What I would like to see on eve of poll this coming Wednesday

All the candidates in Broxtowe will be trying to reach their supporters with eve of poll leaflets. I am of the mind that it is not too late for all the candidates to work with Broxtowe Borough Council to produce a shared eve of poll card encouraging all registered electors to vote on Thursday. Below is my stab at a simple A6 card printed both sides. If all the parties work together they could reach every home in the Brtoxtowe constituency on Wednesday.

No doubt someone could design something better, but, somehow, all the political parties, have to come together to ensure that despair and cynicism do not result in a low turnout on Thursday. It behoves all politicians and would-be MPs to show leadership. Right now they can unite in Broxtowe in encouraging every elector to vote on Thursday.

I know it's not going to happened, but it doesn't stop me imagining the possibility — just like leaflets containing 500 word election statements from all candidates published by the Election Commission via local councils and sent to every voter. This is what is done for many elections, such as trade unions, pension funds etc. 

Local elections — the message is in the medium

Over the past couple of months there has been a steady stream of election material through our letter boxes and I have to admit to the fact that I did some delivering for the Labour Party in Beeston North and West wards until my left knee gave out (x-ray next Friday and physio a week later).

You may have noticed that most of the stuff coming through your doors has related to the general election and, somehow, all the parliamentary candidates have given local issues a lot of attention and when that happens, you know the political parties standing do not believe they can win on national issues alone.

It is the same with the European elections. The focus is always on national issues and I believe the parties use it as a kind of test bed for ideas relating to parliamentary elections.

Normally, local elections are not hi-jacked because general elections and local elections do not happen at the same time, but when the dates are the same, local elections get relegated to a distant second place and this tells you, quite clearly, that the main purpose of all political parties is to elect MPs.

In these circumstance I think the local council has a responsibility to step in and actively remind voters that there is a local election taking place and in this respect Nottingham City Council has issued this poster. I received this copy by e-mail, as I have not removed my name from the City Council's mailing list.

By way of contrast, Broxtowe Borough Council's website says little about the borough elections on 7 May and does nothing graphically on its home page to draw attention to the fact.

In my ward, Beeston North, only the Greens has so far failed to push a specifically local leaflet through my door and the Conservative's one leaflet has been one for Beeston as a whole. UKIP has managed one and it has been the most punchy to date. The Liberals have managed two, as have Labour.

I hope the Greens do manage to push a leaflet through my letterbox before Thursday. I would like to have their take on Beeston North, Beeston and Broxtowe Borough Council.

If Parliament sticks with fixed five year Parliaments, the local and general elections will not occur on the same day again until 2025 (also Nottinghamshire County Council elections, assuming it still exists) and then in 2035 when local elections and a general election will again happen on the same day.

One thing is sure and that that is the world of local politics and government is going to change. Nick Palmer is of the view that local government voting reform  may lead to some kind of proportional representation and, if he is right (and I hope he is), then the next Broxtowe Borough Council elections in 2019 will very different to what is happening now.

We shall have to wait and hope, and in the meantime try to keep local democracy alive and well in Broxtowe.

Broxtowe Borough Council elections: what not putting up candidates tells us

I have compiled the table below from information you can find on the Broxtowe Borough Council elections webpage, where there is a notice for each ward listing all the candidates properly nominated (all of them).

This year there will be a Broxtowe* Parliamentary election on the same day (*Ashfield if you live in the north of Broxtowe), so the ability of political parties to field candidates in the ward elections  tells us about their chances of electing our next MP.

Straight away it becomes clear that the Liberals, Greens, UKIP and the other candidate are, at best, spoilers. If they had any real commitment to the communities which make up Broxtowe, they would be fielding Borough Council election candidates in every ward. Even the Conservatives have no candidates in one ward (Eastwood St. Mary) and are one candidate short in Kimberley. Only the Labour Party has a full slate of candidates.

At the end of the day local elections are little better in the minds of many Westminster MPs (and national party HQs) than dress rehersals for the main event - a General Election. If you doubt my assertion, how do you justify or explain the erosion of local power and democracy in the years since 1974? It is no accident that constituency parties organise and oversee branches and not the other way round.

Because I am a liberation socialist I am also a localist and fall into the camp that every election should be contested with a full slate of candidates and that local power matters. The failure in Broxtowe of the Liberals, Greens and UKIP to field candidates in a good few wards tell you that they are organisationally weak, either unable to find candidates or find just twelve people in the ward who will support the nomination of a candidate in the ward. What other explanation can there be which is not even more damning (and one I have already referred to)?

When local and Parliamentary elections occur on the same day, local council results often favour the party which wins the local constituency Parliamentary election - which should mean the Labour Party in Broxtowe. I hope so.

It is also very short-sighted of a party not to field candidates in every ward. They will be unable to measure their support accurately or to use what scant resources they have in terms of money and volunteers to best advantage.

The outcome of both the local and Parliamentary elections in Broxtow could be determined by what ballot paper a voter chooses to mark first. It is going to be that kind of election. Very different to any other I have known in my fifty years as a voter.

I want Nick Palmer to win and for Labour to have a clear majority on the Borough Council.

We shall have to wait until the early hours of 8 May to see if it happens.

Welcome to Beeston Week

I began shopping in Beeston on a regular basis in 1996 when my wife Susan became the first client of Caritas, which was then (and still is) located above Manor Pharmacy on Chilwell Road. Soon there were other reasons to come, as friends downsized from Lenton and made their new homes in Beeston.

We made up our minds a long time ago to follow them, but aged cats delayed us, then illness, so it was not until December 2013 that we finally put our Victorian house in Lenton up for sale, but because of new planning restrictions in Nottingham, it took until Easter to find a buyer and it was not until May 2014 that we found a lovely little house in a quiet cul-de-sac on the edge of Beeston town centre.

On 21 November (seven days ago) we actually moved to Beeston and after seven days it already feels like home - each time I go into the town centre I meet people I know — it's that kind of place — and it reminds me of the Lenton in the 1980s before the students began to take over every available house.

Devonshire Promenade in Lenton with its twenty-three houses, off Derby Road and beside the recreation ground, was in the eighties a real mix of families, academics and older Lentonians. Local Conservatives called it 'Little Moscow' on account of the number of Labour councillors living there (three, including me) and the number of houses occupied by Labour Party members. With us gone, just two houses remain occupied by a total of three men, all over fifty. The other twenty-one are owned by private landlords and classified as student houses-in-multiple-occupation. This is what we have left behind. Susan and I were community activists and began to loosen the bonds about two years ago in preparation for our leaving.

I tell you all these things because we will be active in Beeston in some way. We will join things and we will certainly help the Labour Party locally. Susan remains a member, but I left the Party in 2013 after fifty-three years because I  am at odds with the Party nationally over many issues. I simply see them as too right-wing, more interested in placating big business than aligning themselves with working people, the poor and disadvantaged. 'New Labour' still runs through them like a stick of seaside rock, whereas local Labour Parties across England struggle to serve those Miliband and Balls mouth platitudes about whilst showing no real commitment. For Nick Palmer to get my vote, he will have to distance himself from the national leadership. I so want to vote for him, but not if it means voting for continued austerity and cuts to local services - neither are necessary.

Scotland may seem a long way from Beeston, but for Labour to stand any chance north of the border it will have to adopt a more left-wing agenda, whereas in England they seem determined to appease the right. They lack the courage to take on UKIP and anti-immigration racists in a way which should worry any libertarian socialist like myself.

Mentioning UKIP brings me neatly back to Beeston and Toton, where a ward by-election will soon take place, thanks to UKIP supporters calling the election if press reports are correct, whereas the political parties on Broxtowe Borough Council had decided to leave the seat vacant because there will be borough elections in May 2015. On this one I am with those who called the by-election, regardless of their politics. To keep council seats vacant for any reason is an attack on democracy. Of course the by-election will cost money — all elections do.

Back in 1979 when Susan and I lived in Mansfield I actively supported the calling of a by-election in the ward where we lived and, in the process, so upset the Labour establishment that they got me barred from holding office in the Labour Party for five years. A few months later we de-camped to Lenton and in 1981 I was a elected a Labour Party county councillor for a Nottingham ward. Although it was all a long time ago, my feelings about local democracy remain the same — it is something we should cherish and nurtured, not something to be put aside for administrative convenience or political advantage. Once you do the latter you are siding with the enemies of democracy.

Susan's association with Beeston and Chilwell go back to the late-sixties when she lodged, whilst a student at Nottingham University, in Chilwell vicarage for two years before moving into Florrie Boot Hall for her final year.

From now on I intend my weekly post (with the occasional extra I'm sure) to be topical and based on what I do, read or hear about Beeston each week. Right now you know a little more about me.

If you have read this far. Thank you.

Robert Howard

PS. I have images and pages to add as soon as I have the time. Moving house has been stressful and there is a great deal to do over the coming months, but I am determined to find the time to help Labour win Beeston North ward where we live, working as a foot soldier if they will have me and if I help Nick in the process it will be a price worth paying to have a Labour Broxtowe Borough Council.