Well, we weren't far adrift with our prediction of the announcement of a date for the General Election.
Thursday May 6th is the day, to co-incide with local government elections - though sadly not in Boston, where they are not due for another year.
There are now six candidates who have already thrown their hats in the ring for the seat - the current incumbent Mark Simmonds for the Conservatives, Paul Kenny for Labour, Philip Smith for the Lib Dems, Boston Borough Councillor David Owens for the BNP, Christopher Pain for UKIP, and Independent Peter Wilson.
In 2005, the swing to the Conservatives was 6.4%, with the vote for Mark Simmonds up 3.3% at 46.2% of the poll, with Paul Kenn on 32.1% for Labour - down 9.5%.
The seat is regarded as one of the safest for the Tories, although it is targeted 33 by the Liberal Democrats, 65 by Labour, 99 by the Greens, and 194 by the UK.
There's no indication about where the BNP might have Boston on its hit list, but the party is fielding candidates in all seven Lincolnshire constituencies.
And as Boston is described by observers as having an overwhelmingly white and middle class population, the significance of immigration in the area could give the party a boost.
Despite its rock solid Tory tendency, the Conservative majority was small in 1997 and 2001, but increased significantly in 2005. Having said that, Boston and Skegness gave UKIP its best result in the country, and pushed the Lib Dems into fourth place.
There's not much forthcoming from the candidates at this stage, but we'll bring you news as we get it.
The only action we've noticed so far has come from Labour, where Paul Kenny now has a new photo and is tweeting. You can read his tweets on the Sky News website link to the Boston constituency.
His latest offering says: "You only have to look at Stonewall's website which shows how MPs voted on equality issues then you realise that Tory MPs won't ever change."
And before that: "We now know the big day is 6th May - will the people of Boston & Skegness wish to see major cuts to public services like SureStart centres."
Somehow we think they may well have more important things on their minds.
And what about the Boston Bypass Independents?
Last week we wondered whether they might be minded to put their money where their mouths were and field a candidate for Westminster.
However, given the way they tend to roll over rather than challenge the Tories, we suspect that they will stay mute, and rely on cosying up to Mark Simmonds assuming he is re-elected.
We certainly don't think that there's any reluctance by the BBI to throw the party hat into the ring through fear of becoming a laughing stock at declaration time. We are sure that if asked, a spokesman would say the BBI would win with an overwhelming majority - but just can't be bothered.
Interesting times ahead, as they say.
You can write to us at boston.eye@googlemail.com Your e-mails will be treated in confidence and published anonymously if requested.
Thursday, April 8
Wednesday, April 7
New look ... or more pie in sky?
A glimpse of Boston's wish list for future regeneration can be glimpsed in the agenda for tonight's meeting of the borough's Overview and Scrutiny Policy and Projects Committee.
It follows the decision to wind up BARC - the Boston Area Regeneration Company, and recommends a future approach in which Boston delivers regeneration and economic development with Lincolnshire County Council, but recognising the benefits of private sector involvement through an informal public/private sector forum.
Winding up BARC leaves £431,700 to play with as a starter for regeneration projects, and the sort of things deemed worth spending on* include a Conservation Area Partnership Scheme funding restoration and improvement of property and shop frontages in the town centre conservation area.
The report to tonight's meeting estimates that this would cost £150,000 - "but will attract up to £500,000 funding from English Heritage." The italics are ours.
We've got our doubts about this, because English Heritage tends not to dole out that size of sum to penny ante councils like Boston. It saves the big bucks for the big projects.
Indeed, in December 2008 when English Heritage's Historic Areas Advisor Clive Fletcher appeared on BBC Radio Lincolnshire's Breakfast Show, he said:
"I know the council is looking at a package themselves from the regional development agency, but we do this sort of thing up and down the country.
"We don't invest massive amounts every year but when we're interested in a place we'll consistently invest over a period of time. It might take seven or eight years to regenerate a place. In Boston it might take longer."
And, as an example, he cited Cromford, near Matlock in Derbyshire, where English Heritage spent 15 years helping shop owners do their places up and converting space above shops for residential use.
Other items on the wish list are:
● Continuation of the Business Support Programme costing £40,000 over two years, and the Boston Enterprise Week costing £30,000 over three years.
● Developing a South Lincolnshire Marketing Strategy and Action Plan. £45,000.
● Improving signage and information in the town centre. £50,000.
● Improving areas "around the periphery" of the Market Place. £100,000.
● St Botolph's Church new café and shop refurbishment. £100,000.
● Improvements to Boston market. £50,000 - £75,000.
So there you have it.
Some big numbers - many of which seem to have been conjured up out of thin air.
If we live long enough we might not recognise the Boston of the future. Hopefully, it will be a brighter, cleaner, more interesting place in which to live and work.
But we we've been promised a bypass as well, haven't we?
You can write to us at boston.eye@googlemail.com Your e-mails will be treated in confidence and published anonymously if requested.
*In Councilspeak "a list of indicative projects that could take forward regeneration and economic development activities in the Borough."
It follows the decision to wind up BARC - the Boston Area Regeneration Company, and recommends a future approach in which Boston delivers regeneration and economic development with Lincolnshire County Council, but recognising the benefits of private sector involvement through an informal public/private sector forum.
Winding up BARC leaves £431,700 to play with as a starter for regeneration projects, and the sort of things deemed worth spending on* include a Conservation Area Partnership Scheme funding restoration and improvement of property and shop frontages in the town centre conservation area.
The report to tonight's meeting estimates that this would cost £150,000 - "but will attract up to £500,000 funding from English Heritage." The italics are ours.
We've got our doubts about this, because English Heritage tends not to dole out that size of sum to penny ante councils like Boston. It saves the big bucks for the big projects.
Indeed, in December 2008 when English Heritage's Historic Areas Advisor Clive Fletcher appeared on BBC Radio Lincolnshire's Breakfast Show, he said:
"I know the council is looking at a package themselves from the regional development agency, but we do this sort of thing up and down the country.
"We don't invest massive amounts every year but when we're interested in a place we'll consistently invest over a period of time. It might take seven or eight years to regenerate a place. In Boston it might take longer."
And, as an example, he cited Cromford, near Matlock in Derbyshire, where English Heritage spent 15 years helping shop owners do their places up and converting space above shops for residential use.
Other items on the wish list are:
● Continuation of the Business Support Programme costing £40,000 over two years, and the Boston Enterprise Week costing £30,000 over three years.
● Developing a South Lincolnshire Marketing Strategy and Action Plan. £45,000.
● Improving signage and information in the town centre. £50,000.
● Improving areas "around the periphery" of the Market Place. £100,000.
● St Botolph's Church new café and shop refurbishment. £100,000.
● Improvements to Boston market. £50,000 - £75,000.
So there you have it.
Some big numbers - many of which seem to have been conjured up out of thin air.
If we live long enough we might not recognise the Boston of the future. Hopefully, it will be a brighter, cleaner, more interesting place in which to live and work.
But we we've been promised a bypass as well, haven't we?
You can write to us at boston.eye@googlemail.com Your e-mails will be treated in confidence and published anonymously if requested.
*In Councilspeak "a list of indicative projects that could take forward regeneration and economic development activities in the Borough."
Tuesday, April 6
Bostoninnies' new blog is travelling in reverse
The new blog of the Boston Bypass Independents, which sneaked into the public domain a few days ago like a schoolboy making for a crafty smoke behind the bike sheds, is already proving to be something of a hit and miss affair.
After Boston Eye remarked on the BBI's apparent embrace of Communist propaganda, a contributor to the Bostoninnies (oops! sorry, Bostonindies) blog, went to great pains to define "postmodernism" for some reason, and continued: "It suddenly occurred that not everyone might get this joke. So I had better add an explanatory note. The picture is from an old and rather well known Soviet propaganda poster, which I confidentially expected to infuriate reactionary Tories and add convey a playful suggestion of political radicalism. Plus for some strange reason the cornfields and river and even pylons look remarkably similar to this fine town (from some angles), Boston as Stalingrad. The whole composition intended to demonstrate a sophisticated command of contemporary culture and post modern aesthetics."
That's cleared that up, then, although we have to add that a joke is somewhat less than funny if it has to be explained four days after it was first made.
"Boston as Stalingrad" is an interesting concept, which we think that few people apart from members of the BBI would endorse.
And to assume that the Tories are as stupid as the BBI contributor who authored the piece in question is as glaring piece of insolence as we have seen from the BBI for some time.
As a role model we prefer a British hero of the like of Horatio Nelson rather than the image of the Vulgar Boatwoman which the BBI finds so appealing, and offer a couple of photo montages of our own to add to the discussion.
First, how VB (Vulgar Boatwoman) might adapt a famous phrase of Nelson's phrase in relation to the BBI ....
And secondly, how Nelson himself might have viewed the party in early skirmishes ...
Meanwhile, we have serious doubts about the Bostoninnies' blog.
As we said, it is proving somewhat hit and miss - or miss, rather than hit ...
Aside from the re-working of the Communist propaganda piece, we note the arrival and rapid departure of an item about the latest CCTV successes.
We recall that the BBI took the credit, whilst an independent council department is responsible. Presumably this ruffled a few feathers, and rather give credit where credit was due, the BBI instead withdrew the piece in question - presumably hoping it that people's memories would credit the BBI and not the council staff with the success.
Another item that came and went in the blink of an eye was the "explanation" of how Boston came to be saddled with a million loan repayable over half a century at a rate of more than eleven per-cent.
We don't know why that one vanished so quickly, although the admission that such a monumental albatross should be strung about the taxpayers' necks without anyone being able to recall what for, or being able to trace a single piece of paperwork about the transaction, beggars belief.
Where are the minutes of the meetings if nothing else?
We seem to recall that the piece ended with a limp appeal for information from anyone who was at Worst Street either as an employee or in an elected capacity at the time to volunteer any information that they may have.
Perhaps the piece appeared so shaming in the harsh glare of the computer screen that the decision was taken to withdraw it.
The bostonindies' blog is just like the party - off to a flying start, then crashing and burning not long after.
You can write to us at boston.eye@googlemail.com Your e-mails will be treated in confidence and published anonymously if requested.
After Boston Eye remarked on the BBI's apparent embrace of Communist propaganda, a contributor to the Bostoninnies (oops! sorry, Bostonindies) blog, went to great pains to define "postmodernism" for some reason, and continued: "It suddenly occurred that not everyone might get this joke. So I had better add an explanatory note. The picture is from an old and rather well known Soviet propaganda poster, which I confidentially expected to infuriate reactionary Tories and add convey a playful suggestion of political radicalism. Plus for some strange reason the cornfields and river and even pylons look remarkably similar to this fine town (from some angles), Boston as Stalingrad. The whole composition intended to demonstrate a sophisticated command of contemporary culture and post modern aesthetics."
That's cleared that up, then, although we have to add that a joke is somewhat less than funny if it has to be explained four days after it was first made.
"Boston as Stalingrad" is an interesting concept, which we think that few people apart from members of the BBI would endorse.
And to assume that the Tories are as stupid as the BBI contributor who authored the piece in question is as glaring piece of insolence as we have seen from the BBI for some time.
As a role model we prefer a British hero of the like of Horatio Nelson rather than the image of the Vulgar Boatwoman which the BBI finds so appealing, and offer a couple of photo montages of our own to add to the discussion.
First, how VB (Vulgar Boatwoman) might adapt a famous phrase of Nelson's phrase in relation to the BBI ....
And secondly, how Nelson himself might have viewed the party in early skirmishes ...
Meanwhile, we have serious doubts about the Bostoninnies' blog.
As we said, it is proving somewhat hit and miss - or miss, rather than hit ...
Aside from the re-working of the Communist propaganda piece, we note the arrival and rapid departure of an item about the latest CCTV successes.
We recall that the BBI took the credit, whilst an independent council department is responsible. Presumably this ruffled a few feathers, and rather give credit where credit was due, the BBI instead withdrew the piece in question - presumably hoping it that people's memories would credit the BBI and not the council staff with the success.
Another item that came and went in the blink of an eye was the "explanation" of how Boston came to be saddled with a million loan repayable over half a century at a rate of more than eleven per-cent.
We don't know why that one vanished so quickly, although the admission that such a monumental albatross should be strung about the taxpayers' necks without anyone being able to recall what for, or being able to trace a single piece of paperwork about the transaction, beggars belief.
Where are the minutes of the meetings if nothing else?
We seem to recall that the piece ended with a limp appeal for information from anyone who was at Worst Street either as an employee or in an elected capacity at the time to volunteer any information that they may have.
Perhaps the piece appeared so shaming in the harsh glare of the computer screen that the decision was taken to withdraw it.
The bostonindies' blog is just like the party - off to a flying start, then crashing and burning not long after.
You can write to us at boston.eye@googlemail.com Your e-mails will be treated in confidence and published anonymously if requested.
Friday, April 2
Easter greetings to the bad eggs at the BBI!
You can write to us at boston.eye@googlemail.com Your e-mails will be treated in confidence and published anonymously if requested.
Thursday, April 1
Spooky but no ghosts!
However, on closer examination most of them have turned out to be unnatural rather than supernatural.
Reports of demented white haired old men and women running cackling down the corridors were dismissed at an early stage as being one or more members of the BBI on their normal daily business.
Similarly, several skeletons found in cupboards were thought to have been recently hidden during confidential meetings from which the public and opposition were excluded.
There were a number of other similar false alarms.
A group of screaming skulls merely turned out to be another BBI management meeting.
Horrible echoing laughter heard pealing around the council chamber was generated at an ad hoc meeting of the opposition councillors, and by a strange contradiction the same reason was given for sounds of terrible crying and wailing heard in the same room.
Sounds of teeth gnashing were thought to emanate from the staff.
Reports of sightings of eerie figures walking through walls proved to be nothing more than senior BBI figures who - as well as being able to walk on water - were simply taking a short cut between floors.
What was at first considered to be an ancient coffin turned out to be a useless empty cabinet.
The best find using state of the art spirit detection apparatus was a couple of half empty bottles left behind by former members of the BBI who have since resigned.
An attempt by a wily BBI member to explain away the borough's mysterious million pound loan by blaming it on poltergeists gained little by way of acceptance.
"Although we did find some very spooky things," said a spokesman for the ghosthunters, "most of them appeared to be councillors from the ruling group. As far as ghosts are concerned, we couldn't possibly comment, but our experiences at West Street definitely show that there is life of some sort after death."
A spokesman for the Boston Bypass Independents, "mouth of the Witham" Ray Knowall, was unavailable for comment -- for once!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
