While I am in this writing mood, I shall explain my views; politically and otherwise... I have touched on the market square already, so I shall try to avoid that subject.
Week after week all I seem to be reading is how bad of a job the Lib Dem run NBC, (and sometimes the get that wrong ~ remember we have TWO councils here!) how everything they have achieved has been crap.
It seems that everyone and anyone from Fitzy to my friend Tony Clarke is ready to stick the knife in as it were and complain about anything and everything. It seems that the current administration are damned if they do and damned if they don’t, which leads me to one of my questions; why would anyone in their right mind want to be a Councillor?
Not only do you have to balance the budget and books, not only do you have to seemingly please all of the people all of the time; but you also have to actually work miracles and do the impossible!
In my view, (other than with regard to opposition Councillors) I see all these “wannabe Councillors” moaning about how bad things are; but unwilling (or unable) to do anything about it. It is a little like football fans spouting off saying they could do a better job of managing their football team than the actual manager; however, if given the chance to do so ~ they all suddenly shut up! In other words, if you think you can do a better job or know better than those who run things; why are you not doing it?
If it was me, and I was so impassioned about what happened to my town; I would do all I could to become a Councillor and everything I could to change things. Yes it is true that one of the reasons I joined a party was because I wanted to become a Councillor and change things for the better, and yes I have the chance to do that; but in truth I am not sure it is worth the hassle.
Even though I don’t know what goes on “behind the scenes” as it were, I know things are not easy for any local (or national for that matter) government to make things work. But I also know that things in this town are not good either, and to be honest things will not get better over night...
Before this current administration, we had the Tories in power who didn’t do much. Then we had Labour in power who did loads, just not all of it good; they apparently got Northampton put into special measure ~ which I think basically means the national government had to take control of our spending and stuff ~ someone in the council will be better placed to explain that bit.
Now seeing as I was either too young or not as involved as I am now, I cannot comment on how good or bad things were before; but surely it cannot of been that good if things are as bad as they are now? Not ALL of the towns problems (and there do seem to be many of them) can be blamed on the current administration, these problems did NOT happen over night; the town has been in decline for far too long now and what worries me is that no one is listening!
While I have a huge amount of time for ALL Councillors, and would like to think I have friends on all sides of the chamber; I do worry that many of them are trying too hard to make things like a mini Houses of Commons... far too often I see those Councillors (and you know who you are!) on the opposite side of the chamber doing what can only be described as “childish taunting” and point scoring; when what they should be doing is putting the needs of my town first.
Members of that chamber have been voted in to make a difference and look after their ward residents, now don’t get me wrong many ~ if not all ~ of our Councillors do work extremely hard for those said residents. And if my ward Councillor was (and he is) one sitting on the opposition side, I too would want them to make as much noise as they could to get me the best deal for me and other as they could... but, and here are my concerns; far too many of them seem to forget about the “working together for the good of the town” part and seem to be more interested in acting like children!
Yes it is good theatre (I’ve seen some sights in council meetings!) and yes each Councillor should fight for their residents, as well as holding the administration to account for everything they do; but at the end of the day can you not have your “moment” and then work together?
Life is about compromises, we all have to make them! You cannot always get everything your own way, that is just not how life works... I mean I want to be a supermodel with one of them super hot hunks on my arm; still I have to settle for being super nice and having no one draped upon my arm ~ it happens! I would have thought the key (or one of the keys) to being a good Councillor, was being able to compromise?
My personal view is that while much needs to be done, ALL Councillors should quit with the fun and games and start getting down to the business of saving my town and getting it going in the right direction!
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