Voting tomorrow
Polling stations are open tomorrow from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Some polling stations have changed, especially in Surbiton Hill, which now has three polling places, whereas previously it has only had two.
The polling places are at St. Matthew’s School, St. Matthew’s church and the Corner House theatre in Douglas Road. Please check the Poll Card you received from the Council to make sure you go to the right place first time.
You will be given two ballot papers, one for the Council election and one for the European Parliament election. They are of different colours and the European parliament election paper is VERY long. It lists all the political parties putting up candidates. Their names are listed next to the name and symbol of the party. The parties are listed in alphabetical order of their names. You are asked to vote for the whole party list and you can only mark a cross against ONE party.
The Council election papers are also quite long as three Councillors are being elected for each ward. Candidates are listed in the alphabetical order of their surnames, NOT in the order of their political party. You have up to three votes, you do not HAVE to vote for all the candidates of one party if you don’t wish to. If you DO wish to you may have to spend a little time finding the candidates for the party you wish to support. Please do NOT write anything on the ballot paper other than the voting mark (X) as this may spoil it and result in your vote not being counted. If you do make a mistake and spoil your paper you should return it to the person who gave it to you and ask for another one.
If you have postal vote which you have not used but you still wish to vote, you should take the completed forms and ballot papers with you to your nearest polling place and hand them all in to the officer in charge or take them to Kingston Guildhall. They must be accepted at polling stations until the polls close at 10 p.m..
Elections 2014 part 2
Some of us have voted already by post. Daphne and I have, in both the local election and the Euro.
As for the European election I had no difficulty at all in supporting the existing Conservative MEPs, all of whom are known to me and all of whom work astonishingly hard. Honestly I was rather more impressed by the literature they produced. They were one party to feature all of the candidates on the list, some of whom, like Dr. Sheila Lawlor, are very impressive and I would love to see them join the existing three.
Other parties only featured the existing MEP and the Lib Dems gave the distinct impression that, somehow, this election is all about Edward Davey (they do the same in the locals, by the way) though he isn’t himself standing.
I have never subscribed to the brickbats hurled at Ukip by the ‘centrist’ parties. But I can never support them. Despite apparently wanting ‘out of Europe’ their very existence as a political force in Britain depends on the fact that Blair adopted the PR List system of electing MEPs which is alien to ceturies-old British practice and was invented by the Belgian Baron d’Hondt.
One of their posters shows some British ‘workers’ sitting on a bus while paying for a bloated Eurocrat to swan around in a chauffeur-driven limo. Instead of the nameless limo passenger (might be a Ukip employee for all we know, like the ‘young lady from Devon’ on another poster!) they could just as easily and at least as truthfully have showed Nigel Farage in the limo. He and his buddies are on the gravy train too and fighting tooth and nail to stay on it!
And, if they want to get out of Europe, why aren’t they supporting David Cameron’s bid to hold an in/out Referendum in 2017?
cornerHOUSE in May
May 2014 News
The One Act Play Festival is here !
After months of hard work in preparation, the Festival runs for six days from 12 May.
Nine new plays from local writers have been extensively rehearsed and will each receive three performances.
Nine directors have worked with some 30 actors to get these premières ready for you.
Details of the shows and their dates are here :
http://thecornerhouse.org/shows/show.aspx?showid=486
where you will also find a link to the box office so you can buy your tickets immediately
Photos of writers and rehearsal shots are on facebook at
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.10152797324028012&type=1
and
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=oa.10152797297893012&type=1
The full public programme for May is :
5 to 29 May : Behnam Al-Agzeer’s new exhibition Arabesque and Arabic Calligraphy is on show when the cornerHOUSE is open
12 to 17 May : One Act Festival performances
20 May : Gala night for Behnam Al-Agzeer’s Arabesque and Arabic Calligraphyexhibition
22 May : Polling Station for the local and European elections
23 May : Maple Village WI annual charity quiz night
24 May : Crafty Afty
25 May : cH film club ( members only ; membership details from info@thecornerhouse.org )
30 to 31 May : Ready for take off? The Golden Key Theatre Company presents Royad’s latest show Royad International Airport 2014. Tickets £7.
Need more details ? : see cH website or e-mail info@thecornerhouse.org
Advance dates :
New shows coming from the Green Theatre ( June 26 – 28 )
and Kingston Junior Drama Company ( July 8 – 9 )
plus Outside The Box comedy returns in June and July.
Tickets for June yet to be released; details will be circulated later this month.
On 24 July Mark Watson comes to the cornerHOUSE.
( as seen on We Need Answers, Mock the Week and many other TV shows.
“Magnificent Welsh miserablism and acid wit… supreme comic abilities…achingly funny material and assured delivery” – Daily Telegraph
“By day he is a semi-serious novelist, by night a gangly Pythonesque performer” – Evening Standard )
Ticket address is http://www.wegottickets.com/event/272317
Elections 2014 (part 1?)
The Surrey Comet website (see link in right hand column) carries a list of all those nominated to be elected to the new Kingston Council on 22nd May. This election is taking place three weeks later than one might have expected in order to enable the elections for the European Parliament to occur on the same day. No doubt we shall have something to say about those as the time passes.
It is evident from the list that there will be some substantial changes of personnel at the Guildhall, even among our local representatives.
One thing I must make clear to start with: for the first time since 1990 my name does NOT appear among the list of people nominated. Many if not most readers probably expected that it would and it was only very recently that the decision that I should not fight Surbiton Hill for the fifth time was taken. As my opponents in 2010 were not slow to point out I do have health issues, though the brain etc still work as well as ever and I have done the best I could to ‘keep the flag flying’ in Surbiton Hill and Surbiton generally since 2010. I am now devoting time to the Kingston Federation of Residents Associations, of which I became chair early last year, and my interest in the doings of RBK Council and the welfare of residents is in no way diminished.
The local area will also regret the departure of Lib Dem Cllr. Rolson Davies, who has served in the administration for 12 years (I think). I was his ‘shadow’ at Health and Adult Social Services for some years before 2010 and we had a very cordial relationship typified by full, frank and friendly exchanges of views. We had in common a genuine interest in the wellbeing of residents which transcended party politics.
I am intrigued as to why Elmbridge resident Cllr. Neil Houston is now standing in Alexandra ward rather than Surbiton Hill, where he topped the poll in 2010. Perhaps he expects to lose…….Anyway he must have found some way to overcome the impediment to his standing presented by his residence outside the Borough. He is replaced in Surbiton Hill by someone who will also be hailed no doubt as a tireless local campaigner, who just happens not to have taken part in any local campaigns.
More anon, no doubt!
Surbiton girl in Cabinet
I am really delighted that David Cameron has decided to appoint local girl Nicky Morgan MP as Women’s Minister in the Cabinet. See the story on the Surrey Comet website; find the link in the right hand column.
I knew Nicky Griffiths (as she was then) as a Surbiton Young Conservative in the 1990s and have watched her career with great interest since then. I’m sure we all wish her every good fortune in her new role. In the aftermath of the business involving the lady from Wimbledon and Basingstoke, I have been cheered up considerably by this news.
Housing: Berry’s open letter to Davey
Dear Sir,
I am writing to call on Edward Davey MP to publically retract his claims that the Green
Belt is not safe under Kingston’s Conservatives and that the Conservatives back
Neither claim is true. Both claims are highly irresponsible.
The facts do not support the Liberal Democrat’s position, which is cynically timed to
coincide with the imminent local elections.
On 4 March 2014 an independent think tank called London First published a report
entitled “Home Truths” which suggested building new suburbs in Chessington and the
Lea Valley as a solution to housing shortages in London. That report had nothing to do
with the Conservative Party.
The Liberal Democrats have suggested that the Deputy Mayor for Housing endorsed
London First’s proposal for mass housing in Chessington. He did not. More importantly,
Boris Johnson was unequivocal when he came to Kingston for Mayor’s Question Time
last week that he would not support building on the Green Belt.
On 26 March 2014 Mr Davey sent an email to Kingston residents asking them to make
people aware that the Green Belt is not safe with Kingston’s Conservatives. That is
simply not true. Kingston Conservatives never lent their support to London First’s
proposal. Nor have I. Nor have your local Conservative Councillors and candidates.
The truth is that the Conservative Party in Kingston opposes building on the Green Belt.
What’s more, we are proposing to invest more money than the Liberal Democrat
administration on the green spaces that we have for everyone to enjoy across the
Borough.
People in Chessington and beyond would rightly have been concerned to hear Mr
Davey’s allegations about the Conservatives’ position. Mr Davey’s claims were
irresponsible, especially coming from someone who is currently your local MP. They
were also wrong. I call on Mr Davey to now act responsibly and retract those claims.
Public faith in politics has been rocked in recent years. A genuine debate on issues that
matter to hardworking people should help to restore that trust. By contrast, non-issues
conjured up by Liberal Democrat scaremongers will only erode public faith in politics
further.
Yours faithfully,
James Berry
Prospective Conservative Parliamentary candidate for Kingston and Surbiton
Surbiton Forum 