This whole debacle smacks of orchestrated blah, blah; blind panic and political blundering on the scale of \"Dads Army\". Yes I agree wholeheartedly with your stance. Along the same lines, 1st thing this morning, I posted challenges to both councillors. As anticipated, it was a futile exercise as both posts were wiped after moderation. And needless to say no responses have been forthcoming. The line in SCLP chair, Mick Grant\'s press release: \"Elliot Morley�s guilty plea today finally draws a line under the incident\", incensed me to the extent of having to challenge him as follows: Cllr Grant, With little more than a begrudging respect and courtesy towards any of Scunthorpe\'s Labourites; may I make this request and challenge of yours and others\' conduct of late? Given yours and others repeatedly audacious and hypocritical challenges and accusations against the local conservatives and Andrew Percy MP, for allegedly failing to \"tell the truth\"!! Why will you and members of SCLP and NLC Labour group not show some consistency and ethical, moral and political fibre and courage? And now equally condemn the appalling conduct, shameless arrogance and guilt of former Labour MP, Elliot Morley? Or is it the case that you and others have not had the time to astutely manipulate and orchestrate the appropriate scripts of damage limitation? Seemingly some of you having been too tied up in the dubious and timely blunderings of the exposure and hyping up of distractions including: the Freedom of Information release of the costs for refurbishing NLC conservative group\'s office; and the alleged electoral wrong doings of the conservatives etc. etc? Unless such condemnations are forthcoming, I believe Scunthorpe\'s former Labour MP Elliot Morley is not the only one who should be hanging his head in shame for bringing politicians and politics into disrepute? And indeed, for dragging down further the already discredited image and reputation of Scunthorpe\'s standards of local government, if not Scunthorpe itself!? For all of Mick Grant\'s spouting in his blog of 6 April, \" Hopefully there will be more councillors blogging after May�s local elections, not less\"; he has failed to engage or respond to my requeest and challenge.

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Hahaha. We all know you're a wind up merchant Bill so that's almost certainly the reason why your ignored. There are ways and means to get your point across (and I suspect answered) and I'd hazard a guess that your way isn't the right way.

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Banning party politics is something i would love to see. i dont think there should be any partys running local authorities, for the simple reason that it is a direct conflict of interest. if you have a tory parliment then a Labour council will be more than happy to blame all the bad things they do on the government. It would be the same if the tables were turned. Councils play party politics in veiled attempts to get the populace hating the other party. When it comes to councils they should be concerning themselves with serving the local people and not playing party politics. It one of the main reasons im running in my ward as an independent.

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But in cohoots with the local Tories, right?

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Nice try Glad. I�m not going to waste my time getting sidetracked into an argument. The Tories have their own candidate. I will admit that in my youth i was a Lib Dem but most students were Lib Dem until the recent backstabbing. I�m a libertarian at heart so a lot of my views are diametrically opposed to that of the Conservatives. I want to see more Civil Liberties given back to us, and I don�t see the Conservatives doing much about that. I�m a supporter of the Libertarian party but not a member. I don�t want to be beholden to any party; I will answer only to the electorate. I hope that eases your mind that I could never be in 'cahoots' with any party least of all the Tories.

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Neil, Please give Editors@VisitScunthorpe.Com an email, or call the phone number which has been sent privately to the email address you registered with. We are keen on interviewing independent candidates for part of our election coverage, and would love to hear from you. This invitation is of course extended to ALL other candidates, and has been accepted already by some, profiles and reviews start on Visit Scunthorpe next week!

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Neil, Interesting. Just I noticed the Tories have 42 candidates covering every single seat in every single ward, except just one in the ward you are standing. I must admit that I find that to be a staggeringly enormous coincidence, especially for someone who 'isn't playing party politics'. But if you say you've never spoken to the local Tories in the last few weeks and it's just a complete coincidence that there's only 1 Tory in that ward then I'll believe you. I mean who doesn't completely trust a politician?

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Glad, at least we agree on that. I wouldn�t completely trust a politician either, but then I�m not a politician. I would like you to check with the local Tory party; in fact I insist you do because it will finally put your mind to rest that I am truly an independent. I have never interned or served a politician. I have not done anything remotely close to doing. One of the things that scares me so much is I know nothing of the political game, so I�m not even sure what I can and can�t say publically because of these Purdah rules Oh and you can�t measure a coincidence. A coincidence can�t be large or small, it�s just a coincidence. it can be unusual or wierd, but it cant be describe in terms of size.

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Other than the questionable political calibre and credibility of the likes of \"exiled\" Tories and now independant councillors such as Don Stewart and John Berry. I greatly admire and respect all other truly selfless, competent and honourable community representatives and Independant candidates, with the desire and who are able and prepared to step up to the plate. If only there were and, in the past there had been far more apolitical Independants with a heightened sense of honourable democracy and, with the convictions, calibre and courage to change and improve the status quo. Then I believe that Scunthorpe\'s and North Lincolnshire\'s fortunes could have been and would be forged in the right direction and the area now could have been in a far healthier state. I personally could not and would not risk sullying my own values, calibre and integrity by getting into bed with and serving on certain of North Lincolnshire\'s 2nd rate parochial councils. Nor by having to reason and compromise with its devious self serving 3rd rate tin pot councillors and politicians. And far less so with the parochial intellect and sophistication of certain of their cronies and hangers on. Well done Neil and I wish you the very best of luck.

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So Bill, You don't agree with the local council, you don't agree with labour, conservative or any other "Parochial" representative group or by the sounds of it councillor. From the postings made on the ET web site, you seem to be of the opinion that this site is biased so then when we start to encourage independents and other to post their views you tell them that they should not sully them selves by serving on a "2nd rate" council in the first place. What do you thing we should have in terms of local government? I'm at a loss to keep up with your posts from time to time, this one especially. Instead of hating everything, is there an alternative you could propose?

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Paul, Thanks. As a direct result of our experiences here in the Brigg & Wolds ward and as relative newcomers ("outsiders telling us what to do"!!) to N Lincs. For many reasons and motives (which those concerned will be well aware of) as that outsider, I do not have the same commendable loyalties, qualities or commitment as your local independants, to avoid sullying myself. Let me repeat: "to sully MYSELF". My alternative proposal? I would have thought that would be obvious by now! A total clear out and a fresh start with competent, honourable and trustworthy politicians and councillors who we can rely on to get the job done in the WIDER interests of ALL in the N Lincs community. Local government free of constant misinformation, manipulated and orchestrated hype, contradictions and hypocrisy. All in abundance and which seemingly go with the territory, here in N Lincs, Scunthorpe in particular. We all know that is not going to happen, overnight at least. But given Neil's and hopefully more future apolitical candidates like him (and with VisitScunthorpe's and others encouragement and support in giving them a voice) maybe things will change, improve and move in the right direction. Albeit slowly but surely?!

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Bill, Thanks for the support. The way I see things moving forward would be for the slow intergration of REAL independents into councils across the country, real independants dont really know how the system works which is good because like me they wont know what to expect during those first tender weeks of public service. because i dont know the system, the people in my ward will, through me, be able to get information and a clear impartial view of what is going on in the council and instruct me as to how they want things run differently, mainly because i am untainted by the recent political discourse that marks all the parties. once I know where the pens and pencils are I can find out how much they cost, how they are being used and how can they be better used, and then let my Ward know that information. sorry about the metaphors but im not sure what i can and cant say yet and i dont want to give the politicians any excuse to disqualify me from this race

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Best keep an eye on VisitScunthorpe then m8, I've got interviews with Greens, an Independent and Labour Candidates coming up. Hopefully I'll get the last interview done this evening and will be able to offer a balanced article covering points presented by each of the candidates. I'm also going to be looking in more detail at a couple of more contentious wards which have been close in the past. Bill, you mention a "clear out" which is all very well and good, but in order to have a clear our, surely we need enough independent or otherwise alternative candidates to the "big two" parties which have always dominated North Lincolnshire politics. What would you do to encourage more independents to stand? What changes would you make so that you would not sully yourself and consider standing? Do you not think that if more people stood as independents at times like this as opposed to just objecting to what is in effect the "status quo" then attitudes would perhaps change? Must say that in terms of accessibility locally, I've found that the democratic services and media services sections of the local council have always been responsive to questions I've asked, but admittedly, I have had no further dealings with other sections of the council so do not feel qualified to comment. On a serious note to all the conservative candidates reading this, please, like the other candidates get in touch with Editors@VisitScunthorpe.Com we'd like to be inclusive.

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