Local election leaflets No 1. “In at Number 10”

No No Not Downing Street! Don’t start getting excited. With the pensions pirate in Brum to rouse the party faithful for the coming local election this is a good time to start my series of posts and ideas for our local leaflets. Whatever GB says this week end is going to make little difference to us minions in Newton unless he announces doubling pensions and cancels council tax for the over sixty fives or some other “your off your trolley” scheme. So back to earth before they come to take me away.
I want to try to raise the quality of leaflets that are put through our letter boxes during local elections with some of the issues that are affecting us here in Newton and perhaps try to broaden the thinking of our local politicians in the way they canvass and for what they stand for. Some of my top ten will be predictable and some will be controversial and I hope new. They will not necessarily appear in strict priority order because that would be a subjective assessment on my part. I do not want to see candidates pictures with arms stuck in bottle banks or with their arms folded in front of a pile of litter claiming “more needs to be done” What I do want are positive well thought out campaigns that are relevant to our ward, without slagging of the others and with some fresh thinking.
So in at Number 10 is - “Gongs” I have lived in Newton for 45 years and I can’t ever remember a local resident being mentioned in the Queens Honours List. I can think of at least one person who should have been awarded an MBE or been made a Dame many years ago for her contribution to stroke sufferers. I blame the body politic for this and I would like to see all our candidates’ campaign publicly for more awards for the massive amount of community work that is done by volunteers young and old alike in our ward. We have some fantastic community champions who do not make a fuss but carry on week in week out. I realise that for a candidate to mention someone directly could be seen as a bribe but to campaign for more awards for Newton generally would be a good thing and might encourage more people to become involved with voluntary work. Email me for a list of possible recipients; we could have a bus to the palace. Now I’m back in cloud cuckoo land.

Footnote, the Tory candidate tells me they are going to put out another leaflet which I guess will be a joint thank you and launch of their campaign. I await with interest to read what they have to say.