Week ending 7th May

Our Friday miscellany of the week's news and events
Round One ... Well, it's over for now - although at this stage we've been warned to prepare for a hung parliament and the possibility of another election in the not-too-distant future. As expected, Mark Simmonds won Boston for the Conservatives with 21,325 votes - 49.4% of the poll, up 3.1 on last time. Paul Kenny saw Labour slump still further with 8,899 votes, 20.6% of the poll and down a stonking 10.9 on last time - even more than the party's losses at the 2005 election. Next came Philip Smith, Liberal Democrat with 6,371 (14.8% +5.4); Christopher Pain, UK Independence Party, 4,081, (9.5%); David Owens, British National Party 2,278 (5.3% +2.9); and finally, Peter Wilson, Independent, 171 (0.4%).  Mr Simmonds's majority was 12,426. Turnout at 43,125 was 61.1%  - up 2.2% on last time.
Twittering on ... Throughout the election campaign we were constantly entertained by the Tweets of Labour's Paul Kenny. We know that a Tweet is limited in the number of characters it can contain, but we really feel that quotes like "So Tories tell us they are green, so why are local Tories nailing posters to trees - not very environmentally friendly," and "Only 2 posters per polling station but local Tories can't count - can we trust them to run our economy if they can't count," do nothing more than lead us to the conclusion that this candidate was singing from a different hymn sheet to the rest of us.
Road to nowhere ... More interesting was the Tweet that claimed that Boston will not be getting its distributor road after all - one of a series of claims branded as "official" during the election campaign.

We can find nothing to support this, and would be very grateful to receive something to back this claim up. If it is true, it is very bad news for Boston and requires immediate action from our so-called leaders..
Parking up the wrong tree ... Daft suggestion award of the week goes to George Wheatman of the Boston Target. By some arcane method of calculation he works out that a minute's stay in the Red Lion Street car park costs motorists £1. This is because in common with car parks throughout the town, rates increase after the first short term parking period. NCP charges £1.50 for the first hour then £3 for the next period. George calls for "a more gradual rise." So how would that work, then? £1.50 for the first hour, £1.51 for the first 61 minutes and so on. It makes no sense at all. Also, as fellow hacks, could we ask George to restore articles and pronouns to his musings so as not to encourage his readers into bad writing habits.
BID or BAD ... Looking at the latest aims of Boston BID, we are a little confused about what it's supposed to be going. Despite a laudable list of objectives on its website, it seems to do little more than obsess with keeping the town centre clean. Whilst that's highly praiseworthy, we wonder whether the businesses now being ordered to stump up their annual levies just because they operate in the BID area had somehow hoped for more. Have we got another white elephant/hopeless quango on our hands again?
Planning shake-up ... We're delighted to see that someone has had the good sense to start a campaign against the daft decision to refuse permission for a smoothie bar in Dolphin Lane. So far more than 1,500 have lent it their support, and we urge you to do the same. As we've said, Boston should be encouraging new and different businesses, not suffocating them. And to claim that using the shop as a milk bar rather than a hairdresser's "further reduces the already depleted retail character of one of the town centre's 'other prime shopping frontages,'" and worse still to say that the development is "detrimental to the viability and vitality of the town centre," is plainly nonsensical. You can sign the Facebook campaign at http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=117730511586471
Their number's up ... We searched in vain for the 13-page supplement on the Boston Standard's community heroes. Eventually it dawned on us that even though the front page headline proclaimed it in text half and inch high, it had slipped past the paper's proof readers, and that the supplement was on pages 35-38, not 25-38.

Editor's note:
We may or may not be blogging next week. The members of the team who own the computer are on holiday in a place where we are told that mobile broadband dongles cannot reach. We hope to prove this wrong. If not, we'll be back on Monday 17th May.

You can write to us at boston.eye@googlemail.com  Your e-mails will be treated in confidence and published anonymously if requested.