Here You Go

[Pwilson]

I'm voting for her cos she'll save the hospital and being a Mum she isn't capable of lying

David Riddle won't cos he lives in the real world or some stupid excuse and he's a man and all men politicians are nasty.

* Just trying to put myself inside the heads of the average Hartlepool voter.

[steveL]

It's the continuance of a Labour tradition. It's surprising just how many of the Labour lot are relatives of each other. They could do with widening their gene pool a bit. It's well known that in-breeding leads to degeneration.

[DRiddle]

As the prospective 'Putting Hartlepool First' candidate for the Hart Ward, I would like to propose a pre-election style debate with any other potential candidates for the seat on the ward.

In the interests of balance and to keep the debate focussed, I have chosen TWO specific areas of politics to be the fulcrum around which the discussion will hang.

Firstly, there is the issue of 'protectionist economics' and the concept of 'keeping it local'.

I imagine that part of the debate will focus on concepts such as domestic quotas on house building. For example, if you have a stable housing stock of around 42,000 dwellings (which has barely changed in 50 years), i'd be interested to know other candidates views on the economic impact of the sudden addition of another 8,000 or so houses. Given that almost all economic concepts and theories centre around 'quantitative quotas' (limits on the volume of stock) to keep prices high or at least stable, I'd be interested to know what the other candidates think the building of the 8,000 new houses will do, to EVERY single property value in Hartlepool.

Also within the 'protectionism' aspect of the debate, it's likely the topic of voluntary export and import restraint arrangements will crop up. For example, if we do insist on being the dumping ground for most of the major household waste in the North East, at what point does the council draw a line in the sand and impose a meaningful tariff on said importation of household waste?

Do we then go down the route of 'technical barriers of trade' and ensure companies wanting to deal with Hartlepool for less pleasant economic business (such as landfill, ghost ships, environmentally unfriendly issues) are forced to tow the line with stringent safety and ecological standards?

Then of course there's the issue of preferential procurement and the whole concept of whether is actually is better to give contracts to local companies at the expense of businesses from outside the area. Is this the correct approach in an era where 'best value' must surely take a high priority?

Anyway, that's the first topic I propose the prospective candidates of the Hart Ward debate.

For the second, I suggest scratch cards, parmos, bingo and a full and frank discussion into why the size of 'wagon wheels' chocolate biscuits has shrunk continuously since the late 1980s.

I think I can hold my own on ONE of the topics, but I fear I'll be out of my depth on the other.

[Jamescampbell78]

Bit awkward for the entire Labour party full stop.

People wonder why I have this aversion to politicians....

Roger Taylor said it best when he sang "An honest politician, is just a contradiction in terms."