Week ending 17th September

Our Friday miscellany
of the week's

news and events

Roll up, roll up ... So much still to be done, but you can rely on Boston's Cabinet of curiosities to cut to the chase when it comes to the big issues. On the agenda for their next meeting is the creation of an electronic “Roll of Achievement.” The idea is to “officially record the achievements made by people connected with Boston, as well as recording the valuable contributions that individuals make to the Borough.” As you might expect this will require the establishment of a Roll of Achievement Committee and the creation of an Achievement Controller. We wonder whose idea this was, and who might already preening to be the first on the list.
Smile, you're on candid camera ...  Lincolnshire County Council meets later this morning, and don’t forget that you can see and hear your local representatives as well as the people who make the big decisions “live” via the County Hall webcam. It’s always an interesting experience - particularly at a local level, when you have the chance to see who’s pulling their weight. We’re sorry to say that some of our county councillors have yet to speak - and we’re sure that the reason is not that nothing of local interest needs discussion.
Let’s get on with it ... We asked last week what had happened to the allocation of £12,000 of government money for window art to conceal the growing number of empty shops in Boston. One reason for for the question is because the latest survey by the Local Data Company entitled “A Gathering storm?” shows that the number of empty shops continues to increase in most centres but that the rate of increase is slowing. In East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, Boston is rated 13th out of the twenty regional town centres in terms of empty shops. The report says that the figure of 8.3 is an increase of 0.62% in the past six months. In Lincolnshire, only Gainsborough and Lincoln appear above Boston in the list - but Lincoln is actually showing a reduction in the number of empty shops. It is a sad fact that Boston always seems to be high up on list of bad things, but not when it comes to the good. Whatever, we need that window art now. The money exists and has been allocated - so why is nothing being done?
What’s in a name? ... We note a subtle alteration in the nomenclature applied to Boston’s Chief Executive. No longer is he described as “Interim” - and in fact we are told that this is a deliberate change of status . His contract has been further extended until June next year - an interesting date, giving him time to train a whole new batch of “masters” once the voters show the Boston Bypass Independents the door.
Don't give up the day job ... Self styled “amateur” councillor Richard Lenton, pens a letter to the local press praising the Boston Bypass Independents for being “ahead of the game” in that they started making budget cuts three years before the coalition government demanded them. Strange. We thought the cuts were needed because the council inherited an almighty financial mess from the previous administration rather than through some miraculous piece of prescience. At least, that’s the story the BBI had been telling until now. Before that, the only person to adopt the mantra “History will be kind to me for I intend to write it” was Winston Churchill.
We’re all customers now ... The quote from the “Chairman” of Boston BID, in which he admitted that the organisation was guilty of failing to keep its “customers” informed produced an interesting reaction from one of our regular readers. He writes:- “The use of the word customer has become compulsory in public sector speak - an abuse of the word - and is now contagious according your Boston BID extract. The word customer denotes choice, doesn't it? I want to pay my taxes to an organisation which will charge less/give me a better service, which will negotiate the charge etc. I want to buy my road fund licence from a more competitive organisation. I want to be a passenger on a train. I want to be a patient in hospital. etc. etc. etc. I want to claim my benefits from a different organisation............but apparently we are all customers - no matter whether the money flows from us to them or them to us, no matter whether or not we have a choice. Oh! to be a customer where money flows from "them" to me. Whatever happened to the old expression "I'll take my custom elsewhere"?...............Where? Let's claim back our language!!” Call us old fashioned, but we couldn’t agree more!

In the dark ... An mysterious item keeps popping up on agendas of Boston Borough Council. It is denoted by the single word “Transformation.”

The only “transformation” we’ve heard of it that of human beings into vampires or werewolves. Perhaps it’s no coincidence that the meetings are always held after dark!

It’s only English ... The Boston Standard maintains its disdain of the English dictionary with the headline below.

In the old days, sub editors always looked for the shortest words to keep headlines tight and to the point. Substituting the longer “passed” for the shorter, correct alternative is entertaining, to say the least.

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