£550 for 20 lucky Corsham residents.

It is approaching that time of year when councillors have to decide how much to increase your council tax by. As far as Corsham Town Council is concerned it is the precept – that is the extra amount you pay on top of the tax imposed by Wiltshire Council for services provided by your town council. Allotments, cemeteries, play areas, Christmas lights etc. Corsham residents are fortunate to be in a town that has one of the lowest precepts in Wiltshire. It would be foolish to say let’s not put it up at all as there are good long term plans for improving the lives of all Corsham residents and good plans cost money, however I wonder if now is the right time to impose a hefty increase on our populous when people out there are suffering financially. We should certainly choose the right projects that benefit most people.

This is why I am against setting aside £11,000 for another allotment site which will only benefit the top 20 on the long waiting list (£550 per person). The fact that there is a long waiting list probably shows that our current allotment sites are too cheap – Demand determines price is a good business model. Then the existing allotments would fund any new allotment sites.

I am disappointed by the attitude of some councillors particularly one of the Conservative ones who thinks that poor people don’t pay council tax therefore we can put it up as much as we like! I know a lot of poor people and they all pay full council tax. The same councillor likened the need for extra allotments to the need for a new cemetery, saying that if we weren’t going to spend money on projects like new allotments then we might as well not invest in a new cemetery. I however can see the difference in the need to bury your dead and growing potatoes.

Will the real Christians please stand up.

It’s not often I feel the need to preach the gospel but there are those out there who claim to be Christian but do very little to show it. They do in fact have very little understanding of the gospel that they preach to us; a sad state of affairs that happens when churches allow themselves to become political. Lets start with the parable of the Good Samaritan from Luke 10. Remember these are not real events but stories Jesus related to his disciples and to us through His Word so that we may understand God’s true intentions for us.

25On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?"
26"What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?"
27He answered: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'[c]; and, 'Love your neighbour as yourself.'[d]"
28"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."
29But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbour?"
30In reply Jesus said: "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33But a Samaritan, as he travelled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, took him to an inn and took care of him. 35The next day he took out two silver coins[e] and gave them to the innkeeper. 'Look after him,' he said, 'and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.'
36"Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?"
37The expert in the law replied, "The one who had mercy on him."
Jesus told him, "Go and do likewise."

To understand the meaning of this parable you have to realise why Jesus chose a man from Samaria (The Samaritan) as his example. The Samaritans of the time were the most hated and despised people of the land. To use modern politically correct language we could say abhorrent, divisive, vile and even absolutely disgusting. Do those words sound familiar? Yet Jesus was saying we should show mercy on those who it is easy to hate. ("Go and do likewise.")

Unfortunately the Marxist left clergy try and use this parable as an excuse for enforced multi-culturism and immigration when it means no such thing. Notice how the Samaritan went on his way back to his own land. He didn’t stay and force his own culture on the native inhabitants. Love thy neighbour (not live with thy neighbour) simply means love everyone. So how come the supposed party of hate is so hated by the Church? Should not the Church be practising what it preaches and show compassion and mercy for members of the British National Party?

Another fine example from holy scripture can be found in Matthew 5 “Love thine enemies”;

43"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbour[h] and hate your enemy.' 44But I tell you: Love your enemies[i] and pray for those who persecute you, 45that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. 46If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? 47And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? 48Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Do Church clergy only love those that think like them? Even sinners can do that.

This brings to mind the recent case of a pleasant young female Chippenham resident who for the last six years helped out in a Methodist church youth club with no complaints from young people or their parents. However when a newly appointed, probably Marxist, vicar took charge the first thing he did to flex his new found authority was to sack the said youth leader immediately on the grounds that British National Party members are not welcome in his Church. Technically it is not his church but His Church. Is this young lady not the same has the Good Samaritan? Hated and despised yet she still shows compassion for Britain’s youth (white, black and Asian), while the vicar was like the Priest or Levite who walked on by. Will the real Christians please stand up.

20Remember the words I spoke to you: 'No servant is greater than his master.'[a] If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also.
John 15:20

British History Month

Will the real fascists please stand up.

Viewing Nick Griffin’s appearance (or trial) on question time I find it ironic that those calling us fascist are guilty of the same behavior they accuse us of. Perhaps their true motives are displayed by the communist hammer & sickle on the young protesters t shirt pictured right. I was actually disappointed by the whole question time affair as, as an avid viewer of the programme I was, like the rest of the viewing public, looking forward to hearing all the panelists give their views on a wide range of topical issues and compare them against each other. Instead we had to witness a staged managed circus where the same old allegations from 20 years ago are thrown out, and if we needed any further evidence that the whole multi-cultural experiment was a Labour set up then we can hear this from the horses mouth, Andrew Neather, a former adviser to Tony Blair, Jack Straw and David Blunkett who states Labour encouraged mass immigration to help socially engineer a “multicultural” country and to try to “rub the Right’s nose in diversity”.

Mr Neather, who worked for Mr Straw when he was Home Secretary, and as a speech writer for Mr Blair, claimed a secret Government report in 2000 called for mass immigration to change Britain's cultural make-up forever. It also emerged that: Home Office Minister Barbara Roche, who pioneered the open-door policy, wanted to restore her Labour reputation after being attacked by Left-wingers for condemning begging by immigrants as 'vile' and Labour chiefs decided to brand Tory leaders William Hague and Michael Howard as racists to deter them from criticising the covert initiative. Read more here in the Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph.

On a positive note it is another hurdle we have passed and there should now be no reason for any democratic party representative to object to a BNP spokesman being on a panel. I look forward to the general election campaign where my opponents can now give no valid reason why I can not share the hustings with them.

The last full Corsham Town Council meeting was last Monday 12th October. An interesting agenda included:

The police are considering opening up the inquiries desk at Corsham Police Station. This is a successful result after pressure applied by the local BNP campaign to re-open the police station. Don’t expect to see us getting any credit in the local press though.

We discussed at length possible uses for MOD land that will become vacant in the coming few years and our recommendation is mixed housing at the Rudloe site and a hotel complex at Copenacre on the A4.

Finally we formed a working group of which I am a member to plan next years Armed Forces Day celebrations. We already have some ideas and whatever evolves it will do our local Forces proud.

I’m off to Belfast this week as part of a South West delegation to view the BNP’s fund raising centre. It will be my first visit to the Province since my RAF days in the early 1980’s when I was based at RAF Bishops Court in County Down. More news on that next week.

Indian take aways and wearing ladies clothes

Last Wednesday was the planning committee meeting of Corsham Town Council. All councillors are obliged to attend these three weekly meetings. Although we have no final control on what developments happen in our town we still have powers to recommend or recommend refusal, the final decision resting with the Wiltshire Council. Since the onset of this recession, planning applications have been fewer, a sign of things being tough I suppose. I am particularly concerned with applications in my own ward of Rudloe but I can comment on any application. The agenda is sent out to us a couple of days before, and if there is anything of interest to me, I can go in early to view the full plans and even make a site visit. It was in fact a fairly short agenda this week and we were done with it all in 45 minutes. The only application I really need to make a comment on was an extension to the rear of an Indian takeaway in the High Street. (When I say Indian I really mean Bangladeshi). This application had already been before the committee last meeting when we recommended refusal on the grounds mainly of impeding on the neighbour’s privacy and some councillors were trying to back track and over turn that earlier decision. It was left to me to remind everyone that we were actually deciding on additional and amended plans to that application, and as there were no significant changes we should still recommend refusal. The majority agreed with me.

Now of course only a BNP councillor needs to tread on tip toes when dealing with our ethnic minority residents for fear of…….well you know. To put this in contrast only two days later I was dining in the town’s only sit down Indian restaurant where I am well known to the management and staff. In fact on this occasion there were four local BNP members dining together. Yes that’s right BNP officials eating in an Indian restaurant! It reminds me of an interview I gave to the Daily Mail in the run up to June’s elections. The reporter said to me. “I suppose if the BNP came to power there wouldn’t be any Indian restaurants?” “Bloody better be.” I replied. “Oh so they would be staffed by English staff then?” She enquired. “No.” I said. “I expect to see Indian staff in an Indian restaurant.” You see her idea of multi-culturism includes foreign food outlets. I had to point out that having a good supply of Chinese and Indian restaurants didn’t equal multi-culturism, call it cosmopolitan, international, I don’t know but multi culturism stretches much farther than that. Funny the story never made the paper? So pleased with my friends in my local Indian I am going to give them a free ad here. I recommend their mid week gourmet menu for £10.95 a person, they give you a choice of starter, main dish, vegetable side dish, rice or bread and dessert or coffee. It’s Jaipur in Corsham High Street. I find it gives you a chance to sample all those vegetable bhajis whose names you can’t pronounce that you wouldn’t normally entertain on a normal 3 course night out. When it’s me and the wife we have a rice and a bread and split between us. This week we were joined by Mike and Dawn so we could sample four bhajis between us. I introduced them for the first time to Okra (ladies fingers), one of my favorires.

A plug for Corsham Town itself. We do boast two Chinese take-aways, two Indian take-aways (one a sit down), one Italian, one fish and chip shop as well as English restaurants. Oh and the mandatory kebab van in the car park. It’s not multi-cultural, we just like good food.

One of the perks of being a councillor is that you get invited to civic functions you wouldn’t normally get invited to. I have been wined and dined by the MOD for example on many occasions; Corsham has a large military contingent. Today I, with Cllr Lucy Bray attended a dedication service for the new Wiltshire Council at Salisbury Cathedral on behalf of the Town Council. There is something very British about a cathedral service even though the psalms are sung in Latin. As I sat in the cathedral thinking how it had been there for over a 1000 years I wondered if it would survive another 1000. When you build a cathedral you are making a statement of ownership of that land. In other words, this land we keep for God, in the same way muslims build a mosque to stake claim to the land for their god. Every week more churches are closing and new mosques being built, I wonder how long before Salisbury Cathedral is Salisbury mosque?

Straight back from Salisbury and it’s onto to pantomime rehearsals. I have been involved with the Corsham pantomime for the last 15 years and it is the only time you are likely to catch me wearing women’s clothes! You can see for yourself in the last week end of January 2010.

No rest on Sundays as I had time for a quick taxi collection from Bristol airport after panto for a five star hotel we service. Finally home at 11pm for a cold bottle grolsch to write this blog and here we are now.

Close to extinction.

I mentioned in an earlier post "You reap what you sew" the effects of immigration and foreign birth rates versus the indigenous birth rate and how we are being literally bred out of existence in our own country. I came across this good short video clip that I would like to share with you. It confirms everything I have said.



What are the solutions? Well I for one would not start telling every white British woman to go out and have more babies, likewise I could not justify telling an immigrant woman to have less! However it is BNP policy to make the right environment where white women can have more children if they wish by the introduction of a "mothers wage". One of the reasons we are having only two or less children is that we simply can't afford anymore. We live in a society now where any family needs two incomes to survive and therefore the mother needs to get back to work as soon as possible. I would similarly like to see legislation in the work place that when a mother takes time off to raise children, she could re-enter the employment market at the same level from where she left.

The only practical way of restricting the immigrant birth rate is not to allow the immigrants to come here at all!

On the council there is a planning committee I am attending on Wednesday (7th)and I expect to be representing the council at Salisbury Cathedral on Sunday (11th) at a dedication service for the new Wiltshire Council.

Council meetings

It’s probably been amiss of me since the start of this blog not to mention my work on Corsham Town Council. In fact many BNP members shy away from being candidates because they think they haven’t got what it takes to be a councillor. Certainly town and parish councils are really no more complicated than sitting on a committee of some sort. If you have experienced that you would fit into town and parish council work easily. You just discuss local issues, pass recommendations up the chain to district or county council level, in our case Wiltshire Council. Most of the work is actually done by the town hall staff, who in Corsham’s case are very competent indeed. There is a full council meeting once a month and planning meetings every three weeks which all councillors are to attend although you can send in your apologies if you can’t make it. On top of that there are various committees such as leisure and amenities made up of about 9 – 12 members, these meet every six weeks. In my case I am the vice chairman of the leisure committee but I can also attend other committees as a non voting member if there are issues I want to talk about. This was the case with last Wednesday’s amenities committee so I will write about that one for now. I will in future keep you updated on my council work as each meeting takes place.

The agendas are always posted to us in advance so we can prepare for the meeting and Wednesday’s agenda for the amenities committee had several items of interest to me, speed limits and road safety in particular. There are already changes planned for Corsham’s roads to decrease obstructive parking and increase pedestrian safety and these should start in October half term starting with improvements outside Corsham Primary School to include a zebra crossing and zig zag lines outside the entrance to reduce the parking on the main road at school run time. Also expect to see a lot more double yellow lines being painted around the town.

In a review of speed limits we recommended the following:

A4 Bath Road reduce the 50 to a 40 past Copenacre then the 40 to a 30 past Bradford Road.

Variable 20 mph limits around the town centre and schools.

Bradford Road past the Rudloe estate (my ward)reduce the 60 to a 30 and I proposed a zebra crossing between the two bus stops, something many of my constituents have been asking me for.

The council has also taken up my suggestion of a Corsham road safety week. It will be from 23rd – 29th November and run in conjunction with National Road Safety week run by the road safety charity BRAKE. We are going to get all the schools involved in education regarding road safety for children as well as educating and enforcing drivers who speed, use mobile phones etc. The week will hopefully finish with a road safety event on Springfield Rec involving the emergency services.

Finally we were asked to give our views on Wiltshire Council’s plans to withdraw the concessionary travel tokens from use in the county. These are available to any elderly or disabled persons who for some reason are not able to take up the government’s free national bus pass and can be used to pay a taxi fare. Only the old North Wiltshire council supplied the national transport tokens (£18 worth a year per person), while the old West Wiltshire council supplied a £30 taxi voucher. Kennet and Salisbury councils offered no alternative. With the merging of the four district councils into a unitary council, the new Wiltshire Council has to harmonise procedures throughout the county and one would think they would keep the best and ditch the worst. Now of course as a taxi company owner this decision would have an effect on my business so I had to declare a personal and prejudicial interest in this matter and leave the room but I was allowed have a say before I left and the committee appreciated my input as the only one in the room who has experience of how the taxi token system works. I stressed that the people who used the tokens used them because the free bus pass was of no use to them, either because they don’t live on a bus route or the bus doesn’t go where they want to go to. The people who would be most affected would be the most vulnerable such as the elderly and disabled and as the only reason Wiltshire Council wants to scrap the scheme is to save money, I suggested they look for other ways to save money without impacting on the county’s elderly and disabled. Fortunately the committee agreed with me and recommended that Wiltshire Council should keep the token scheme and extend it county wide. We only have power to recommend in this case, the final decision rests with our Wiltshire councillors. Let’s hope they are as compassionate as the Corsham councillors!