The guffmeister strikes again!

Once again the Boston Bypass Independents' guffmeister Councillor (Major ret'd) Ramonde Newell has taken to the letters pages of the local paper - this time to explain why he called the administration prior to the 2007 landslide which propelled his party into power as "the old, 2003 largely unelected council."
He tells us that in the period before the BBI the borough had sunk into what may be described as a "rotten borough."
"Up to May 2007, local democracy in Boston was effectively dead. Boston Borough Council has 32 elected councillors. In the 2003 Borough elections, over a third of the seats were not even contested!
"The seats were effectively carved up by the existing political parties or hierarchies. They effectively 'appointed' 11 councillors.
"13,785 electors in seven of the wards wards did not cast a single vote.
"The 11 'returned' councillors did not receive a single vote! But the electoral situation was even more undemocratic — even more "rotten."
"In Fishtoft ward, for example there were three council seats but only four candidates. Other wards were in a similar position. Over half the councillors were not 'properly elected'.
"The BBI first stood in May 2007 and put a stop to this undemocratic activity — only one of those former 'unelected' councillors is still a councillor. The BBI had 32 candidates in the May 2007 Borough elections thus giving all voters in Boston Borough the opportunity, some for the first time, to have a vote for those they wished to represent them."
What a load of tosh.
What happened in the past was typically representative of the national tri-party political malaise. Where seats are not contested - and again this is not uncommon - is is merely indicative of indifference of people to challenge for them.
And where the fight is between Conservative, Labour or the Lib Dems, it means no more than that other opponents are unwilling to take their chances at the polling station.
Councillor Newell's rant also implies something far more serious than what he is actually saying.
The term "rotten" or "decayed" borough was a parliamentary borough or constituency with a very small population used by a patron to exercise undue and unrepresentative influence in parliament.
For many years, constituencies did not change to reflect population shifts, and in some places the number of electors became so few that they could be bribed.
We're sure that Councillor Newell is not suggesting that money has changed hands in exchange for a seat on Boston Borough Council in the past.
What we are sure of is that the Bypass Independents snatched power under false pretences, and have since proved themselves completely unworthy of the electors' trust. They did not stand for elections to " put a stop to this undemocratic activity" - we seem to recall the promise of a bypass! They are certainly not the champions of democracy as Councillor Newell amusingly claims.
Councillor Newell should be very careful when he uses the word "rotten" to define his predecessors at Worst Street.
Many would apply it to the BBI as well - and not without cause!


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