Personal letter from the Lib Dems

Just received a 'personal' (i.e. mail merged) letter from Peter Carroll (LibDem prospective parliamentary candidate for Maidstone) asking for my vote and telling me that he is fighting to stop hospital cuts, wants more people prosecuted for crime and criticising local councils for being wasteful. Sorry Pete, but strangely enough I've decided to vote for someone else instead... oh, by the way the LibDems have been more or less running Maidstone Borough Council for the last 20 years (except for the last few months), are your 'wasteful' comments directed at your collegues? I assume that he is writing to all voters in the constituency (65,000) - at 30p each, about £20,000 - political parties are not given a level playing field in this country, another affront to democracy, but hey ho it's just one more nail in the coffin?

Meanwhile Helen Grant, Tory ppc has been offered the chair of Maidstone Museum. Helen's only connection with the town (as far as I know) is that she will be a parliamentary candidate, and while she stands a good chance of being the MP here, this is an overtly political appointment. It smacks of all the usual Tory distaste for local people.

To ensure balance, this was pointed out by James Grieve and Ben Six and is a poignant reminder of one of the many reasons why I got into politics:



Finally, the Kingsnorth Six go on trial on Monday in Maidstone. Just as the film above and the recent climate camp showed, the right to protest and the right to free speech have been quashed. I shall probably be arrested for blogging soon...