Many people break the law on a day to day basis, whether it is parking on double yellow lines, speeding or copying music.
I would like to point out that I do non of the above and have in fact never broken the law. :-)
But I was appalled to hear that a councillor blatantly flouted the law by employing illegal immigrants, I accept that there many laws that are simply deemed misdemeanours but I don’t think this is one of them.
Should the Patrick Chung the Conservative Councillor in question, be allowed to A) continue to hold a licence to run a restaurant or B) remain as a local government councillor.
See the link below for the EADT version of events.
Anyone found to have committed an offence is rightly punished, but the penalty should be proportionate, not draconian. To deprive someone of their livelyhood seems to me like 'double jeopardy' and the electorate should decide who remains in office through the ballot box. I'm not in favour of 'trial by blog'; a witch-hunt has even less appeal.
ReplyDeleteJudging by comments posted on another local website there must be a town council by-election pending and I am suspected of being a possible candidate. It's getting dirty already with a thinly disguised hint in a 'faintly detectable' Yorkshire accent about my sexual preferences.
Whilst accepting other people's inclinations as their business not mine, I have always shown a keen interest in the female form and there are three children to show for it. At 'rising 65' that interest is nowadays more 'just for noting' when talking to an attractive woman, so I think the saying 'there may be snow on the roof but the fire's still in' applies. I recently described myself on a form by ticking the box marked 'hetrosexual' and adding the word 'lapsed' after it. If I was a Roman Catholic I could train for the priesthood.
It's customary to wait until nominations close before starting the mud-slinging so I think this particular offensive remark is a little premature. No doubt, the author will protest his innocence and say it was intended as a joke but he has 'form' and regularly makes snide remarks about his political opponents. Even many on his own side don't trust the man.
The webmaster recently complained on this blog that I had walked past him about a year ago without speaking. I responded that I couldn't recall the incident but his wish has now come true as I will be 'blanking' him from now on and definitely not reading his disgusting blog - permanent.
I'm shortly off to observe traffic flows in Bury town centre and count empty car parking spaces. Last Saturday this was far too often zero but my suggestion that the temporary park and ride scheme at Olding Road be extended to today has been accepted. There are 350 spaces and the cost is only £1.50 per car. Use it or lose it!
Setting aside his claim to having planted the novel idea of continuing the park and ride for another Saturday, I would direct any readers of his comment above to my own website for my reaction.
ReplyDeletewww.PaulFarmer.com
David, I’m glad you’ve cleared up an question of your sexuality. But I for one don’t care if your gay, straight, transsexual or even metrosexual.
ReplyDeleteI didn’t make the last one up, apparently according to someone that’s far more “with it” than me, a metrosexual is someone who appears to be gay and will in fact let people assume they are gay, but are in fact as straight as an arrow.
(I don’t understand that one either)
I don't comment about anyone's private life either but I won't stay silent when someone tries to mispreprent mine for tactical reasons.
ReplyDeleteThe Cattle Market car park closed at 11:30 on Saturday as it was full. By noon, Parkway Decked was also full on all levels except the open top which was half full (and, of course half empty).
I have sent an email to the borough council suggesting a modification of charging on this top layer. Last Tuesday evening at 7, all 45 Members of the council were sent an email asking for suggestions to improve on the first Saturday when all car parks were closed by 11:00 because they were full. At 7 the next morning, I responded with a suggestion to keep the temporary park and ride going up to and including Easter Saturday and then review it further. If someone else came up with the idea first, well done to that person. I doesn't matter who said it first so instead of 'my suggestion' read either 'the suggestion' or 'a suggestion'. Thank you.
Moving back to the original point, I would ask the Conservative Town Council leader to comment on the prosecution or one of his Councillors. I am assuming that because Councillor Chung is has not been expelled from the party that the Conservatives condone employing illegal immigrants.
ReplyDeleteDon't be silly David. No one has tried to 'mispreprent' your private life. Nobody's interested. It is you who has 'for tacical reasons' imagined that Paul Farmer has done so, by refusing to address his points re your stance on allotments under a smokescreen of alleged homophobia. I note you have still failed to do so.
ReplyDeleteIf there is a post on this blog about the allotments I would gladly join the debate. Maybe next week there might be. It's not my blog.
ReplyDeleteI am not sure who you mean by the Conservative town council 'leader' - certainly not me. Whoever s/he is may be in blissful ignorance and not aware of your blog, or may have understandably given up on it.
ReplyDeletePersonally I am in total agreement with David Nettleton's comments. Your trial by blog is beneath even you, whoever you are. And I should be careful of reproducing pictures from the EADT website. They don't like it.
I found your saintly claim never to have broken the law rather sickly. Is it that you've never been caught, or has your whole life been very dull and riskless?
ReplyDeleteFor the financial year 1987/1988 Mid Suffolk District Council produced inaccurate Rates Bills. As a Debenham resident at the time I received on of these Bills.
ReplyDeleteI immediately contacted the East Anglian Daily Times who investigated my complaint and published an article pointing out the inaccuracy. Mid Suffolk DC admitted their error and sent out replacement Rates Bills to every household.
In April 1987 I reproduced the EADT article in my election 'ticket' seeking a place on Debenham Parish Council. I was elected on Thursday 07 May 1987.
Shortly afterwards, I received a letter from the EADT threatening me with legal action for breach of copyright. I divided the letter into two parts and placed it in File 13. Needless to say, I heard no more about it.
I agree Councillor Farmer, we should not have trial by blog, but it is wrong for the Conservatives not to take action when one of their own breaks the law. This is why people don’t trust politicians.
ReplyDeleteAs for my criminal past, I am afraid that I am far from perfect.
What have I said or done to make you not trust me?
ReplyDeleteFrom personal experience, the Conservatives only seem to take action if you are too pro-active in the community as a Town Councillor. i.e. You do what you were elected to do - be a councillor. By being a supporter of the Town Council from 2003 to 2006, it resulted in fellow Conservative Councillors plotting against me, and ensuring that both myself and my wife were not selected to be Conservative Town or Borough Councillors in the future. This is how they work. They would rather select councillors who have been declared bankrupt (Cllr. Everitt) or banned for 2 months after being reported to the Standards Board for England (Cllr. Cox) than someone who supports Bury St Edmunds having a Town Council. That includes the sitting Mayor of the town (my wife) who even though she won the Southgate Ward seat by a landslide, a seat they had not held for over 20 years (or since) was not considered good enough to stand for re-election as a Conservative Town Councillor. Cllr. Chung should be fine in the eyes of the Bury St Edmunds Conservatives, he has merely broken the law by employing illegal immigrants!
ReplyDeleteI don't want to get too involved in this debate except to point out that Gordon Cox wrote a letter of apology and his suspension was immediately lifted. The moral of this story is that if you say 'sorry' even if you didn't do anything wrong in the first place, you are forgiven. Odd, isn't it?
ReplyDeleteThe Risbygate town council by-election will be held on Thursday 07 May 2009. Let's hope it's a straight fight.
Oh. I didn't realise it was so simple.
ReplyDeleteBSECA. I'm sorry. Lots of luv. Hoffy. xx
Have you retired from blogging already?
ReplyDelete