Is there an election on?

We have had our first bit of political junk mail for the May Council elections, after a two year sabbatical from all of this voting business. Like the first cuckoo of spring, it heralds an end to miserable old Winter and the promise of better times (well, if you believe a politicians promise- they offer you the moon on a stick but after they get in you realise it is frequently the wrong end of a shitty stick!)

The first leaflet is a little previous arriving on Saturday morning, seeing as how the deadline for candidate submissions is Noon today and the publication of nominated candidates isn't until Wednesday.

The organisations have been fighting a phoney war for a few weeks now in the local rag and rumours have been circulating about possible candidates. Former Councillor Sherry Bradley will be restanding in Morley South hoping to win her seat back (and presumably job on the Exec if Labour take overall control again) and she is up against Terry Elliott, Husband of Judith Elliott who is the replacement Morley Borough independent after Gareth Beevers has decided not to restand, owing to work committments (well, that is the official reason, I have my suspicions that it isn't the only reason, we haven't heard much from him in the Press recently and he doesn't get along to as many Town Council meetings as he used to either.)

Anyway, Terry's leaflet is first through the letterbox and it is the usual double-sided lime green A4 flyer.It is perhaps a little too dull to Fisk, although I would question how many Morley Police Forums he has actually been to recently rather than the most recent one and then lots when he was on the Police Authority but that was a long time ago, I gather...

Terry is a very down to earth likeable chap and isn't one to call a spade an earth inverting, horticultural instrument. I always enjoy my natters with him and we had a chat at the end of the recent Mayor's Ball when he confirmed he was indeed going to stand. He also told me that being a Magistrate was all about applying common sense rather than getting obsessed with sentencing guidelines and admitted that when I queried something about his OBE, he hadn't actually bothered to read the associated bumpf about suitability of wearing it with White tie etc. as explained by Martin Wainwright on Morley FM.

One final thing- every time I see the MBI scales logo, I am reminded about a rather sick joke about a murder, a patio and a bike rack...