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MP Caroline Flint with Labour candidates
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Labour launches Hampshire election campaign

By Amy Taylor
February 25, 2013

CANDIDATES in the running for a seat on Hampshire County Council will be announced on April 9, ahead of the elections in May.

All 78 seats on the Conservative-led council are up for re-election, but the full list of people running to fill them will be published in the Statement of Persons Nominated.

A spokesman for the county council said it had not been confirmed who may or may not be standing at this stage, but that all names would be made public ahead of the elections on May 2.

The Labour party in Rushmoor, however, kicked off its election campaign this month, with a visit from the government’s shadow energy minister, MP Caroline Flint.

She visited North Town, Aldershot, on February 16 to launch the local Labour campaign and announce the five candidates who have thrown their hat into the ring for Aldershot and Farnborough wards.

Councillor Frank Rust will be standing for Aldershot East, Jeremy Preece for Aldershot West, Sue Gadsby for Farnborough North, Anna Townsend for Farnborough South and Leonard Amos for Farnborough West.

“It was great to meet Labour’s team of candidates for Aldershot and Farnborough. Labour will be fighting on a manifesto presenting an alternative to years of unfairness and neglect from the controlling Tories,” said Ms Flint. “I heard on the doorstep in North Town the good work done by their local councillors.”

Leader of Rushmoor Labour group, borough councillor Keith Dibble, said: “We have a good mix of experienced and new candidates and they will be working as a team to improve the quality of life of local people.”

The county council is currently made up of 51 Conservatives, 24 Liberal Democrats, one Green, one Labour and one from the local-interest Community Campaign group in Hart.

The latter, held by Jenny Radley, was the one shock result in the last county elections in 2009, wrenching the seat away from the Conservatives’ Peter Hutcheson, who gained only half as many votes in the Church Crookham and Ewshot ward.

Elsewhere, the balance remained the same, with the remaining four Hart wards retaining two Tories and two Liberal Democrats, and all five Aldershot and Farnborough wards remaining Tory.

As candidate nominations are being finalised, it is hoped that a push ahead of May 2 will ensure a higher turnout at the polls this year.

In 2009, only 9,637 people turned out to vote, out of a possible 63,535 who were eligible, a turnout of just 15% in the borough. In Hart 27,162 of a total electorate of 67,696 voted – only 40%.

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@SpongeBob NoPants, Farnborough

I’d say it was more insidious than that, it’s based on an invisible carrot that doesn’t actually exist.

They dangle the invisible carrot in front of people with the “Idea” that if you “work hard” and “do your job well”, you can “work your way up”.

The problem is that the invisible carrot doesn’t actually exist. Yes you can work your way up to a certain level, but then you get stuck there no matter how good you are or how hard you work, because above that level everything is an appointment and you know who controls the appointments.

In the Business world it is known as “The CEO Merry-go-round”. This is where “Executive” positions and Board Memberships are just reserved for the few who swap jobs between themselves as part of an “Old Boys Network”.

And these people make sure that they are very handsomely rewarded and make sure that it is very difficult to get rid of them by the employment of “Special Contracts” which contain golden hello’s, golden parachutes and poison pills no matter how badly they do the job.

Dawi, Aldershot
10/03/2013 at 16:07

@Unhappy... "I find it amazing that Conservative voters are ready to support charities yet their Tory Party's policies are what creates the need for the charities." The reason for this double standard is fairly simple. Wealth creates a feeling of superiority and tory ideology maintains that position for those people, however, as an extension of their perceived grandeur is the pity of the oiks, and of course they can afford to be charitable. Any policies that redistribute the wealth would damage their position of superiority as they would be forced to rub shoulders with the unclean in increasing amounts.

SpongeBob NoPants, Farnborough
07/03/2013 at 11:58

"Eastleigh have said it all!!" - PJA

Vote LibDems!!

unhappy (now disgusted)
07/03/2013 at 01:06

I find it amazing that Conservative voters are ready to support charities yet their Tory Party's policies are what creates the need for the charities.

The existence of charities is evidence of the failure of Government to do its job.

The rise of Food Banks and soup kitchens since the current Tory Government took office is CLEAR DIRECT evidence of it.

So if you want to support charities STOP VOTING Tory!

A Party that calls Welfare CUTS savings!!!

17 April 2012

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2131010/Staggering-rise-British-food-bank-One-opens-week-families-pay-packet-away-having-money.html

"Staggering rise of the British food bank: One opens every week after rise in families unable to afford to eat"

"One in five Britons are borrowing money for groceries because of the soaring cost of living"

unhappy (now disgusted)
07/03/2013 at 01:03

Dan B , the 'mess' we are in now is not the darkness I refer to, I fear the consequences of nationalism destabilising our position globally and the inevitable witch hunt that follows the narrowing of minds.

SpongeBob NoPants, Farnborough
04/03/2013 at 13:28

Dan B “The darkness on the horizon can be directly attributed to Labour, Lib Dems and Tories. They have shared the reigns of power and steered the country into the mess it is in now.”

Quite true, although with regards to the Lib Dems, the question I ask is how much worse would things have been under a Tory Government if they had got an outright majority.

Having had a look at the UKIP web site, far from allaying my fears should they ever get in to government it has actually made my fears worse.

Successive government both Tory and Labour have done very little to improve the rights of ordinary people (either in private life or in employment); in fact the Tories have always tried to either curtail or remove such protections. Unfortunately of for the last couple of decades the rights that we the ordinary people have gained have come from the EU (and have in general been portrayed as a bad thing by both politicians in government AND the Media).

From looking at the UKIP policies on their web site it seems that if they ever get in to power not only do they want to take us out of the EU, they also want to eradicate all traces of former EU influence including all of the rights and protections we have gained from EU legislation from the UK.

Dawi, Aldershot
02/03/2013 at 16:40

The darkness on the horizon can be directly attributed to Labour, Lib Dems and Tories. They have shared the reigns of power and steered the country into the mess it is in now.

Dan B
02/03/2013 at 14:32

Doorman, not a chance. UKIP may be fooling you, but they don't fool me. There is darkness on the horizon

SpongeBob NoPants, Farnborough
01/03/2013 at 12:32

SpongeBob NoPants, Farnborough “You say Labour should have re regulated the banks Dawi, but that would have been unilateral and probably would have put us in a slump ahead of the global recession”

Well two countries that haven’t suffered the fate of those who de-regulated are Canada and Australia who both kept strong Banking regulation.

While I understand that Canada does have a risk from its own sub-prime mortgages, what seems to be a common factor in both countries is that their regulation prevented mergers/acquisition and foreign takeovers of banks/building societies. This has had three specific effects:

1 smaller banks which were less lightly to take part in “Casino Banking”.

2 there is still a wide range of banks giving more competition and choice.

3 it prevented the creation just a few “Mega” banks that were “too big to fail” and had to be bailed out by the government.

Contrast that to what happened in this country (which started under Thatcher’s tory government and continued under Blair’s Labour government).

While the banks might not have performed so well during the good times, when you off set that against how much money the government had to borrow to bail the banks out come the crash, it make me wonder if the sacrifice might not have been better then, than now (remember how much of the tax raised now is being used to pay the interest on the money borrowed to bail out banks).

Dawi, Aldershot
01/03/2013 at 10:18

Eastleigh have said it all!!

PJA
01/03/2013 at 08:06

doormon, Aldershot "so we are all in agreement VOTE UKIP"

for me I don't think so.

Dawi, Aldershot
28/02/2013 at 17:43

Good....so we are all in agreement VOTE UKIP...

doormon, Aldershot
28/02/2013 at 16:22

SpongeBob NoPants, Farnborough “although I have to say that the Blairite 'New Labour' was just the Tories in disguise”

I quite agree, although I would argue that ‘Nu Labour’ was a bit more like the Tories post WW2 – pre the wicked witch, but in that period people were not so divided as they are now and that has been caused I feel by the policies of Thatcher which at the end of the day were really the policies of greed.

While Thatcher broke the “power of the unions” (and yes there were excesses by some of them towards in the late 60’s/early 70’s) people forget how much the unions actually did to improve the actual working conditions and safety of the working population. The Tories seem intent on trying to take us back to Victorian working terms and practices now.

When either big business or the work force get the upper hand things are bad for everyone (as the old saying goes power corrupts). There has to be a better way of getting a balance between the two ends of the pole.

Dawi, Aldershot
28/02/2013 at 15:23

Exactly right Knapperdog, although I have to say that the Blairite 'New Labour' was just the Tories in disguise. Labour have to get back to their remit and leave the sleezy shmoozing to the Tories.

SpongeBob NoPants, Farnborough
28/02/2013 at 14:34

And who signed the Schengen Agreement and Conventions in 1985 and 1990, that allowed the freedom of movement around the EU Member states? Mrs T, of course!