Democracy? Don't make me laugh!

On 27 April 2013, Robin Page, former presenter of One Man and his Dog and an Independent local councillor, said this in The Daily Mail:

"I’d resigned in 2006 as a matter of principle, fed up with THE PERVASIVE CULTURE OF POLITICAL CORRECTNESS and the crazy rules on ‘standards of behaviour’ for councillors introduced under Labour by John Prescott. That’s right: John Prescott, the man who romped with his mistress on the desk of his Whitehall office, issuing edicts on standards of behaviour…

COUNCILLORS ARE MORE INTERESTED IN FEATHERING THEIR OWN NESTS, WASTING MONEY ON THE TRAPPINGS OF OFFICE AND IMPOSING POLITICALLY CORRECT DRIVEL ON COUNCIL TAXPAYERS…

I believe the sheep on my farm have more individuality and freedom of thought than most councillors, who are merely party hacks obsequiously following the diktats of their political masters in Westminster.

Once, our council meetings started with a Christian prayer. Today, oh no, we can’t have that in 21st century Britain: Christianity can’t be seen as having a part in ‘diversity’...

COUNCILLORS ARE ENDLESSLY TOLD WE MUST ‘EMBRACE DIVERSITY’, EVEN IF BY DOING SO WE’RE ROBBING NEEDY PEOPLE OF HELP AND WASTING MONEY. It’s a farce and an undemocratic one at that...

An elderly couple in my ward have been told that their twice-weekly check-up phone call from the council is to be stopped. They are in their 80s and have health problems (diabetes and osteoporosis). The calls were a replacement for the warden who used to visit them to make sure they were all right. But she was axed last July and now the council says it can’t afford even the two phone calls a week...

As you might expect, the couple were distressed but a sense of pride and dignity meant they refused my request to try to highlight their case in the local newspaper. Instead, I raised their case during that diversity course meeting, asking my fellow councillors how struggling local people such as this couple fitted into the council’s vision of ‘diversity’.

I was stunned when one of the Tories told me: ‘They represent old, entrenched views. Quite unsuitable for the 21st century’...

PUBLIC MONEY IS NOT ONLY BEING THROWN ABOUT LIKE CONFETTI ON NON-JOBS AND PC PROJECTS IN MY COUNCIL: I KNOW THAT IT’S HAPPENING RIGHT ACROSS THE COUNTRY...

Recently, I raised the issue that there was a problem with Irish travellers in our district, but I WAS SHOUTED DOWN FOR BEING ‘RACIST’...

COUNCIL LIFE BEGAN TO CHANGE FOR THE WORSE DURING THE YEARS OF NEW LABOUR in the late Nineties... COUNCILS HAVE BECOME DEPRESSINGLY POLITICISED. Gradually, the party machines have edged out Independent councillors...

The Tories are in power and they vote as a block. They join the Lib Dems for ‘pre-meeting meetings’ to decide the agenda. THE RESULT IS A SHAMOCRACY in which the public rarely hears the real issues. FREE SPEECH BECOMES STIFLED...

The Standards Board... This quango was part of the £8 million-a-year town hall ‘thought police’ introduced by John Prescott to ‘monitor’ councillors and prevent them from championing local issues, it has fuelled thousands of petty and malicious complaints...

Having served on the planning committee for 20 years, I witnessed the shift away from making decisions that were in the interests of local people towards A SLAVISH TOEING OF THE LINE OF CENTRAL GOVERNMENT...

Thanks to the ‘New Homes Bonus’, or should that be ‘Bribe’? South Cambridgeshire District Council could get a share of £3 million. This, despite the fact that LOCAL PEOPLE ARE OVERWHELMINGLY AGAINST THE DEVELOPMENT. Similar scandals are happening right across the country. Decisions are being made to shut much-valued local hospitals or make cuts to policing levels...

We have a ‘monitoring officer’ to dictate what we councillors can and cannot say. Councillors risk being accused of ‘bias’ and banned from proceedings. There is a monthly magazine, produced in council time by council staff. It’s nothing more than a propaganda sheet that peddles the myth that the council is operating wonderfully, when I know it is often inefficient and sometimes incompetent.

These bureaucrats inundate us with reams of useless information... They seem determined to bump up costs. It’s not just my local council, either. A few weeks ago, I read that cash-strapped Durham county council had given its chairwoman, Linda Marshall, an annual clothing allowance of £8,850 a year...

After all, perks are all the rage in town halls today... What’s the odd £50,000 frittered away on computers, or £45,000 on buying unnecessary new furniture, or to pay the salary of a monitoring officer to keep councillors in line, when you can make savings in other areas, such as cutting services to the elderly."

'Local people are overwhelmingly against the development,' says Robin.

I should imagine they're overwhelmingly against 'political correctness', 'politically correct drivel', 'party hacks obsequiously following the diktats of their political masters', ‘diversity’, 'wasting money,'non-jobs,' PC projects,' 'shamocracy,'‘thought police’, 'petty and malicious complaints', 'slavish toeing of the line of central government' and 'cutting services to the elderly', as well.

Which really does beg the question, why on earth do they keep on voting for it?

They don't?

Oh, but they do. They voted 'New Labour' into power three times. They also voted out the 'Independents' and voted in the 'party hacks' that now, apparently, indudate our county councils.

If you vote for 'political correctness' and 'shamocracy,' that's what you'll get. And that's what the British people have been voting for since Harold Wilson's time.

The fact that most of them didn't realise it is a terrible reflection on what we are now.