The Daily Mail reports today that in a by election for a seat on Nottingham City Council the Liberal Democrats were beaten into fifth place. Labour came first, the Conservatives came second, UKIP were third and fourth was David Bishop from Bus-Pass Elvis Party. It was no consolation to the Liberal Democrats that they lost to the Bus-Pass Elvis Party by only 11 votes.
Part of the Elvis Party manifesto was for a 30 per cent discount in brothels for pensioners.
The Bus-Pass Elvis Party is also known as Elvis Loves Pets, Church of the Militant Elvis and Elvis and the Yeti Himalayan Preservation Party.
It was founded in 2001 by Mr Bishop to ‘overthrow the Corporate Capitalist State which turned Elvis, a man of immense talent, into a fat media joke’.
Mr Bishop has previously stood against disgraced Tory MP Neil Hamilton, Communities Secretary Eric Pickles and UKIP’s Robert Kilroy Silk. The retired painter and decorator stood in the Eastleigh parliamentary by-election last year, triggered by the resignation of Liberal Democrat Cabinet Minister Chris Huhne. In Eastleigh Mr Bishop came 11th, behind the Beer, Baccy and Crumpet party and the Monster Raving Loony party.
Read more: http://grumpyoldelvis.co.uk/about/ and http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2575536/Lib-Dems-shook-beaten-election-Bus-Pass-Elvis-Party-wants-brothels-OAPs-30-discount.html#ixzz2vIZPaVmj
Author: Brian Riley
Small Country Independence
Bill Bonner on the 21st February wrote:
“Small states do a better job of controlling their government, their military forces and their debt. Not because they are smarter or more peaceful. But simply because there is less distance between the governed and their governors. Citizens can see what their leaders are up to. If they don’t approve, the politicians can be beaten in the next election, or in the street.
Independence for Scotland? Yes, it’s probably a good idea.”
http://moneyweek.com/bill-bonner-nations-of-the-world-divide/
But later Merryn Somerset-Webb, who lives in Edinburgh, took issue with the suggestion that small governments are, ceteris paribus, better than big ones: “If Scotland votes for independence it will be as a socialist nation, not a wealthy capitalist one. The result will be profound misery. I really don’t think it is something to wish for. It’s already a disaster in the making. What small countries actually do these days if they aren’t tax havens full of educated people (Switzerland) is indulge in one variety or the other of nepotism/theft/corruption/public sector crowding out, and then collapses.”
Bill Bonner then concedes the issue with “She’s probably right about that. Big country or small one, the ruling elite always wants as much mis-government as the country can afford – and often more!
25/2/2014
Benton Street Squeeze
There is 
a new reporting link for overweight vehicles using Benton Street in an illegal manner.
Regrettably the link indicates that responsibility for monitoring and enforcing (!) the illegal usage of the street has been transferred from Trading Standards to the Highways Network Management section at the Economy, Skills and Environment Department of Suffolk County Council. The new link is
https://www.csduk.com/CSD/SCC/product.aspx?ProductID=PHGV01
Budgets
Suffolk County Council have approved their budget for 2014/2015. Whilst there are considerable savings being made, some reserves are being run down and the overall effect is a zero increase in the Council Tax. The vote was 45 to 20 with one abstention. The Conservatives had some support from the Liberal-Democrats and whole hearted support from UKIP. The Labour Party voted against claiming that the reserves should be run down further – forgetting the reason why reserves are needed. They are for planned future capital spending and for emergencies. We can no longer claim that they are for rainy days since in the current fiscal climate all days are rainy days.
Surprisingly, the approval was not unanimous, which suggests that there are still representatives of the public who think that all problems can be solved by throwing money at them.
Many years ago when studying the Theory & Practice of Foreign Exchange I learned that Money has three functions. It is unit of account, a medium of exchange and a store of value. Listening to my Labour colleagues at County I realised that money has a fourth function – it is there to be spent. Let’s all be afraid for the future because this is the thinking that got us into trouble in the first place!
Earlier this week the Police & Crime Commissioner (PCC) got his budget approved by Suffolk’s Police and Crime Panel. Again a zero increase. The PCC explained to the Panel his rationale for recommending that there be no increase in the precept, helping financially stretched citizens in the county, and receiving the government’s 1% freeze grant. There would be an underspend in the Constabulary budget this year in the region of £800k, an amount which equated to around 2% of the precept. Funding grants had been received very recently for implementing automatic number plate recognition and enterprise resource projects collaboratively with Norfolk. There were some specific areas within the Constabulary where efficiency savings could be made, and which the Chief Constable is looking to address. The PCC was not willing to put up the precept for citizens when there were still significant efficiency savings that could be realised.
At District level we are once again going for the zero increase option.
Meanwhile, my Town Council is balancing its budgets by outing up its precept. Which is a fancy way of saying that we shall be paying more for our very local services.
Rogers Farm, Newton
Next Wednesday I am a substitute on Babergh’s Planning Committee to consider an application for a change of use from agricultural land to a twenty six hectare solar farm. From the farmer’s point of view it must make sense to convert a quality field (winter wheat) into a solar farm. The field slopes away from the farm house and the visual intrusion is quite reasonable – especially when you consider the income from a field which is forecast to provide approximately 15 Megawatts peak (MWp) of electricity, sufficient to provide the power needs of 3,390 average U.K. households, which is equal to 8% of all households within Babergh. The local population are not happy. The installation will be seen from quite a wide area (as indicated from the photograph from Edwardstone Village Hall). The Box River Valley is a significant tourist area. The nearest piece of the Edwardstone Woods Site of Special Scientific Interest is only 150 metres away and a small part of the site is within the Box River Valley Special Landscape Area. North Norfolk District Council recently rejected a similar application for a wind turbine. The application went to appeal. The Planning Inspector overturned the decision and North Norfolk referred to the matter to the High Court arguing that the decision flew in the face of the will of the local community. Now a High Court Judge has ruled against the Inspector on the grounds that he did not have sufficient special regard to the desirability of preserving the setting of the listed buildings. The life of the solar farm is expected to be about twenty five years. Experts believe that they will be obsolete long before then and in the meantime it will take ten years for the new screening trees to become effective. Overall I think that this will be an interesting debate and as always my mind is open to the arguments of the developers and the residents. What was I doing on Wednesday? I was viewing the site from various angles – a character building two hours of walking about in the cold and the wellingtons.
My Brother the Playwright
Every year the Southend Playwriting Festival puts on fresh plays for public performance. They were established in 2010 to bring new ‘voices’ to the theatre by presenting the work of new and aspiring playwrights as rehearsed readings by professional actors. Such works and performances it was hoped would bring forth fresh material and would provide exciting and entertaining evenings for their audiences, and in turn inspire others to write and submit their own plays in future years. This year they received over 400 plays from writers in the UK, USA, New Zealand, Australia, Italy, Finland, and Canada. I’m pleased to bask in the glory of my brother (Colin Riley) whose play Remember, Remember, 1605 was performed in Southend and in Chelmsford.
Although only fifteen minutes long, it involved six speaking parts and as you might expect it was thought provoking and excellent focussing on the anti-Catholic sentiments of the day.
I look forward to next year.
Onward and Yeoward
Yesterday’s EADT (contained details of a letter of support from six Conservative Members of Parliament based in East Anglia promoting Tim Yeo’s cause and concluding with “We greatly value the contribution that you make as a dedicated community campaigner and experienced Parliamentarian and hope that the members of The South Suffolk Conservative Association will make the right decision”.
The article can be found on http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/politics/ south_suffolk_yeo_gets_backing_from_the_county_s_mps_1_3167446).
The full letter is attached see: Suffolk MPs letter Dec 2013 (1)
Tim has also set up a web site (www.timyeo2015.net). Among the endorsements are one from Ian Dowling MBE, (former Association Chairman and President). Ian wrote “Tim has served his Constituents in South Suffolk with diligence and skill for 30 years. Over this time he has demonstrated considerable Political expertise and leadership, attributes which have been recognised by several Conservative Party leaders with appointments to several senior Ministerial and similar posts over those years. All this continues, and Tim’s energy to deliver not only on behalf of his Constituents but also as a senior Parliamentarian respected by his colleagues, is undiminished. I have no hesitation in supporting his application to be the candidate in South Suffolk in 2015.”
High praise indeed!
Benton Street – No More Excuses
As we finish the year, I thought I would share a success story.
The B1070, Benton Street, Hadleigh, Suffolk is infamous for its road problems. It was not designed for a lot of traffic. It is a classic horse and cart road from Manningtree to Stowmarket and Bury St. Edmunds. The volume of heavy traffic on the road has increased as a result of Felixstowe becoming a major port. We now have over 3,000 vehicle movements a day. Much of this is personal vehicles accessing and exiting the A12. But there is also a significant volume of Heavy Goods Vehicles (HGV’s).
For over twenty years Benton Street has enjoyed a weight restriction due to the number of old buildings – some dating from Tudor times. HGV’s are banned because they damage the old brickwork, overhanging buildings and lime washed walls.
Traffic coming from the West is properly advised that there is a weight restriction on the road into Hadleigh. No such warning was on the road from the East (Ipswich and Felixstowe) only an advice to avoid East Bergholt.
Coming off the A12 on the Eastern side there are now four signs within a hundred yards, pointing out the weight restriction and HGV traffic is now directed back onto the A12 to find a more appropriate route.
Full marks to the County’s , Skills and Environment Department.
There are now no excuses for dragging an HGV through Benton Street.
Eternal vigilance is price of liberty and I fully expect the Benton Street Squeeze supporters to continue monitoring the situation and reporting (a much reduced volume of) incidents to the County’s Trading Standards.
Cashmobs Suffolk 2
Nominations for businesses to be visited by Cashmobs has now closed.
The chosen business is The Idler which was established over 30 years ago. They sell new and secondhand books, Book Tokens, artists materials, greetings cards and Naxos CDs.
They also sell leading makes of art materials including canvases, mountboard, and a range of water colour papers and modestly priced paints and brushes for the craftworker. They operate a book search service for out of print books and can supply new books to order.
They have the best selection of greetings cards in Hadleigh. Their range of Art Angel greetings cards feature works of well-known printmakers, many of them local artists,and is perhaps the most popular selection of greetings cards they have ever stocked.
The new electronic Book Tokens are now available. These have the advantage of being obtainable in any value rather than the five pound increments of the old Voucher scheme. They are, of course, accepted in most bookshops through the UK. (The old paper vouchers are still valid)
I always find their stock most interesting. This includes:
“Suffolk Coast from the Air”. and its companion volume
“Suffolk Coast from the Air 2”,
the story of the Hadleigh Branch Line,
Suffolk Ghosts and Legends and
Ordnance Survey Maps of the local area,
George Ewart Evans’s Ask The Fellows Who Cut the Hay in an exciting new edition illustrated by David Gentleman,
David Kindred’s Hadleigh, a portrait of a Suffolk Town, which is a selection of photographs taken over the years by the late Peter Boulton .
Michael Portillo’s television series based on Bradshaw’s Railway Guide has prompted a reprint of the book first published in the 1860s. They stock this edition together with a range of other railway books both new and secondhand.
The success of the children’s book “War Horse” which is a best seller nationally has prompted Halsgrove, to publish “War Horses” which tells the true story of horses used in various conflicts around the world. It is lavishly illustrated and presented as are all the Halsgrove publications.
They also hold a large stock of publisher’s remainder books. These are books which are sold off by the publishers at roughly half-price in order to clear their warehouses.
They have a large stock of second-hand books on the Second World War and a recent purchase has widened their stock of Giles Annuals, several early volumes are now available. They have a poetry section which is very popular and as they sell Art Materials they have a great number of Art Books including art instruction books.
James Chambury was one of Hadleigh’s leading artists and a customer at The Idler. His daughters have recently edited a book containing a selection of his work, many of East Anglia and some of the work he did in The Oman.
I look forward to being in the shop on the 4th.
Cashmobs Suffolk
On Saturday, January 4th 2014 Cashmobs Suffolk – a new community initiative to stimulate our flagging High Streets – is coming to Hadleigh.
Struggling shops get our sympathy. Huge multinationals moving into our local area raises our ire and anger at the destruction of the local economy. We complain on social media and decry the decline to our friends. But what do we actually DO about it?
Cash mobs actually go beyond our online complaints. Cash mobs use actual hard cash, spent in a local shop.
So how does it work?
It is all done through the local community grouping together and using their combined networks to spread the word about the local shop that needs support. It generates real cash for bricks and mortar businesses in the local community. The community gets together and decides to spend £10 or thereabouts in a local shop on a designated day. The local shop gets business that would have otherwise gone to a multinational chain of shops and the local community is energised.
It is a simple concept. Shop locally. Buy from local shops to keep the local economy alive. Cashmobs aim is not just about bringing the community together but also about supporting Suffolk¹s independent shops and boosting the local economy.
It’s a concept that has been highly successful in America and has been set up in Suffolk by two local business women, Sue Hall and Eileen Brown, and they are running it on an entirely voluntary basis.
Their message, to spend at the nominated shop in Hadleigh, is being spread through social media particularly through the Facebook page at http://facebook.com/CashMobSuffolk
Other UK towns ¬ including Hadleigh have had Cash Mob events in the past, but Sue and Eileen are planning to take this right across Suffolk visiting different towns across the country on a monthly basis.
Hadleigh and Felixstowe have been selected for January 4th and February 1st respectively but there are plans to go to Lowestoft and west Suffolk later in the year. In time we would like to introduce this initiative across Norfolk and Essex too as well.
Retailers selected for the Cashmob, obviously get a one-off boost but in the US it’s been found to have a positive long term spin-off for other local businesses too as consumers visit other local shops in the town.
So nominate a local Hadleigh business on the Facebook page at http://facebook.com/CashMobSuffolk, look out for the nominated business and spend that tenner in the shop on Saturday January 4th 2014.
Happy Cash mobbing!
Blog courtesy of the Hadleigh Chamber of Commerce
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