Anne Milton - Guildford MP (and Dipstick)

Let's not forget the 2 and a half years the students of the University of Surrey had to wait to get a camera in the Southway underpass. When I worked for the student paper I often helped with the campaign, campaigning against the Tory-run council.

Then one of my friends gets their jaw broken near the underpass, the council finally get their act together and install a camera, all just before the election. And guess who takes credit for "Conservative action" that took 2.5 years? Dipstick herself.

Couldn't agree more with chris ward - others do all the donkey work, and then Dippy on her Broomstick (hence Dipstick) rides in out of the darkening night sky at sunset to claim all the credit, before she goes off to her midnight Tryst In The Crypt with Michael Howard...

Tell me I'm a conspiracy theorist, go on...

It's great news about there being a sign there now. Hopefully it'll work soon too, and put an end to any more dreadful crashes. Isn't the claiming the credit thing, something that all politicians seem to do, at least whenever i read the stuff that comes through my door they seem to.
Looking through your past entries, in particular where you say 'Amme' is taking the credit for the sign, thats not how i read it - it says Veronica Stiastny has delivered action. It seems a little bit unfair to say that she is 'falsely taking the credit', she just seems to be congratulating Veronica stiastny, who i think partly funded it (when she was a county councillor), with another county councillor.
I'm glad theres now a camera at the southway underpass too, i also had a mate who was attacked there a year ago, not badly but let's hope this helps.

note mainly to tomtom - yes, Veronica Stiastny did indeed contribute to the cost, after Cllr Tom Sharp (Lib Dem, Guildford South) had first put in £4000 of his council 'pot' (the bridge is on the boundary of their two Council divisions). But look what happened to poor Veronica afterwards - she got deselected. And what backdrop has Dipstick taken for all her subsequent "road safety" literature ? Why, the bridge, of course !

Thank you Lambeth Lad, you've jogged my memory now, i thought that there was 2 county councillors involved, but now youve put Tom sharp i remember. The point i was making though Lambeth Lad is that it seems a bit unfair to say she is taking the credit in teh leaflet when all she seems (from my reading) to be doing is congratulating Veronica. The leaflet even seems to be some thanks to Tom in so far as it says "in co-operation with teh county councillor who represents the north of the bridge". I'm all for having a go at some one, if its deserved and this seems a bit like having a go at someone for the sake of it! But there you go!!

While on the point of things sounding a bit harsh, i had a bit of a look at Amme's website yesterday and the Southway underpass (that Chris mentions and thank fully has a cctv camera now) appears on her website, in the new section http://www.guildfordconservatives.com/page/3/244/ - again she doesnt appear to be taking the credit just thanking Safer Guildford Partnership for the funding! Does everyone here just hate her?!

Anyway, what about this Democratically Elected Mayor business?? Do you reckon this will come to anything?

tomtom:

With regards to the VA signs, Milton *does* attempt to take credit in the pamphlet you mention and lies about her role in the process:

She asked residents to sign a petition calling
for Vehicle Activated Signs to be installed on
some of Guildford’s worst road’s including the
A281*.

*No she didn't.

On the claiming of credit (which you first excuse and then deny happened at all) I don't think the 'everybody else does it' argument cuts it - especially when Milton's supporters keep insisting that she's Not Your Typical MP and that we should expect Exceptional Things from her.

With regards to the underpass camera, well-known Milton-flunkie and campaign participant Mike Chambers kept himself very busy on the University of Surrey Student Union boards insisting that It Was Milton Wot Done It and that it was a perfect example of Instant Conservative Action.

Also, for the record, there is a vast difference between hating someone and objecting to their methods/actions. Suggesting that hatred drives the objections is an old, old trick that Milton herself has been using since this blog began.

It's all people just playing with words though! Anne is playing with words, by indirectly suggesting that in the leaflet her campaign had an impact on the sign being erected. Your playing with words by making much more of it than there is. (especially when in a much more prominent way, Anne is thanking someone else for their work to get the VAS).Chris is playing with words by saying that Anne took the Credit for the CCTV camera. You are playing with words by saying, well actually someone else is saying that Anne did it, so therefore anne is saying that she did! Even the blog is playing with words by saying that it is the blog 'what done it'! Everyones at it! It's a load of nonsense - people just trying to play with words to get one over!

Reach! Reach!

Sorry, but if someone who works on Anne's campaign tells people that she scored the camera, then that's a slam-dunk as far as I'm concerned.

And you cannot claim that I'm putting words in Anne's mouth just because I read what's between the lines out loud.

I'm not claiming. I think everyone excepts that politicians just spin things how they want to.

The point i'm making and you accept, is that you are doing it yourself! Which is cool by me!!

Just to clarify; Was it the blog 'what done it'??!!!!

The reason I disliked any of the Tories taking credit for the Southway underpass is that I know from working on the student newspaper a year or so ago that we had to do our best to campaign against the Council, and they constantly promised a camera in both the Tesco and Southway underpasses.

Sue Doughty campaigned heavily against the Tory council to try and get a camera put in those areas, until "election year" she was ignored.

2.5 years later, they finally have the cheek to find the funds for the camera, and the Tories have the cheek to claim credit for something that the Lib Dems have campaigned for 2.5 years on.

....and where does'Dipstick herself' claim the credit?

Weren't the Lib Dems in control of the council 2.5 years ago? Why didn't they just put one in then? Seems odd to wait until the Conservatives take over the council to start campaigning for one, and then complain when one is installed!!

The campaign began at the University after a burst of frequent attacks at said underpasses. The fact that the Tories had just regained control of the council was purely coincidental.

I campaigned apolitically, long before I joined the Lib Dems, to get that camera installed as well as adequate lighting along those areas.

I don't think I have the literature anymore, but Milton/Tories did take credit for student safety actions in a mailing they sent around the campus.

Purely coincidental? Are you sure? Wasn't 2 and a half years ago - Jan/Feb 2003? And the Conservatives had just taken control? I thought they took control in May 2003? So in fact you were campaiging against the Lib Dem Council (with a Lib Dem MP) for the camera and lighting and nothing happened?! But then things changed and there is now a conservative council and conservative MP and there is a camera there!! I'm getting very very confused by what your saying!! I think you're peddling very quickly backwards on your bicycle!!!

I think you should just be careful, when saying things like "guess who takes credit for "Conservative action" that took 2.5 years? Dipstick herself" when in fact you've nothing to substantiate it ('dipstick taking the credit') ....or even the conservatives taking credit.

What you end up doing is looking like; a, someone with, either a personal dislike or vendetta against amme, or b, someone who just dislikes the conservatives. Which if you are hoping to persuade people to believe the stuff on here in a credible way, just doesnt work!

Ah, so *just* like The Emperor's New Clothes, except minus the bit where people realise the guy's naked. Gotcha.

Here's a word to play with, BTW:

"residence"

I reckon that tomtom's a bit sweet on Anne Milton.

....exactly Tim and just like the bit in Sixth Sense where he sees the cyclist at the window.


....and...just like that bit in Braveheart where they pull a moony!

...and just like that bit in bodyline when you know Larwood's ball is gonna grow and grow.

Thank you Gasbill - very productive(!), i am a 'bit sweet' on Caramac's, they're lovely!

I do not put anybody under the disillusion that I do not dislike the Conservatives as a party... I cannot stand the party itself. However, a good friend of mine is a Tory councillor, and we get on really well. People have the right to put forward their beliefs, and I do not disagree with that.

I don't need to substantiate it to know exactly what happened. I can try and dig out the letter where it was said, but as you can understand, Milton's literature (except Paradise Lost - a prediction of the next election, starring our favourite person as the protagonist) doesn't stay in my house for long.

In regards to 2.5 years ago, I rounded up. I apologise if anybody felt misled by my figures. I officially started on the campaign in summer 2003, as you will see by visiting the barefacts pages.

And for the record, the camera is in place a bit further from the underpass than expected, and it was put in place before the election... funny that.

Somebody (I think TomTom) brought the topic of a democratically-elected Mayor for Guildford. Tories and LibDems both oppose the concept as (I think) does Labour, and only the Trinity Party (a.k.a. Michel Harper) is in favour. But they have been assiduously gaining signatures, and it seems now quite possible that they will get enough to force the issue.

That said, many of the supporting readers' letters in the Surrey Ad are NOT from Trinity members, and it is equally (and thankfully)likely that the eventual elected Mayor will be Tory or Lib Dem - or even Independent - rather than Trinity. Any ideas about who the candidate(s) might be ? (I don't think Dipstick is allowed to stand !)

I dunno, I'd put money on a certain nightclub owner standing...

I don't think we'll get a DEM - a dictatorship if there ever was one.

tomtom:
So what you're saying is that we should all keep our mouths shut until after the next election, just so we don't ruin the surprise ending (where 20,000 people slap their foreheads and realise that she's deadweight).

lambethlad:
Email me with a timeline and I'll get in touch with the parties involved and see if we can't cast a little light on the subject. It'd be awful if Tory councillors delayed the camera for strategic reasons. While people were being attacked on a regular basis.

gasbill:
I think tomtom played his hand a bit early too, but try not to spoil it for the rest of the audience.

A Camera in the Underpass

Does anyone remember the old satirical poem, about the Fence at the edge of the cliff, versus the Ambulance down in the Valley?

Why do we need a camera in the underpass? Couldn't we have laws and law enforcement that kept the scum who attack people in underpasses locked up in very unpleasant prisons for very long times?

Of course, neither Conservatives nor the Liberal Democrats (nor Labour for that matter) would go for that. What would the Guardian say, oh dear?

So let's put more ambulances down in the Valley and quarrel over who got them there first.

Doug