The Voice of Freedom

I was sitting in my study reading some email one Sunday evening about two weeks ago when I heard a couple of people talking to each other and walking up to my front door. Something dropped through the letter box and they wandered off. Once I'd finished reading my email I went to see what had been delivered.

It was a newspaper called the Voice of Freedom.

As someone who was born in Southern Africa, I just knew the Voice of Freedom had to have a story about Nelson Mandela. I scanned rapidly through its pages, but no such luck. In that case, I thought, there will definitely be something about Mahatma Ghandi. Another riffle through the pages. Another disappointment. Perhaps an article on Aung San Suu Kyi, winner of the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize? Yet another disappointment.

In desperation, I turned to the front page where, to my astonishment, I discovered that the Voice of Freedom is the mouthpiece of the BNP. And if there's anyone who thoroughly deserves having their mouths washed out, it's them.

BNP in Hook and Rotherwick

Roger Robertson is standing as the candidate for the BNP in the Hook and Rotherwick ward of Hart. His proposals, as reported in the Basingstoke Gazette, are interesting. Some might even say bizarre.

• Open a Hart District Council office in Hook.
  

  What on earth would this office do? If it is to be more than a post office - which we already have in Hook, although not being a Hook resident, Robertson may have not known this - then we'd need skilled officers on site. If we say one each for planning applications, rubbish, democratic services, benefits & finance and a general person, that would be five officers. Plus an office. A cleaner. Light and water. Computer equipment and software. Telecommunications lines. It is difficult to see how the cost of this would be less than £200,000 a year. In fairness, we should also open one in Yateley. That's £400,000 which on its own would increase Hart council tax by going on for 10%. At a time when Hook has some pretty urgent needs, spending such vast sums to employ more civil servants is hardly our highest priority.
  
  

• Opening a cafe for teenagers
  

  If Roger Robertson was interested in doing more than creating headlines, he would know that providing facilities for the young has been the subject of a substantial cross-party project at Hart District Council, led by Jonathan Glenn, a local councillor. It's a comprehensive plan, not just a soundbite.
  
  

• Hart council workers should work from home to save money
  

  How would this save money? Their computers are paid for. Their salaries are paid. The office space could hardly be re-let ("Here we have 21 square feet (2.1 sq metres) in the Planning Department. Comes with slightly used desk and clean carpet..."). It would involve extra costs, such as the cost of the computer connections and extra equipment to support all the extra links. And the software to do so and provide appropriate security.
  

But then it appears that Robertson is a fan of Big Government. His proposals would put up Hart District Council taxes by over 10% - for what?

Voting for the BNP really isn't sensible. At best it's silly; at worst it's sinister.

They say that today's politicians lack convictions. That's not true in the BNP; they have lots of convictions. Current BNP leader Nick Griffin is a convicted criminal. Group Development Officer of the BNP Tony Lecomber has a total of 12 convictions and was sentenced to 3 years in prison in 1985 for possession of a home made bomb. South East London organiser, Colin Smith has amassed a total of 17 convictions for burglary, theft, stealing cars, possession of drugs and assaulting a police officer. Founder of the BNP John Tyndall has been jailed twice - first in 1962 for organizing a private army and four years later, he was again sent to prison for possession of a loaded gun.

Kind of ironic, then, that their party newspaper is called the Voice of Freedom.

What do I stand for?

As a member of the Conservative Party, many of my views are likely to be pretty party orthodox: for example, I believe in low taxes.

Taxes

In the case of Hart District Council, I have spoken strongly in favour of keeping council tax low in both budgets since I have become a councillor. My reasons for doing so are

• In general, I believe it is better for people to choose how to spend their money than for government to do so.
  
• Despite a generally healthy economy, high technology companies in and near Hart continue to lay off people. WHen you're laid off, paying any bill is tough.
  
• There is a large and growing number of retired people living in Hart. A few months ago I was speaking to a retired lady who told me that her weekly pension was £81 and her monthly council tax bill before rebates was £85.
  

Education

I strongly believe that education should be the top priority for government. A well-educated population will make for a strong economy; a strong economy will make reasonable govenment spending affordable. At the district council level there is little that I can do for local education, with the exception of ensuring that local developers make appropriate contributions (see below). I have argued for this in the past and will continue to do so in the future.

Development

Like many people in Hart, ideally I'd like to see little or no development. However I accept that there is a need for more homes in the South of England and that Hart needs to build its share. However

• We should aim for the minimum density achievable: we do not want to replicate inner-city densities in Hart. For example, there are parts of Hook that feel like a country town immediately adjacent to those newer parts that don't.
  
• It's vital to ensure that all developers pay appropriate contributions to cover the costs the new homes impose. For example, a typical three-bedroom home will have children living in it; these children will need to go to local schools; if there are enough extra children, the school will need to build new classrooms.
  
• New developments need to be safe.
  
• The government may have the idea that if you don't provide parking then people won't buy cars. I see no evidence that this is true in Hook. Consequently we need to provide adequate parking when new houses are built.
  

A Load of Rubbish

Every week, our bin-men collect tons of rubbish. Some of it is recycled, but only 15%. The government has told us we must recycle 22% by next year and 33% two years after that. I don't like government targets, but I have sympathy with this one. Many people in Hart don't seem to use the blue recycling bins. If everyone did, we might well meet these targets without having to do anything else.

It's really not difficult: just remember that those blue bins can take

• newspapers, catalogues, magazines, cardboard and junk mail (every get any of that?)
  
• food, drink and pet-food cans
  
• plastic bottles of many types - fizzy drinks, shampoo, milk, washing up liquid, and so on. Just remove the cap, please!
  

Each household in Hart throws away a ton of rubbish every year; that's right, over 2,000 lbs or about 1,000 kilos. Recycling can help us reduce landfill sites and make England a more pleasant place to live.