Saturday, August 07, 2004

Bits & Pieces

On Thursday I went to Upper Sheringham Parish Council, where I learnt that the cost of maintaining and insuring 7 lampposts has increased from £100 to £800 a year in twelve months. Ridiculous. How on earth are Parish Councils supposed to come up with that sort of money? Many people do not know this but Parish Councils have a very small budget, mostly only about £2,000. I would like to see them strengthened. At the moment they have few powers, and little influence.

Yesterday I visited the Muckleburgh Collection at Kelling. It's a sort of mini Duxford with a wonderful collection of old second world war vehicles, including a tanks, jeeps, guns etc. Their most recent acquisition is a Swiss army tank, which has recently been decommissioned. Can't think it saw much active service!

Yesterday afternoon I spent visiting several old people's homes and in the evening drove over to Fakenham to see someone who had responded to my newspaper. Had a very interesting discussion about education and international aid. Talking of the latter, I have invited our Shadow International Aid Spokesman John Bercow to come to North Norfolk on 21 October, so if anyone interested in the subject would like to meet him, do get in touch.

Today I'm out on the streets this morning and then later on we're going out on the Broads with my friends Keith & Pepi Simpson to celebrate her XXth birthday - oops, the keyboard got stuck there...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

More powers? Don't encourage them for goodness sake, let's get Government out of people's lives, not strengthen their power. Although parish councillor would be a superb role for Norman Lamb.

Anonymous said...

Oh come on. Enough personal attacks - whether or not you have any or no sympathy with the LibDems or his Westminster activities, Norman Lamb is a hardworking and committed constituency MP and to snipe at him merely reveals a blinkered and prejudiced approach to politics. Party politics is fine - and I have no problem with justified, measured criticism of individuals. But this blogsite and some of Mr Dale's supporters who add their comments are all too quick to attack Mr Lamb. Why not attack his policies instead and leave Mr Lamb in peace (as he leaves the Tories, and Mr Dale specifically) to get on with his job for the next 9 months. You may lose the votes of those who think politicians, and aspiring politicians, should always be a)first to attack and b)unscrupulous. But staying your hand and being fair and intelligent in your comments will earn you the votes of floaters like me!

May the best man win...

Paula

Iain Dale said...

Paula,
I think I have been consistent in attacking policies rather than personality. However, any criticism of someone's actions or their policies will sometimes be interpreted as personal. I have criticised Norman Lamb for sitting on the fence on the European constitution or Tescos but I think you will find that I spend much more time on this Blog telling people what I am up to and what our policies are than criticising Mr Lamb.

Iain