself looking at Teresa’s old election leaflets to see if I could bring myself to hold my nose and jump into her pool.

I could take issue with one of them but on the whole Teresa’s leaflets from 2010 were really rather good.
GE 2010
Did she ever hold the annual meetings? If so she forgot to tell me, but even four out of five for political promises is not at all bad.

Teresa was described in one of her leaflets as a down to earth plain speaking sort of woman. There were a lot of good quotes in that one. Click the image below to see the source document.

WordsDid she live up to the hype?

When Elwyn Bryant and I were seriously libelled by the man at the end of Conservative councillor Peter Craske’s phone line, Elwyn’s MP wriggled all around Bexley to avoid helping. True he admitted to being horrified by what had spewed from Craske’s internet connection but would James Brokenshire actually help?

No way, he even had his office staff tell Elwyn he had no appointments left for his surgery but when Elwyn asked a friend to seek one a few minutes later; no problems at all.

James Brokenshire is a career politician, a proven waste of space and not the sort of MP to help a constituent when the going gets tough.

Teresa on the other hand took no persuading to stand by me and sit through difficult meetings with Bexley’s police and was not afraid to give me her valuable and honest opinion of them. Just as promised in Pledge No.5, she will call a spade a spade when she has to.

If it wasn’t for my long memory of Labour government disappointments I know who I would be voting for. I may still do so, you don’t need a very long memory to remember Cameroonian cock ups. I suspect some of what I object to there can be laid at the Lib Dems’ door but that would say little for Cameron’s sense of honour in my opinion. Power for power‘s sake?

The alternative to Teresa is Anna Firth. If I can read between the lines I don’t think her opinion of Bexley council is a lot better than mine. She is too clever to say so but unless I have been totally duped I suspect she would be a much better constituency MP than James Brokenshire or David Evennett.

I can understand why Erith & Thamesmead Conservatives took a trip down the A21 to find their candidate, there is simply no Tory talent any closer but it does put Anna Firth at a disadvantage. Look at these two slogans…
Teresa Anna
Five years ago Teresa pledged to be “A strong local voice for Erith & Thamesmead“ and now Anna is following the same path. “A strong voice for Erith & Thamesmead“. Well she could hardly claim to be local could she?


UKIPOn the other hand choosing local is not always the best thing. Look what UKIP did in Erith & Thamesmead and what has happened since.

It’s not for me to make voting recommendations but I am probably a little closer to the action than the majority of voters having met all three of the E & T candidates mentioned so far today.

Graham Moore for the English Democrats has been on the campaign trail too but, and I wish this wasn’t so and that there was a less demeaning metaphor, but in my opinion (again) , Erith & Thamesmead is most definitely a two horse race.

It’s a shame that Thanet and Nigel are sixty miles away and UKIP Bexley’s former chairman grabbed his kilt and ran away to Scotland. With David Coburn here Bexley Conservatives may have been routed, but they have escaped their just desserts again.

E & T hasn’t even got Chris Attard. He lives here but is trying his luck for UKIP in Bexleyheath and Crayford. If you live there and favour career politicians who steer a careful path rather than offer help when needed, David Evennett is your man. If not both Chris and Stef Borella deserve attention.

Other candidates are available in Erith & Thamesmead…

Sid Cordell, Christian People’s Alliance. Ann Garrett, Green Party. Graham Moore, English Democrats. Simon Waddington, Liberal Democrats.

All original election leaflets available by clicking the extracts shown.

 

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