Great to see Hezza back in the saddle, talking about the plight of British cities. But I'm not sure I agree with his analysis. The main problem, which he did not mention in his speech, is that in Manchester, Glasgow, Liverpool and (yes) Blackpool, one in four is claiming out of work benefits. No wonder social decay follows. The answer is to empower people by ending dependency, not empowering inept, spendthrift local authorities.
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TGF UKIP
September 30th, 2007 4:00pm Report this commentSpot on Fraser, whenever I hear Dave and co bang on about giving power back to the local authorities it sounds as if they've never heard of Deggsy Hatton or Blunkett's Soviet Socialist Republic of South Yorkshire. Power was grabbed off local authorities by Mrs Thatcher for very good reason.
G Madden
September 30th, 2007 5:15pm Report this commentAlternatively, it's because Local Authorities have such little power that they have become havens of corrupt egoists. More responsbilty might attract the sort of bright ope-minded people who are currently Tory candidates.
TGF UKIP
September 30th, 2007 7:32pm Report this commentNice thought G Madden but, I'm afraid, detached from reality. Consider - most people on the right either are self employed or are ambitious employees of private companies who, by and large, take a dim view of employees taking too much time off for such extraneous matters as council activities. On the other hand most leftists are either public sector employees, union officials, or employees of the ubiquitous "charities." Whichever it is time off is not just no problem it's positively encouraged. "Councilloring" is now virtually a full time left wing occupation. Don't encourage the buggers with still more power.
nick humfrey
October 1st, 2007 9:48am Report this commentIf 'councilloring' is now virtually a full time left wing occupation how come the overwhelming majority of councillors in this country are Tory. The reason why you get corrupt concils is because no one actually knows who's in charge because a) they don't know who their councillors are, let alone who actually runs the council and b) they're never sure whether it's the council's fault or the main governments. The key as Hezza so rightly insists is elected Mayors. Then you have local politicians in the public eye who are accountable.
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