The Can't be Bothered Generation!
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Posts
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Perhaps the Leader should have a ‘Draw your Councillor’ picture competition – on past experience with some councillors who are as elusive as the Invisible Man they would end up with a lot of blank pages in the paper!!
I’m part of said generation and interested in politics to the point of being an anorak, but must say the choice of two candidates in my ward is very uninspiring.
Well, if local politicians can’t be arsed to pop up and put a little biography on here for their potential constituents, perhaps Daave and I and a few others, might do it for them.
Something like this springs to mind…..
Think 99Dylan is spot on when he mentions the level of difficulty in the questions asked by Rob and Team.
I personally would be very interested in a breakdown of how many candidates have accessed the system and not bothered to respond to it.
There are difficult questions asked, especially as a non-encumbent.
I’d like to think I’ve taken the honest line of where I’ve got ideas…. here you are… if I haven’t got a clue… I’ve said that I don’t know the subject particularly well.
I’d suggest a lot of people are ‘scared’ of putting their thoughts down. Shame really because where is the accountability ? People who supposedly want to make a difference but can’t even make their opinions known.
I’d personally like to thank Rob, Daryl and team; 2 elections I’ve stood, 2 times Wrexham.com has paid attention to it.
As for the leader, I’ve not been contacted by them. I’m aware they have published a story primarily regarding the lead members stepping down and new who is standing in those wards.
Not seen/heard anything from Daily Post.
If I am allowed a little rant, I’m personally dissapointed with some of the campaigns I’ve seen this year. A LOT of paper candidates from party’s and a lot of candidates failing to get out and about speaking to candidates.
I looked on my iPhone’s pedometer yesterday… my step count has tripled each week since I commenced this election campaign.
How that translates to votes… we will see! But I’d like to think people vote where they have seen a prescience and commitment rather than holding party lines but never having heard of the candidate.
Rant over. Sorry :)
Conde.
Councillors seeking re election will be mainly afraid of answering the questions. The reason being, after 5 years in office, voters will be asking why have they not put things right in the last 5 years.The lack of responses by existing Councillors may also indicate that they were never interested in the issues over the past 5 years or that they were only puppets of a 10 strong Executive that did not permit debate or anyone who could think for themselves and have personal views.
Matt, I’ve posted a leaflet about myself through 90% of letter boxes in the ward. I’ll be doing the rest this weekend and knocking on doors the same time. I’ll be trying to speak to as many as possible before 4th May. The leaflet has all my contact details if you want. I don’t usually use my middle name so you’ll have more success if you just google Aled Powell, but beware there are at least a dozen people with the same name (I’m aledpowell on Twitter and Facebook). This site’s candidate Q&A section will be a good source of info about me. It’s a heck of a questionnaire but I’m almost there.
[quote quote=129927]Conde.
Councillors seeking re election will be mainly afraid of answering the questions. The reason being, after 5 years in office, voters will be asking why have they not put things right in the last 5 years.[/quote]
A question for you Conde.
Have you ever stood for Community Council? If not why not? I think this is quite an important question because it shows that you are serious about your community. So….are you on a Community Council, ever stood to be on? And if not why?
I don’t think I read on your introduction or in the answers to the questions whether you are.
Just interested because that would affect my vote for someone.
I look st who is standing on the ward I live in……only 1 is a Community Councillor. The others haven’t bothered in the past. One hasn’t even put himself up to go on it this time. Safe to say I wouldn’t entertain him.
Now it’s an interesting situation in the Penycae ward from what I’ve observed. The independent incumbent John Phillips is playing nepotism king by trying to plant as many flags, sorry signs on wooden stakes into as many of his mates gardens as possible around his little kingdom.
However, there has been very little information available about what he actually stands for in terms of his policies for the local area or Wrexham as a whole. In fact he relies solely on his tribe of people on social media who say John Phillips is the only person they will vote for because he has lived in the village for years and apparently has walked up and down every street single handedly cleaning up the village. There have yet to be any leaflets through doors or statements made by him anywhere.
His only competitor Aled Powell of Plaid is very much the underdog in this election, despite the fact that he has been leafleting, doorstepping and attempting to engage people online. I’ve read his leaflet and a lot of what he says and Plaid’s aims make a lot of sense. However, what I’ve noticed on social media is that despite the fact that he has tried to engage with local people is that they have come across rude and dismissive as John Phillips is the only man for them. One person even bizarrely stated that they wouldn’t visit Penycae again if it fell to Plaid, so I’m not sure what they think happens during local elections that would make Penycae become like occupied France if 1 councillor got in from a particular party.
There is also the fact that many local voters completely fail to see the big picture of what is going on beyond the vision of their own front doors. With 1 person expecting the next 5 years of councillor tenure to be spent ensuring that people are not parking too near the bus stop. This small thinking mentality and rampant nepotism probably applies across several wards in Wrexham where primarily older voters are handing a council seat to their buddies year after year and it’s become tired and ineffective.
The likes of challengers like Aled Powell really need to galvanize people who otherwise wouldn’t bother to vote, especially who are unhappy with the state of town affairs. As the main hurdles to overcome are apparent young voter apathy and the block vote by rote older generation who keep handing power to the Tories on a national level, shoved us into Brexit and allow the same old councillors to warm their cosy seats in Wrexham.
As I typically vote Labour, I am a floating voter in Penycae between an independent who needs to tell me more and a party I’ve never voted for before.
Interested,
Direct answer to your question is no.
Reason: I believe a county councillor should be in attendance at these meetings regardless. I think that if there’s a situation where you have for example 4 vacancies, 5 candidates, but one of these is a county councillor / standing for it. Then in an effort to engage more people (rather than the same people) the county councillor should withdraw their candudature from the community council.
I have spoken to many residents have been open and honest about this. I’ve also informed them that due to their being vacancies unfilled post nomination that I will be putting my name forward via co-option.
I’d like to think I’ve been clear with residents on my intentions and I’m sure they will vote the way they choose on the day.
Safe to say… my thoughts are divisive (?) but I believe an important job of anyone involved in this process is to engage more people where possible.
Hope that helps?
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