Issue 7 - May/June 1998
DOUBLE VICTORY ISSUE!!!
WE WIN THE ELECTION
| Pork-Bolter .....
69.8% |
All the rest .....
30.2% |
OUR campaign for the 1998 Worthing Borough Council elections has proved a
total success! Fellow citizens boycotted the meaningless farce in their
thousands, notching up a vast majority for a vote of no confidence in the
borough council. Our advice to Vote for
Nobody has struck home. So while the Lib Dems celebrated clinging on to
power, the Tories celebrated winning a few extra seats and Labour celebrated
an increased vote, NOBODY was the real winner and NOBODY has
real cause to celebrate. The only surprise for us was that
anyone bothered voting at all. After a year of New
Labour's smarmy con-merchant regime, new confirmation has been given to the
old adage that whoever you vote for, the government always gets back in. The
same is true of the council. Who cares which "party" is supposedly in power
when year after year it's the same smug old council and the same smug old
faces behind the scenes making all the real decisions?
... and we're proved right on CCTV!
I SPY A BIG CRIME
RISE
"CCTV cameras fail to cut crime" - this was the telling headline in the
Worthing Herald on April 23, St George's Day. Papers from the
Sussex Police Authority had revealed: "The system at Worthing is now in the
second year of operation and there is little to demonstrate any significant
crime reduction effect." On the contrary, crime in the CCTV area went up by
19%! Surprise, surprise, we were right all along! While the sheep-like
politicians at the Town Hall have been bleating on about the benefits of
living in a prison camp, we have never fallen for this massive con-trick. Even
if the spy cameras set up all over our town had achieved some
small decrease in petty crime, we would not consider it worth the loss of
freedom and quality of life that they inflict.
The fact that crime has not decreased at all over the last two years means
there is NO EXCUSE AT ALL for these nightmarish tyrannical
devices to be imposed on the people of this town. Because that is all that the
"reducing crime" argument ever was - a pathetic excuse for spying on and
intimidating ordinary people - all regarded as potential criminals and
subversives by the Big Brother state. To "celebrate" two years of CCTV in
Worthing, we will be holding a BIG BROTHER'S BIRTHDAY happening at the
new South Street pedestrian area (near Lloyds Bank) on Saturday June 27, 12
noon til 1pm. All welcome!
PORKY PIE'S TIP OF THE MONTH
How to get a Cheap Wedding Video:
- Get married (if you must)
- Go down to Worthing town centre
- Wait to get noticed by the CCTV daleks
- Nip down the town hall and offer them a few quid for a copy of the
video
- If everyone did this, the council wouldn't have to flog off all its
council houses to pay off its huge debts!
STITCH-UP ON THE DOWNS
DUBIOUS behind-the-scenes manipulations look
like scuppering a bid to protect the beautiful South Downs. This was the
message to emerge from a meeting staged by Friends of the Earth at the
Richmond Room in Stoke Abbott Road, Worthing on Tuesday May 5. Countryside
lovers, including ramblers and environmentalists, have been trying to persuade
the Government to give the South Downs the National Park status they should
have won in 1947. The whole "consultation" process has been dogged with
controversy, with the public's views overlooked in favour of the vested
interests of businessmen and the agricultural industry. As is typical in
"democratic" Britain, the crucial decision was made by a Quango consisting of
ten unelected individuals selected by the Government.
NONE of these members of the Countryside Commission visited the South
Downs during the consultation period or attended ANY meetings to hear
Sussex people's views. And yet they still felt they had the right to recommend
to the Government that the South Downs should not be made a National
Park.
One speaker, Amanda Nobbs of the South Downs Campaign Group,
explained how the Commission had effectively misrepresented the response from
the few members of the public who knew they were supposed to be writing in.
She said the Commission had been "extremely mischievous" in the way it
presented the consultation, had used "extremely curious and dubious ways of
grouping the answers" and had been "economical with the truth" about the
reasons for not recommending the National Park option, despite it being
favoured by the public. In other words, the whole process was carried on in
the way that all these window-dressing "consultation" schemes
always have been and always will be carried on in a corrupt and
centralised state like the UK!
The big cop-out from the Commission is that it says the South Downs can remain
an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and enjoy similar protection to a
National Park. But this is obviously not true - otherwise why not make the
public happy and actually make it a National Park? One member of the audience
pointed out the Tory MP Howard Flight certainly seemed aware of the crucial
difference. He was on record as supporting AONB-only status because a National
Park would upset what people like him always call the "balance" between
conservation and economic growth (ie: building all over the countryside). And
another questioner pointed out that a certain Twyford Down was - and still is
- an AONB and this hadn't stopped a motorway being built all over it. AONBs
are "as much use as a chocolate frying-pan" he suggested. Perhaps chocolate
frying-pans are the ideal cooking vessel for the preparation of succulent
profitable new road-building schemes?
BOTTOMS UP, BOTTOMLEY
SPIFFING news that our old chum Peter Bottomley,
popular and thrusting Tory MP for West Worthing, has been elected a director
of Appian Traffic Technologies Ltd, which is apparently a subsidiary of
National Avionics. And intriguing to hear from the Herald that
the firm is "involved in assisting motorists wishing to find spaces in car
parks" by the use of electronic message signs. Obviously Mr Bottomley is quite
free to take up any directorships he wishes and it would be ludicrous to
suggest that there was any conflict of interest with his much-vaunted desire
to reduce traffic or to ponder over how a real reduction in traffic on our
roads would affect this firm's profits. We say three cheers to public-spirited
Mr Bottomley!
LORD YOUNG FOR MAYOR
HOW good to see that fine old character Lord
Young of Graffham playing a prominent role on the local political scene. As
chairman of West Sussex Economic Forum he has been lobbying the
Government on the popular local business cause of building a motorway of
Cissbury Ring and also opened the new South Street pedestrian area. Lord
Young, you may recall, was made a peer by Mrs Thatcher so that he could become
an unelected member of her cabinet in 1984 and was Secretary of State for
Trade and Industry from 1987 to 1989 before becoming chairman of Cable and
Wireless from 1990 to 1995. This is the sort of man Worthing needs and we
suggest that a plaque or two around the town is not enough to honour him. We
demand he immediately be given the freedom of the town, a borough council
pencil case and, to end all this bickering about David Chapman, be appointed
Unelected Mayor of Worthing. If he's good enough for Mrs Thatcher, he's good
enough for our fine council.
PORK SCRATCHINGS
WORTHING council is getting worried that council hose
tenants won't vote for its beloved privatisation scheme after all. A tetchy
exchange of letters in the local press reveals that people are at last
starting to see through all the one-sided hype the Town Hall has been churning
out to back its case. Latest offering is a newsletter from "independent"
advisers (paid for by the council) Aldbourne Associates, who explained that
the scheme is proposed by the council "because they believe tenants will be
better off than if they remain Council tenants". Funny, we thought it was so
WBC could raise cash to pay off debts! And if the council really
does believe that, it hasn't been reading its won papers, in
which it has admitted that there will be rent rises under privatisation - so
tenants will be worse off!
PORK SCRATCHINGS
WE have now received a reply from Sussex Police in
our campaign to help Freemasons "come out of the closet", which
we will hopefully have space to print in next month's issue, together with
further correspondence from Michael Ball, chief executive of Worthing council,
on the same issue.
* * *
FRIENDS of the Earth are encouraging Worthing residents to organise
Community Street Parties for their neighbourhoods during Green Transport Week,
June 13-21. The idea behind the event is that car culture isolates people and
leads to the breakdown of local communities, with the obvious far-reaching
social implications. FOE have already secured the support of the council and
Neighbourhood Watch, and are urging people to go ahead and organise something
in their road. If you want help or ideas, or can get involved generally,
contact worthingfoe@radicalfluff.demon.co.uk.
* * *
JUNE sees a global day of action against McDonald's, to mark the anniversary
of the McLibel trial, and pickets of the Montague Place store are due to take
place on Saturday June 20. Meanwhile, you can judge for yourself the facts of
the case with a cd-rom of the trial and website
(http://www.mcspotlight.org), including all 313 days of court
transcripts, 140 witness statements, 21 interviews, 500 press articles and
loads of other stuff. And all for a £7 donation (to McLibel
Support Campaign) from BM McSpotlight, London, WC1N 3XX.
* * *
* * *
PORK ON THE WILD SIDE The Pork-Bolter is a totally independent
newsletter which has no time for any of the political parties, along with
69.8% of the people of Worthing. Our name comes from an ancient nickname for
Worthing people dating back to its fishing village days, with rather obscure
and unsavoury origins that would put you off your dinner. Free from this
information, the newsletter can safely be enjoyed with any meal, light snack
or beverage. If you want to make sure of getting a copy of issue 8, simply
send us a stamped, self-addressed envelope. To get the next six issues send a
donation of at least £2. Please think about making it a bit more if you
really want to help us. If you couldn't give a shit, don't
bother. Copies of issues 1-6 also available. Cheques/postal orders made
payable to The Pork-Bolter. email subscriptions also available. Drop
us a line: porkbolter@eco-action.org or PO Box
4144, Worthing, West Sussex, BN14 7NZ. website: http://www.eco-action.org/porkbolter
* * *
OFFICIAL WARNING BIG BROTHER is a highly respected member of the
Worthing community who has, over the years, made a key contribution to the
economic prosperity of the region. While he has no objection in principle to
loyal subjects celebrating his birthday on June 27 (see
'big crime rise') he wishes to point out that employing any degree of
sarcasm or irony in so doing constitutes an offence under the Criminal
Injustice Act and can lead to imprisonment and torture.
and finally ... ISN'T IT ABOUT TIME YOU STOOD UP TO BE COUNTED?
