Last year, the Labour councillors on the planning committee in Gateshead voted to reject an application to install a cash machine in our village post office in Sunniside. The argument adopted (paraphrased in my own style) was that putting such a facility onto a front street would bring traffic chaos and the entire ediface of western civilisation would collapse etc etc etc. I had handed in a petition of over 200 signatures in favour of the application. The rejection was met with stunned disbelief by residents of the village.
Well, I am pleased to say that Paul the postmaster phoned me this evening to say the appeal against the decision has been won.
The victory is all the more sweeter since the Labour party, in a fit of insanity, put a leaflet out in my ward in the run up to the election that never was, which laid into me and my colleagues for backing the application. It contained the usual drivel expected from Labour election leaflets in my ward. I shall be at full council on Friday and will be taking great pleasure in being magnanimous in victory over the person we knew wrote this leaflet.
Perhaps in the next leaflet he produces, in 2 years' time when the general election is likely to be held, he can explain why Labour took such an unreasonable position on our village post office. And perhaps an apology to residents, Paul the postmaster, and users of the branch would not go amiss. Don't hold your breath however.
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I popped down to Gateshead's civic centre this afternoon to listen to the full council meeting Jonathan mentions in his post.
It was almost wholly taken up with protocol and mutual back-slapping.
Through all the smugness though, one thing struck me. The Labour leader of the council, Mick Henry, repeatedly talked about the increasing "diversity" of the borough (which isn't reflected in the council chamber I might add, since it is totally white) and the new citizenship ceremonies the council has enthusiastically adpoted.
This mantra, almost Pavlov-like, was also repeated by one of the other Labourites, who mentioned the donation Gateshead council has recently made to an 'anti-racist' charity, 'Show Racism the Red Card' (I can feel another Freedom of Information Act coming on already), which is controlled by a trotskyite sect.
Strangely, the leader of the council has mentioned this increasing diversification before when I have attended full council meetings and has an expression of benign self-hate on his face when he trots out this garbage. No one ever challenges him either over this portentous statement and the implications for the indigenous population of the borough.
The most unstable and strife-ridden societies in the world are the most diverse and ethnically diverse. While the most stable and secure are those that are homogeneous and ethically similar.
I do wish the council leader would explain how Gateshead is to end up safe and prosperous while becoming increasingly multi-cultural and multi-racial?
I'm afraid blind faith isn't good enough for me!
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