To vote or not to vote.

[Ryehill]

 DRiddle your last post on this threat indicates that you are suffering from Paranoia. I have searched through my posts over the last 2 years and yes I have disagreed with you on a number of issues but gave you grief .Hardly. If you are not suffering from paranoia then maybe you are just the type of person who generates hostility. 

[DRiddle]

Mr Wilson, If I have one regret in my time at English Martyrs, it's that I didn't video record the 'question time' style debate I organised which you attended, representing your political party.

I would love the readers and contributors of this forum to see the questions put to you by a Sixth Form student from Hartlepool, but of an Indian ethic background.

I would love people to be able to listen to you make references to the 'damage' caused by 'foreigners' in 'our' country.

I wish people could see the look on your face as said student explained her brother, a second generation immigrant, was now a heart surgeon who had turned down lucrative private work, to instead, stay working with the NHS out of duty to his country.

I would love people to be able to see the young homosexual boy who politely put his hand up, and articulately explained that he was utterly bemused by some of your political standpoints.

I would love for people who read and post on this forum, to be able to see what I saw. That being a crowd in excess of 200 of our towns future generation of leaders, of doctors, teachers, lawyers, dentists, social workers and such like, utterly bewildered by the views you expressed on that stage that day.

Utterly bewildered by the views expressed by you.

I spent over 5 years at English Martyrs, I had many a proud day there.

That day was amongst the proudest.



P.S,  The 'Indian Girl', as you referred to her, you know what she's doing now? She's at Oxford University reading medicine. She has a placement coming up with medicine sans frontiers, so pretty soon she'll be in war zones patching up people of all races, colours, creeds, religions etc. She will see no difference in terms of skin pigmentation. Nor will she ask to see people's passports before tending to their wounds. The day she's doing that, well, that'll be another proud day.

[Ryehill]

       Your memories of that event differ greatly from mine, you seem to be suffering from delusions as well as paranoia. If  U.K.I.P. offends you so greatly why did you recently approach two officials of the branch in an effort to do electoral deals. Hypocrisy of the first order.

[DRiddle]

Because I want to cut the ruling parties majority, I would have thought that was obvious...

[Jamescampbell78]

Testing Times: Only posed the question because MK1 brought the subject up and I thought it would make for an interesting debate. As you see from my response to Shane Moore I've respected his answer and will unless I catch him lying.

David Riddle: People are asking you questions because you have placed yourself prominently within PHF and offered yourself up for elections. The electorate and potential electorate want to know where your moral compass points and how your political thinking goes.

SteveL: You are correct, amongst many other things I'm a cyclist, however, unless you want to find comments like that on a variety of local and national cycling forums I'd be very careful about making generalisations like that. I don't comment on how you drive a car because I've never seen how you drive. There are a lot of voting cyclists in the town who'd be highly offended at such a generalisation.

[DRiddle]

[David Riddle: People are asking you questions because you have placed yourself prominently within PHF and offered yourself up for elections. The electorate and potential electorate want to know where your moral compass points and how your political thinking goes./quote]

James, given the nature of the job I do for a living, and the way I've conducted myself in terms of my input into council meetings etc, over the last year or two, I think my moral compass speaks for itself.

[Jamescampbell78]

James, given the nature of the job I do for a living, and the way I've conducted myself in terms of my input into council meetings etc, over the last year or two, I think my moral compass speaks for itself.

Your job tells me nothing about you, I work in banking, according to public perception that makes me a thieving, manipulative, lying, cheating ******* which couldn't be further from the truth.

Look at previous public perceptions of Jimmy Savile or Lance Armstrong. Until people ask questions the answers are essentially assumptions and a very good teacher once told me that assume makes an ass out of u and me both (he stole that one from someone else too).

I'm sure you have friends who, on the face of their job would seem very respectable but perhaps when you scratch beneath the purpose they're not. It's kind of like those who work for the police by day but at the weekend love a good coke and booze fuelled binge, a fight and a curry and get barred from pubs leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.

Some of the things I've read and heard about you in council meetings do give a positive outlook but they speak more of your potential political capabilities than your moral compass.

[Mican]

I wonder if James will stay on the site once the elections are over, if so what will he have to talk about?

[mk1]

So the "facts" the public "Know" about bankers are wrong. However the "facts" that you "Know" about politicians are 100 per cent right?

Obviously the subject is not as black & white as that but not every (insert your scapegoat) is corrupt. However  you can be an honest decent  person and still be part of the problem. How? By being  one of the  majority who sit it silence as the  bad boys wreck havoc.  By thinking 'well I can't say anything because it will destroy the party' you are just as much to blame as the miscreant.
It is a sad fact that in any large organisation there exists a group mentality that rationalises  internal corruption as a cross worth bearing bcause  to speak out about it will damage your group and as a  result (this is the twisted mindset) do a much greater evil by allowing the other side in and they will wreck everything.
No pary leader was going to expose a Cyril Smith so soon after the Jeremy Thorpe  trial/debacle. It would have finished the Liberals so the otherwise decent men covered it up for the 'greater good.
Tony Blair made the Labour Party part of his personal conversation with God to rid the world of war-by starting lots of them!  Most Labour MPs knew he was delusional but he won elections so they put up with it for the greater good.
Margret Thatcher set out to destroy Unions and in the process  wiped out  most of our industrial base. Her MPs may have felt pangs about her methods but none doubted it was for the greater good.
That is how it works. Good people get together and convinced they alone are the ones who can run things  correctly they will pay any price to preserve their power.

Bankers of all ranks  have been shown to be completely corrupt. Counter staff were just happy to take the bonus payments for selling  bogus insurance policies as their managers who set the quotas. They  pushed  low earning schemes to customers in order to boost bank profits and countless other sins. The staff  who sat still and watched it happen are just as guilty as those who got the  high commisions. Indeed I would go  further and say the majority of those in the 'Financial Sector' are crooks.  Churning is the name of the game and I see lots of problems in the future as the 'Financial Advisers' get their hands on people's pensions now the law has changed.

[Jamescampbell78]

Or put simply: Power Corrupts or You can't please all of the people all of the time or any other cliche you care to insert.

Stephen I agree, not all politicians are toerags, just a very high percentage of them.

My point on not voting has always been that my default position is not to vote and that to gain my vote/support a politician must convince me that they can effect change for the better.

I see honesty as very high on my shopping list when it comes to elected officials. Making themselves voluntarily accountable to the public is another.

You'll be surprised how low the percentage of toerags in banking is compared with the overall industry, the ones who are tend to also have a few fingers in a few dirty political pies too.

[DRiddle]

Your job tells me nothing about you

I would beg to differ. Granted there are bad apples in every profession, as shown by the extreme examples you chose of Saville and Armstrong.

However, I feel most people would probably agree that certain professions attract certain 'types' of character.
Nurses, teachers, doctors, social workers etc. Professions like that tend to attract people who is it as a vocation, not just a job. Granted nursing will always throw up the odd Beverley Allitt, the medical profession will very occasionally be tarnished by a Harold Shipman type, but generally speaking, the vast majority do it because they have already, engrained in them, the kind of moral compass you're checking I have.

James, I don't for one second claim to be Mahatma Ghandi, but do you honestly think I'm doing this for the money? or as an ego trip? or for some other underhand reason? I'm watching the town I grew up in, the town I live in, be systematically torn to pieces by people who are virtually unemployable in terms of mainstream careers.

There are people making multi million pound decisions that affect me and my family, who outside of local politics would not be in charge of finances beyond that of a small offices lottery syndicate.

Your answer to addressing our towns problems is to not vote and home that a system of Prime Ministers that's survived nearly 300 years stops sometime in your lifetime.

My answer is to TRY very hard to take the first steps towards facilitating some change in 23 days time.

Again, I guess this could be construed as me 'promoting my campaign' in which case, here is my imprint.

Published by Geoff Lilley (Agent) Putting Hartlepool First Party, 68 Fens Crescent, TS25 2QN, on behalf of candidate David Riddle, 1 Wansbeck Gardens, Hartlepool, TS26 9JQ. (Candidate for the Hart Ward).

[Inspector Knacker]

[quote author=Jamescampbell78 link=topic=1604.msg19673#msg19673 date=1398

My point on not voting has always been that my default position is not to vote and that to gain my vote/support a politician must convince me that they can effect change for the better.

[/quote]The average politician will be wetting themselves with laughtet....your default position is of no relevance to them whatsoever....... don't vote....in fact never vote at all...they don't care, you're just smoothing the way for their core idiot vote to re-elect the idiot in chief. Your no vote is complicit in whatever happens, even a no vote has value....just not to you.

[monty767]

Driddle.

'I run what will quickly become the largest most significant A level colleges on Tesside' ...........And? was that supposed to impress me? And in who's opinion? Yours?

Your friends include Primary school managers! I see lots of them on the news, usually getting done for downloading certain images.

CEO's, people in charge of business turnovers of 8 figures. More bragging. I know some well connected well healed people too, however I don't basque in the glory of their achievements.

Head of religious studies? Are you the cross he/she has to bear by chance?

The fact that you know some nice people doesn't make you nice by proxy  does it.

So how is Bilbo now he's been dumped on the sideline? back to his old tricks I see. I know you went to the same uni for gods sake but I note you didn't mention you were room mates?

Speaking of your mates what's Bailey up to these days? Still beating up old ladies in the street?

When you put yourself out into the public domain you become a person of interest. That's how it works. Especially for people who know you.

[DRiddle]

You might want to learn to read first Monty before having a go at me. Here's what I wrote...

My "seedy mates" are primarily senior managers

Here's how you responded to that statement...

Your friends include Primary school managers! I see lots of them on the news, usually getting done for downloading certain images.

I write P-R-I-M-A-R-I-L-Y, not primary. As in, my friends are MAINLY senior managers.

I'll give you a little tip fella, when you're trying to embarrass someone, it's usually best to ensure the person you embarrass isn't yourself.

Monty/Harry/Mr Mister/Whoever...... another maladjusted moth careering head on into the flickering light bulb that is David Riddle's election campaign.

Very bizarre.

I bet I hear nothing from you after May 22nd.

[fred c]

I don`t contribute to the forums as much as i once did & the reasons are many & varied.

The fact that someone seems to think it is so Important what Dave Riddle puts on his address is mind bogglingly trivial & pedantic in the extreme, i think over time Dave Riddle has expressed opinions on Tees Valley & how Hartlepool could be influenced by events connected to it & that is the important issue, not his Postcode.

Like most people I think Cleveland County was detrimental to the good of Hartlepool & I also believe that if it does come about that a City of Teesside springs up out of the Smog, it to will be of no benefit to Hartlepool.

The only thing we will be useful for is to Gain more government money, per head of population whether that money is shared "Equally" around the place is far from certain.

As someone who wore the Maroon Jersey of Durham RFU as a young lad, i prefer to be known as a resident of the land of The Prince Bishops... as opposed to being labelled A Smog Monster........ It just doesn`t have the same ring to it somehow.