Observer plug for Accy Web.

[garinda]

This week's Observer features a letter from one of our John Farrer, a member of this very site..

In it he writes, and I quote-
'Well, if you want to see the real Graham Jones log onto a local website to see the vile tirade of pure hatred and personal abuse spewed out by Councillor Jones and some of his cronies about Peter Britcliffe.'

Would this be similar to the tirade that was made against Gayle Knight on this very forum by her opponents?

I don't know who you consider a 'crony'. I for one stand by everything I've posted on this website about our Council leader. It would be most interesting if you could quote the vile bits on here for our perusal.

It's strange, you are very keen on using the local press to defend your pal Britcliffe and attack others, but when you could be some use, for instance when I asked what and where the conservation area is in Oswaldtwistle you are strangely silent.

[garinda]

vile
adj 1: morally reprehensible; "would do something as despicable as
murder"; "ugly crimes"; "the vile development of
slavery appalled them" [syn: despicable, ugly, unworthy]
2: (informal) thoroughly unpleasant; "filthy (or foul or nasty
or vile) weather we're having" [syn: filthy, foul, nasty]
3: causing or able to cause nausea; "a nauseating smell";
"nauseous offal"; "a sickening stench" [syn: nauseating,
nauseous, noisome, loathsome, offensive, sickening]


Do you care to expand on this, and perhaps quote the vile bits about Peter Britcliffe for the other members to decide?

[claytonender]

I have contributed to several discussions about Peter Britcliffe, and I agree that they have not been complimentary to him. However I stand by everthing I have posted about him, they are honestly held opinions about him.
I would like John Farrar to be more specific about the 'vile tirade of pure hatred and personal abuse' poured out on this site. What about the remarks made about Gayle and Graham, is it ok to say things about them, but not expect remarks in return.
This is a typical 'Tory' attitude, it is unsettling for them when the 'Peasants Revolt', and don't know their place. They think that they have the 'Divine Right' to rule.

[Margaret Pilkington]

I have also posted uncomplimentary comments about our council leader....and I stand by all I have said. I would not withdraw one single word about this man. We are all entitled to our opinions. The letter in the Observer, I have not seen yet....but from what you have posted Garinda it seems a touch like the pot calling the kettle.

I have not noted any of the vile tirades that John refers to.....maybe he is reading a different version of the website in a parallel dimension!

[Gayle]

It's amazing what people read into this site. Jaysay thinks that we're all attacking Peter, yet how often do people 'attack' me? It's nothing to do with being on one political side or the other and I don't think this site has any particular bias. People call it as it is, it's called debate and if you can't handle in Jaysay, stay out of it.

[Margaret Pilkington]

Well said Gayle!

[Acrylic-bob]

I too have not had the opportunity to read J.Farrar's comments and it would be unfair of me to comment further until I have. However, I will say this; in common with most of my fellow townsmen I pride myself on being willing and able to call a spade, a spade. If our views and opinions on the abilities and motives of Cllr. Britcliffe are so wide of the mark and cause sufficient distress that he feels compelled to set his poodle on us then perhaps he might consider taking a leaf out of Cllr. Jones' book and try talking to the people he claims to represent and serve by logging on as himself instead of lurking in the shadows. Or is it that he considers himself above talking to the hoi-polloi whose taxes help keep him in the style to which he has lately become accustomed?

I am sure that if he were to introduce himself to the forum, members would welcome him with our customary warmth and friendliness and would be only too happy to engage him in serious discussion. However, I do not think that it would be adviseable for members to hold their breath while they wait.

[g jones]

I'm not bothered what John says. It's a free country and I'll defend his right to free speech.

One sad aspect is that I have had several desperate callers calling me about any tenancies I might have simply because they have read I have 'numerous' properties to let. (I don't - WE have two small terraced houses - one we live in).

Over the last 10 years significent parts of this town/borough have gone downhill. Woodnook, Lower Antley, St Huberts Road, Exchange Street. Yet amazingly the market doesn't work. Empty properties produce high rents. Thousands of people are desperate for affordable decent housing (sub £70pw). And all they find is Housing Associations with signs, ALL FULL UP (and charging £80pw+), a council waiting list that is 4 times the size it was 2 years ago (3000) and Rackman landlords, wrecking neighbourhoods and offering dreggs for top dollar.

Place an ad and see how many sad, desperate, vulnerable, genuine people turn up telling their own tale of a £90 a week rent for a damp squalid affair. Some stories are really distressing.

While landlords show no responsibility and in some cases deliberatly trash neighbourhoods to collect more property on the cheap (Woodnook esp), Hyndburn declines and the Tories sit back and tell of £120,000 affordable houses being provided by the private sector. The private rented sector is the twilight world of seedy private speculators and people whose hopes were lost a long time ago, and who have long given up on politicians as useless wannabee's.

Its hard to deal with the people who are contacting me for an affordable nice home now (and they ring with hope) when all I can say to them is, "there is nothing I can do, I don't have properties". I don't think John or Peter will ever understand outside of political opportunity the state of Hyndburn today. Let them attack me. Its a democracy and I believe most people are honest enough to see for themselves.

[Gayle]

And then planning permission is not granted for new houses in some areas which would alleviate the problem.

[Gayle]

Originally Posted by Acrylic-bob

I am sure that if he were to introduce himself to the forum, members would welcome him with our customary warmth and friendliness and would be only too happy to engage him in serious discussion. However, I do not think that it would be adviseable for members to hold their breath while they wait.

I agree with you A-B. I will bring everyone back to the very first thread that I posted on (for the benefit of Jaysay I've put the link here)

http://www.accringtonweb.com/forum/f...ght=panopticon

Yet over time I have come to be 'accepted' as a valued member of the forum. People often don't agree with me but you know what, I don't care, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I never object to people who disagree with me although I do find it disagreeable when people are nasty for the hell of it. I don't attack anyone and would welcome a wholesome debate with Peter.

[Margaret Pilkington]

Surely PB has grown a tougher hide for being in politics......does he really need John Farrer to stand up for him? All I can say is that over the years that this man has been the leader of the town council, the place has gone to rack and ruin....my own eyes tell me that......I don't need a tory lapdog to tell me how I should view things....and certainly not how I should form my opinions.

[Gayle]

In fact the only time people really 'attack' Peter it's for not coming on this site and talking to us.

[Acrylic-bob]

Oddly enough, between the time of my last post in this thread and now, I have just had the opportunity to read J. Farrer's letter in this week's Observer.

Correct me if I am wrong, but isn't it J. Farrer who was formerly married to ex-councillor Sandra Hayes? This all begins to smell a bit incestuous if you ask me.
I would offer to transcribe the whole thing for the benefit of ex-pat forum members but, to be perfectly frank, the sad and sorry diatribe against Cllr. Jones is not worth either the time or effort it would take to type. Though one could question Mr Farrer's motive in writing the thing in the first place and actually sending it to the Observer in the second place.

If this letter is an example of the best that the Conservatives can manage in the hatchet job department then it is no wonder that the borough is rapidly going down the pan.

You may imagine what it costs a lifelong conservative voter to say this, but I really do think that it must be said; in my opinion, Britcliffe and his administration are the very worst thing to happen to this borough in the whole sorry thirty odd years of it's existance. They should hang their heads in shame, but the sad truth of the matter is that they have no shame.

[andrewb]

You can't blame everything on the council leader though. At the end of the day, it's the people who make the neighbourhood, and if certain areas go downhill, it's not always the fault of the leader, some people choose not to respect others..

[Gayle]

Sorry, but no Cyfr it has to come from the top down.