Just a word about this whole phenomena of who is local and who is not
And I send this message to both parties, not that I am convinced either is listening
Nobody cares where you live, okay?
Wendy does not live in leafy Mossley Hill, she lives in a terraced house off Penny Lane but the LibDems repeated this over and over again. Cllr Invisible actually left the ward to live in truly leafy Allerton with his new wife, who seemed really rather nice at the count from the little bit of time I had to observe her and has been described with warmth by at least one of my colleagues, but we wont go into detail. We chose not to mention his address, it demeans public representation.
And anyway
Janet Kent does not live in Belle Vale but won
Barbara Murray does not live in Yew Treet but won
Ian Jobling does not live in Picton but won
Jimmy Kendrick apparently does not live in Anfield (I have not checked this)
Some councillors even lie about where they live, as if it really mattered.
I am sure there are other candidates who did live in the ward and won and again some who lived in the ward and did not win. Why are we still going on about this? Why are we playing into the hands of these little Englanders, lets all give that up guys!
Apparently, if I were to take a pin for every one of the 90 councillors and put it in a map of where they live, lots live within a mile of my house, as do activists from all parties and candidates too. An interesting phenomenon.
But not relevant to one's ability to serve
Please can we stop now, it is starting to get on my nerves!
2 comments:
The voters of Kensington realised how much use Jimmy was when we turfed him out last year - Anfield residents will soon do likewise.
I absolutely agree that this business of where people live is getting a bit ridiculous. the problem is that once it starts its hard to stop as if you make it important it then becomes important.
Last year Belle vale labour made a thing about the lib dem candidate living in Garston as if that was some sort of a shocker (he lives with me!). In Speke labour made a big thing about frank roderick living in allerton and printed a picture of his house in order to whip up some envy. I don't say this in any tit for tat way, merely to illustrate that we all do it and perhaps we should all stop. I have a lot of time for Ben Williams, who represents a ward in the north of the city. I know he lives in Childwall but personally consider this wholly irrelevant.
Bizarrely, after the general election in 2005 I was asked several times (by people in one of the leafier parts of the constituency) where I really lived. When I asked what people meant they said they had heard that I didn't really live in Canterbury street garston and it was in fact a correspondence address. When I asked further I was told that they had been told (by someone from the labour party) that a Parliamentaty Candidate would live somewhere posher than that! I told them that no way would I lie about where I lived and in fact my area is a great place to live of which people should be proud and not ashamed.
They were rather taken aback. I said that I considered the allegations of lying to be defamatory - but then you never find these sorts of things in writing do you?
But you are right, this business of where people live or don't live is a massive distraction from getting on with the job. Will it stop - well I hope so but I doubt it!
Incidentally Louise, I have never met a binman or fake binman in Anfield so I would be grateful if you could edit your blog to remove that reference to me. I am not sensitive about being seen in Anfield - merely concerned that we all report things accurately.
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