Wednesday, 15 October 2008

Grand

Forty-five grand to be Clerk to Stanley Town Council.

My application will be going in.
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28 comments:

  1. Anonymous16 October 2008 at 10:21

    Wouldn't you have to stop party-political activities?

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  2. Anonymous16 October 2008 at 10:25

    Isn't that a bit less grand than being an MEP, then an MP, and shortly thereafter the PM? That is your ambition after all, surely?

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  3. David Lindsay16 October 2008 at 14:10

    "Wouldn't you have to stop party-political activities?"

    Apparently not. They have decided that they are non-political. Parish (including Town) Councils can do that if they want to.

    "Isn't that a bit less grand than being an MEP?"

    Not much less well-paid, though.

    They presumably have someone lined up, but it will still be interesting to see how far I get, especially since no essential qualification or experience has been specified. I urge others to do likewise.

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  4. Anonymous16 October 2008 at 14:29

    Do you have a driving license?

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  5. David Lindsay16 October 2008 at 14:32

    What does that have to do with anything?

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  6. Anonymous16 October 2008 at 14:33

    It's one of the requirements of the job, apparently. Or "access to mobility support", whatever that means.

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  7. Anonymous16 October 2008 at 14:34

    How many people in the Stanley area have driving licenses? How many have cars? It is not a rich place, and anyway it is the bus route capital of the universe so you definitely don't need either to get round it. Even a lot of the councillors there don't drive.

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  8. David Lindsay16 October 2008 at 14:38

    Exactly. That can mean anything you like, and suggests (and why not?) that the job would be entirely suitable for someone with a severe physical disability such that they couldn't possibly drive. What Anonymous 14:34 says is perfectly true as well.

    Here in Lanchester, we have people working from home as Clerks to Parish and Town Councils the other side of Durham in all directions.

    As I say, it will be interesting to see how far any of us gets on this one. The STC itself is quite interesting, too: after all that, no overall control, and a de facto Lib Dem/DI coalition...

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  9. Anonymous16 October 2008 at 14:41

    They couldn't possibly indicate more fully their independence from both Kevan Jones and the old Consett/Brownie Valley Derwentside Labour mafia than by appointing you. Be careful, you might just get it.

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  10. Anonymous16 October 2008 at 14:46

    There's a job description here. There does seem to be a fair bit of required experience/skills.

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  11. David Lindsay16 October 2008 at 14:48

    It's the usual wish list, divided as ever between the blatantly obvious (how could you not be some of these things?) and the more-in-hope-than-in-expectation, certainly when all taken together.

    Anyway, I meet it. Most people I know meet it. So, given the astonishing salary, let's all give it a go, and see how far we get.

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  12. Anonymous16 October 2008 at 14:54

    "They couldn't possibly indicate more fully their independence from both Kevan Jones and the old Consett/Brownie Valley Derwentside Labour mafia than by appointing you."

    Hardly!

    Jones, yes. But most of "the old Consett/Brownie Valley Derwentside Labour mafia" are not only going to let their Labour membership lapse when DDC is abolished and they lose their allowances. They are going to vote for you when the General Election comes round. They say so openly. Didn't you know?

    I still think that you should try for that People's Peer thing. They are still looking for them. It wasn't a one off.

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  13. Anonymous16 October 2008 at 15:01

    If you don't get the job, what should we conclude about the selection process?

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  14. Anonymous16 October 2008 at 16:06

    "I still think that you should try for that People's Peer thing. They are still looking for them. It wasn't a one off"

    Absolutely! I mean, they appointed David Pannick QC the other day. And I mean apart from his outstanding legal experience in some of the most high profile and important domestic legal judgements of the past 25 years, including 75 separate legal arguments in front of the House of Lords and the European Court of Justice, his academic merit which led to him being appointed a Fellow of All Souls, and his 25 years as a highly regarded legal commentator in the Times and the Telegraph, what does he have that you don't?

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  15. Anonymous16 October 2008 at 16:18

    You already speak, dress, dine and drink like a member of the House of Lords.

    I have never seen a more blatant party within the Labour Party than "the old Consett/Brownie Valley Derwentside Labour mafia" both in relation to the Tory "Derwentside Independents" (and Consett's Number One Lib Dem) and in relation to David Lindsay. The three of them are the three sides of a triangle. Militant had nothing on this.

    But because it's the religious/rural Right instead of the Trotskyite Left, no one gives a monkey's. The Westminster nucleus of the SDP must have been like this. If they had been on the Left they would have been expelled long before they ever quit. If your lot were on the Left they would have been expelled long ago. And if you had been on the Left you would have been expelled long, long, long before it became automatic because you said out loud what we all knew anyhow.

    But the Right can behave any way it likes. Look at you.

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  16. Anonymous16 October 2008 at 16:27

    "You already speak, dress, dine and drink like a member of the House of Lords."

    And what do you speak, dress, dine and drink like?

    Go for it, David. I doubt that the person hailed by aoili has ever had an original thought in his life. He certainly doesn't represent the "economically social democratic, morally and socially conservative British and Commonwealth patriots" (most British people) that you do. FFS, the European Court of Justice! Traitor. Hang him.

    I doubt he's mixed race. I doubt he's state school. I doubt he's non-Oxbridge. I doubt he's from the North East.

    Go for it. Do we have a representative Parliament or not? Not at the moment we sure as hell don't.

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  17. Anonymous16 October 2008 at 16:36

    Unfortunately, David wouldn't be allowed to be a "People's Peer" because they have to be non-political and sit on the crossbenches. Obviously a very public supporter of the British People's Alliance wouldn't be able to do that.

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  18. Anonymous16 October 2008 at 16:39

    Damn, that's right. Hmm. Well maybe we could push for an elected HoL, and then David could take his seat there, whilst also leading the BPA (and the country, fingers crossed!!)

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  19. David Lindsay16 October 2008 at 16:46

    As long as they agree to sit as Crossbenchers, "very public supporters" of political parties can and do benefit from this scheme, and have done, in particular, from its hilariously rigged very start, most notable for making Geoffrey Howe's wife (a baronet's wife, whose husband was ennobled, and who was then ennobled in her own right) "three times a lady".

    She has of course functioned as a Tory in all but name from day one. I'd be extremely surprised if she were not a member of the Conservative Party. She just happens to sit as a Crossbencher. There are several more examples of this, by no means all of them Tories.

    They were picked by a committee, itself picked by another committee, the chairman of which was duly made a People's Peer. Seriously. That week on Any Questions, even Roy Jenkins had to admit that everyone who was anyone had known that these particular people were going to be given peerages in the next round, and that this was just the next round.

    Now, to the rather more pressing subject of this thread. If any of us didn't get the job, then it would just prove, if anything, that they had always had someone lined up. No surprise there. But it would still be interesting to see just how far any of us made it.

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  20. Anonymous16 October 2008 at 16:50

    If any of us didn't get the job, then it would just prove, if anything, that they had always had someone lined up

    er, not sure that follows. I applied for a few jobs a few months back, didn't get any of them. I don't think it was a stitch up, I just think they didn't want me for whatever reason, and chose someone else.

    Do you see a conspiracy in everything?

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  21. David Lindsay16 October 2008 at 16:54

    Oh, for goodness sake, grow up! OF COURSE they have someone in mind for a job like this. I don't know who, but there must be someone. It would be irresponsible not to. That person still might not get it, but even so. Or have you just never been around local government (among many, many other things)?

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  22. Anonymous16 October 2008 at 16:56

    Spoken like a true son of the North Eastern right-wing Labour Establishment.

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  23. Anonymous16 October 2008 at 16:59

    I'm not sure about the structure of your party, but aren't you the Leader of the BPA? Surely it would look ridiculous for a party leader to sit on the Crossbenches.

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  24. Anonymous16 October 2008 at 17:01

    "Oh, for goodness sake, grow up! OF COURSE they have someone in mind for a job like this. I don't know who, but there must be someone. It would be irresponsible not to. That person still might not get it, but even so"

    What? So your argument is that they must have someone, because - well, they must have. And it would be "irresponsible" to not just recruit the best applicant. Even though, actually, the person in mind beforehand might not actually get it, and they might take thwe best applicant.

    What on earth are you talking about?

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  25. David Lindsay16 October 2008 at 17:02

    I could hand over, I suppose.

    And no, not really. Not if that party had no one in the Commons, anyway.

    Honestly, I have to be somewhere at 5:30 and I'm discussing this...

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  26. Anonymous16 October 2008 at 17:08

    "And no, not really. Not if that party had no one in the Commons, anyway."

    But they would have, surely? And from all you've said, I fail to see how you *can't* get elected for NW Durham, especiall against Oona "looner" King.

    Can you substitute one of the other BPA people in if you were given a peerage?

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  27. Anonymous16 October 2008 at 17:08

    Hail, Lord Lindsay of Lanchester!!

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  28. David Lindsay16 October 2008 at 17:18

    They presumably won't run Saint Oona after all, since they don't like "mulattoes", as Break Dancing Jesus puts it from right at the heart of New Labour in these parts.

    But yes, I'd beat her. In fact, I struggle to think who would even sign the nomination papers of someone who had been kicked out by George Galloway from a seat three hundred miles away. No one is THAT tribal. Dare New Labour prove me wrong?

    "What on earth are you talking about?"

    If you have to ask there's no point telling you. You have clearly never been on a Parish/Town Council, or a school governing body, or anything.

    "Lord Lindsay of Lanchester"?

    Well, I do like the alliteration, I have to say.

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