Alternative York

Yes, I know I said I wasn’t going to blog again before 2008 but I just couldn’t resist after reading Cllr. Icke’s latest rantings in today’s letters page of The Press.

In it he asks us to spare a thought for the poor turkeys and consider a vegetarian alternative. My answer to that comes in two parts.

1) The turkeys will already be slaughtered and ready for roasting so there’s nothing to think about anyway. Their suffering is over, while us unfortunates still on this mortal coil have to continue to suffer the insane rantings of people like Icke!

2) I love turkey, I love goose, and I love roast potatoes cooked in goose fat. I love bacon butties for breakfast on Christmas morning and I love turkey sandwiches for the next few days afterwards.

I love the freedom I have to choose what I eat and when I want to eat it.

I hate being told how to think and act by anyone, especially jumped up councillors who hardly got any votes anyway, and are obsessed with being media whores, while openly supporting animal rights extremist groups who can’t even organise a protest outside a tiny restaurant in York.

I don’t know of one turkey who is worried about getting stuffed this yuletide. Though I can think of one particular turkey in the Labour party who really should get stuffed!

Going back to Cllr. Icke’s support of animal rights fanatics, The Press recently gave a lot of publicity to the terrorists who announced they were planning a mass gathering outside the Blue Bicycle restaurant to protest about their (quite legal) refusal to remove foie-gras from the menu. However, I am disappointed that no follow-up story has been published to describe what a failure this so called protest actually was.

I pass the Blue Bicycle at least three times a day and the biggest gathering of the great unwashed I saw was three, one of whom made an abusive remark to me when I declined their offer of a leaflet and called her a food fascist. The only constant protestor seemed to be one girl, who at least stood by her convictions, however misguided they may be. Or maybe she was homeless and hoping for some leftovers?

So in reality it transpires that for all Cllr. Blanchard and YAFA’s blustering and publicity seeking, it is clear that the people of York have little or no interest in animal rights fanaticism, nor are they interested in harassing restaurants that are legally going about their business. It is a shame that the scurrilous YAFA, who unsuccessfully tried to dig up dirt on the Blue Bicycle by twisting the facts about a kitchen inspection and presenting it in a factually incorrect manner, cannot turn their attentions to more serious cases of animal abuse, such as the cruel and inhumane way that halal meat is still legally produced in Britain.

Maybe they are worried they will be called racist? I mean, it’s acceptable to dig up the graves of old people in the name of animal rights, but you can’t go upsetting the muslims can you?

I hope every single one of you enjoys your traditional turkey dinner next Tuesday.

To those too stupid to enjoy Christmas I hope you don’t choke on your nut cutlets.

See you soon…

I almost laughed out loud when I read tonight that Christian Vassie has been named as the Lib-Dem candidate for York Central at the next general election. Labour and the Tories must also be in raptures!

In order for you all to judge the quality of the Lib-Dems candidate I will quote the following text from The Morning Flight and let you make up your own minds.

What an answer to prayer!

It has not been widely known in our church for legal reasons, but a few of us have been praying for Len and Jenny Rawlinson who are part of our church.

The first I knew of trouble was when visiting Jennifer and Len at their home. I said, “What’s happened here?” I could see that their neighbour had built an extension to his house. I said, “He’s built it over into your garden. How did he get that past the planning committee?”

At that time I didn’t know he was on the planning committee.

They told me that since their neighbour, City of York Councillor Christian Vassie, had built his extension he was now disputing where the boundary lay. I was not surprised, as though I had been startled to see where the extension came to, I had no idea how much farther the foundations went.

It was after that visit that I started to hear of the distressing things happening to my friends. On one occasion plants were dug up from “their” garden in an area he was claiming as his own, but which had been tended by Len and Jenny for years. After the police were called Cllr Vassie admitted he had done it and produced the plants. Another time he glued a letter on the window of a car parked on “their” drive where cars had been parked for years, again claiming the area was his. I don’t know what sort of glue he used but they had great difficulty getting it removed.

The Rawlinsons have tried repeatedly to resolve the matter without going to court. I thought they were very generous when, early on, they offered a boundary line to Cllr Vassie which would have legitimised his house extension. He rejected this. Yet it is this boundary, offered to him about six times in the last three years , which he has now accepted.

One of his tactics which particularly distressed them, was that he kept sending loads of legal sounding letters. His letters came thick and fast. I thought his letters were mischievous and designed to incur costs for the Rawlinsons. They had to have each of them replied to by their solicitor. I noted that as he tended to not reply to letters from their solicitors, many reminder letters had to be sent to him, heaping more costs on the Rawlinsons. I said all along that I thought that was his tactic, hoping the costs alone would make them give in.

I know of one occasion Cllr Vassie got the City of York Council’s legal department to write a an intimidating letter to them. I found out about the letter and made a formal complaint to the Council. I asked why the City of York Council legal department were getting involved in this private boundary dispute. I asked if they would send letters at public cost on my behalf should I need legal help some day. They put up a spirited defence of their conduct but I concluded they were embarrassed to discover what they had unwittingly got involved in.

The Rawlinsons had experienced some criminal damage to their property and reported a number of instances to the police. They feared more. To protect their property they had a CCTV installed pointing towards their gate. This is what Cllr Vassie got the Council’s legal department to act over, claiming it was viewing into his house and affecting his council business!

We had expected the recent court case would at last resolve the boundary, but the day before the hearing Cllr Vassie accepted the boundary offer that the Rawlinsons had made six times during the last three years.

The court matter was then for the judge to decide how cost should be apportioned. Cllr Vassie’s tactics had caused the Rawlinson’s costs to mount up. Pronouncement of the verdict was on Friday during which the judge said Cllr Vassie’s letters were arrogant and aggressive. He said Vassie had “dragged his feet” in the matter so adding to costs.

Cllr Vassie has been given 28 days to pay over £22,500 to the Rawlinson’s, which is about half of their costs.

I am sure they feel vindicated, but they are still out of pocket to over £20,000 (the cost they have to bear) and they still have to look at that house extension.

The question I have is, “Will they get their money?”

Would you vote for this man? Would you trust him to represent your best interests? If this is the best candidate that the Lib-Dems can come up with then I almost feel sorry for them. Even Steve Galloway would be a more acceptable choice! Still, we shouldn’t expect too much from an unelectable party should we?

Even Eddie Vee has more chance of becoming an MP!

See you soon…

Snooker fans, already disappointed at the combined failure of York’s Liberal Demo-crap council and Ernie Dickinson’s pointless “pressure” group; ironically named ‘SOB’; will be further exasperated by my revelation that even if the Barbican Centre is in full operational order in time for the 2008 event, the UK Snooker Championship will not be coming back to our historic city.

Why not? You may ask: Well I will tell you. I am lucky to have a few, very reliable, contacts on the snooker scene, and I have been informed that Absolute Leisure, who are running the Barbican Centre, have deemed it acceptable to demand three times the price that World Snooker used to pay to hold the championships in York.

Unfortunately my source did not have the figures to quote, but apparently Absolute’s demands matched what Wembley Arena used to pay to host the Masters, so it won’t be peanuts.

Unsurprisingly, in these lean financial times for the sport, snookers’ governing body have apparently told Absolute where to stick the Barbican Centre.

What a disgrace that the Lib-Dems firstly orchestrated the closure of the Barbican, and then gave full management of it to a pub and club chain based in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, leaving York residents with little or no top class entertainment in their home city.

Not to mention the financial loss to local businesses near the Barbican Centre who looked forward to the snooker fortnight as a great source of income every year. The council must take full responsibility for this cock up and accept the blame. But will they? Of course not. As usual Galloway will bluster and blame Dickinson, just like he attacks anyone who disagrees with his bizarre ideas of local government.

Seeing as only one-in-six people eligible to vote in council elections actually bother to do so, and that the Lib-Dems do not even command a majority, why should the council tax payers of York continually have to suffer at the hands of the worst administration ever to disgrace our city?

No snooker, no swimming, no concerts, no future!

See you soon…