The West Midlands NO campaign is a lively organisation, dedicated to stopping a proposed city region in that locality. There has been a recent controversy after the head of communications at Shropshire County Council was caught telling staff how to cheat on a BBC poll aimed at gauging people's opinion on a unitary authority. Read about it here:
http://www.westmidlandsno.org.uk/wordpress/?p=127
And now Heather Kidd, leader of South Shropshire District Council, has decided to ignore the local electorate and go for the unitary authority option....
From the West Midlands NO! Campaign:
Heather Kidd the leader of the South Shropshire District Council:
“It looks like people in south Shropshire probably voted with their hearts rather than their heads - indeed quite a few have told me they did just that.”
In a recent poll to decide the future of the county’s local authorities despite 57 per cent of voters in the district being against the idea of a unitary council, and not even waiting for the results, the submission to the minister was dispatched on the day that the ballot closed, before the results were known.
Heather Kidd said she refuted “that” - it is not clear whether she refuted the submission was sent before the results were known or refuted that it was undemocratic. Not that Mrs Kidd worries much about democracy as she holds her seat on the council after winning the election unopposed, so nobody even had the chance to vote either for or against her.
As usual when the voice of the people go against the EU federalists they are to be ignored, and all the excuses that can be thought of are advanced for doing so. In this case Mrs Kidd argues:
“Surely, if there had been a massive groundswell of feeling against moving towards unitary status, more than 8,156 of our 34,368 voters - less than a quarter of them - would have ticked the ‘no’ box, as it were, and forwarded their vote to the Electoral Reform Society?"
Of course the alternative argument is that if the people had been keen on a unitary council there would have had been a massive groundswell of feeling for moving towards unitary status and voters would have ticked the ‘Yes’ box.
http://www.westmidlandsno.org.uk/wordpress/?p=135
Heather Kidd, Dictator General! WHO told her that they voted with their heart? And surely people are entitled to feel emotionally engaged about how their community is governed?
My dear old auntie Florrie always voted for Neil Kinnock because she liked his accent. People vote for all sorts of reasons. But their views are not usually negated and ignored.
Ruth Kelly, meanwhile, dictates that the status quo is not an option. And yet New Labour brags that it brings decision making closer to the people. This will certainly not!
On a local and national level, the fight for the restoration of democratic rule in England continues.
The likes of Heather Kidd should resign in shame.
This blog is supportive of the aims of the Campaign for an English Parliament, but is in no way connected.
