ONLY two weeks to go until the county council elections, but how many of you out there are unaware there’s a poll even taking place?
You might, if you lived in Rushmere Road, perhaps have spotted Professor Glynane dishing out leaflets the other day in what, if elected, would be new territory to him following the boundary reviews. Or you may have seen Gonzo in the half light of East Hunsbury (Simpson Manor notwithstanding, obviously), drumming up support for another term in office, even it is as a backbencher. Gonzo, by the way, gave an earnest handshake to Norman Hacker’s former number two, Ben Smith, at last week’s Cabinet as a farewell was said for the members of the Tory Inner Circle not standing this time. Our man on the scene joked it was difficult to distinguish whether Gonzo was saying farewell to Ben or, in fact, the outgoing Ben, was bidding a premature farewell to Gonzo’s life in politics.
Perhaps the strangest revelation yet - by far - is that UKIP, which plans to field 44 candidates on May 2, appears to have no leader. We rang UKIP’s Northamptonshire press gofer this week to ask for a comment from their leader as to what was the most important issue for voters in Northamponshire. We were offered up UKIP MEP, Derek Clark (80 this year by the way), but further pressing revealed the Europhobes haven’t actually got a “leader” per se in the county. So in the, dare we say it, unlikely event they are swept to power in a fortnight, there could be a lot of people wanting to clamber on to a podium to announce the immediate closure of that Brussels office of NEP which we fund to the tune of £200,000 a year.
ELSEWHERE, interesting to see the latest manoeuverings of Ifty Choudary, who’s hoping to get the ticket in Talavera. Not that the people of Daventry can help him where this week he unveiled radically different plans to convert a toilet block into a takeaway/restaurant, (never an especially aesthetic concept in Aufona’s view, but press on). It’s quite a change from the “community hall” plan he first revealed there two years ago, but as the good people of Kingsthorpe remember, Ifty’s quite entitled to shift his project aims around if he so wishes...
ALMOST nothing to report from the West Wing where #PCC Simmonds has been conspicuously quiet in comparison with recent weeks. It’s probably nothing at all to do with the imminent election, just that the poor chap needs a break from running the police/redecorating the West Wing and responding to the Chron’s online commentariat. He’ll be back soon. May 3 perhaps?
PS: APROPOS of nothing: Returned this week from a first ever “all-inclusive” holiday. Very good too, but having witnessed first hand the gluttony of some British holidaymakers, how long will it be before the airlines – sticklers for a 20kg luggage limit - begin outgoing and, crucially, return flight weigh-ins for the passengers? They should...
Gerry, off-message on the Thatcher funeral?
WHATEVER your views, it was pleasing to see Margaret Thatcher’s funeral passing off with everyone’s dignity intact. Reaction in Northampton included a series of tweets from The Mack culminating in a picture of him signing a letter of condolence aside a photo of Mrs T. Then there was Labour group leader Terry Wire’s generous assessment that she “towered not only over domestic political life but also the world stage”. With that in mind it was interesting, to see one of the party’s rising stars, an off-message Geraldine Davies, straining at the leash to pour scorn on the scale of the funeral on Twitter. “thatcherfuneral should’ve been private for family & supporters. this forced public funeral only stirs old wounds still bleeding”, she opined. That was about as incendiary as it got here in Northampton. Which, on reflection, is probably a good thing. Time to move on...
AUFONA has devoted a few column inches to the deputy leadership race going on at the Guildhall in recent weeks. Well now we’d like to take up some more. We now understand there are NO plans for Brandon Eldred to take over the number two job in a May reshuffle by The Mack.
Instead, it seems increasingly likely Mary Markham will be The Mack’s sidekick (if such a thing were possible) in the two years left before the next borough council elections. You read it here first...