Overheard At The Market

Yesterday I heard, the Mayor was overheard advising a voter every  problem this Council had was due to one person. Moi.

I know it's gossip. But ..  it' s likely true.

I haven't had time to read The Auroran this week. People tell me the St.Kitts woman, David Tomlinson and one other of like mind to the Mayor have offered the same whining complaint.

The collective strategy has apparently  been decided;

PUT THE BLAME ON MAME, BOYS...PUT THE BLAME ON MAME.

Of course, if  the  perceived problem is public awareness  they could be partially correct. I have never considered it the responsibility of a Councillor  to keep town  business secret.

I have a different understanding of politics to the Mormac regime.

Being elected  means everything said or done   on behalf of  the community belongs to the community.  It is open, subject to judgement and criticism.

Unless it's pillow talk, or to a friend of absolute discretion, it cannot be, held to be....a secret

How could it be otherwise? 

No candidate  I  have ever known has  received every vote cast in an election.  It means in the community there are a variety of views. 

Nine members of Council, elected on their own merits, can also be expected to have different perspectives. Withholding one's  viewpoint is not a political imperative in my book.   Every member  has  an interest  in ensuring the community  knows  their stand.

It's what politics are about. The  minority has a stronger reason than the majority for their  voice to be  heard and  rationale understood.They do not have the security of numbers. 

It's why Clause 3 in the Code of Conduct is utterly ludicrous. The idea  a person out of step  with the majority should be compelled  to explain the attitudes of the majority  is the ultimate irrationality.

Before the Code was passed,Councillor Wilson  said. "She has to be stopped. She is undermining everything Council does"

Councillor Granger said; "Bring it on"

They were  revealing observations.

I had but one vote. A single vote undermines nothing.  Councillor Wilson clearly saw my stance as  a threat to  majority decisions.

There was no law to compel me to silence. So they wrote one.

Oh My, how they tried. Always at great public expense.

Still  even at this late hour, in the face of considerable hostility, the Mayor and like minded friends continue to look in the rear view mirror for someone to blame.

They refuse to accept the public's  business is public. A Council is the sum of its parts. It is  subject to microscopic examination as are those who would pick up  the mantle of politics.

You  can run but you can't hide.

You can fool some of the people some of the time. But you can't fool all of the people all of the time.