Malcolm Robinson

Not sure we can believe a single word that comes out of the EU these days GGG. Like all great autocrats, do as I say not as I do!

GGG has just been moderated! I explained to everyone what I would do every time I saw that word!

Thanks Vic and Canny lass, have no doubt we will try but its not so clear cut at the moment.

Harry Palmer, I thought that was Michael Caine's alter ego?

Many happy returns...

Wonky needs to read the rules to see how far he can jump over them!

Just before signing off this thread........... http://www.journallive.co.uk/north-east-news/todays-news/2013/05/02/michael-gove-warns-northumberland-council-over-pension-charges-61634-33270168/

I think we need to have a conversation about carrying on as mods never mind changing councillor logos. I have no doubt Adam feels the same we will try and keep a two way conversation going through this web site whatever happens. tomtom, Keith, like Stephen says there were 4 seats up for the town council and the make up is now 5 labour councillors and 4 independents. Mind you that's West Bedlington not East Bedlington so that's why we can't really comment on what going on at the Clayton Corner. I did try and explain about the 4 seats on one ballot paper at the last Forum meeting because a lot of people thought it was a form of PR (Proportional Representation) where second choices were added to first choices etc if there was no clear winner by a certain percentage. It was basically one man one vote first past the post, it was just there were 4 people to elect out of 6 or 7 choices.

Thank you Stephen much appreciated.

No it isn't Keith, it was easy for Suetonius to say! Latin is a language as dead as dead can be. It killed the ancient Romans and now its killing me. Funny what never leaves you once you learn it.

To paraphrase Suetonius: Alea iacta est!

Foxy, I could have put up a reply to doglover but its not the ward I am fighting so really it should be candidates or councillors from there that reply? I can say that the East Bedlington Parish election is uncontested so the people standing there are all elected without an actual vote been cast.

Another one to consider: 3 years ago I said at a NCC Area Meeting that the elephant in the room was their public sector pension deficit which at the time was running at around £350M. None of the councillors present wanted to answer me and it was passed to an officer who really only confirmed my figures. After pressing the chair I was told they didn't have an answer but they did expect central government to bail them out???? I asked if they understood that pressing people into early retirement with enhanced pension contributions as golden handshakes (AKA middle and top ranking staff) would increase that deficit figure substantially. Seems I was persona non grata once again! The latest figure I have seen suggests a NCC pension deficit around £470M but we are promised a full disclosure next year. Now is it just me or does that £100M+ increase figure sound familiar? Oh yes we have just had £100M chopped out of our services which would now lead me to ask, have we seen all the savings and cut backs we have endured over the last 4 years swallowed up by the increase in pension deficit which we somehow have to fund? We have saved £100M but increased debt by £120M, and that in a pot only the lucky few can access meaningfully!

It amazes me that none of the three main parties in tomorrow's election have mentioned the biggest threat to NCC which is about to hit. This being the £86M they have to 'save' over the next 3-4 years. The last Administration claimed to have saved £100M over the last 4 years, that out of a discretionary pot of around £400M. That means the next £86M comes out of a pot of just £300m! In effect in about 7 years (4 gone 3 to come) NCC will have reduced its services and deliveries by over 50% yet maintained the same charge. Please don't allow any of them to claim they haven't increased rates, they haven't in the strictest sense but they have reduced what we pay them to deliver! In other words we will be paying about double for the same service deliveries soon! And that's not even including the services devolved to Parish and Town councils which have to be charged again for!

Have they really made £2B? Look a bit closer! http://www.ftadviser.com/2013/04/30/investments/economic-indicators/morning-papers-falling-loan-charges-help-lloyds-advance-UYNVj1LYYmZdaQFcyPbgBL/article.html

Well worth highlighting here!

Hello Reedy, nice to have you aboard.

That's an in joke Adam! :lol:

Thanks ex-B.

Merlin, Nice to hear your dulcet tones once again being given vent on the site! I hope you will become a regular once again! Anyway thanks for message of support and I have to say I have been overwhelmed and humbled by the amount of people, who I don't know, not only wishing me well but also offering to help in any way they can. It makes it all worthwhile because I feel I haven't just made a stand myself it's something a lot of other people have identified and agree with.

Exactly the point tomtom. Its about keeping the commercial viability of the Town alive. If they all pull out maybe we open our own Mutual?

I think we need something just a bit more than an old fashioned Credit Union Brett. Looking at the new ideas Credit Unions are employing these days seem worthy of further investigation though.

Dajazar, I am not going to enter into the disagreement you have with Adam but I would like to take you up on one thing you mention. "Town council meetings are minuted.” I would say certain bits of them were! As you know the chairman of the council, which you were a member of, ruled that the public could ask questions (up to a maximum of 2 for 3 minutes each???????????) but we had to submit our names and address first. (Again ?????????) What was the point of having to submit names and addresses if the questions were not minuted as part of the meeting? Let's not even begin to suggest they were, when I asked the clerk about this he said the council were under no obligations to write them down because the meeting proper hadn't started! (Again ?????) I along with many others are still waiting for a lot of answers to the questions we submitted in good faith over the last 4 years! In fact Adam's old man is still waiting for a reply to a question he submitted in writing, after being asked to do so by the chair, 4 years ago! I realise that decisions had to be made in these meetings and ONLY elected members could take part in the vote, after all that's why we voted you guys in, but to deny yourselves more complete knowledge of the matter being discussed to me just smacks of hubris, like I have already mentioned. At the end of the day, like all other chaired and constituted meetings, the way the meeting is conducted is entirely up to the chair. The fact that the outgoing chair conducted the meetings in such an unaccountable way probably says more about the state of local democracy than anything and the willingness of the old elected grandees to flout their constituents initial support has led to quite a vitriolic backlash according to what I am being told as I canvass around the doors.

Adam beat me to it by a planck!

Brimstone maybe, hailstone no!