IT'S LIKE ANIMAL FARM

JAMES CAMPBELL reveals his on-line

experiences of Putting Hartlepool First, a group that says it is aiming at a new way of doing politics in Hartlepool. It's good intentions don't appear to be put into practice.

Since around Mid-March I've been occupied mainly with a Hartlepool political group called Putting Hartlepool First (PHF).

I call them a political group because they do seem to be a little confused about what they are themselves despite having been around in some form or other since 2012.

What initially attracted my attention was that they described themselves as a group of independents who're opposed to the way the town is being run but recognise that the way the party political system was used in the town restricted the ability of a true independent from being able to influence change.  They even say that they have no whip to enforce policy or a party line and members are able to vote however their conscience tells them to. I liked this train of thought because one of my core beliefs is that elected representatives acting in the interests of their party often runs contra to the interests of the people they represent.

My first contact with PHF was via their Facebook page and resulted in a series of frustrating debates where posts and questions that challenged the views of PHF were regularly deleted and on some occasions people who had done nothing more than ask a question were blocked from the site too.

The full details of this is here: http://wp.me/p2BV0e-8q

My last Facebook interaction with PHF was to post that blog on their page where it was deleted within 8 minutes and I was blocked within 10 minutes.

BEER, FOOTBALL AND FISH AND CHIPS

Peter Mandelson, Prince of Darkness (left) and former Prime Minister and War Criminal Tony Blair (right).

How Blair and Mandelson Hijacked the Labour Party.

byHARRY BLACKWOOD

I'm a man with a very good constitution, so there's not very much that makes me feel nauseous. But if I cast my mind back to the victory celebrations following Labour's 1997 election success, I'm guaranteed to come over all bilious.

The sight of Podgy Prescott dancing with his tarty wife was nauseating enough and the sight of Mandy, Prince of Darkness singing along to "Things Can Only Get Better" had me reaching for the sick bucket. But what really did it for me was all of those 'genuine, ordinary hardworking' Labour supporters worshipping at the feet of Blair like he was some sort of Messiah. Oh yeah Messiah, at criminal, murderer and money grabbing con man.

It still boils my piss to this day thinking back how smarmy Blair arrived in the former mining village of Trimdon (just a few miles from my front door) and started glad handing local party members as he laid on his best acting to ingratiate his way into getting one of the safest Labour seats in the country.

It was truly sickening to hear local party chairman John Burton regaling people with the story about how Blair had turned up at his house one night and there was European football on the television "Tony sat and watched the match with a can of beer and we didn't talk politics" or some such bollocks was what Burton used to tell people ad nauseum. What Burton failed to realise was that Blair would have drunk horse piss filtered through a shitty sock and watched reruns of Crossroads if it meant he'd secure the nomination.

LIBERAL DEMOCRAT PROBLEMS RUN DEEPER THAN CLEGG

Leader of the Liberal Democrats and Deputy Prime Minister, Nick Clegg.

by ANDY FLEMING, Guest Blogger

As a fellow human being you’ve got to feel some sympathy towards Nick Clegg.  After nearly four years as the Coalition government’s Deputy Prime Minister, his fortunes have nosedived from being a political Adonis to being the Devil incarnate.  He’s been blamed for most of the political misfortunes that have befallen his party, culminating numerous Liberal Democrat meltdown s in both local and national elections over the last few years. And then of course there was the debacle over the result of his party's only original idea, Alternative Vote system.

In truth, most of his problems are self-inflicted as he adopted the “default position” for politicians of lying to the electorate.  Springing to mind straight away is the duplicitous Coalition Agreement entered into with David Cameron’s Conservatives to introduce student higher education tuition fees of up to £9,000 per annum.