The Unforgiveable Stupidity Of Its Our County and Independent Councillors.

[bobby47]

If I read one more thread that involves a departing Councillor, an incoming Councillor or a failed Candidate telling me and everyone else how lessons have been learned, how from hereon Independents and Its Our County should work more closely together and try to become more pragmatic and more strategic in their thinking I'll spit phlegm.

And What'smore, please stop congratulating one another, being ever so kind and gracious and saying 'I'll help you all I can' and telling me that the next time we are gifted the golden opportunity and given another chance we'll get it right and stop the Hereford Conservatives from holding on to the levers of power. Don't tell me these things anymore.

Don't tell me these things now. Not now. In fact, never again. Not after the whole lot of you have buggered it all up and allowed the Conservatives to carry on with a clear mandate to do exactly what they did before when we got given a bucket of sludge and a bill for near on a hundred million pounds. No, from hereon, stop telling me that the next time everything will be different. It should have been different this time but it wasn't. It wasn't because of one simple and straightforward human failing. Ego, greed for local celebrity and a deep yearning to hold office that says, 'You are elected Councillor'.

Shame on all of you that have represented Its Our County and Independents. Instead of being pragmatic and strategic thinkers now, you've all decided to do that in four years bloody time which, given my predicament, ain't a lovely thing to hear and is of no comfort to me.

Why weren't you pragmatic and strategic thinking before we all went into the Polling booths knowing full well that the IOC and Independent vote would be split allowing bloody Johnson, Bramer and Morgan in through the back door. You didn't do it because you all individually wanted the prize.

You wanted to become Councillors and the consequences of that decision didn't bloody matter because egos and a greed for personal glory got in the way of what was best for our home Herefordshire.

And dont blame the Conservatives. It's not their bloody fault. It's yours and I'll never forgive your stupidity for thinking that in some way IOC and Independents would somehow emerge from this delusional dream, grab a hold of the levers of power and lead us all toward a more open and honest democratic future.

If me and my mates down the pub could see this coming then why couldn't you? You didn't see it coming because most of you are dull, you lack imagination and you put your own personal ambitions before the greater good which was, getting rid of this vile strain of Conservativism that's had a stranglehold on all of us these past few years.

And why am I qualified to be able to communicate my feelings in this way? Because I've given near on five years of my bloody time helping to give you lot a reasonable platform and a solid foundation to be able to compete with the Conservative administration.

Yes, me and a bunch of others who've moaned, groaned and bloody grumbled our way through it all tapping on a bloody keyboard complaining about this, that and the bloody other.

You've buggered it up. The Candidates for Its Our County and the Independents are the ones responsible for our predicament and it's all because none of you were strong enough to say what needed to be said when your respective leaders called a pre election strategy meeting enquiring, 'what shall we do to get rid of the Tory administration. You didn't say anything because you were to weak and to keen to grasp the prize and you are all to blame for the mess we are all now in.

Do I bloody care what you think and what your responses might be for this bucket of phlegm I've just tipped on your heads? No! I couldn't care bloody less because I'm done wasting my time pretending to myself that there was ever any bloody point to it all.

For the fourth and final time I bloody quit on my rotten stool. Quite simply I've got better things to do than waste my time helping to prepare the ground for Candidates who couldn't think for themselves and say, 'if we ain't careful we'll cut our own throats and allow the Conservatives another tenure at the helm of the good ship HMS Hereford.

I've been stewing for days about this and I now feel liberated because I've poured scorn on every single Candidate who convinced themselves that 'the strategy' was the right one for this particular election. Bloody idiots the lot of you!

[dippyhippy]

Well said, Bobby.

 

Definitely your best post ever.

 

And every word is sadly true.

[megilleland]

Well said Bobby and straight for the jugular.

[Denise Lloyd]

Absolutely well said.  Now I'll say what has been bugging me all day IOC certainly buggared it up for Wormside the candidate that they put would have been totally unsuitable he didn't any positive policies and not really any idea. He relied on knowing a lot of people and being related to a lot of people. He was in support of the 150 houses that 98% of the village are against. Never seen him at a comunity event and he was put in at the last moment as an act of spite.  Now look what we have ended up with thank you for that IOC.  You may not have liked Jim Knipe etc etc but personal feelings should have been put to one side.

 

I would like to know IOC your recruitment process I have already heard how some were recruited.

[dippyhippy]

Many of us, the "Blogging Brigade", the regular posters..... feel extremely angry, and let down... that between you - the opposition - you failed to get your act together.

 

And I would still like to know why a councillor with the track record of Sharon Michaels was allowed to stand in Whitecross, instead of Amanda. A woman who could definitely make a difference.

 

IOC... you let one of your best slip through the nets, and enabled someone with a dubious - to say the least -  record for the past five years to remain.

 

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

[twowheelsgood]

Bang on bobby47 - you weren't elected king just for the size of your rod. 

 

Denise - someone in Wormside ward said more or less the same thing to me on Friday - digusted by the IOC candidates attitude and no idea.

[Denise Lloyd]

That's a surprise I thought I was going to get a slating for my remarks!  And his wife probably did more canvassing than him!

 

I hope you IOC people who have got in are big and strong enough to keep the Cons under control - it's a tall order but you brought it on yourselves.

[dippyhippy]

You'll not get a slating, Denise.

 

It's called Tough Love.

 

They need to hear it.

[dippyhippy]

And another thing, while I'm getting things off my chest....

 

Maybe, just maybe, both the Independents and IOC need to take a long, hard look at the leaders of their respective groups.

 

Perhaps ask themselves the question..." Do we really have the best person in place to lead us forward?"

 

Be honest.

 

If they weren't prepared to put differences aside at this, the most crucial of times, should they be given another opportunity.

[dippyhippy]

Forgive me, but I am in full rant mode this evening. Pretty much like an all important election, I only experience this sense of anger and frustration once every four or five years, so bear with me....

 

Anthony Powers and Bob Matthews..... if you both value hearing the opinions of the good folk of Hereford, I would suggest you get yourselves on here, and start explaining.

 

Not only have you managed to split the vote, you are in danger of losing the support,so many have given you.

 

I'd like to hear your humble pie speech for myself.

 

And Anthony, that means a different tone to the quite frankly arrogant, aloof and disinterested response I got from you on Polling Day.

 

Step up, the pair of you.

[dazza333]

Hi all, and bloody well said Bobby.

I'm Darrell Meekcom and I did stand in the Credenhill Ward for IOC. Right here we go: Recruitment policy - You'll do. Manifesto - basic at best. Strategy - war of attrition. Planning - none. Ideas - trams etc...

I was asked to do the Credenhill Ward 5 weeks before the election despite IOC having had 4 years to find people and plan, 25 others of us were also thrown into the mix with this short time span despite having had, as I said, 4 years to plan. In that 5 weeks and despite Credenhill being the second largest populated ward I was given absolutely no help leafleting which I did thrice and no help whatsoever canvassing and door knocking. No help at all, nil, zero, nada! Strategically Credenhill was a massive scalp for IOC; taking down Bob Matthews the leader of the Independents AND moreover creating a big gateway to the typically Tory Blue rural wards, and what do you think those in charge within IOC did? Nothing, nil, zero, nada.

I have never known such poor planning, poor strategic nouse, poor recruitment, poor timing. Please forgive me if I sound very much like a bad loser but the ward was there for the taking. As a total unknown and with no help I scored the most votes Matthews had ever had against him in 5 weeks. If Id stood for the Torys I would have taken this seat.

So, Its Our County is it? Nope, Its Our Cock up. Imagine Herefordshire if IOC had taken charge of the Council? Stop stop! I'll have nightmares......

[dippyhippy]

Dazza....you really are the man I thought you were.

 

Brilliant.

 

IOC need to take a long hard look at themselves. Your ward was absolutely vital. You are a brilliant candidate. You deserved to have had the backing of an organised group.

 

To hear how pi.ss poor some of the planning and preparation was is shocking. I applaude your honesty, in telling it as it is.

 

I am so angry at this. The amount of time, energy and enthusiasm some of us have put into IOC over the past few years is unbelievable. If Bobby, Two Wheels and myself, invoiced IOC for the amount of hours we have spent on these bloody keyboards, as well as everything else, the bill would be spectacular.

 

I feel absolutely justified in wanting to know how and why this went so wrong. And if it takes a public tongue lashing to get a response from either Anthony or Bob, then that's fine by me. 

[dippyhippy]

One last thing, before I switch this bloody thing off.

 

Some really good folk HAVE emerged. Cherish them. Nurture them. Keep them. Because THEY are the future of IOC.

 

To Dazza, Amanda, Paul, Mike and Jimbo, I say a huge thank you. You guys alone are the only things that stop me walking away.

[Amanda Martin]

*Puts on tin hat*  

There are some valid points in there but hindsight is a wonderful thing and it's a tad harsh.  In the absence of any Acme Candidate Making Power (just add water), it was only as the election loomed that candidates started coming forward - I was one of them actually, having vacillated until the 11th hour about whether or not to stand at all.   

 

As far as I'm aware, Anthony doesn't have a cloning machine either and I can tell you, he was passing us in a blur during all that Core Strategy stuff.    I was reading the other day about a meeting he attended about the Southern Link Road.  I believe there were seven councillors left and it was Anthony,  Alan Seldon and Terry Matthews who managed to get the scheme sent back to Cabinet for more rigorous appraisal.  

 

http://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/11660487.Council_stands_by_favoured_route_for_Hereford_s___25m_southern_link_road/

 

I think it needs to be borne in mind that IOC is still fresh out of its packet in political terms.  It doesn't have a slick party machine and this is only the second election it has fought, against a moving backdrop of national political volatility.   No-one, including the seasoned Paddy Ashdown, who is no doubt still on his hat, could have predicted the way things were going to go and this didn't help- neither did our inability to field a full complement of candidates ( we were  12 short I think).  Even if all the Independents had thrown themselves at our feet, it wouldn't have won us this election although we didn't miss it by much in a number of wards.  

 

Rome wasn't dismantled in a day.  IOC has gone from a standing start and has made extraordinary gains in four years.  No-one is more disappointed with the end result than me - the lack of political success now means a shed load of gruelling campaigning my end - but, on the bright side, half of these Tories are going to be falling over or in care fairly soon and when the by-elections come along, we'll be ready for them. 

 

By the way, I think the decision to put me in Widemarsh ward was driven, excuse the pun, by the intention that should the occasion arise, I would be well placed to deal with the Highways Agency.  Widemarsh is a key ward in transport terms and I would like another bite at that cherry.  Losing by 23 votes has been a valuable lesson that it really is worth knocking every door - literally every vote counts. 

 

I genuinely don't feel that our leadership are driven by vanity and self aggrandisement - actually it's a remarkably ego free zone and we also generally get on extremely well.   Dazza333, you had a particularly rough time and that loss was a bitter and unjust inability to snatch victory from the gums of defeat but I do believe that, in the fullness of time, the investment you made will reap its dividends.  

 

This evening I went round and thanked those who hadn't slammed their doors in my face.  At one house an elderly couple is living in appalling conditions with an extension that you can literally wobble.   Unbelievably the landlord is  Herefordshire Housing.   Others told me about parking and speeding problems. I said I would do what I could and also refer them on to Polly Andrews,  who I'm sure will be delighted to take up the cases.  

 

[Amanda Martin]

I am sorry to let you down though, Dippy. That election thread made very horrible reading.  

[Amanda Martin]

I'm not sure why the word "s--n_Atch"  was censored out of my previous post!  I think this says more about Colin's mind :-)   

[dippyhippy]

That's my point, Amanda..... you, and those like you have NOT let me down. You're efforts were huge, and greatly appreciated.

 

You had a presence well before the elections, to many of us who were involved with The Edgar Street Trees/Working Boys Home. Your integrity, commitment  and intelligence alone should have meant that you were given every chance possible. IOC shot themselves in the foot, with that decision.

 

It's the top of the tree that perhaps needs attention.

 

IOC didn't need to field a candidate in every ward. Surely to God, they realise this now???

[flamboyant]

halle ****ing lujah! I love how people suddenly find their voice when there's someone like Bobby47 leading you? Think his rant was kinda the point! Don't stand behind Bobby47 stand on your own! If you knew it was wrong, wouldn't work or was a bad idea, might have been an idea to have said sooner!

[dazza333]

Amanda, I'm sorry but as much as I respect you I have to disagree and say that IOC had 4 years to plan but naïvely left it all until the last minute. As a nurse I can tell you that with every single patient that comes onto a ward discharge planning commenced immediately, thus, after the last election would you not have thought it wise to plan for the next election immediately, set the wheels in motion, plan recruitment for targeted attainable wards etc....or shall we leave it for 3 years and 47 weeks then quickly sod off down the Barrels for a meeting, see who knows 25 passionate and loud people who can knock a few doors, blow the whistle and wait to see how many make it past the post? I think I witnessed the latter.....

[Roger]

given another chance we'll get it right and stop the Hereford Conservatives from holding on to the levers of power.

 

SNP type soundbite ..... Just saying! 

[megilleland]

halle ****ing lujah! I love how people suddenly find their voice when there's someone like Bobby47 leading you? Think his rant was kinda the point! Don't stand behind Bobby47 stand in your own! If you knew it was wrong, wonder work was a bad idea, might have np been an idea to have said sooner!

 

In February 2015 I raised this problem in post 52, in connection with the 2010 General Election, although in the latest result Jesse polled more votes than the opposition put together. The figures for the Herefordshire Council elections however show that the Tories could have been beaten if only one opposition party was put forward. The only problem then is to get the public to vote for it.

 

This article in the The Independent "Why did you vote Tory" is an interesting read.

 

The general election's surprise result of a Conservative majority government has shocked professional pundits and pollsters, but others are just as puzzled with many asking why did so many people vote Tory?

 

To find an answer to this apparent conundrum, one person took to the social networking and news site Reddit to ask Tory voters for their motives.

 

Self-explanatory - I'm not asking in a snarky way, I am genuinely curious. Could you please explain your reasoning for voting the way you did? Thanks!

Edit: and please actually explain - don't just say "the economy"

Edit2: fame and glory!!

[Roger]

 but others are just as puzzled with many asking why did so many people vote Tory?

 

Ed Balls? He has no grip on reality and got voted out. ...... His wife would be fairly toxic if she run for Leadership. Labour is officially in chaos in my book. Their only hope is to move right ~ like it was last time. Indistinguishable from the Tories! They all just want Power !!!! ..... 

[WirralPC]

Move left. Honestly represent the working class backbone of the country who've been out in the cold, blamed and scapegoated unfairly for decades.

 

The election was obviously rigged and fiddled, just like the 50+ tried and tested cynical ways of manipulating the unemployment figures.

 

Run it again fairly, openly, honestly and decently without hideous, twisted, selfish tory manipulation.

[Amanda Martin]

I am thinking about these points. Darrell there is a meeting tonight and I think you should come and reiterate them.

 

The one thing I can't accept is that Anthony is motivated by ego; in fact I know that is not the case. There will have been mistakes made and I am sure lessons will have been learned- sorry about that cliche . Anthony is not a dictator. I didn't attend those early meetings but there will have been a full discussion and a vote on key elements of the election strategy. The party conducts itself very democratically but democracy doesn't always get it right.

 

I have to admit I couldn't face the wake in the pub last night but I will think about the points made and take them with me to tonight's meeting.

[Ubique]

That's the air cleared - now ( hopefully ) onward and upward .

[dazza333]

I am thinking about these points. Darrell there is a meeting tonight and I think you should come and reiterate them.

 

The one thing I can't accept is that Anthony is motivated by ego; in fact I know that is not the case. There will have been mistakes made and I am sure lessons will have been learned- sorry about that cliche . Anthony is not a dictator. I didn't attend those early meetings but there will have been a full discussion and a vote on key elements of the election strategy. The party conducts itself very democratically but democracy doesn't always get it right.

 

I have to admit I couldn't face the wake in the pub last night but I will think about the points made and take them with me to tonight's meeting.

Anthony, to me, was obvious by his absence. He lives in Breinton and is a key member on Breinton PC. Anthony was 'buddied' with me in the Credenhill ward Which incorporates Breinton and as such one would have thought his influence would have been vital in taking this ward, not for me but for IOC...but no, I neither saw him near a doorstep, nor did I have any calls, texts, messages of support from him or any other seniors. And whereby you point out about about "a key vote on election strategy" well I would love to have been a fly on the wall ay that one. Don't forget, I was approached by IOC to stand within 5 weeks of the election date with the promise of massive support, I couldn't knock a door until my nomination papers were approved which left me three weeks..THREE WEEKS..to take a seat from Bob Matthews the Leader of the Independents who's had the seat for 30 years. A little help would have been appreciated. Amanda I wad not the only candidate in this situation either; Rob Ruck, James Stokes etc good men who have been let down and left disgruntled.

[dazza333]

Bobby titles this post as "THE UNFORGIVABLE STUPIDITY OF ITS OUR COUNTY"......I will personally give a months salary to anyone who can come up with a more apt, truthful or stoically honest statement than that!

[Glenda Powell]

While I take a chance of getting another red- mark if I speak about IOC, as Colin said I am now free to tell you what its like on the inside, that the members on here do not know about. I have been told by members/candidates of IOC past and present that they do not get any support from them so was not surprised to read Dazza333 posts (26 & 27) as one of their members told me they were told (you are elected get on with it) it is very daunting being a councillor for the first time and any training offered by the council should be taken up. In regard to the council chamber IOC shout about every thing, they are rude therefore they are ignored, as a HT reporter told me they make headline comments but there is no substance after in what they say.

 

In regards to the Independents, candidates get very good support from the leader, often to his own detriment, but people then will not do anything for themselves, and it happened again in the recent elections, some asked for help and I gave it, and those I helped appreciated it but other than another three of existing councillors only stepped forward when the leader asked them to help new candidates.

[Denise Lloyd]

Move left. Honestly represent the working class backbone of the country who've been out in the cold, blamed and scapegoated unfairly for decades.

 

The election was obviously rigged and fiddled, just like the 50+ tried and tested cynical ways of manipulating the unemployment figures.

of the Herefor

Run it again fairly, openly, honestly and decently without hideous, twisted, selfish tory manipulation.

Forgive my naivety but how can a General Election be rigged and fiddled?

 

I am aware that the unemployment figures are not accurate and I am also very aware that in Conservative wards there has been a massive tidy up over the last weeks - potholes ditches gullies footpath entrances all cleaned and trimmed within a whisker.   A comment to this effect has been made on the HT has been so it is not me being paranoid.

 

Ask any voter in Golden Valley South why they vote Con and they will say Graham Powell ask him and he gets things done.

 

Cons will always be on the winning side because they have the means to get things done and win votes.  I have mentioned before but page 119 of last weeks Hereford Times shows a photograph of two 2 prospective Con Candidates cleaning a bus shelter.  What good timing to get their photo in the local press on the day of the election.

[Glenda Powell]

Yes and that is against electoral law because it was in the poudar period. As I have heard that people were out canvassing at the door when the polling stations were open, in one ward but there will be an enquiry into that.