The Thamesmead Grump

a funny thing just happened to me

My last post included a piece about the Erith & Thamesmead Green Party candidate Ann Garrett and the Green Party policies in general which was prompted by the arrival of their election leaflet.

Since then, I have received similar leaflets from  Labour, the Conservative and Liberal Democrats. So, in a spirit of fairness and impartiality, I decided to poke fun at them as well.

The Labour candidate, Teresa Pearce has promised to tell the truth "even when it's not popular". This reminds me a bit of the tale of the two tribes, one always tells the truth and the other always tells lies and you can't tell which is which.

The Tory candidate, Anna Firth boasts that they are the only party who have a "clear commitment to cutting welfare and taxes". As a good proportion of the people and organisations who bankroll her party don't seem to pay any tax anyway, I don't see this as much of a vote winner.

Ocado is coming to Erith and she is going to fight to ensure the 3000 or so new jobs that come with it will go to local people. (To make a hollow laugh). The chances of this happening are about as likely as being struck by a meteorite. I used to work for Jobcentre Plus. I will tell you some time about local firms and the employment of local people and how to avoid it.

Simon Waddington is the Lib Dem hopeful. I used to be a member of the Liberal Democrats. I joined the newly formed SDP back in the early 1980s and went on the campaign trail with Jim Welbeloved. It was a lot more fun than I expected it to be even though we lost. Over the following years, I became more and more disillusioned with them, finally giving up when they refused to support a referendum on vital changes to the EU constitution. I now believe they are nothing more than political opportunists and their promises can be bought and sold like cans of beans off the supermarket shelf.

The funny thing that happened to me? It's like this. Going down the list of candidates, I came across the English Democrats. I think I received one of their leaflets but never looked at it; well, you don't, do you?

Googling the name of the party, I found their website and had a look at their manifesto. Imagine my surprise when I found myself nodding at most of their proposals. What I was expecting was a jingoistic rant of the UKIP variety, full of tortured grammar with a side order of punctuation and spelling mistakes. What I actually read was a balanced and reasonable argument for a set of realistic policies. 

Doubtless a proper card carrying, politically correct fascist could make a bit of a meal of it but it definitely lacks the full on, in your face, racist bigotry of the Labour campaign. It also lacks the crudely disguised pandering to the monied class which is what most Tory policy is about.

So, Graham Moore, whoever you are, you will be getting my vote on Thursday.

Anyway, here is a list of all the local candidates in alphabetical order

Sidney Cordle - Christian Peoples Alliance. Sidney caused a bit of a storm (geddit) last year when he suggested that recent storms had been caused by God's anger at gay marriage legislation.

Anna Firth - Conservative

Ann Garrett - Green Party

Ronie Johnson - UK Independence Party

Graham Moore - English Democrats

Teresa Pearce - Labour. Links to Teresa Pearce don't seem to go anywhere.

Simon Waddington - Liberal Democrats