Sebaileyus_PhD

Hi guys Just to add my 2 cents on this. Applying to councillor positions you are required to declare any POLITICAL affiliations you have, but no other interests,vat least at this stage. after election I believe you have to declare business interests. So, leaving aside the religion as a business or religion as political debates, people running for these positions do not have to declare a faith or church membership etc. Nor should they in my opinion. In doing so they open themselves to criticisms that they may not deserve. For example gay marriage, not everyone who opposes it is Christian and not everyone who is Christian opposes it. With reference to giving money away, what I believe you are mostly referring to here is (as a Google search reveals) a tithe, which translated means tenth. Many Christians give away 10% or more of their income to charities. This is usually a church, but also often mission and aid work in the form of sponsored children's educations, well digging, school building etc. So before stones are cast and inferences made, how much do any of you give to charities out of your pay each month? When you can say you support projects across the UK and rest of the world to the tune of 10% of your earnings, then you can start telling people how to spend their earnings. I get paid 5k a year at present and 10% goes to british charities, such as the hope support services in ross. County councillors are given their 7k a year taxable income In exchange for their duties performed. It is not "spending public money" any more than any council employee spending their wages on a McDonald's is spending public money. Seb

How many £ signs in the IOC material? Or for that matter, any number crunching/economic thinking at all? Myself I didn't see any, but I'll put my hand up and say I'm dyslexic.

Reading back over this forum since I last logged in is pretty disparaging. I actually spent Sunday taking 3 homeless people (Amanda, Wayne, Trevor) out to lunch, out of my own pocket, and then at my in-laws for lunch. Re: wing clipping, I have been to 2 meetings and not once has anyone mentioned my appearance on here. If they had, I'd tell you. I don't hold with bullying or leaning on people, least of all myself. My reasons for not posting recently are simple: my materials became available and I've been dedicating my councillor time to travelling around the ward, meeting people, talking Turkey etc. this has taken up my days until about 3pm when my feet hurt, at which point I drive home and put in about 6 hours research time for my PhD. This is on days without evening events and meetings, which often run past 10pm. While pulling 14-16 hour days, 6-7 days a week I'm sad to admit I don't tend to go forum browsing! All the best to you guys. I may not be back for a week or so, I still have a large square mileage of ward to cover.

I have NO association with freedom church barring 2-3 acquaintances. I do not approve of a number of their methods, even if their intentions are good.

Denise- not one of the candidates for holmer lives in the ward,or within walking distance, and only 1 lives within the city itself. So while I may be at a slight disadvantage, although it means I will need to actually talk to people rather than assume I know their issues because I live nearby, I don't think it makes a lot of difference. Certainly not as much as getting involved in more committees would help. Cloudberry- I'm still reading through a LOT of paperwork around housing, development and county economics so I couldn't honestly comment with anything more than speculation at present, maybe in a week or two? It takes a while to catch up on years of this stuff sadly. What I will say is that I will be fighting for as many property market entry houses/flats as I can. Having just bought my first 50%ownership for under 100k, I know the difference it makes to a family to make that step. Wirralpc- you certainly have a bee in your bonnet over this bullying thing. I will not "put it down", if I'm elected I will look into this as far as any powers I have will let me. Bearing in mind it will probably be another councillors issue. In a months time the council will be re-established and an MP in place. You may then be able to have a reasonable face to face meeting with someone who can do something constructive instead of posting online where very few will read about it and take action. If you are this upset with the current state of affairs I would suggest you run for county council next time and make that change.

to clarkester - ive been VERY busy of late, im involved in a number of research projects aside from my own PhD, i help charitable causes 2-3 times a week where my schedule permits and on top of it all, i do most of the housework as my wife works full time. as such i chose to get a lot of projects pushed into final phase (and wont be signing onto more if elected) before i was a confirmed candidate for holmer ward so that i could spend the time AFTER i was nominated canvassing and looking for links to the people. i only found this site 2-3 days ago and will be making a lot of use of it! i can assure you i am not a complacent looking for a cushy job who has just decided to look like i care and want to converse with the people of the city. moreover, my lack of involvement has been due to making room in my life in order to fulfill the role adequately. i have meetings upon meetings booked with councillors, local figures and party members to look at what the job will actually entail beyond the job description in order to make sure i am adequately trained up before i may take up my role. bobby - thank you for your comments, i hope ive taken them correctly this time around!! i would ask you to bear in mind that Hereford county council is (for the most part) divorced entirely from the westminster elite, out link to them is through our MP, the same as you. we have to do as we are told by the government of the day. if we see a labour win, i will still be sitting on the council as a conservative. voting for MPs dictates the direction of the country and voting for Councillors dictates the way the county moves.i would never ask anyone to vote for me because of my party, if they felt so inclined, so be it. i am aligned with a party so that people can clearly see what my intentions are in general. however, i have no hesitation about voting on any issue as the people of my ward ask me too. you may feel disenfranchised, but if thats so next time we have a county council election, stand, and see where it gets you. i believe change, like charity, begins with people standing up and saying " ill do that, ill make it better". if you dont vote, you have no right to complain about the government. if you voted against them, then tell others why. democracy works when people stand up and debate the issues instead of letting the stroll past. i have a good friend standing as a labour councillor in a staunchly conservative area for that reason. we differ greatly in our politics and opinions, we correct each others opinion posts and conclusions derived from stats and it works well to make us both better at what we do. thanks for all your positive comments - keep the suggestions rolling, i have pages of A4 paper now filled out with suggestions and outlined plans to take to the council.

i dont know who lives where, but ill be canvassing all of holmer (every door i can find!) starting saturday.

if its something you guys think would be a good idea, at least at local level, if elected i will look into it and find out where its been done and with what degree of success. i certainly think its a good idea, as i said above. perhaps a national initiative isn't needed here :) if bill tanner tries to take me down on this im counting on you all for backup !

i agree with what youre saying Cambo, but can you imagine the headlines about "tory home theft" if they seized even a few empty properties? even if they bought them at market value, there would be an incredible backlash. especially as im thinking a few of these are owned by expats who may return to the UK to find themselves homeless. it would be career suicide for any politicians or civil servants involved. :(

It's a common problem in our roundabout laden town! When I was out gathering support to stand in Holmer ward (I think where these problems are located) there were a huge number of people complaining how dangerous it was to cross the road, particularly for those with disabilities. I will talk with the current councillor(s) about this and see if there's anything to be done to reduce the crossing time (if it's a long one). the one opposite the sixth form used to be highly responsive and change back very quickly, may be that similar patterns can be employed. If not what would people think of pedestrian bridges? It's the only other solution to easing congestion, but they are quite an eyesore. Seb

theyll never silence me!!!! my point about access to various things was more directed toward his investigatory powers at the moment, he has no more standing (if the council chose to be obtuse) than you or i do right now

incidentally, if anyone knows of any other forums i can make a part of my daily rounds, let me know :)

i think i shall, its amazing the resources that appear when you go looking for them!

its not hard to see how politicians might be tempted to go bent when this is how their constituency might treat them!!!! ah well, not the first time ive made an ass of myself and it wont be the last!

i really didnt :( i spent 2 hours researching how to deal with dogging sites legally and researching the problem areas in hereford. perhaps time not wasted should someone else mention it ah well :)

i think Jesse and/or amy quite rightly identified that there was no right answer he could have given to you. A no makes him incompetent, a yes makes him one of the uncaring elite, and of course a lie would eventually come back to haunt him. bear in mind he is no longer our MP, and is continuing to do many of the associated duties he has since been discharged of being required to carry out as MP because he want to see them through. a lot of his access to information and so fourth has been restricted since the commons closure this last month. i have no doubt he is looking into this as we type, thats just who he is. One last point, bullying is not an objective issue, it a subjective experience. thus, while you may not perceive your posts as threatening or intend bullying, it can none the less be the case. your assurance it isnt bullying is the least reliable factor in the equation, not that im calling you a liar. i recently read a study of video game abuse hurled at each other by players on the same team. when investigated by academics it turned out that the bullies were trying to pass advice to teammates (just badly). none the less, the teammates experienced bullying. i find one of my colleagues to have a very threatening style of written word, hes just very blunt in his evaluation and i perceive it poorly. i find your responses phrased in such a way that if i were to meet you face to face i would feel threatened. the burden that comes with a working knowledge of psycho-linguistics :) Seb

i would use another platform if i could find one, but this is the first place (except pavement pounding) that ive been able to engage with people and talk issues over i welcome having my knuckles wrapped, i dont want to go around shouting my head off and winding folk up. that said, im quite good at it! im very widely read on a few issues, before i put my name forward for election i read about the role of councillor and any public representative, and then the roles of leaders. it just so happens that the article i read on church leadership, i.e. servant leadership, struck a chord with me. the concept of serving the community who elect you instead of ruling them is one that makes sense to me. Seb

i like jesse a lot, and whatever his politics, you cant say he isnt a nice guy to be around! im actually in that picture, the meeting was in the evening. my point was not that we are not a diverse society, having lived in Reading, Wales, Huddersfield and numerous Herefordshire locales i can tell you we are a diverse country, but that Hereford is one of the most homogeneously white areas i have ever been. Speaking as a social psychologist, the number of people in the photo (the group was approximately 50 people) is a sample i wouldnt use in any experiement. Bearing in mind this is a snapshot of volunteers available at that time that could make it to ross on wye (i.e. likely removes people without their own travel, a young family or part time work) i would say its actually a rather representative sample of the county, if not the country. being the sad person i am i looked up the council stats. the county is 97% white, so if theres 50 people, each person in a representative sample would be 2%, so there should be 1-2 people there who are not white british. (there is one gent who i think fits that description) there were also a couple of ladies with accents i could not place (possibly greek/czech/polish) as im terrible at that! so suprisingly, that photo is almost spot on the herefordshire ethnicity demographic, well done Jesse for assemblng such a representative task force. im not getting any votes here am i ?

aylestone voice - thanks for the comparison Clarkester - i never said they didnt do it! :) i just said its childish. psychologically speaking, humans are wired for A) the win and B) Re-enforcement of already held patterns of belief. so politicians scoring points makes them feel better about their position and makes us like them more (if we already did). it also distracts from evaluating the arguments presented. im not a fan of "banter" (or as its know in logical arguement, attacking the person not the arguement) but it has its place, in pub and social settings. freedom of speech is a wonderful privilege, i just think its entirely unprofessional to engage in personal attacks when the future of voters is at stake. if you wouldnt write it in an email, you shouldnt be saying it. if i were to make it into the council, or any other political institution i would be calling people for attcking people, not issues. sorry if i put a bummer on the thread!

having read the exchange WirralPC, you did look like you were trying to bully/pressure a response. the resending of emails, though i agree is not NECESSARY, is helpful. it helps point scoring to make him look incompetent by not being able to check his emails, but as someone who also receives a lot of emails, i can tell you that its none the less helpful not to have to recall specific key-words and hunt down an email that may not be the right one. you catch more wasps with honey than vinegar. not my opinion of jesse, but seems a concurrent analogy with your opinion of him. politics, point scoring and grudges aside, i will take this with me to a councillor candidate meeting this week and bring it to the direct attention of current incumbents. i do not tolerate bully of any sort of any level and will see what i can get moving on this ASAP all the best Seb