There are two ways to look at the revelations about MPs allegedly upsetting staff tasked with setting up the new expenses system. Outwardly, one can easily picture MPs as rude, impatient and insensitive. On the other hand, in recent years, civil servants (and council workers) seem to have been trained to use sensitivity as a shield against criticism. They will say that the slightest rise in tone makes them feel ‘uncomfortable’. In much the same way as diversity trainers view everything in terms of race, say, staff members will interpret any emotion stronger than vague geniality as threatening.
So yes, Dennis McShane may be an arrogant brute, but as Billy Bragg said, ‘remember, there are two sides to every story’…
Entry about the mobile phone mast Vodafone put in St. James’ Street, after supposedly consulting ward councillors instead of the public, tomorrow, or maybe next day, but for now, one of the funniest things on the web. After months, the kids still find this stuff a hoot (the literal trailers are cool, too):
To everyone who has come here to not read this blog, welcome. You’re all doing a wonderful job of ignoring me, Give yourselves a pat on the back.
This entry is about a recent entry on the Gloucestershire Blog (see links on the right), in which Eddie Eldridge has indulged himself with a little paddy about me. Of course, I responded, and of course, he has rejected my comment, which is entirely in character. Since then, a spattering of ‘worthies’ have added their devalued coins to the ‘discussion’. Great to see Jerry Jenkinson and Shaun Moore, since they vanished from the message boards after asking for a Barton & Tredworth board that Shaun now fails to moderate. Pointing this little fact out was one of the reasons I was ‘banned’ before, so good to see that the guy who said ‘I think you are a sad act but then that’s what I think’, and Jerry (who said the site Softdata UK made for the Trust Centre was ‘rubbish’) are still making a contribution. I have absolutely no idea who ‘Allison’ is, but unless she’s lying, I guess I made an impression (but why do so many people feel the need to add ‘little’ to their worthless jibes? I’m of average height, as ‘Allison’ should know, supposedly, but what has she got against the vertically challenged?).
But can we really take no notice of ‘Andy’? With a link like that, isn’t he just another dirty spammer? Never mind, he’s agreeing with Eddie. That always works.
So, what I would have said on Eddie’s blog, if he would have let me, is below. Anyone who feele they want to contradict me, fine. Or just ignore, because Eddie can’t possibly be in the wrong, can he..?
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Eddie you have it the wrong way around, You had three chances, and you blew it. Now you have absolutely no say over what I write, and I am of course likely to write about what an intolerant, bigoted person you are. How does that feel?
Now, of course, you probably aren’t likely to allow this post. It’s ironic… no, let’s call it what it really is, hypocritical… that Reg can claim I won’t allow a comment of his on my blog, but when I do, he won’t admit it and makes himself scarce instead, and you don’t say a word. You choose to allow your members to be as boorish as they please, as long as they direct that bile at the right person, someone you’ve taken a childish dislike to.
But you must know very well that if you don’t allow this post, I’ll happily put it on my own blog, and contrary to what you would hope, people will read it there, if only because people like to see a good old barney in progress. And you’re grasping at straws if you think other blog owners share your petty views. Maybe you should have tried a bit harder at persuading them you had any opinions worth listening to, rather than parochial rubbish about ‘political correctness’ and Muslims in swimming pools…
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There’s that, Barry, and I have given Eddie full thanks for putting me on to Webs.com, although the occasional site outages can be annoying. What you don’t know is that when I showed him the bartreds.webs.com site I made, he sneered at me for having only two members, both myself (‘Joe K’ and ‘Webmaster’). This from ‘Eddie/’Admin’, who just happen to share the same age and birthday…
I have a great memory (well, mostly). I remember being ‘banned’ three times with pathetic justifications (if ‘justifications’ is the word) each time. I wonder if Eddie’s memory is as good? The third time was for noting, twice, that the board blogs had been over-ran with ‘trackbacks’ which linked to porn and drug sites. Not that I was foolish enough to click on any of them, but links proclaiming ‘anal rape’, ‘father/daughter sex’, gang banging’… Do you think Eddie was worrying about his business when he left them on there for months, or worrying about his ego when he deleted my first mention of the trackbacks, without even bothering to PM me? I’ve been subject to Eddie’s heavyhandedness before, so I posted my note again. That was when Eddie ‘banned’ me. And you’re talking about ‘vindictive’? If Eddie lost ‘contracts’ before, it was because of his own carelessness. If he loses any now, it’ll be because of his arrogance.
And it’s ‘prat’, Dave, and I don’t own TiG. Ask Mat.
Nota Bene: there is another individual on the Gloucestershire Boards called ‘Shaun’ (though he has never even once posted, and I wouldn’t trust that Shaun to tell the truth as far as I could ‘dump a giant incinerator on the outskirts of Gloucester’, either. Has he graced Eddie’s blog with his presence?
And as I said, my memory is mostly great. The second ‘ban’ was over the trackbacks (the first was when I was ‘Joker’, and dished the dirt on Shaun ‘Barton Media’ Moore over the obviously unnecessary B&T board). The third barely counted, because my feet hardly touched the floor when Eddie noticed that Facebook had let me sign in again with the same name, and have a discussion with Reyaz Limalia, the chairman of Gymnasian/Friendship Café (GFC), about Fair Shares.
Too many words, ‘innit? Some people despise words…
(just FYI, that ‘Sherlock’ mini-series on the Beeb was pretty good, although 90 minutes per ep was pushing it a bit.)
I want to talk about something which has come up again as a result of Baz Kirby noting on the Gloucester Boards that he had ‘got Analytics installed on Gloucester Labour website’. That led me to look at GL’s site, which led me to look at The Team, which led me to note again that Harjit Gill is listed as living at 155 Barton Street, contrary to the opinion of others. They are quite correct because, on the city council’s website, his address is listed as Tithe Farm, Tithe Farm Lane, Birdwood, way out past Churcham on the A40.
That’s not what I want to talk about, though, but rather that it was Saj Patel who, correctly, pointed out that this Barton & Tredworth councillor didn’t live in Gloucester. I queried this in the Citizen article, Tory candidate was Labour member, where he made the claim, because it could only have been Gill he was referring to, and like most people, I assumed our councillor was a ward resident. Saj sent me an email (he has my address because I’ve emailed him on parking issues) clarifying the address thing, but also pointing out that, contrary to the claim beneath that article from an anonymous ‘Labour Party Member’, on April 28th, that Saj ‘was rejected to stand in the election only six weeks back’, the candidate selection actually took place on October 3rd, 2009. That anonymous claim, if taken at face value, completely blew out of the water Saj’s claim to have become the Tory candidate after being persuaded by Yakub Pandor on his deathbed in December last year. Therefore, it was unfortunate that besides informing me, Saj never challenged the claim publicly, under that article. If dirty tricks had been uncovered – and if Saj Patel quit the Labour Party in November 2009, as he claimed, Sonia Friend’s ‘He was a Labour Party member until very recently’ line was a lie – that revelation could have turned the course of the election in Barton & Tredworth.
So my question to anyone in the know is, was the candidate selection on Oct 3rd last year, as Saj claimed, or around mid-March, as the anonymous writer alleged?
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