More Doncaster mayoral follies

Mr and Mrs Midgley from the CAPC and an interested party

When it comes to woolly thinking, woolly expressions come in handy – expressions like ‘political correctness’.

Ask the many people who use the term ‘political correctness’ what exactly it means, and five will get you ten that very few of them will come out with anything but some anecdotal twaddle.

As I see it, the term covers a multitude of largely failed attempts to address what are perceived as imbalances and unfairness in our society that are simply a natural consequence of individual and group differences.

These attempts to make our society more equal seem to have done nothing but waste a serious amount of money and alienate many people who would rather be left to plough their own furrows.

However, such is the power of the concept in capturing the attention of those amongst us with limited imagination that there’s even a campaign to eradicate ‘political correctness’.

But what’s this I see?

Why, it’s our old friend Peter the Punter and his new chums the Campaign Against Political Correctness’ very own co-founders Mr and Mrs Midgley:

Following the election of Peter Davies in Doncaster, the Campaign Against Political Correctness is pleased to announce that it will be working closely with the Mayor in his term of office to fulfil his election pledge to stamp out political correctness wherever possible.

The first official meeting between the Mayor and the Co-Founders of the Campaign took place on 5th August 2009 and it was very productive!  The Mayor is a founder member of the Campaign Against Political Correctness and John Midgley said: “What we have got in Mayor Davies is a Mayor who has been elected on a platform to reduce and eliminate PCness in Doncaster. People are crying out for it. We commissioned a survey recently that said 80 per cent of people are fed up to the back teeth with it. What we are here today to do is to look at the sorts of institutional PC that Doncaster has… and where possible to assist the Mayor in providing advice on where PC can be cut.

“Further details will be posted here in due course….

Even the Mail carried a story about it:

A town’s mayor has brought in ‘experts’ to root out political correctness in his council, targeting groups aimed at ethnic minorities and women.

Doncaster’s elected mayor Peter Davies has drafted in Laura and John Midgley, from the Campaign Against Political Correctness, to see what can be ditched.

Among the groups they have already identified as too politically correct are an ethnic minorities welfare rights service and a racial multi-agency partnership.

Now, that’s more like it, Peter Davies can finally deliver on another election pledge.

But, oh dear, banana skin alert!

I’ve just read this in the Doncaster Free Press:

The Ethnic Minorities Welfare Rights Team was last week singled out for criticism by the Campaign Against Political Correctness (CAPC), who were brought in to advise Mr Davies on “PC” services that could be reformed.

John Midgley of the CAPC said the team was “the sort of divide and rule policy that is outdated not only in Doncaster but in the country as a whole”.

So far, so good…

But then the bombshell drops:

But this week the council’s managing director Paul Hart confirmed that the service had not existed since 2006.

In an email to Tim Brown, of the town’s BME Community Forum, Mr Hart wrote: “In 2006 the Welfare Rights Team became externally funded to deliver outreach sessions at numerous locations across the borough to anyone who approached them. The two members of staff who prior to that were known as the Ethnic Minorities Welfare Rights Team formed part of that team and no longer specifically targeted ethnic minority groups.”

Mr Brown told the Free Press: “I am concerned that Mayor Davies’ ‘political correctness’ campaign is not based on fact. In the absence of any reasonable explanation it would appear that the campaign is a smokescreen for attacking minority groups.

“This approach can be seen as divisive and undermines community cohesion.” He added: “I think the mayor is missing the point and they will find that Doncaster Council isn’t ‘politically correct’.

Fortunately, as the Mail points out…

Mr and Mrs Midgley are not being paid for their advice

…as said advice was worth precisely nothing.

And all this within the space of less than a fortnight…

By the way, before some fellow Libertarian bloggers – you know who you are – start to get too excited about Peter Davies and his attacks on the ‘righteous’ please examine his party and also some of his gaffes as mayor.

He’s no saviour, I assure you.

How to take the EDP seriously

It’s been a busy couple of weeks here.

Vast amounts of decorating have been going on but now this latest phase of getting the house presentable for eventual sale later this year is over, I’m now on holiday and the coast is relatively clear.

Apart from the decorating, I’ve also been spending quite a lot of time posting to and reading the Facebook group set up to oppose Doncaster’s new mayor, Peter Davies.

It’s been an interesting experience to say the least.

Inevitably, you get visitors from the English Democrats Party – as I’ve detailed elsewhere – and whilst some are prepared to participate in debate, others just come on and rant in a most unpleasant and counter-productive manner.

And these rants aren’t just coming from rank and file supporters, but from prospective European and UK parliamentary candidates.

Now, far be it from me to tell anyone how to run a political party, but what I can say – having observed how parties have presented themselves to the electorate over four decades of being eligible to vote – is that no-one ever got votes by calling voters idiots.

Such indiscretions can’t be undone, either.

We live in an age when information and data can be preserved for everyone to see at anytime, in spite of people’s best efforts to conceal it.

Once you say something like the following, you’re stuck with it:

Hello again pc loonies. Are you STILL caterwauling. Did none of you bother to answer my questions about what gives YOU the right to an opinion on somebody who is not even two weeks into his job?

You’re just not representative of normal people these days. Most NORMAL people think you would have been consigned to an asylum years ago.

And this person wants your vote?

Now, however, it seems that one or two people in the EDP are starting to ‘get it’.

What’s said now on this here interweb thing can come back to haunt you later on down the line – and will, as long as people have a yen to report news for those willing to read it whether it’s in the MSM or the blogosphere.

That’s why you rarely get such behaviour displayed by the vast majority of political parties.

They’re wise to it.

And it’s hardly political rocket science, is it?

Similarly a few people in the EDP seem to have twigged that if you allow racist comments to remain on your Facebook page then this will do a party which claims not to be racist no favours whatsoever.

A few even seem to be saying that abusing people who disagree with you is perhaps not the best approach and that reasoned argument might be more productive.

Another EDP ‘debating’ tactic is to brand everyone who disagrees with them a ‘loony lefty’.

Well, some critics might well be coming from the left but not all – and certainly not this blogger.

Such labeling is simplistic and just a plain lazy debating tactic.

It’s far easier to lump your opponents together into one homogenous group rather than deal with several different opposing viewpoints.

It’s also inefficient as you’re not going to address all your opponents – only the ones you have targeted.

My criticism of the EDP can be summed up very easily and it has nothing to do with any particular political stance on my part.

I disapprove of the way Peter Davies was voted in as Mayor after standing on a platform of promises he hadn’t checked were able to be kept and I dislike some of the ways in which the EDP present themselves badly and then go on to attack criticism of this public image that they themselves have manufactured in ways which have never been and never will be acceptable from a politician of any party.

I’ve never known anything like it emanating from any political party which took itself even remotely seriously.

I’d have the same criticisms no matter what the party was.

It’s not everyone, but I get the distinct impression that certain prominent figures in the EDP are far more concerned with getting support in quantity rather than quality and that some have very few scruples as to how they do it.

Does this mean that the party is fatally ‘holed beneath the waterline’?

Well, some think so.

In my opinion, the EDP may be salvageable as a credible political party if it starts to behave like one and treat the electorate and also its critics with respect and also ensures that all racist references are removed from public forums such as the EDP’s Facebook group.

How do you take this sort of public statement seriously?

You are all pathetic whingers with no foundation in reality and you are running around like headless chickens because YOUR DAYS ARE NUMBERED AND YOU KNOW IT. Oh but it won’t be like you think it is. You will all be choking on your words and feeling utterly stupid when you realise just what it is you are criticising.

It’s a question the EDP should be asking itself if it wants to gain credibility.

The Doncaster Free Press

I’m sure that the DFP does a good job, but this blog beats it to the top Mayoral news.

This has just been reported (DFP 18th June) but SteveShark ran the story on the 15th – 3 whole days ago.

Mind you, I don’t have any classified ads on this blog, although I do know a man with a Toyota Prius for sale…

Toot toot!

The new Doncaster Mayor speaks

From here.*

…I also find that the councillors are fighting like rats in a sack not only between the parties but inside their own parties too.

Heaven forbid that any party – no matter how small – should have its members disagreeing with each other…

*Just in case some moronic fuckwit comes on here and starts giving me a lot of gob about editing quotes and using them out of context, a link is there in the second word of this article. In my browser it’s underlined and blue. People reading this are invited to go to the site linked to and make their own minds up as to my integrity and honesty.

Doncaster Mayor – another U-turn?

Compare what Davies said about job losses in the Council during the trainwreck that was his first broadcast interview :

TF: …one of the big things on your campaign was that you’re going to cut ‘PC jobs’.

PD: Oh yeah, that’s a different thing altogether, er-

TF: Which jobs are those?

PD: Well, er, I’m going to look into that. Things like Diversity Officers, er, the things that are usually advertised in the Manchester-, well, it’s not the Manchester Guardian now – in the Guardian…

TF: Right, so have-, so, so hang on, so so there are politically…

PD: I mean, I can’t give you a full list at the moment, but I will…

TF: But that’s what you put on your manifesto – you must have had an idea on your manifesto what you were talking about?

PD: Yeah, yeah, all these people who are, sort of, controlling thought processes and this sort of thing, and er, erm… every department is riddled with this sort of nonsense these days.

TF: So currently then, this morning, Doncaster Council is riddled with people who are, who are doing this kind of nonsense, ah… and they’re on notice, are they? People are going to lose their jobs?

PD: Er, very likely.

TF: But we don’t know who they are, yeah? But certainly Diversity Officers…

PD: Obviously I… I’m… well, that sort of thing, yes.

TF: So, the Diversity Officer who’s getting ready for work this morning at Doncaster might as well not bother?

PD: Well, he’s… he’s in employment at the moment…

TF: But he won’t be for long?

Then read this:

Peter Davies won a shock victory in Doncaster having campaigned on a radical manifesto that included a purge of “politically correct non-jobs” and the end to council-funded translation services.

But speaking to LGC (Local Government Chronicle) after meeting the new mayor for the first time, managing director Paul Hart said he had been able to reassure staff Mr Davies did not want to see a wave of job losses.

“He has strong views on certain issues but he is also pragmatic on what can be achieved,” Mr Hart said.

“He has been very clear that on staffing issues a lot of his comments have been misinterpreted by the media.

“He’s looking to work together with staff to improve services and utilise vacancies as they arise. The last thing he says he wants to do is put people out of work and into difficulties.”

• So Peter the Punter promises job cuts in his manifesto
• When faced by Toby Foster he says he’s still going ahead with the cuts – even with the first hint of a dawning realization that all may not be possible on Planet Davies
• Then he shows a new found pragmatism and says he doesn’t want to put these people who are ‘controlling thought processes’ out of a job

‘Misinterpreted by the media’?

WTF?

Read what he promised in his manifesto and listen to what he said to Toby Foster.

Davies is now backpedaling furiously.

It all sounds like another U-turn to me…

How long before he reneges on all his promises?

How long before the people who voted for Davies realize that they’ve been done up like a kipper?

UPDATE: I’ve just been accused of selectively quoting in this article in order to mislead readers by some clueless Neanderthal EDP moron* (who can’t even write his own fucking language properly) on the anti-Davies Facebook group.

I always try and provide links to the quotes so that readers can examine them in context and make up their own minds. I’m not like some people in the EDP who just expect you to roll over and swallow anything.

If I do edit quotes then it’s because I want to keep their size down to make the articles reasonably succinct and also it’s not always pertinent or relevant to quote the whole source – everyone does it, from humble bloggers to top Fleet Street journos.

*Yes, the twat really annoyed me – cretin…

EDP update…and is the Doncaster Mayor at the races?

In between wondering how Peter the Punter is getting on at Doncaster Races this weekend (if he’s gone) and whether he will back Spitfire (as advised by top turf tipster Honest SteveShark) and save the Council*, I am able to report that the English Democrats Party now has a new forum – many thanks to Mr Rob for this info.

It’s very quiet in there at the moment, but it’s very new and I’m guessing that the old regulars haven’t worked up sufficient zealous frothing to really make an impression yet.

It should be a good source of intelligence – as in information, not brainpower! – for those wishing to fill in what the EDP manifesto doesn’t tell you and discover what some of those ‘at the top’ really think.

*If Spitfire wins and Davies has put a few bob on it then I will be severely pissed off!

UPDATE: Phew! Spitfire was a non-runner. That means that 1) Peter the Punter will arrive for work tomorrow shirtless, 2) the Council budget will have been blown on a duff nag or 3) it’ll be the Racing Post on his desk as usual.

My money’s on option number 3…

Doncaster Mayor – news and blogs update

The Doncaster Free Press has a new story – the mayor’s U-turn over Gay Pride Parade funding – with comments already added.

Welcome to the North continues its excellent ‘Mayorwatch’ series with posts on the Star’s reporting on the EDP’s plans for Doncaster, Tories in the Mayor’s cabinet and  the Mayor’s Gay Pride Parade U-turn.

John of the Boatang and Demetriou blog has written a very fine fisking of Peter the Punter’s Peter Davies’ manifesto promises and how practical – or otherwise – these may be to keep.

The Facebook page – ‘Protest against Doncaster’s new Mayor, Peter Davies. What have we done?‘ – continues to debate the issue of  getting rid of Davies and has details of various activities and suggestions towards this end.

I found this article via Facebook, which highlights one of the reasons why an ostensibly benign party like the EDP may hold hidden dangers when some less than attractive characters get included amongst its upper ranks.

If you have any interesting links that you’d like me to include in what I hope will be regular updates, then please feel free to contact me with the details.

Also, stand by for a couple of useful and informative posts on this blog.

For all the EDP stooges

The new Mayor of Doncaster – good news for lawyers?

This is from the English Democrats section of the British Democracy Forum.

It’s written by someone who I believe is representing the English Lobby.

(The English Lobby is sort of the legal arm of several organizations – including the EDP which, of course, is Davies’ party – and they appear to like taking people to court.)

Regarding Davies the BDF poster says:

The joy of his position is that, having been lawfully elected, he can implement what he perceives to be reasonable and lawful safe in the knowledge that, in addition to being indemnified, he can face, armed with public funds, any PC clever-clogs who challenges him in the courts. Whether or not he loses, he can bring into stark relief all the unwanted encumbrances so enthusiastically dumped on the citizens of Doncaster and elsewhere in England.

Note the cavalier fashion with which Doncaster’s community charge payers are viewed.

An assumption is made that they will fund legal battles in court regarding matters of EDP principle and because it’s not party money then it doesn’t matter if  Davies loses because it will still publicise the EDP’s causes.

How is that going to help Doncaster if all the thousands of pounds saved by Peter the Punter the mayor cutting services and sacking workers ends up in the pockets of lawyers?

Open reply to a Mayor of Doncaster supporter

To all the Mayors detactors,
Peter Davies was elected by the people of Doncaster,

He was elected by about 17.5% of the electorate. Hardly a healthy mandate…

(many who had not heard of him before )

See, I’d vote for someone I knew was already involved in public life and whom I’d heard of.

However, in the first place, I’d make sure I used my vote – voter apathy played a large part in Davies’ success.

I’m also pretty sure that many of those who voted for Davies hadn’t got the faintest idea what the EDP is or what their policies are which leads very nicely to:

because, like myself, they believe in his policies.

That’s highly debatable.

Looking at the policies, it’s glaringly obvious that not only did Davies not find out if those policies were viable, but the electorate didn’t either.

Maybe they voted for him to give Doncaster Council a kicking after dissatisfaction with the past mayor. Maybe they wanted to give the major parties a shock.

The labour candidate never looked like winning even with the hundreds of BNP votes in labours boxes.

Interesting comment and one which bears out the growing theory that far from being right wing, parties such as the EDP, the BNP and others of their ilk are appealing to the disillusioned left wing voter – the people who have voted Labour consistently but see the party lurching so far towards the right that they no longer see it as left wing.

The policies adopted by the BNP – centralised command control, trade tariffs and state owned businesses are the province of the ‘old’ and hard left.

Add to the mix the fact that the recession has hit places like Doncaster very hard and those who preach ‘England for the English’ aren’t that far removed from Brown’s ‘British jobs for British workers’.

Sadly lacking in the labour party, both nationaly and locally, are those essential ingrediants of honesty, morality,decency and integraty.

I’d say that telling the electorate that you promise to do things you have no idea are legally possible demonstrates a conspicuous lack of all four of those qualities.

Anyone can live in the dregs of sociaty, far harder to live higher up the social scale.

Now you’ve totally lost me.

I’m guessing that you’re somehow equating the qualities you list above with the stance of the EDP. Have you not looked to find out if some of its leadership truly possesses those qualities? After all, I’ve gone to great lengths to make their actual words freely accessible.

As a sceptic, I’d say that those qualities are hard to find amongst politicians generally, but given that the major parties are looking at parliamentary and constitutional change then it may be a little easier to find an ‘honest’ politician in future.

In the meantime, I’ll continue to examine the people who want my vote very closely indeed and avoid those who promise what I want unless I’m pretty sure that they can deliver on it.

It’s not foolproof, but it sometimes helps me filter out fools like Davies.