The long and winding road(s) to victory

I know a few things about this evening:

• I started the evening with a pile of leaflets, now I have less
• I have walked some distance and my knuckles are sore from being scraped by letter boxes

Other than that, it's all a bit of a mystery. I know I delivered some leaflets to some houses, I'm willing to bet about 75% of the ones on the estate I was doing, but for the life of me I couldn't tell you which 75%, because I got a little lost. Now I'm a methodical guy who has a map of the estate and everything, but there are two small problems:

1. The map doesn't even try and illustrate all of the streets in the estate, and there are lots, because....
2. The layout of the streets and cut-throughs and paths would make Escher take one look and have to go and have a lie down in a darkened room

So a successful evening in that I've delivered some leaflets, and I can now in good conscience tick off that area, but I can't honestly say I'm convinced that I didn't miss bits!

In other election news, the candidates have been announced for the local election, and I now know I face people from Labour, Lib Dems, Greens, UKIP (which is annoying because I'm very Eurosceptic dammit), English Democrats and the National Front. Yes, that's right, the party for those who just don't think the BNP are extreme enough is fielding a candidate in my area, actually quite looking forward to seeing if they put any election materials out, not quite sure what they stand for other than white people.

All of which brings me to my final point:

Why is it, less than a month from the election, that the only things I've seen from candidates are mine and a letter from the Labour guy? I know not everyone has money to spend (although leaflets really aren't that expensive it turns out), but I'm starting to wonder if everyone is actually going to campaign that actively, would seem odd if the Lib Dems didn't at least make a bit of a go of it! Oh well, only time will tell I guess...

Leafletting query of the day

As I wandered around Hull Marina and the surrounding area, a number of questions came to mind:

1. How is it that all the prime development space in the old Fruit Market can be left to rot like it is?
2. There are some really nice properties down near the Marina, both commercial and residential, quite a few for sale, would definitely be an attractive proposition if Hull gets back on its feet and attracts businesses to locate there
3. How does the postman deliver things to the lovely warehouse conversion apartments, because I can't for the life of me see how he gets past the coded door to get to the letter boxes

Dan Bond for Myton Ward?

After a long absence, I'm back and hopefully blogging more regularly, lots to say about Hull and in particularly Myton Ward where I live and *drum roll* have been selected as the Conservative candidate for the upcoming Hull City Council elections. Interestingly, given that the election is only a month away, I'm still not entirely sure who else other than the Labour candidate is actually standing, so that will be an interesting surprise. Might actually stick my head in to the Lib Dem office at some point and ask, although I suspect there may be a proverb about poking sleeping dragons which applies here....

Have been out delivering leaflets with details for myself and Gary Shores, including clearly one which went through a current Labour councillor's door because I received a surprisingly civil email from him thanking me and wishing me good luck for the campaign. Not entirely sure what to make of that, but nice gesture anyway...

Taxpayers are actually contributing to this?

Report warns Hull's climate set to soar

Hull faces more heat-related deaths and an increased risk of flooding over the next few decades, a climate change report has warned.

The document, produced by local strategic partnership One Hull, has examined the impact climate change will have on the city by 2080.

First, a disclaimer: I am sure that One Hull has done some good work, I would love to hear about the positive projects they are involved with which are making a difference.

Secondly, the rant: Why, in the name of all that is good, are One Hull, and by extension the taxpayers of Hull (since One Hull is in part funded by Hull City Council), wasting time and money on a report like this? Put aside, for a moment, any discussions which might reasonably have about how strong the case is for anthropogenic global warming (humans being responsible for a warming of the globe). The Climatic Research Unit and the "scientists" at the University of East Anglia (note the inverted commas, from what I can see scientific method has been replaced by dogmatic adherence to a belief about that the conclusions should be) have done the debate no favours at all with their potentially fraudulent actions. What's more of a concern is the fact that someone decided that rather than asking "how can we encourage businesses to come to Hull now" they instead asked "will our assumption that summers will be warmer in 2080 mean more tourists in the summer".

To all of which, I simply say, stop spending our money on rubbish like this, start looking at ways to lower the business rates to encourage companies to locate themselves in Hull. Too simple? Not high profile enough? Want something more exciting that you can put on your campaign leaflets? Tough, elected individuals don't always get to make the exciting announcements, sometimes they just have to do what's right for their electorate.

Of course, the risk is always that someone will accuse you of favouring the rich by daring to suggest cutting a tax which might possibly allow a company to make more money. To them I say "feel free to keep voting for the other two parties, they will both be more than happy to commission consultants to produce a report telling you what you want to hear." Meanwhile, those who want to help elect someone who will make the tough decisions, however much flack they may get for it, should seriously consider a vote for the Conservatives at the next election.

Simple enough?

You know it's an election year when...

Hull City Council plans to freeze charges for services

Far be it from me to look a gift horse in the mouth, but you can't help wondering if this headline would have happened if a) the council was still Labour controlled (and therefore didn't need to "bribe" people in reasonably safe Labour parliamentary seats) or b) the Lib Dems weren't throwing an enormous amount of resources at Hull North, one of their target seats. Still, a freeze in the growth of taxation has to be a good start, although of course we still have no idea whether fire and policing will also have a 0% change.

What I want to know is where are the plans to be able to announce a reduction in council tax next year? What about the year after? Where is Carl Minns announcing that he is going to reduce the burden of council tax by looking seriously at each and every department and asking them to justify their budget for the year? Where are the council chiefs coming up with ideas on how to encourage existing local businesses and attract new ones by reducing the burden of regulation and taxation on them?

I'm a localist, someone who believes that powers should be pushed downwards and outwards. Ultimately I want local councils to assume a number of the responsibilities that central government currently has while other powers should be pushed out to the individual to make their own decisions over. A council who can reduce the cost to local people is a council who might just be worthy of being trusted with new powers and they pass existing ones back to the electorate.