put hartlepool first

[stokoe]

its about time you as a party get amongst the people of hartlepool and tell them
what is really going on,i work in a community of a 100 people and there is only
me that knows about hartlepool post,and yes i do send out THE message about the
town being run by the belcher brigade and there dodgy followers.
so come on GET THE MESSAGE SENT OUT.

[Stig of the Seaton Dump]

PHF gave hope that the status quo in Hartlepool was going to be challenged.

I've seen a video of Geoff playing his accordion to his dogs and not much more than that lately. Maybe the rest are Ninja's operating covertly.

Think I am suffering from repetitive disillusionment in terms of Party Politics, unfortunately One Life can't help me.

If we all joined the local Labour Party group, could we force change from within ?
Confuse them all by turning up wearing red shirts and quoting socialist ideals.

[mk1]

I would say that having party X replaced by party Y is not in itself a solution. What we need is a working opposition with no party able to dominate and run roughshod over the  opposing views.
PHF would I am sure be mindful of open and balanced policies if elected but I also know that if they had 5 years in power then the same old 'jobs for the family' routine would returnresurface. One lot of people who know what is best for us would just be replaced with another lot.
What is really needed in meaningful opposition to whoever holds power.

I think 5 years and then you are out should be the rule. No re-election and thus no chance to reap the rewards of your earlier corruption.

[DRiddle]

Two issues are being subjected to conflation here. Stokoe's initial message, to my understanding, was about this site, The Hartlepool Post. It wasn't directly about the political party, 'Putting Hartlepool First'. The two things are not the same.

I believe his point was that if people even knew 10% of what people suspect may be going on within HBC then it wouldn't automatically be a 'I'll keep voting Labour' situation.

Who gets people's votes AFTER that mindset has been established is obviously up to the public, but it's the mindset via this site that needs establishing first.

The bun fight for votes that may occur after that is a separate issue.

[whatabouthisthen]

Yes, I agree it is about putting H'pool first and not the party. It cannot, however, be denied that the only hope at the moment is the party of that name. Perhaps we need a new Wat Tyler not just for H'pool but for England as well.
The country is riddled with self interested people at and near the top of our national organisations, not just politicians. As we have all seen from our own police force and the NHS.
David Miliband is the latest example of just another politician filling his own trough, although that may be unkind to pigs. With prominent Labour types like him, it is not too much of a surprise when our local lot try to emulate them.
Finally, I do agree that we all should bring the Hartlepool Post to the attention of as many people as we can.  I know that I have.

[fred c]

I wonder what the state of play would be in local politics if it wasn`t for HTH..... It does a bang up job on bringing things to the publics attention, the guys who run it should be proud of the job they & it does.

I have to say though, its a far easier to make comments via HTH, both in terms of time & ability to have your say, but what would really make "The Mob" sit up & take notice is for the Public Seats in Council Meetings to be full.

They can only judge what the public mood is when the public turn up........... What would the reaction have been to a public meetng on the steps of the civic over the decision to "Stop" public questions ?

As for PHF, they have 5 councillors, i can only imagine how difficult it is for those councillors, along with several independents to influence the decisions made by "The Mob".... if you want an example look at how the Tories voted on the recent proposal to stop supplementary questioning.

[steveL]

Just as an aside, there are people in Middlesbrough who, through things like blogs and YouTube, have highlighted similar goings on in Boro. They don't have a site like HTH, but even so they do make an impact in their own way. In response, Ray Mallon has described these people as 'urban terrorists' which gives you some idea that its quite common for those with their hands on power to resent being open to real public scrutiny.

The real issue and the real target of sites like HTH is the 85% of people who didn't bother to vote in last November's referendum and the 82% who don't bother to vote in local elections. While everyone is quick to have an opinion; far too few bother to get off their arses once every couple of years to go out and vote.

This suits the incumbents just fine because it enables a small number of people to hold on to power and use it for their own ends which is why, despite pathetic turn-outs, you never hear of any concerted campaigns to encourage more people to vote. There's a good argument, for example, that if more 'normal' Labour voters got out and actually voted then we would at least have a more representative Labour group which more accurately reflected how the town thinks.

Democracy comes with responsibilities for everyone; even if that responsibility only consists of getting off your ar** once in a while and voting. I don't buy the argument that they're all the same et al ...... not only do you get what you vote for but you're also virtually guaranteed to get something you don't like if you don't bother to vote at all.

Incidentally, I quite like the Wat Tyler comparison but bear in mind his eventually fate - stabbed by the Mayor. In Hartlepool, it was the Mayor who was stabbed - in the back, at that, and by others who thirsted for power on the Ides of November

[The Great Dictator]

The Mayor of Hartlepool wasn't stabbed by anyone, he was democratically voted out of office by the majority vote however small it was.

[fred c]

The Mayor of Hartlepool wasn't stabbed by anyone, he was democratically voted out of office by the majority vote however small it was.

If you consider the tactics used by "The Mob" to influence the Referendum Vote as democratic, your very sadly mistaken.

My opinion on the merits of mayor drummond are well documented, I firmly believe that an elected mayor ( A Suitably Qualified Candidate Of Course ) was the right way to approach Local Democracy, the system we will have come May, will prove to be more expensive & less democratic than the majority of people think............... Witness the recent Loss of the Public Questioning of elected councillors.

[steveL]

The Mayor of Hartlepool wasn't stabbed by anyone, he was democratically voted out of office by the majority vote however small it was.

He was stabbed in the back by a Labour Group that couldn't get their own man elected to the position of elected mayor (which incidentally was their idea) having tried 3 times. So they decided, rather than be grown up about it, they would undermine Drummond at every opportunity, including by threatening their own cabinet members to the point when the position was unworkable. That's an example of a small number of people being unable to accept a democratically elected Mayor because he wasn't one of their own.

They then did their best to win the referendum by lying about the £1m that would be saved if the position was abolished which they have since refused to explain.

[The Great Dictator]

mmmmmm undermining politicians, i think you will find that is called politics mate..

They were advised to do that 10 years ago and should have done.

If Labour under perform we can remove them quickly without waiting 10 years to do it.

So tell the public all about them and let's have rid...

[mk1]

If Labour under perform we can remove them quickly without waiting 10 years to do it.

So tell the public all about them and let's have rid...

The problem is the local Labour Party has been taken over by a pack of thieves.
They  stuff their families pockets with our money and deselect/kick out any member who dares oppose them.

Perhaps if the sensible labour party members could see beyond the we are in charge so don't rock the boat mentality then things would  change.