What the council parties stand for in Richmond on Thames

Leaflets told me that my council candidates are nice people pushing for local things, but not much more.

• I think every council has too huge costs for social care and some educational needs
• I think every council gets their cash from dodgy parking rules enforced by Capita.
• I don't see leaflets about how the system works or how the borough is doing better or worse than others.There is an internal document which looks sensible. Maybe AI searches could find out more about it. Account "notes" are apparently the things to look out for.
  richmond.gov.uk/media/epafe3cl/budget_book_2026_27.pdf
  
  

I did an AI search to find out more from a party political angle - details below, which the search partly got from
teddington.nub.news/news/local-news/here-is-what-each-party-is-promising-in-richmonds-local-elections-294610

The Green Party puts its more general policy leaflets online as a manifesto, which seems a good system 
rtgp.org.uk/local-manifesto/

Leaflets have got better over the years, with less nonsensical phrases like "fighting for local people" even if they avoid saying much about what the council does, and tend to promote the nimby interest. Here are some suggestions for improving the system:

1. in a TV news area, different councils could resign at different times until maybe a national law does it for them. The idea is that about two councils in an area have an election at the same time. That gievs bloggers and media a chance to cover what's-up; whether they're sane or whether there's a council that needs voting-out or a really good opposition that needs voting-in.
2. councillors to tell voters what they stand for, overall, with a diagram of how council money is rasised and spent
3. councillors to put footnotes in their leaflets to show people how to look things up online

Anyway this is what an AI seach says about the candidates in Richmond on Thames.

For the upcoming Richmond upon Thames local elections on May 7, 2026, the major political parties have released their manifestos, promising to transform the borough over the next four years. [1, 2]

The Liberal Democrats have held the council since 2018, and all 54 seats are up for election. [1]

Liberal Democrats (Current Administration)

The Liberal Democrats are campaigning on their record of financial support and environmental action. [1]

• Housing: Increase the pipeline of over 1,000 social and affordable homes by unlocking small sites and buying back former council homes.
• Cost of Living: Launch a new Anti-Poverty Strategy and continue providing council tax reductions.
• Environment: Oppose Heathrow expansion and the Thames Water river abstraction scheme, while maintaining support for free travel for under-22s.
• Community: Launch a new rough sleeper hub and invest in family hubs and leisure facilities. [1, 2]

Green Party (Opposition)

The Green Party focuses on environmental sustainability, housing, and transparent decision-making. [1, 2]

• Environment: Aim to become the greenest council in London, with a target to be carbon neutral as a borough by 2043.
• Housing: Improve housing standards, stand up to bad landlords, and create more social housing.
• Community: Put "community first" by increasing participation in council decisions and tackling antisocial behaviour. [1, 2]

Conservative Party (no seats after past incumbancy)

The Conservative party in Richmond is focusing on crime, safety, and economic management. [1]

• Safety: Prioritise local policing, "make the borough's streets safe again," and oppose 20mph speed restrictions on main roads.
• Community: Tackle antisocial behaviour and provide more support for young people's mental and physical health. [1]
• When last in office they inherited an independent schools counselling service to do just that as required by law in schools. They removed its grant and allocated it to a catholic adoption agency that had been barred from offering adoption services because it refused to work with gay couples.
• When last in office their leaflets emphasised "award winning social services", but the award was for Richmond and Wandsworth councils merging admin services, not for the quality of the services provided. Provision was from a hard-to-find web site called Richmond Care and Support which looked independent and did not have the money to provide help for people leaving hospital on certain dates. It was just had a phone line that a hospital could ring forever.
• I don't know why they were voted-out, but the fact they lost every single seat says something.

Labour Party

While a formal consolidated manifesto may not have been published, candidates are campaigning on improving housing and supporting residents, with a focus on: [1]

• Cost of Living: Supporting residents through the economic crisis.
• Housing: Increasing the supply of affordable housing. [1, 2]

Reform UK

• Community: Focus on Hiring 10,000 new police officers, increasing stop-and-search to take knives and drugs out of neighbourhoods, and immediate justice sentences for offenders. [1] 

Current Council Priorities (2022-2026)

The current council corporate plan focuses on three pillars, which likely influence the platform of the incumbent administration:

• A Greener Borough: Tackling climate change, increasing recycling, and protecting green spaces.
• A Safer Borough: Maintaining the lowest crime rate in London, with a focus on tackling violence against women and girls.
• A Fairer Borough: Supporting residents through the cost-of-living crisis and becoming a "Borough of Sanctuary". [1]

There are three independent candidates, two linked by area -

North Richmond - no website facebook or such found for Maggie Richens
https://whocanivotefor.co.uk/person/135533/maggie-richens
North Richmond - no website facebook or such found for Goerge Spencer Richen
https://whocanivotefor.co.uk/person/135534/william-george-spencer-richen

Barnes -
https://whocanivotefor.co.uk/person/135995/ivan-avanessov has some detail and
links to 
https://www.avanessov.com/

which gives an idea of what he's like and how he might vote on a committee. An AI search on his source code says the he's taken a very siimple template and expanded it by hand to make teh web pages, backing-up his claim to be a real live person.

Manifesto links

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• https://www.libdems.org.uk/manifesto 
  
  
• https://labour.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Labour-Party-manifesto-2024.pdf - not sure where the text version is; this is the pdf for a big screen
  
  
• https://greenparty.org.uk/about/our-manifesto/
  
  
• https://manifesto.conservatives.com/ - I was going to write three or four pithy lines here but you can write your own.
  
  
• Also ran...
  Reform and SDP who sometimes have an electoral pact but compete here, as does the Mitre Pub

Explanation of the blog: draw attention to the need for a single social care budget

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This constituency used to be a marginal - there were only 45 votes in it a few years ago, so the idea of a spoiler candidate who could offer to resign on conditions was an  OK one. It didn't take-off on the strength of a few blogspot pages but there was no harm in trying.

This blog was meant to promote a single adult social care budget years ago, and part of it has happened but councils are still meant to top it up and can't afford to, even if it was a good idea for local voters to decide how much goes on social care, which it isn't. I mean: if you insure your car and have an accident in Richmond, you don't want to be told "we pay out a different amount in Richmond because local people don't like garages". If the system was like that you wouldn't want to pay-in.

https://www.kingsfund.org.uk/insight-and-analysis/data-and-charts/key-facts-figures-adult-social-care

The Mitre TW9 often hosts singer singwriters on Sundays

By Emma Fradgley - then cut and pasted here without permission

@fradgley_journo Senior Reporter

A south London publican who registered his pub as a political party, and is running as the sole candidate for the bar in the General Election, said he will “definitely get one vote” – from himself.

The owner of The Mitre pub in Richmond, Chris French, 47, had a brainwave 12 months ago and decided to run as an MP for Richmond Park in Greater London in order to get publicity for his establishmen. He told the PA news agency: “Our little pub that we have in Richmond is a lovely little pub and all the time we hear, ‘I’ve been living in Richmond for 20 years, and I didn’t even know this pub existed

Chris French, 47, owner of The Mitre pub in Richmond (Image: PA)

“That got me thinking, how do you get out to people, and then about 12 months ago, I stumbled across that if I actually registered to run in the election, I would actually get the free advertising on 77,000 ballot papers.”

Mr French, who has owned The Mitre for more than eight years, would be happy with a small number of votes and is not optimistic about his chances of unseating sitting MP Sarah Olney of the Liberal Democrats.

“I’ll be voting for myself so at least then I definitely get one vote,” he said.

“Now whether Gillian (Craigie) my partner votes for me, I’m not too sure. If I only get one vote, it might be quite a frosty evening.

The Mitre, Richmond (Image: PA)

"Hopefully I’ll get two votes.”

Asked about the hypothetical contents of his pub’s manifesto, Mr French laughed.

“I don’t know.

"Maybe close all the other pubs down in Richmond.

"Cut beer duty on The Mitre to maybe one pence and put everybody else up to 50 pence,” he joked.

Mr French said he would be “absolutely chuffed” if he got at least 5 per cent of the vote, as this would mean the £500 deposit candidates are required to pay would be returned to him.

“It’s a small business and £500 is a lot of money,” he said.

The Mitre, Richmond (Image: PA)

If elected, he would celebrate with an alcohol-free shandy, he added, as he stopped drinking alcohol three years ago.

The pub staff “probably rolled their eyes” at “another crazy idea” from him, he said, adding that Ms Craigie was “100 per cent behind it”.

He said: “She hears some crazy things from me all the time, so it was probably just another one of those hare-brained ideas that I’ve had.”

Local people have started asking Mr French about his plans for the General Election as word has got out that he is standing.

“People are slowly starting to find out and they love it.

"It’s only been positive.

"They love the idea.

"There’s not been a single word of negativity about it,” he said.

Ultimately, Mr French wants to grow his business, saying: “If it gets an extra two people in, I’m happy.

“It’s so hard these days to get people through the door.

"Maybe just doing something that’s completely out there like this is the one thing that might get me an extra two people in through the door.”

The publican said he is not political and does not typically vote, with his interests lying more in “music and football”.

“I’m not political and I don’t want to start treading on people’s toes because at the end of the day, I’m just a publican with a crazy idea to advertise his pub,” he said.

“I don’t think I’d be very popular with the other local politicians if the people voted in a pub landlord over a politician.”

Asked whether he was encouraging people to vote for him on July 4, he said: “I’d rather them come down and start spending some money in the pub than vote for me to be honest.”

PA has contacted Sarah Olney for comment.

Manifesto links

Taxpayers pay for a mail-out for candidates, I think.

They came a day or two ago, slightly different to the usual leaflets, and most were A5 gloss.
The manifestos are about 100 sides of A4, 50 sheets, 25 sheets if reduced to 2-up on a printer, and are in chapters so it's possible do do a one or two sheets at a time. The liberals ought to be ahead on this because they are capable of using a printing press which is in a garage workshop near Mortlake station - sometimes you can see them doing it - and can print at least up to A3. A lot of the volunteer activists are able to afford Epson eco-tank printers and buy cheap ink by the litre to print on paper at around a penny a sheet in supermarkets or in ebay.

Unfortunately the party activists have delivered exactly zero pages or their manifesto, dispite a taxpayer payment for one mailout. It's possible to read online or print-out, but if not many of us do it, what's the point?

I printed out the liberal manifesto on 2-up double-sided and might have read it to the end.
I googled the conservative manfesto and had a look.
I tried to find the labour "gray book" online but didn't.

Anyway, anyone who votes in Richmond on Thames is going to vote Liberal or Conservative if they want to effect the result.

-----------------------------------libdem looks good in parts

https://www.libdems.org.uk/plan with costings, plain text version, audio version, quick read version

https://d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/libdems/pages/57307/attachments/original/1574876236/Stop_Brexit_and_Build_a_Brighter_Future.pdf?1574876236

...liberal manifesto with all the graphics

-----------------------------------conservative says "trust is" in effect: it's a tabloid slogan page

https://vote.conservatives.com/our-plan slogans and photos with links at the bottom

https://assets-global.website-files.com/5da42e2cae7ebd3f8bde353c/5dda924905da587992a064ba_Conservative%202019%20Manifesto.pdf

...conservative manifesto with all the graphics.

-------------------------------------hustings

https://www.richmondandtwickenhamtimes.co.uk/news/18073636.everything-need-know-richmond-park-hustings/


If the people who find the conservative party insisted on getting a manifesto delivered for the money, they would be doing the electorate a favour and the liberals would have to follow.

-------------------------------------aftermath

Now the election is over, here are some others
http://web.archive.org/web/20191121170649/https://www.birkenheadsocialjusticeparty.com/key-pledges - Frank Field's site won him over 7,000 votes against 17,000 for the Labour and Momentum candidate. Like Frank Field, The Independent Group for Change had Lib Dem candidates standing against it which says something about how tribal the Lib Dem party is.
https://voteforchange.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/2020-Vision-The-Independent-for-Change.pdf

East Sheen Ward by Election

Richmond.gov.uk/council/
  elections_voting_and_registration/
    east_sheen_ward_by_election
Whocanivotefor.co.uk/elections/local.richmond-upon-thames.2019-07-18/richmond-upon-thames-local-election/

Mainstream issues:

Social care-

57% of the council budget does not seem to be enough - default care agencies do not have stars on their Care Quality Commission reports and work for half-hour split shifts. Under another party, the council chose a care agency classed as Dangerous by the Care Quality Commission and the issue wasn't just lack of money - the regime had money for a brass band and a grant to Friends of Barnes Common. Meanwhile, Curacare who have a star now have an office in East Sheen, and Jardine Care (who have the Home Instead franchise) have moved-in on the turf as well. Helping Hands of Richmond town centre have a higher rate of pay which is encouraging and maybe that should be a factor in choosing default homecare providers too.

Education near where children live -

Richmondinclusiveschools.org.uk

Lack of cash -

When there is no money, invest some. It would be good if the council found a way to borrow cheaply and lend at a higher rate. Meanwhile, some way of explaining council budgets more clearly on the Richmond.gov.uk website would be good for democracy. I'm happy go through details with anyone who is interested, although I don't have a good solution.

Local issues: -

Barnes Common -

Friends of Barnes Common used public money to make the common less safe for people cruising, and increase the chances of mugging by cutting down trees and reducing shadow. If you walk from Rocks Lane car park past the sports ground into the common, you will see tree stumps feet wide with dozens or hundreds of summer rings; these won't grow back quickly. There are piles of wood chippings from cleared bushes, cut by a council contractor lent to the Friends who got a council grant to pay. Richmond LBGT forum were not aware of this at the time, but the Friends had just been on a visit to Friends of Tower Hamlets Cemetery who have a blog post about how to reduce cruising - "put up a sign saying that we know what's going on  ... not welcome ... take litter home" was one quote along with the idea of cutting-down cover- "think about lines of sight", the Tower Hamlets web site said. "Most informative", said a blog post from Friends of Barnes Common.

Some method needs to be found to prevent these people getting public money again in their present form, and to counter the argument that a few local people or a bit of litter are more important than a rare cruising ground much used at night. I've put the Friends of Barnes Common's current position at the bottom of this blog post.

I'm happy to go through details with anyone who is interested.

Parking and car clubs during the Barnes Hospital development -

Free parking is rarer by the year as yellow lines and CPZ zones encroach, driving free-parkers to ever fewer spaces that are left. Everything in London is becoming more crowded, and there are very few solutions. Car clubs and their promotion are about the only solution I can think of, for those of us who have trouble affording a car let-alone a car parking permit. 

Richmond on Thames Car Club Strategy is a sixteen-page wad of notes from 2006, when there were more council staff to plan and consult and tender, and before P2P car clubs like Drivy Hiyacar and Turo allowed anyone to run a car club car more cheaply than the fleet-owners like Enterprise and Zipcar.  At the time there were only two car club bays in the borough, but the number has gradually increased with a planning application and consultation for each one, and each one goes to the clubs that won a council tender - Enterprise and Zipcar. Enterprise charges a subscription even if you don't drive, while Zipcar charges a mileage fee and an hourly fee at the same time. Hiyacar Drivy and Turo hire rates are set by the car owners in competition with each other. There is no subscription, a fixed price per hour and a large amount of free mileage. The agencies themselves are low-budget and sometimes short-lived, with easycar the main agency for a short time until last year when they closed and other agencies like whipcar opening and closing quite quickly.

I suggest that anyone near a controlled parking zone is allowed a discount on parking permits for P2P car club cars that they own. I live in an area without controlled parking, yet, but I hope those inside the zone get dozens of new car club cars in their areas rather than parking just outside the zone until my own neighbours vote for parking permits.

Some cars are used privately and as hire cars. That's fine - it makes better use of parking space than a zone for each purpose. The discount could be paid one year late, based on evidence from the previous year to show how many times the car was hired-out to people not otherwise insured to drive it, or in practice how many agency trips the car took, and I am sure that the P2P car hire agencies could supply a spreadsheet by number-plate and numbers of hires or hours hired. If a car is hired-out 50 times a year, I suggest that it gets a 100% refund of last years' parking permit, but other people might have better ideas. It's common for hire cars to go-out most weekends in summer but maybe there is some subtlety about trying to clear car parking space on weekday mornings,

no list of locally active car clubs attachedsuch as P2P car hire like Hiyacar Drivy or Turo
or fleet-owned car clubs like Co-Wheels or Ubeeqo

no list of local car hire services attached

no list of local bike hire services attached
maybe a link to a council web page is the answer
if someone can update it with new P2P schemes which
change often - maybe a wiki page?

I suggest that the sign posts saying "car club permit holders only" on car club bays are changed to list all car clubs and cycle hire schemes known to operate nearby, starting with the one like Zipcar that's allocated the space. That could lead to greater use of car clubs and more parking space. In fact I have started doing that already, but I am a bit biased towards the car club that rents-out my own car, so a more neutral scheme would be better.

I'm happy to go through details with anyone who is interested.

Hammersmith Bridge closed while waiting for TFL funding over £40m -

There is a non-Richmond, cross-party issue and a part-Richmond cross-party issue.
(1) why have assembly members if they don't have a veto over the mayor's grand plans?
(2) why £40+ million?

The non-Richmond issue is democracy at the Greater London Assembly, which is a bit like democracy at the European Parliament: assembly members have no veto over the mayor's grand designs for millennium domes or demolishing factories for Olympic sports days or cycle superhighways or London Fashion Week which shows Chinese fashion or even the mayor's backing for a third runway at Heathrow.. I like cycle superhighways but the crunch comes when there is no money to mend a bridge but a similar budget can be spent on cycle lanes. We need assembly members who will protest or walk-out until the mayor allows them to veto budgets. Otherwise we will get another Millenium Dome or Olympics or London Fashion Week; we will get more plans to knock down factories to increase employment, all justified by careful reports from London Economics, and all of them unjustifiable but it won't matter because they'll go-through anyway.

The part-Richmond issue is why cracks in the far left pillar happened and why they cost over £40m to fix. A meeting was called for Richmond residents to talk to TFL face to face. It was so packed that a second meeting had to follow straight away. So face-to-face meetings aren't ideal. I suggest some kind of software that can assemble all questions on a similar theme like "can there be another bridge built next to the old one?" and the reply like "we can't find space on the river bank"; "can this bridge be stored in case someone wants it while a bigger one is built?" and a reply like "the chains go a long way under the banks so it's hard to re-create in another place".

My own question to TFL would be whether aluminium could be poured into the pillars to make them solid and fill any cracks, and whether shock absorbents could be put under the deck and on top of the pillars so that sharp jolts of stress are averaged-out before they crack more pillars. I think I saw some online consultation software that allows loads of people to put points of view, which could be better than a crowded face to face meeting.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The candidates on the link are
https://www.richmondandtwickenhamtimes.co.uk/news/17749443.meet-east-sheen-by-election-hopefuls-want-represent-area/

Julia Cambridge

CAMBRIDGE Julia 53A Sheen Lane, East Sheen, SW14 8AB Liberal Democrats
trlibdems.org.uk/east_sheen_ward

Margaret Edward

EDWARD Helen Margaret 17 Baronsmead Road, London, SW13 9RR The Conservative Party
richmondboroughconservatives.org.uk/east-sheen-ward

Giles Oakley

OAKLEY Giles 22 Coval Road, London, SW14 7RL Labour Party
https://www.richmondparklabour.org.uk/latest-news/2019/06/25/labour-selects-giles-oakley-to-contest-east-sheen-by-election/

Trixie Rawlinson

RAWLINSON Trixie (Address in Richmond upon Thames) Women`s Equality Party
https://www.facebook.com/WEPRichmond/

I'll send a copy of this to each candidate although I can quite see why the runner-up candidates wouldn't want to do hours of work reading it and I don't expect them to reply. I don't know if the main candidate(s) give it a read and I hope to get a chance to meet one of them - maybe after the election.
I'm happy to change the postal address for a web page or add one.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friends of Barnes Common current position 26 May 2019

Dear Mr Robertson, 

Thank you for your message.

You are of course more than welcome to attend any public meetings and to ask whatever questions you wish.

FoBC  works closely with Richmond Council, and has met with Council officers, the police and with  the local LGBT group to ensure that there is no prejudice against any individuals or groups of visitors to Barnes Common, while seeking to discourage and hopefully ensure there is  no offensive behaviour on the Common, for the benefit of all users of the common and as accepted by the LGBT group.

FoBC works in partnership with Richmond Council to deliver the agreed management plan for the Common, which is aimed primarily at conservation of this Local Nature Reserve but also at ensuring that the Common remains as  clean and safe as is reasonably possible.

The conservation work we do is consistent across all areas of the common: it includes thinning of the understorey and creation of glades in the woodland areas to provide  more diverse ground-cover for the benefit of invertebrates, small mammals and birds; the creation of  pathways to reduce footfall and eutrophication by dogs on sensitive  and rare lowland acid grassland areas; control of scrub and bracken; removal of non-native and invasive plants; as well as the planting or transplanting of native species.

Changes to the Rocks Lane Car Park were in response to all day and long stay parking  which prevented visitors to the Common being able to find any space for short stay visits, which we wish to encourage.

With many thousand people living and working locally, as well as numerous visitors, and with public policies encouraging people to get outdoors and take exercise for their well-being, the pressure on open spaces within our urban environment is increasing dramatically, and a sad part of FoBC's responsibilities is that it is regrettably impossible to please everyone all of the time.

With kind regards and best wishes

Mike Hildesley

Chairman, Friends of Barnes Common

Notes to self: who is standing for london in europe 2019?

Democraticaudit.com/2019/05/16/european-elections-2019-what-will-happen-in-london/
... gives a list of who has a chance, and the other links show also-rans who might be worth encouraging and to help them keep their deposits. I don't know how they fit-in with the party list system. They are not on the party list system and not allowed to use a party name.

Democraticdashboard.com/location/postcode/SW148BP shows pictures of the candidates.
Whocanivotefor.co.uk/elections/SW14%208BP shows them listed by party and links to the eu results page which cannot be bothered to name candidates - the BBC had to unearth names

The BBC found election results the next day,
but no outcomes for the nearly-got-ins and also-rans

1. LIBERAL DEMOCRAT
   Irina Von Wiese
2. LIBERAL DEMOCRAT
   Dinesh Dhamija
3. LIBERAL DEMOCRAT
   Luisa Porritt
4. LABOUR
   Claude Moraes
5. LABOUR
   Sebastian Dance
6. THE BREXIT PARTY
   Benyamin Habib
7. THE BREXIT PARTY
   Lance Forman
8. GREEN
   Scott Ainslie

Votes make made the most difference to these people being elected

Loisa Porrit, https://www.linkedin.com/in/luisa-porritt-29521525/ got in unexpectedly https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Luisa_Porritt

Gavinesler.com/ of Change UK, ex newsnight, author, is in with a very small chance
The EU web site says that no Change UK member was elected

Laura Parker of Momentum and Labour is in with a very small chance


Katy Clark of Labour is in with a bigger chance and will probably get-in given recent news
I can't find a good link for her. There is a huffington post article saying the the selection process is wonky and that she is not too pro-europe. She has been an mp.


Dinesh Dhamija of the Liberals, e-bookers, and a large donor charity is in with a bigger chance


Lance Foreman of an smoked salmon company and Brexit is in with a bigger chance


Gulnar Hussain of the green party and US economics courses is in with a bigger chance

Linkedin says that she rents-out shared office space and has this idea

Through the use of our 360° immersive films and Virtual Reality headsets, our training and recruitment model for adoption and fostering allows parents and carers to experience life from the perspective of the child. This unique approach to tackling issues around children’s social care is ground-breaking and offers a different way to understand the impact of attachment and trauma – through the eyes of the child.

There are some also-ran candidates to vote for to show that they have support and maybe save their deposits, in alphabetical order
bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-48081347

Animal Welfare Party - Vanessa Hudson says that it is a party  that keeps ideas going where other party's interest is much more patchy. If by fluke she did get in she could be a good influence in Europe
youtube.com/watch?v=lCpw0UQLO4g

Theukeuparty.org - Remain, good description of the referendum, usual "heart of" phrases about full membership, not much about the cost of it of chance of reforming it. They don't believe the £350 million quote for costs nor give a link to say why they don't believe it.

Womens Equality - Catherine Mayer - womensequality.org.uk/cm4eu
-

I had a look at some independent names. Five of them share a Climate Emergency campaign.

 Claudia McDowell, Daze Aghaji, Henry Muss, Zoe Lafferty, Roger Hallam   climateemergencyindependents.co.uk. Some of them students.


 Ian Snowden , iansowden.eu/after-we-win - irritatingly sure what to do with my taxes, but it's nice that someone so ugly and irritating can have "friends all across europe". If he can do it, maybe even a blogger like me is in with a chance.

 These candidates did not even provide irritating information to Who Can I Vote For.

 Kofi Klu - word soup - youtube.com/watch?v=Q1jrS8FKV4c - might possibly be a comedian doing this as a prank. youtube has the first 900 words of his interview as a transcript. There are no words like "national insurance", "national assistance", "unemployment pay", "school", "health", "tax", "law", "house", "bus", or anything like that.

 Mike Shad - no information but a twitter account. Remainer. After the election I found a youtube video of Mr Shad and his drawing room furniture and was intrigued to know where he got it. It was like an interview with the Shah of Iran or someone like that. He kept the message to one thing - remain - and to 152 viewers so I left a comment recommending democraticdashboard and whocanIvotefor. Now it turns-out that there are three videos, one in another language, and Mikeshad.org leading to a flyer and list of a dozen points here
https://www.mikeshad.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/A5-LS.pdf
youtube.com/channel/UC4oS6dTy_jEp1y7zM6WJblw
After the election I saw that the flyer is backed by a persian-uk magazine:
http://deevan.co.uk/component/flippingbook/book/136-may-2019/9-4in1-col-2?Itemid=1660

After watching those youtube videos, youtube directed me to someone arguing against candidates in elections because old-fashioned and sometimes against party policy or even independent of parties, and another video interviewing John Clees. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULfqhCNHQPA

 Alan Kirkby no information but a yahoo email so he may unfortunately have been locked in a cupboard or eaten by one of the rival candidates. I emailed the account to ask if there is a web site, but no lost the reply, now shown below. There is an Alan Denis Kirkby. borne 1937 I think, who was a trustee or company director of a training scheme in Lewisham that no longer has a web site. WhocanIvotefor think he was a candidate for Southwark and Old Bermondsey MP in 2010 when he got 155 votes or 0.3%. Wikipedia think he was the UKIP candidate while another site has him down as an independent. Electionleaflets.org have his flyer which reads "vote vote vote vote vote Alan Kirkby, your independent option. Alan Kirkby, independent. General Election 2010. Tuesday 6th of May 2010. Bermondsey and Old Southwark. email alankirkbey2010@yahoo.co.uk"

Alan Kirkby	Thu, 23 May, 12:57 (4 days ago)
to me, Alan

'Art. 50' resolution to be sought via EU Institutions' internal processes as priority. No Ideology offered...

Dear Veganline. com 

The UK difficulties with EU stem from the 'Lisbon' consolidation treaty - that's where their resolution may be obtained from its amendments - not easy - but before Art.50 October deadline.

Ease of trade is crucial - without strings!

Regards,

Alan Kirkby

MEP hopeful...

www has 'personal' detail...

Auto - response sent also...

Assistance for this resolution welcomed...

----- Forwarded message -----

From: Veganline. com <veganline.com@gmail.com>

To: "alan.kirkby2010@yahoo.co.uk" <alan.kirkby2010@yahoo.co.uk>

Sent: Wednesday, 22 May 2019, 18:50:52 UTC

Subject: do you have a web link to say what you stand for?

hi

do you have a web link to say what you stand for?

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Fw: Alan Kirkby Indy- Do you have a web link to say what you stand for? - Update 2

Inbox

x

Alan Kirkby <alan.kirkby2010@yahoo.co.uk>	Mon, 10 Jun, 12:48
to me, Alan

Re-sent

Dear veganline.com@gmail.com

Update 2

- More history:

EU split over treaty change plan   27 October 2010 (ex BBC) https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11634169

EU split over treaty change plan A row escalates over a Franco-German plan to amend the EU's Lisbon Treaty, in a drive to enforce budget rules.

A new Euro-row is escalating over a Franco-German plan to rewrite part of the EU's Lisbon Treaty.

Relevance...

'German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she will urge other European leaders to accept the need for treaty change at an EU summit in Brussels on Thursday...' - Re Greece debts.

Pointing this out as precedent 'to accept the need for treaty change'...

This update intends to keep Treaty change as the suggestion to by-pass leave EU at Oct. end.

- Hence a plan to rewrite part(or all) of the EU's Lisbon Treaty... Not OK to UK at present.

Now the need for 'politics'. - and a draft update of EU constitution - plus a consensus of philosophers and (psephologists) Psephology 

Psephology Psephology uses historical precinct voting data, public opinion polls, campaign finance information and similar ...

Perhaps choose from...

Representative democracies: Types of democracy

Types of democracy A direct democracy or pure democracy is a type of democracy where the people govern directly. It requires wide p...

For the moment, feel free to acknowledge and respond...

 Regards,

 Alan Dennis Kirkby

Independent London Candidate 2019

-------------------------

Copy Update 1

Dear CEPS,

Please commence an appropriate study to resolve the future UK/EU free-trade arrangements without 'the strings' that are not acceptable

to UK Electorate.

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Re http://aei.pitt.edu/15132/1/PB_216_Piotr_&_Peadar_on_Lisbon_Revisions.pdf

No. 216/October 2010

This paper explores the political difficulties of treaty reform -  in the context of five pending revisions.

-----------

Re http://aei.pitt.edu/15131/1/PB_215_o%27Broin_on_Lisbon.pdf

No. 215/October 2010 

This Policy Brief provides an overview of the procedures that are available to change the Treaty of Lisbon.

Extracts:

3. Proposing treaty change 

In both the ordinary and simplified revision procedures, the initial proposal for treaty reform can be made by one of three entities:

 1) any national government,

 2) the European Parliament or

 3) the European Commission.

 In the case of the European Parliament, Rules 41 and 48 of its internal Rules of Procedure 4 apply. Rule 41 relates to the procedure to be used where a right of initiative is conferred on the Parliament by the treaties, while Rule 48 concerns own-initiative reports. Pursuant to Rule 41, the relevant parliamentary committee may decide to draft an own initiative report. This report must include a motion for a resolution and the draft proposal or decision, together with an explanatory statement.

4. Ordinary revision procedure

Box 1. Ordinary Revision Procedure 

1. Proposal for treaty change can come from any national government, the European Parliament, or the European Commission, and may relate to any aspect of the treaties (including proposals designed to increase Union competence).

 

2. Proposal is addressed to the Council (presumably for early debate on the nature of the proposal), which then submits the proposal to the European Council and notifies national parliaments.

 

3. European Council must consult the European Parliament and the European Commission.

 

4. European Council then votes whether to examine the proposal; a simple majority in favour is sufficient to proceed to the next stage.

5. Two options are available at this point: 

    a. President of the European Council is automatically mandated to convene a Convention to examine the draft proposal and adopt by consensus a recommendation to a future IGC,

 but 

    b. European Council may vote by a simple majority, after having obtained the consent of the European Parliament, not to convene a Convention – in this case the European Council defines the mandate of the IGC.

6. Intergovernmental Conference (IGC) is called by the President of the Council (at this stage the rotating presidency takes over from the European Council, as the intergovernmental conference is the domain of the member states only, not the EU institutions per se).

 

7. Ratification at national level begins; proposal enters into force if it is ratified by all member states according to their own domestic ratification procedures. 

Also -

  'Since the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, the treaty amendment procedure contained in Art. 48 TEU has been used once already in the case of the ordinary revision procedure.

 Procedure Under the ordinary revision procedure, a proposal for treaty reform is addressed first to the Council,5? which then submits the proposal to the European Council.

 Presumably the Council serves as a type of antechamber for initial debate and scrutiny of the proposal before passing it over to the European Council.

 At the same time, national parliaments are notified of the proposal (presumably by the Council, although Art. 48 TEU is not specific on the institution responsible for making the notification).

 National parliaments, however, are assigned no formal role under the ordinary revision procedure, but in theory notification of the proposal allows them to begin advance scrutiny of the proposal.' (Sic)

Forwarded CEPS document extracts inferring that the Lisbon Treaty requires amendments...

Feel free to acknowledge and respond...

Regards,

Alan Dennis Kirkby

Independent London Candidate 2019

-----------------------

----- Forwarded message -----

From: Alan Kirkby <alan.kirkby2010@yahoo.co.uk>

To: veganline.com@gmail.com <veganline.com@gmail.com>

Cc: Alan Kirkby <alan.kirkby2010@yahoo.co.uk>

Sent: Tuesday, 28 May 2019, 12:45:39 UTC

Subject: Fw: Alan Kirkby Indy- Do you have a web link to say what you stand for? - Thanks for interest

Dear veganline.com@gmail.com

There are channels for treaty review via EU Parliament - ever hopeful!

Not happy about EU ambitions!

Regards,

Alan

For this Independent: 401 was total

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