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Showing posts from April, 2025

Removal

  I recently received  a notice from the Clerk of Betley Parish Council (see below) but, 'Tell it not in Gath, proclaim it not in the streets of Ashkelon, lest the daughters of the Philistines rejoice, lest the sons of the uncircumcised triumph. with an apology to (2 Samuel v19). I would like to thank everyone who gave support over the past three years, much appreciated, and to say that it was a pleasure and privilege to have been a Councillor for WrinehilI.  Given the set up of the Parish Council and the state of play it was impossible to represent you in the way that I would have wished or that Wrinehill deserved.  The odds of  12 - 1 was not conducive to  turning things around to ensure fair play, equitable distribution of resources, accountability and transparency.   Under the grimmest of  circumstances that I have ever encountered, I did what I could.  I had every intention and determination to remain until 2026 until fate interve...

George Orwell Part Two: Censorship and Silencing

  In September 2024 Betley Parish Council considered several policies which it did not have but should have and updated the few that it did.  Councillors were invited to look at these policies and submit any amendments/changes/ improvements etc.  Only one Councillor did so and few if any of those recommendations (all 20 pages) were considered or accepted.  Local Councils had produced a template, which some councils amended to meet their particular needs.   Betley Parish Council has included in this a clause wishing to regulate not only its own social media but to include all other and private social media platforms.  This could mean giving itself the power to close down platforms with which it might not agree or did not like.  Although the PC was cautioned with regard to the impact of this it went ahead anyway, ignoring perhaps the view of  Bruce Coville  who informed that 'w ithholding information is the essence of tyranny, control of ...

George Orwell For Today: Part One

  After three years of being a parish councillor, I had good reason to revisit George Orwell.   Not his fiction but his philosophy which had been created not by sitting around drinking and pontificating in a local pub (although he might have done on occasion when he had the money to spare) but by hard graft at the grass roots level of rubbing shoulders with the poor and the dispossessed, by working in the police force and as a tutor and civil servant, and being intelligent and self aware enough to perceive accurately in order to assess what was going on around him.    His philosophy became enshrined in his most well known books particularly Animal Farm and 1984 , which demonstrated that Totalitarianism existed in all political persuasions seeking ultimate control and power over its populations, usually to assuage and fulfil self-interested egos. So what had he learned from his wide experiences and what was he seeking to convey in his novels which soon captured...