UPDATED: Thoughts on the local elections

Well, it has been an eventful week. To start with the world was rid of Bin Laden and today Wycombe is rid of the leadership that has wasted so much of our money on the unwanted stadium.

I know an awful of people voted tactically in the local council elections and the stadium was a very hot topic. Practically nobody wants the new stadium and the survey conducted by the BFP echoed this.

Tomorrow there will be a new leader of our Council and whoever that is would do well to listen to the voice of the public.

To put it frankly the new stadium should be scrapped and the powers that be should spend their time and effort on the people of Wycombe who actually elected them and paid their Council Tax rather than chasing after the whims of multimillionaires who only have their own interests (and profits) at heart.

Let's just hope the new leader has the sense to put the people of Wycombe first other wise I fear they too will be subjected to the same vitriol and comdemnation that finished off the last one.

It doesn't take much to sound out the opinions of the towns people indeed my blog or the comments left by the readers in the news section of this web site is a good place to start.

Long live Booker Aerodrome!

Blog Update Ends.

Well, there’s another election over and what a dull event it was. If you had blinked your eye you would have missed it.

I’ve said this before but I will say it again, the candidates are taking the voters for granted and they think they only need to put a few leaflets through my letterbox to get my vote.

It's almost as if the candidates are afraid of the electorate or just don't want to be elected.

Gone are the days when cars with loud speakers cruised the streets broadcasting their message to the masses indeed the only noise in my part of town today came from the infernal ice cream van that blights the neighbourhood with its awful rendition of the teddy bears picnic.

In some wards candidates were elected unopposed without a single vote being cast which I think it a disgrace.

One notable point was the publication on the GASP website of a handy list of how the candidates stood on the issue of the unwanted stadium.

It was interesting to note that in the Abbey Ward there were seven candidates listed against and just one in favour. However this must surely mean that the anti-stadium vote would be fragmented sadly allowing the pro-stadium candidate to be re-elected?

Just for once why didn't the opposing parties unite and field only one set of opposition candidates to prevent fragmentation of the vote?

For a long time I have said that the problem with politics is that it is too political and the uncoordinated effort in Abbey Ward demonstrates this.

Rather than having the political parties run our town I think it would be better if local businessmen and ordinary people took charge as independents thus removing politics from the equation.

I also think the public should be able to choose who the leader of the council is rather than allowing the elected councillors to choose.

When I visited the polling station today things were very quiet. The ballot boxes did not seem very full so I fear the turnout has been low.

I actually thought the election process was flawed as the ballot boxes were placed in a position away from the officials and thus anyone could have stuffed the ballot boxes with false voting papers.

I was given a ballot paper without showing identification as the just relied on me to say who I was consequently anyone could visit all the polling stations in Wycombe and vote at each one providing they knew the name and address of someone living in that ward.

Of course we also got a chance to take part in the first referendum since 1975 on the alternative voting system.

I read some articles on the internet as to how AV was supposed to work but it was too complicated for me to understand.

Personally I think the concept of a referendum should be used more to allow the public to take decision on local issues such as on the stadium.

What do you think?

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