On the 21st June 2009 I wrote about the armorial bearings (the coat of arms) for Morecambe. This coat of arms was created in 1928 for the town of Morecambe and was used by the football club until about a year ago when Morecambe FC felt obliged to change it because they didn't have copyright. I have read reports that they felt permission lay with the town council. I wonder if they asked for permission.
Now it is election time and the Morecambe Bay Independent Party also uses the same logo.
Well to be more exact, they changed the original motto which was “beauty surrounds, health abounds” (which is just about as far as you can get away from party politics) to "people before politics" without a hint of irony. You see, this particular party gain votes by pretending that they are not a party. They have a tagline "sick of party politics" which they also use without a hint of irony.
This party knows that they need permission to use Morecambe's coat of arms, but I have never seen anything that says they have been granted this permission. If permission lies with the council then it would smack of corruption if they used it. If it doesn't (and it didn't in 2009) then they should celebrate being given permission to use it. However my guess is that they just decided to use it and not ask permission. A logo which belongs to the whole town should not be appropriated by one particular party.
Change the world
Saturday, 30 April 2011
Friday, 29 April 2011
No link with Labour and Lenin
As it is less than a week to our local elections I thought I would choose a political theme for the photography blog and this is one of those occasions when I use the same blog entry for both of my blogs.It is well over twenty years since a Labour councillor showed me the similarity between the Labour Rose and the silhouette of Lenin. I have always thought that there was a strong resemblance but now that I have worked on the photo of a leaflet I am not convinced. Maybe the Labour Rose has changed over the years but I think I will settle on the notion that there is no connection.
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Thursday, 28 April 2011
Vote yes for a fairer system
It is at least a year ago when I was speaking with someone from Ireland. I asked about the voting system and how they managed with STV. Isn't it difficult to cope with a numbered system rather than a cross for one candidate? The answer he gave me, of course, was that it was easy to place numbers against the candidates.
Yesterday I was again talking with someone from Ireland. She was telling me how it was important to get fair proportions of elected representatives to the votes that were cast. Religious bigotry was evident and reflected in the religious backgrounds of elected representatives. She told me about ratepayer suffrage in which you didn't get a vote if you lived in a council house. It just so happened that most people in council houses belonged to one particular religion.
She also told me that company directors had more than one vote and that there were block votes going to big businesses until the late 60s. If you thought rotten boroughs were a thing of the past then you don't have to go back too far before you find systems that are obviously wrong. A change to make the system fairer was really important. Now universal adult suffrage sounds good but Ireland needed a fair system as well - not first-past-the-post.
AV is not difficult to understand and nobody complains about one person's vote being transferred from one candidate to another. That's what happens in a system that gives fairer representation and that's the best reason to vote for AV in the referendum, because it is a fairer system.
Change the world
Yesterday I was again talking with someone from Ireland. She was telling me how it was important to get fair proportions of elected representatives to the votes that were cast. Religious bigotry was evident and reflected in the religious backgrounds of elected representatives. She told me about ratepayer suffrage in which you didn't get a vote if you lived in a council house. It just so happened that most people in council houses belonged to one particular religion.
She also told me that company directors had more than one vote and that there were block votes going to big businesses until the late 60s. If you thought rotten boroughs were a thing of the past then you don't have to go back too far before you find systems that are obviously wrong. A change to make the system fairer was really important. Now universal adult suffrage sounds good but Ireland needed a fair system as well - not first-past-the-post.
AV is not difficult to understand and nobody complains about one person's vote being transferred from one candidate to another. That's what happens in a system that gives fairer representation and that's the best reason to vote for AV in the referendum, because it is a fairer system.
Change the world
Wednesday, 27 April 2011
Political Conversations
It is good to knock on doors. I have never asked anyone if they will vote for me as I have never thought this question would influence anyone. I get asked if I have been out canvassing so the answer must always be no. For this election we are conducting a survey and we are telling the person who comes to the door that there are simply three yes or no answers. We also tell them that there are no right and wrong answers and this way we manage to speak to a lot of people.
We also get a lot of information, not just from three answers, but we get people talking to us. One of the questions is about the Independent Party in Morecambe which is split this time. We don't know the difference between the two parties but we know that this is also the view of the electorate. How are they supposed to choose between two parties if they are both saying the same thing?
I met someone yesterday who had decided to spoil her vote for the Morecambe Town Council. There is nothing wrong with that (apart from the better choice of the Liberal Democrats) as she has exercised her democratic right by sending in her spoilt vote. She still wants to use her vote even if the candidates are not good enough for her. Initially this person was reluctant to talk with us but after those magical three questions we did have a conversation. The real story is that she is a Tory and there are no Tory candidates for the town council.
It is good to knock on doors and chat. The chances are that I am speaking with someone who doesn't vote and who knows, they may decide to turn up at the polling station anyway and a conversation with a candidate may just influence their vote.
Change the world
We also get a lot of information, not just from three answers, but we get people talking to us. One of the questions is about the Independent Party in Morecambe which is split this time. We don't know the difference between the two parties but we know that this is also the view of the electorate. How are they supposed to choose between two parties if they are both saying the same thing?
I met someone yesterday who had decided to spoil her vote for the Morecambe Town Council. There is nothing wrong with that (apart from the better choice of the Liberal Democrats) as she has exercised her democratic right by sending in her spoilt vote. She still wants to use her vote even if the candidates are not good enough for her. Initially this person was reluctant to talk with us but after those magical three questions we did have a conversation. The real story is that she is a Tory and there are no Tory candidates for the town council.
It is good to knock on doors and chat. The chances are that I am speaking with someone who doesn't vote and who knows, they may decide to turn up at the polling station anyway and a conversation with a candidate may just influence their vote.
Change the world
Tuesday, 26 April 2011
Safety Measures?
On Sunday I wrote about the traffic calming measures on the road between Lancaster and Morecambe. I don't know what all the roadworks are going to do but a small part of them revealed a traffic island to me on Saturday. Yesterday I noticed that there is a bus stop marked in this small section of the road with the island.
I have seen traffic measures taken like this all over Lancashire and I am sure you can relate to this wherever you are, but when did the trend reverse from building bus stops so the bus moved off the road and kept traffic flowing to building bus stops to deliberately stop all traffic? This particular traffic island looks like it has been built by someone who has had too much to drink. It creates a narrow lane in a very wide road. On the opposite side is enough room for two and a half lanes but paint makes this into one lane. No doubt further changes and further expense is planned.
Over the years I have seen signs that have been hit which have been asking for drivers to drive carefully. I have seen bollards that narrow roads which have been knocked over. I actually saw an accident as a car drove into a bollard about six months after they were put in place to narrow the road and create a parking bay. Maybe these measures are identified as traffic calming. I wonder if they are seen as safety measures too. The worst aspect for me is that this road is notorious as the slowest in the area if not the whole country.
Change the world
I have seen traffic measures taken like this all over Lancashire and I am sure you can relate to this wherever you are, but when did the trend reverse from building bus stops so the bus moved off the road and kept traffic flowing to building bus stops to deliberately stop all traffic? This particular traffic island looks like it has been built by someone who has had too much to drink. It creates a narrow lane in a very wide road. On the opposite side is enough room for two and a half lanes but paint makes this into one lane. No doubt further changes and further expense is planned.
Over the years I have seen signs that have been hit which have been asking for drivers to drive carefully. I have seen bollards that narrow roads which have been knocked over. I actually saw an accident as a car drove into a bollard about six months after they were put in place to narrow the road and create a parking bay. Maybe these measures are identified as traffic calming. I wonder if they are seen as safety measures too. The worst aspect for me is that this road is notorious as the slowest in the area if not the whole country.
Change the world
Monday, 25 April 2011
The BNP say no
William Hague was on the Andrew Marr show yesterday and was speaking about AV. Both the yes and the no sides are using the BNP to claim that the other system gives more votes to this party. Baroness Warsi for the no group reckons that she doesn't want the BNP to get more votes but this is what AV would do for them. William Hague supported her when he asked "Will the candidates in marginal seats have to think about how they're going to get the second, third and fourth preferences of people who have voted for the BNP?"
Well the answer is let's hope so. What makes voters turn to the BNP? Is it possible that these voters feel marginalised? Do they feel like the main parties aren't listening to them? With AV we could get politicians who listen and seek support from voters who are not their natural allies so AV would be a move to the centre for British politics. William answers his own question. He feels that the answer is debatable but I get the feeling that he does not see any importance in looking to gain votes which are second preferences. To him they are not significant. Well if political groups choose to ignore the possible benefits of second preferences it will be their loss.
Just for the record, the BNP are on Baroness Warsi's side and will be voting no.
Change the world
Well the answer is let's hope so. What makes voters turn to the BNP? Is it possible that these voters feel marginalised? Do they feel like the main parties aren't listening to them? With AV we could get politicians who listen and seek support from voters who are not their natural allies so AV would be a move to the centre for British politics. William answers his own question. He feels that the answer is debatable but I get the feeling that he does not see any importance in looking to gain votes which are second preferences. To him they are not significant. Well if political groups choose to ignore the possible benefits of second preferences it will be their loss.
Just for the record, the BNP are on Baroness Warsi's side and will be voting no.
Change the world
Sunday, 24 April 2011
Calming the congestion
We know that we have to make savings but nobody likes the savings when they are affected by them. I was driving between Lancaster and Morecambe today and I discovered why we were undergoing major roadworks. The care in front of me veered towards the kerb and I followed suit. We were avoiding traffic calming measures. Not only do we have major roadworks on a road which must be the worst in the country for congestion, we also have traffic calming measures! We don't need any.
There are very few times in the day when traffic is moving freely. Admittedly it wasn't bad today - well it is Easter Sunday but we are normally talking 5 or 10mph. We have so much paint on our roads. We have so many instructions. Traffic just seems to flow better on the continentand they hardly spend anything on paint. We have double-yellow lines everywhere and then we have traffic calming measures on the same part of the road. Here's an easy answer. Let the cars park and you get instant traffic calming at no cost.
Change the world
There are very few times in the day when traffic is moving freely. Admittedly it wasn't bad today - well it is Easter Sunday but we are normally talking 5 or 10mph. We have so much paint on our roads. We have so many instructions. Traffic just seems to flow better on the continentand they hardly spend anything on paint. We have double-yellow lines everywhere and then we have traffic calming measures on the same part of the road. Here's an easy answer. Let the cars park and you get instant traffic calming at no cost.
Change the world
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