Interesting post, certainly a different perspective to what we normally see on visitscunthorpe.com This is the pro cuts march organised by the right wing pressure group tax payer's alliance. People know my views, if it was not for bank bail outs, war and tax avoidance (promoted by the likes of the tax payer's alliance) then we'd not be in the position we are.

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Hello Paul, sorry me and Paul haven't post for some time but we've been a bit busy in Broughton and Appleby. Interestingly we have yet to meet a single person who shares the views expressed by "Black Flag" when we've been knocking on doors (and believe me, we've knocked on a few). Perhaps someone hasn't got their calendar set right and they're a week late!

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The recent restriction on commenting on political events on Visit Scunthorpe, especially on the self confessed criminal activity of former MP Elliot Morley, has drawn attacks in the comment sections of the Scunthorpe Telegraph about political bias and not being truly independent. I thought I would give you the benefit of the doubt as it�s a good blog with Labour supporters arguing their corner very effectively but unfortunately you fail at the first hurdle. I purposely posted a diametrically opposed posting to the site and find that Paul has twittered to the effect that �rightwing tpa posters hijack my blog #UKuncut leave them a comment� � Hijack? I�m a local resident posting an event which appeals to an opposite view than your own. Your blog or an independent forum? Can�t really be both. For the record the rally is being organised by the usual selection of right wing malcontents not just the Tax Payers Alliance � an organisation I follow but am not a member of.

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As someone who has many years political activity under my belt and has even knocked on the doors of Scunthorpe and it environs to canvas for political support I find Bernard�s comments quite odd. Most politicians do not waste time canvassing people who are not likely to vote for them so its not surprising that he hasn�t heard the alternative argument on the doorstep. A quick glance at this site or the Scunthorpe Telegraph soon shows that many people voice concern over Labour�s profligacy � just mention The Baths or the Pods and watch tempers flare.

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Black Flag, Elliot Morley has still to be sentenced, my understanding is that following his guilty plea yesterday the evidence against him has to be reviewed by a judge to determine the sentence. Until that point in time I've been advised by a solicitor friend that it would be unwise to comment on the case. Rest assured, once the case is closed I will be posting my views on this matter, in detail. Until then I'm not going to be covering the case or referring to it in any detail other than the brief statement made yesterday. Apologies for any inference of you being right wing, or a member of TPA, an assumption on my behalf based on your post. Just as many make the mistake of believing that I am a Labourite based on my blog entries, this does suggest I should have known better. The tweet has now been removed, please accept my apology. We can argue the toss on what "independent" means. In my view I provide a service which allows others to make posts which are as you correctly say diametrically opposed to my own. Comments and views which are opposed to mine are never deleted. I reserve the right to comment on others as I see fit, just as you are welcome and indeed encouraged to be as critical of my views, posts and articles as you wish. This to me is independence. Others may disagree, again the independence of this blog allows that disagreement to be debated in public.

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"Black Flag", with the greatest respect to your own canvassing experience, under the present politcal climate we are approaching this campaign using the methods you may recall. We have spoken to a whole spectrum of people, irregardless of their former allegiances and, quite frankly, they do not agree with the present government's approach. Also, they find their present MP something of let-down - another nail in the coffin, so to speak. It will not surprise you that the good people of North Lincolnshire are more interested in honesty, transparency and hard work - something that many in the rural wards have been denied for too long!

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And, of course, you will have noted the mistake there - it should have said "we are NOT using the methods you may recall". We put right our mistakes - quickly - can you say the same for the local opposition and their political masters?

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Thoades said: "People know my views, if it was not for bank bail outs, war and tax avoidance (promoted by the likes of the tax payer's alliance) then we'd not be in the position we are." Bank Bail out - Carried out by Labour. they didnt have to bail them out but they did War - It was Labour that took us to two wars, Iraq was under false pretenses now and many former Labour cabinet ministers have publicly come out and said they were wrong to take us into that one. Tax avoidance - all the parties would facilitate this, because its those big companies and individuals that finance the party campaigns so they are all as bad as each other. Bernard said: "We put right our mistakes - quickly - can you say the same for the local opposition and their political masters" throwing borrowed money at a mistake doesn't fix it fully, it only makes it worse because you have spent more money on fixing something that might not have been broken in the first place. If you make a mistake during these ongoing cuts how are you going to fix them? The credit card is maxed out, will you just not fix it and blame it on the Tory Cuts. the pot of gold from central government may be considerably smaller than normal but the money from Council tax payers is the same as last year so the services paid for by this money shouldnt change, dont you agree?

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Neil, suggest you read some of my earlier posts about the bank bail out before you start to dress my comments as support for Labour bailing out the banks. I'm on record on this site as saying "Brown should have cut the cancer out when he had the chance. Instead he propped up the same regime the labour movement has opposed for the last 100 years" Which is something I've maintained for over the last year. As far as the wars go, as a supported of CND personally I've always been against them. With people from Scunthorpe serving in the military I feel it's totally inappropriate (and indeed lacking sensitivity) to drag that in to this a local arena. Those serving in the military deserve the utmost of respect despite the despotic decisions made by our leaders. As far as tax avoidance goes you are quite right, this has been supported for decades by a series of successive governments who's interests guard the political and social elite and have done so for years. This is why I am so supportive of groups such as UK Uncut, and suggest that to understand my views better you take a look at my "Alternative" article.

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Mr Eyre, I was sure that I read you were an Independent, why are you sounding rather unindependent. You appear to be supportive of austerity moves, is this the case?

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Bernard I kind of figured that to win the Broughton and Appleby ward you would need to appeal across the traditional party lines so I would be interested to know how receptive the electorate are to ANY political campaign. A plague on all your houses was my usual response. I find that the mood in the pubs I frequent is a useful barometer to public opinion especially when they�ve had a few and speak their minds; I found that many people in the private sector had already felt the pinch back in 2008 when they lost their jobs or got a pay cut or had their final salary pension scheme replaced with a money purchase scheme. They are very unsympathetic to workers in the public sector even if it means it affects schools, NHS or policing. They feel there is plenty of fat to be trimmed. This isn�t political dogma or Daily Mail spin, it�s the resentment of the middle classes paying for the unaccountable, bureaucratic public sector that fail to deliver adequate public services. The call to �protest against the debt� may not be of American TEA Party proportions yet but many people still feel they�ve been taxed enough already. I hope they join the march to make their voices heard.

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The problem as I see it, is that we have the owner managers of the middle classes looking down their noses at the public sector workers of the middle class. we have the middle classes complaining about the wage rises of manual labourers in the working classes. And we have every one complaining about those in receipt of benefits. I guess as long as we are all playing keep up looking at each other, no one is looking at the tax breaks big corporations get, bankers paid to bonuses, �850bn paid out to banks and over a trillion spent on wars in the last decade? Just a thought but in my opinion there is an alternative, sadly none of your mainstream political parties seem to be prepared to pursue it.

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"Mr Eyre, I was sure that I read you were an Independent, why are you sounding rather unindependent. You appear to be supportive of austerity moves, is this the case?" Why does supporting the austerity drive make him less independent? Surely if he backed a labour policy on another issue would you be calling him your pal? Let him fight this election on the issues he believes in, leave the bitter party biased recriminations and childishness mud slinging to the less honest who hide behind the whip. If I was him I'd steer well clear of parties who have all backed thieves and crooks and are making no attempt to apologize for it.In fact all they have done is moan about not having it so good any more and gradually clawing back any gain the public purse made . Had Morley been a Tory Bernard ,Mick and Kirk would be blogging until heir key boards exploded about Crooked Tories,such double standards only exist because we have party politics.

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Seriously, who demonstrates in favour of the government except in repressive regimes where people are forced to? I'm not independent as I don't believe such a thing exists, I think that the cuts agenda shows a crisis of the capitalist system to deliver even the most vital services, the alternative 'big society' crap is a throw back to victorian times. As Joseph Stiglitz (hardly a Bolshevik) points out the rich are getting richer while we are told that swingeing cuts are the only way forward (http://blogs.forbes.com/kenrapoza/2011/04/16/stiglitzs-epic-win-americas-1-rich-make-us-look-like-russia/). The Coalition of Resistance are organising a meeting in mid may with speakers putting forward 'alternatives to the cuts', more details to follow.

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