Not one election in Boston

but three – so which Jack

(or Jill) will spring from

the ballot boxes?

According to our senior national politicians – and of course, we believe them, don’t we? – this week’s general election will be a gamechanger the like of which the country hasn’t seen for generations.

***

According to our local Boston politicians, unless the present controlling group is allowed to continue to work its magic on the borough, Boston will not continue to develop, improve and enjoy the surfeit of superb services that it has since the group took power.

And of course, we believe them as well, don’t we?

***

And at this point, we watched the sky

Whilst through the clouds a pig did fly.

***

In more than half a century of eligibility to vote we have never missed an election – be it national or local – but this latest call to put our ‘X’ in the box for both an MP and a couple of councillors has left us cold.

***

We are quite certain that had he been bold enough, candidate Matt Warman – who has represented Boston and Skegness at Westminster since May 2015 – would have nipped back to the House of Commons and hung his towel on the best lounger at the parliamentary poolside … so likely is he to be re-elected on Thursday.

***

Mr Warman faces challenges from Labour, the Liberal Democrats and an Independent in the battle for our votes.

Labour has a new candidate after the previous four elections since 2005 saw Paul Kenny steer party support to mounting losses aside from a brief resurgence in 2017.

He’s Ben Cook, a local supermarket worker, father, trade union organiser who says he knows what it’s like to live on a low income – and so ticks all the right boxes for his candidature

***

The Lib-Dem candidate, Hilary Jones, lives in the Derby North constituency, and is a Liverpool-born politician who has gone through the Tory and UKIP parties on her road to Liberal Democracy in her adopted area.

***

The Independent candidate is local driving instructor Peter Watson, who was elected to Kirton Parish Council a couple of years ago and to Boston Borough Council in May.

***

As far as leafleting to canvass our support is concerned, at the time of writing, we had received something from all four – although there was a time when candidates would deliver enough literature to fill a purple wheelie bin.

Now, it seems that they can scarcely bother.

***

And as for the online photographs …

***

They’re few and far between as well – and when they do appear, we’d rather that they didn’t.

***

Topping our list for the party pictures that should never have been posted because they are so awful are these two ….

First, this from Matt Warman.

In this offering, Mr. Warman – who is beginning to take on the gloss of  a career politician on the rise –  appears momentarily to have distracted the Prime Minister’s gaze from a small pot of flowers to something elsewhere … 

Certainly, the PM seems less than interested in the man holding his hand whilst grabbing his arm long enough to ensure that he doesn’t flee the frame.

***

If that was the best picture that I had of myself with the great and glorious leader, I would have thrown it away – or better still disposed of it entirely to ensure that it didn’t fall into the wrong hands and embarrass me in years to come.

***

Surely, Labour couldn’t do any worse, could they?

WRONG ...

… the candidate appears apparently trapped in the forks of a tree in a snapshot that’s too dark on one side and dominated on the other by a supporter who can’t even hold the party flyer the right way up.

Years ago, when our snaps were posted off to Gratispool and returned by post a fortnight later, we were stuck with the result – but in these days of digital photography there’s just no excuse.

***

If you can’t take another one that gets the job done properly, then it’s better not to bother, as pictures like these look as if the people who posted them really couldn’t care less.

***

From indifference nationally, we slip seamlessly into a look at indifference locally.

***

Two seats on Boston Borough council are up for a by-election.

The first to fall vacant was Skirbeck – when local businessman and tourism portfolio holder Alistair Arundell called time on his political career.

The other is Kirton and Frampton – which saw the departure of another Tory, Shaun Blackman.

***

Both seats return three councillors – which puts them among the three biggest wards … the other is Fishtoft.

Yet despite their size, voter enthusiasm back in May was disappointing.

In Skirbeck a total of 2,736 votes represented a turnout of just 22.3%, making it the lowest of the fifteen wards, whilst Kirton and Frampton with 2,397 votes cast a turnout that was little better – with 25.2%, the fifth lowest.

***

  

Certainly, Boston Borough Council hasn’t done much to generate interest among voters.

Information about the general election on their website can be found by following the link “view council services,” then selecting “elections” from the middle box in the fourth row down.

This takes you to a wordy chunk that includes another link to read the statement of persons nominated.

And if you want to know who’s standing for the council by-elections you need to follow yet another link – to “public notices” … always assuming that you knew that these notices are the official home of such information, which is also supposed to appear in our local “newspapers.”

And again, whilst other local districts bent over backwards on social media to remind us of the importance of voter registration, postal voting, and turning up on the day to make your mark, in Boston you could be forgiven if you thought that nothing was going on.

We’re also interested as to why our chief executive is listed as the returning officer for the local council contests but only the “acting” returning officer for the general election – which pays a welcome pre-Christmas bonus of £3,289, compared with just a few hundred for the two by-elections.

***

Our local “newspapers” have shown similar disinterest in local democracy this time around, and the only media to have faintly flirted with some kind of coverage has been BBC Radio Lincolnshire – which came up with a baffling stunt called “Pub Politics” which saw afternoon presenter William Wright “meet local general election candidates in the pub to get their thoughts on different subjects.”

Don’t ask us why.

***

The Boston and Skegness half-full glass was broadcast from the Woolpack pub in Wainfleet – and apposite choice given the wooliness of a programme which left us with the impression that we had been fleeced of a decent debate. 

No-so-jovial mine host Mr Wright muttered through a series of ums and errs peppered with occasional lip smacking and now and then even some discernible words to try to reassure us that we were listening to a speech-based radio programme.

We were particularly struck by his Andrew Neil-style grilling of Matt Warman for failing to obey a command to give only a yes or no answer on whether he voted to remain in the EU or to leave – something that no Westminster politician is capable of doing.

In a petulant display of pointless grilling, it took three goes verbally to batter Mr Warman into compliance – by which time his answer had become so clear that he sounded quite surprised by such unnecessary presenter persistence.

As were we.

***

Three of the four candidates managed to make it – Lib Dem Hilary Jones couldn’t be there in person for this one-off event but was there in spirit as in the form of occasional inserts into the programme ...

***

If you missed it or want to hear it again – and who wouldn’t – then there’s still time. It’s on the BBC website until Christmas Eve if you click here

***

So, now back to the by-elections.

Skirbeck has six candidates seeking the single seat – down from nine contenders last May when all three seats were us for grabs.

Two unsuccessful candidates from last time are standing again.

They are Jackie Barton for Labour who polled 265 votes last time, and Christopher Moore for the Blue Revolution Party who came last … with 186 votes.

***

Other candidates are: Martin Howard for the Conservatives, Lib Dem Jason Stevenson and Independents Don Jenkins and Sue Ransome.

***

Because many candidates these days opt not to disclose their addresses, we can’t tell you whether some are local to the ward as a  number are not saying so.

But we do know that Conservative Mr Howard lives in the South Holland District Council area, and the Lib Dems Jason Stevenson is from Wyberton. Labour’s Ms Barton and Independent Don Jenkins will only admit to an address in the borough – while Mr Moore and Mrs Ransome hail from Fishtoft and Wyberton respectively.

***

Only one of the candidates has previous political experience as far as we know.

Sue Ransome served as a UKIP councillor at both county and borough level for several years, and most recently was chairman of the Boston Town Area Committee, which covers Skirbeck, until she lost her Station Ward seat at last May’s elections.

***

In Kirton and Frampton, five candidates stood for the three seats in May compared with three targeting the single seat this time around.

David Brown from Sutterton hopes to make a comeback for the Tories – switching his allegiance from the Wyberton seat he lost back in May.

Mr Brown previously served at Worst Street for four years and at one time held the unenviable portfolio for rubbish – aka environment – as well as being chairman of the Planning Committee.

Neither of the other candidates contested the seat last time.

The new entrants are Liberal Democrat Alan Taylor and Independent Lorraine O’Connor.

Mr Taylor lives in the ward, but Ms O’Connor doesn’t say – but is being enthusiastically backed by Witham Ward Councillor Neill Hastie who is saying good things about other independents as well.

***

As far as local campaigning is concerned, we can’t speak of the candidates in Kirton and Frampton.

But as Skirbeck is where our headquarters at No 1 Eye Street is located – we can tell you that, at the time of writing, only two of the six candidates had put a leaflet through our door.

One thing is for sure – BiG won’t be getting our vote after one of our existing councillors from that party has refused any assistance to Boston and Mrs Eye as voting and taxpaying residents of the ward after taking umbrage at a mention in our blog. 

Even though we keep our private lives and our writings separate and distinct.

There’s democracy and ‘service’ for you!

***

Which brings us seamlessly on to a particular bee in our bonnet … Independents – are they or aren’t they what they claim?

***

Two of the candidates in our by-elections – Kirton and Frampton’s  Lorraine O’Connor, and Don Jenkins in Skirbeck – are associated with the Bostonian Independent Group.

The BiG faction currently numbers five members – including two from Skirbeck and one from Kirton and Frampton.

At no point either in previous elections or the current polls to fill the two outstanding vacancies have candidates identified with BiG – and last time they stood as ‘Independents’ and  did not declare their group relationship afterwards.

***

These BiGgers claim that they are as independent as the next man and woman – in which case we wonder why they differentiate themselves from six other councillors who merely declare themselves as Independent with just a capital ‘I.’

***

There was a time when Boston BiG was a political party – and it only deregistered earlier this year.

Members persist in claiming that they are simply independents acting under a different name to other independents – but we have heard examples of them acting together in a way that contradicts this claim.

One example occurred not too long ago when BiG took an unusual step for so-called ‘independents’ of expelling one group member at a meeting held in her absence.

The decision was taken by the five remaining members of the group – which of course, isn’t a group but consists of entirely independent minds.

Contradictory?

You betcha!

***

Interestingly however, the creeping trend toward electing independent councillors – whether BiGgers or not – may well prove awkward for the Worst Street controlling group.

According to WorstWeb – the council’s website – control is on something of a knife-edge.

The current political composition of the council is: Conservative 15, Bostonian Independents Group 5, Independents 6, Labour 2, Vacant Seats 2.

Both vacant seats were held by Tories.

Over the years we have seen Tory control steadily nibbled away – and Thursday could see the clock turned back still further to what for donkey’s years was the borough’s default state of No Overall Control.

***

In that case, take pity on our leader – Aaron Spencer – who has valiantly led the council through thick and thicker, whilst retaining the job of finance portfolio when he became leader and more recently adding the tourism portfolio after Alistair Arundell quit.
What in earth will he do if he he doesn't pick up a couple of likely lads to pad out his cabinet and keep him hanging on to power?

Not only that – but according to his declaration of interests he is now a busy boy whenever he manages to get away from Worst Street.

He lists himself as general manager of Boston West – the hotel and wedding venue at Hubberts Bridge – which by an interesting co-incidence was taken over by former Councillor Arundell soon after his resignation.

On top of that he is a director of something called Qualis Possessionem – which appears to be a family run letting and real estate business – as well as being a freelance instructor for an automotive training agency (Councillor Spencer was once a car salesman.) 
And he’s a Lincolnshire county councillor, too.

Add to that “occasional gigs” with his rock band Hydrobats – and we are staggered as how he finds so many hours into the day.

***

So, come Thursday – and despite the inertia of some of the principal players, please – do your best to vote … Make (Ballot) Boxit Happen – and think carefully beore you make your mark.

  

You can write to us at boston.eye@googlemail.com

E– mails will be treated in confidence and published anonymously if requested.

Our former blog is archived at: http://bostoneyelincolnshire.blogspot.com

We are on Twitter – visit @eye_boston