duh

The locals are agog, Councillors are holding Press Conferences to announce progress on redesigning our Town Centre.

Curious, this. We have a party who have been in power since Noah finished off the scale drawings for his boat. These guys must be the supreme embodiment of the people’s wishes. How could they not be?

Election after election these shining examples of truth, beauty (well, not beauty!), commonsense and responsibility, trundle themselves forward, pick up the block vote, then settle down for a further cycle of good works, bit of cheer leading, and poking the Neighbourhood Forms in the eye.

But you might think, or at very least be forgiven for thinking, that their collective hearts would beat to the same drum as the People. That they themselves might know instinctively what it is that the people want. They, after all, meet and greet, they talk and they listen, they make themselves available, they pose for pictures when the MP is unavailable.

Would they not be in prime position to form a view of what the Town is,- and what the Town might be?

Er……No.

This happy band display all the sublime inner confidence of a paranoid fieldmouse on the downers.

Given a substantial sum of money to redesign the Town Centre, they come up with the jaw dropping proposal that this should be turned over to ‘Expert Consultants’ whose conclusions will be available for public consultation.

You and I, the little people, will be given the awesome responsibility of selecting which of the expert schemes we prefer.

Should we, however, take the view that the experts have missed the point, our view would not prevail. The money, by then, would have gone. Along with the expert.

We don’t need experts at this stage. Any fool can find an expert. We need local leadership to state convincingly and unequivocally what the Town might be. We need the matter robustly debated – we could even do it in public. And then we need the result converted into a first stage brief by an expert.

Our councillors enjoy the trappings of office. They do not seem to understand the responsibilities of power.

They should take advice.

Perhaps from an Expert Consultant.



Nightwatchman

Hear Hear

It was his mum. The only explanation is that ......it was his mum

We had, after the 'Conservative Party Conference', a banner headline in the Sutton Observer. It was on Page 10, which indicates that they knew it was from his mum. But it said 'Standing Ovation for Sutton MP'

Now I will defer to no one in my admiration for the forensic debating skills of our boy. I am absolutely certain that Andy gave his spot a good wellying - shook it to death - nailed it to the wall.

But the brave history of the Tory Party has seldom indeed thrilled to the intricate harmonies of the debate on Overseas Aid.

Even this year, one of the broadsheets reported sadly that the Conference Hall was ill attended - Tories are not natural givers, organising charity on a super national scale is not an activity which automatically brings a glow to the blue rinse.

At this point I'm going to hold my hand up. Nightwatchman was not there. But he entertains a natural scepticism that Andy wowed the old dears quite as magnificently as the report implies.

So..........Easy. It was his mum.

Sutton Observer avoids any serious conflict by publishing the release, but put it on Page 10 to indicate the unreliability of the source.

And there is another clue.

Andy went for the angle on 'Oppression and Accountability'. This is as bad a tactical error as the Walmley Cricket Club debacle.

Everybody in Town knows Andy makes most of his wedge from his living in the City. There was once an attempt to establish exactly what proportion of his income came from Parliament and how much from other sources. It failed.


The cunning plan had been to work out how much of his time we justified.

Never found out.

So whoever wrote the Press Release ‘Standing Ovation………..’ needs an urgent seminar on subjects to be avoided at all costs.

Cricket is not good.
Criticising ‘Culture of Secrecy’ not great for a multi-talented but essentially discreet City Boy.

And whats more……. they forgot the photo.

Best do it yourself Andy. No room for sentimentality at the top.



Nighwatchman

Work Experience

I think we all believe in Work Experience. Gives our young people a taste of the real world; builds confidence, lets the tender flowers bloom.

There is undoubtedly a measure of satisfaction to be had sitting as one of the greybeards snugly taking pleasure in seeing the young ones come on.

So when we see the local celebrity in the Town throwing himself enthusiastically into the concept of Work Experience, it is worthy of comment. Ticks a few of the new Tory buttons. Is this a genuine example of ‘Good Egg Behavious’ or is there, somewhere behind the innocent public face, a naked play for the picture in the paper?.

It has to be said that Andy goes for the younger and prettier end of the Work Experience market.

We had a rather startling example of the genre at the Walmley Cricket Club Meeting the other night.. Business was being transacted , positions were emerging, attitudes being explained.. We’d got to that bit in the meeting where the entity takes over and takes a view. The really valuable part of the meeting.

And suddenly, we have a contribution from young lady bearing personal message from Andrew Mitchell. You can imagine that the Meeting screeched to a halt. You could hear the muted hubuub. What on earth could it be. Murmurs swept the hall. A messenger from the MP himself.

I have to say that the contribution did not quite measure up to the intro. We dribbled into a rather garbled exposition maintaining Andy’s undying conviction that he hadn’t backed down and he would not be supporting development on Walmley Cricket Ground.

It sort of underlined the complete Horlicks Andy made of the issue. To get it wrong, then to pretend you hadn’t, then to be seen to send a missive from a hundred miles away. In the hands of a fresh faced cheerleader. Not his best moment.

It is extremely important that prospective employers take this Work Experience thing seriously. It really does the Tory Party no favours to be seen to be so cavalier with innocent foot soldiers anxious to please. There is an enormous responsibility on the mentor to train, to encourage, to support. To be there for the younger generation.

The girl was cannon fodder. Andy owes her an apology.

Bit like Walmley Cricket Club.

Bit like the residents.


Nightwatchman