|
<[https://draytonmark.substack.com/p/news-release-3 #3]> (17th April),
<[https://draytonmark.substack.com/p/news-release-4 #4]> (18th April).
<[https://draytonmark.substack.com/p/news-release-5 #5]> (30th10th AprilMay).
<[https://draytonmark.substack.com/p/news-release-6 #6]> (1st12th May).
=====END of archive=====
(TBC)
>>> > [..] I'm clear in my mind that my personal opinions on those
>>> > standing for election are personal and have nothing to do with the CC
>>> > or those we represent.
On 3/16/22, chair@fitcc.org <chair@fitcc.org> wrote:
>
> Hi Mark
>
> It's absolutely fine by = me if you wish to attend, I note that you
> won't be speaking on our behalf w= hich is absolutely fine too. I'm
> feeling awful today so I doubt I'll be att= ending anymore meetings
> (online or otherwise) before next week at the earli= est.
> =C2=A0
> Mark Linfield
> Chair
> Fort Will= iam Inverlochy and Torlundy Community Council
>
[..] He confirmed that his SubStack (at <https://DraytonMark.SubStack.com>) would be the "centre of operations" for this, but also that other social network platforms would be "drawn into the circle," enabling questions to be posed publically (as comments below the master copy of this very news release at <https://DraytonMark.SubStack.com/p/news-release-4>, or privately by email, NextDoor message, or even SMS (to 07933 760031).
/*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/ /*\ \*/
======Vote (last)======
======Wed-Head xxxv======
Well, folks: nothing much has changed since last week so, if you can stomach voting Tory at all I hope you will vote for Dr Fawcett; if not, I hope you will support Mr MacLennan. What you do down-ballot won't matter unless there's a tie for last place, which is very, very unlikely to happen. So all I shall do is put a cross next to Dr Fiona Fawcett's name and leave the rest blank. (A cross is OK instead of a digit '1' if you're not bothering to include down-ballot preferences.) Dr Fawcett and Mr MacLennan were also the only two candidates to provide comprehensive answers to NoseyPARCA's 'cyberhustings' (see postscript).
So, for the last time, my decision is based on the following ranking, which also hasn't changed since last week:-
-=- The GOOD -=-
Fiona Fawcett (Con)
by far the most impressive; focus on (i) mental health and (ii) environment
Thomas MacLennan (Ind)
experienced; very clear focus on (i) spending and (ii) localism
Sarat Fanet (SNP)
solid track record since December; emphasis on community inclusivity
-=- The BAD -=-
Angus MacDonald (LD)
flip-flopped on Planny visit (laughable reason); hopelessly naive
Kate Willis (Green)
flip-flopped on Planny visit (no reason given); crazy views; dense
(I'm still the UGLY, of course.)
The highly personable Dr Fawcett remains in the top spot after (i) her terrific visit to Plantation the Friday before last (see <https://draytonmark.substack.com/p/making-friday-finer>) and (ii) a campaign visit to Inverlochy last Friday in the company of an equally amiable if rather more corpulent bloke calling himself Jamie Halcro-Johnston MSP (pictured). So, having done, it being election time, a fair amount of "ascertaining and co-ordinating**" the views of the community I represent recently, yesterday I took the opportunity to "express**" them to certainly the first member of Scotland's shadow cabinet that I've ever met. I nagged him about the Belford, the A82, STPR2***, and NPF4***, and I griped about a few other local issues, but we spent most of the time discussing innovative localistic approaches to civic empowerment. I later sent him a follow-up email so let's see what, if anything, happens next. (I'm not, of course, holding my breath: merely crossing my fingers - more in hope than expectation.)
[[ **see my somewhat notorious <https://draytonmark.wordpress.com/> ]]
[[ ***Lost on you? Throw them at <https://DuckDuckGo.com> along with 'Scotland' (say). ]]
Because Ms Fanet doesn't need my vote, then, as I said last time, Mr MacLennan's having NINETEEN times as much experience as ALL the other four candidates put together (!), combined with Dr Fawcett's outstanding mix of fine personal qualities and noble preoccupations (many of the latter shared with Ms Fanet, by the way), makes it a toss-up between the Tory and the Indy. I myself need no clothes peg to vote for a bloody good Conservative candidate (see yesterday's Wed-Head at <https://draytonmark.substack.com/p/wed-head-xxxiii-pt1>, although I know plenty of others who feel differently. If you simply cannot bring yourself to vote Tory, Mr MacLennan's your man. But if the election was tomorrow I'd vote for Dr Fawcett, and I hope many others will do the same in a week's time. (Flip me a text if you need a clothes peg.)
PS:
Yesterday night was the deadline for responses to the NoseyPARCA cyberhustings. Mr MacLennan did not feel the need to qualify his answers, but Dr Fawcett was, I think it's fair to say, rather more cautious - guarded, even - writing that "These questions deserve an [in-]depth reply which I shall discuss on my visit. Short email answers can be glib and not address the issue at hand and lack nuance and meaning, but in principle, OK, here are a few basic answers."
Anyway, without further ado:-
--
Q1: Whereabouts within Lochaber do you live?
Thomas MacLennan's straightforward answer, "Fort William," was at least concise - if apparently contradictory with respect to his campaign literature which gave his address as 'Laundry Cottage' in Torlundy. Dr Fawcett couldn't actually answer the question because the presupposition ("within Lochaber") is false in her case: she and her husband live in Inverness or, as she put it, "I live in the Highlands and believe that if you have the drive intelligence and talent you can represent anywhere with aplomb, commitment and flair." She later explained in person that, if elected, she and the incoming Caol and Mallaig** Tory Councillor Liz Saggers would initially rent somewhere together and go from there.
[[ **where there is no election on Thursday because three candidates stood for three seats on HRC. ]]
I have resisted the temptation to comment on candidate's answers to Q2, Q3, and Q4, except to say that I regard it as no sin at all not to answer a question - as long as you address it. You might, for instance, reply with something like "I don't know yet, but I can tell you exactly what principles will guide my decision" or some such. To me that's just fine, that's an answer in kind, that's good enough. So I think that both Mr MacLennan and Dr Fawcett both gave satisfactory, convincing answers to Q's 2-4, as follows:-
--
Q2a-d:
(a) How many hours a week do you work at the moment?
(b) At what?
(c) How many hours a week, if any, will you continue to work at that if elected?
(d) How many hours a week will you work as a councillor?
Dr Fawcett:-
"I am a housewife and work all the hours God sends! And by my calculation I have already worked three standard working lifetimes already in my role as a doctor and I firmly believe its not the hours you work, its what you put into the hours. Any professional will tell you that you work until the job is done, and done properly. I am fast, intelligent and quick to grasp problems and offer solutions, its what I am trained to do. I will not attend meetings that last longer than an hour because they are unproductive. All I can say is I will promise to give it my all and do whatever it takes to get things done because I don’t waste time, I use it wisely."
Thomas MacLennan:-
"(a) None, [because] (b) I'm retired. (c) Sufficient amount of Hours to have been elected once before and then re-elected. (d) From experience no two weeks are the same, you're on call 24/7"
--
Q3: What will you have achieved by the end of 2022?
Thomas MacLennan:-
"Honestly don't know, as I have no idea whats in HC's capital plan for Lochaber. Just 4 weeks ago I wasn't even going to be a candidate, but because all the experienced councillors have left, I at the last minute decided to stand for election. Simply because experienced councillors from elsewhere in the Highlands will grab available resources before new councillors have found how it works. Alternatively I could make a list of promises at this point, knowing that if I get in it'll be 5 years before you can do anything about it, I'd rather be honest."
Dr Fawcett:-
"World Peace! I jest. Anyone starting out on this Council journey must lay strong foundations by taking the time and trouble to work the patch and talk face to face with people and actually understand the real problems they face and then lay out strong plans to solve those problems. Promising the earth when it can’t be delivered is another political fallacy that I won’t engage in. I personally would like to see a Community Gardening Scheme for all Council owned land to produce fruit and veg for locals and I want the Belford Hospital open with a 10% increase in care beds for the elderly. I want to see more specialist mental health services available locally. I want hidden quiet people to feel and be empowered by my advocacy and I want to increase by 10% the availability of affordable housing to rent. I want to see no litter in FW. The list is endless but it will be tempered by reality and frankly this is simply my list and I am not here to tell you what I want to achieve because what matters is what you the voters want me to achieve. You can set my priorities because you are the ones that matter."
--
Q4a&b:
(a) Should Fort William, Caol, and Kilmallie have a joint Town Council?
(b) Why or why not?
Dr Fawcett:-
"A joint town council is a good idea in principle if all parties can work together in a positive and constructive manner for the good of the locale. It will be more powerful, represent more voices and have more clout.It is not a good idea if it becomes a stagnant talking shop. It must be dynamic, energetic and full of smart new ideas alongside a determination to succeed whilst being mindful and respectful of each areas individual needs and wants."
Thomas MacLennan:-
"Everything has become remote and distant from local people, Instead of having 1 councillor with a small ward, you have 4 in a huge ward, in this ward there is a Community Council that can create a 4 hour round journey ! Police and Licensing Boards and Planning Committees no longer exist at a Lochaber level. So yes I want decision making taken back to a local more approachable and accountable level."
(Publication suspended indefinitely due to authorial work commitments)
--
Q5a&b:
(a) "Should all Housing Associations (alternatively: all social landlords) be added to Schedule Two of Part Three of the 2015 Community Empowerment Act which enumerates the the list of organisations - the so-called 'public service authorities' (PSAs) - to whom, under the Act, Participation Requests may validly be addressed?"
(b) "Do you pledge to write an open letter to the relevant minister conveying and explaining your view?"
== ==
No candidate answered this question; neither Mr MacLennan nor Dr Fawcett felt that doing enough research to be able to answer confidently would be a good use of their time in the midst of a campaign: fair enough. (Dr Fawcett, for instance, wrote that she was "Not going to lie, I really don’t know the answer to this one, going to have to do the research [..], sorry.")
=='''Scratch-spaces'''==
======The CGA 16-color palette======
--
Q6a-c: "What was your reaction when you learned that LCoC had cancelled the Zoom hustings? Had you agreed to take part? If not, had it been your intention to take part?"
{| class="wikitable" style="float:center;"
No candidate answered (b) or (c) and the only candidate to answer (a) was Dr Fawcett, with "Jesus H Christ! What is going on... I was so looking forward to it!" from which I think it's fairly safe to infer that her answer to (b) would have been 'yes' - presumably she was too pissed-off to bother. She did, however, bother to address the last question...
! colspan="4" | The CGA 16-color palette
|- style="color:white;"
| style="background:#000;" | 0
| style="background:#000;" | Black<br />#000
| style="background:#555;" | 8
| style="background:#555;" | Dark gray<br />#555
|- style="color:white;"
| style="background:#00a;" | 1
| style="background:#00a;" | Dark blue<br />#00A
| style="background:#55f;" | 9
| style="background:#55f;" | Light blue<br />#55F
|-
| style="color:white; background:#0a0;" | 2
| style="color:white; background:#0a0;" | Dark green<br />#0A0
| style="color:black; background:#5f5;" | 10
| style="color:black; background:#5f5;" | Light green<br />#5F5
|-
| style="color:white; background:#0aa;" | 3
| style="color:white; background:#0aa;" | Dark cyan<br />#0AA
| style="color:black; background:#5ff;" | 11
| style="color:black; background:#5ff;" | Light cyan<br />#5FF
|-
| style="color:white; background:#a00;" | 4
| style="color:white; background:#a00;" | Dark red<br />#A00
| style="color:black; background:#f55;" | 12
| style="color:black; background:#f55;" | Light red<br />#F55
|-
| style="color:white; background:#a0a;" | 5
| style="color:white; background:#a0a;" | Dark magenta<br />#A0A
| style="color:black; background:#f5f;" | 13
| style="color:black; background:#f5f;" | Light magenta<br />#F5F
|-
| style="color:white; background:#a50;" | 6
| style="color:white; background:#a50;" | Brown (NOT dark yellow)<br />#A50 (NOT #AA0)
| style="color:black; background:#ff5;" | 14
| style="color:black; background:#ff5;" | Yellow (ie light yellow)<br />#FF5
|- style="color:black;"
| style="background:#aaa;" | 7
| style="background:#aaa;" | Light gray <br />#AAA
| style="background:#fff;" | 15
| style="background:#fff;" | White<br />#FFF
|-
| colspan="2" |<small>''NB: These are 12-bit RGB colours but''</small>
| colspan="2" |<small>''CGA is 4-bit RGBI (arranged as IRGB)''</small>
|}
== ==
--
======Scala (was: YTs4NxD)======
Q7: "Do you pledge to serve fully four years?"
No I don't know why this doesn't bloody format either -Hx
<nohtml>
<br/> <html>
<br/> <body>
<br/> <a href=https://www.scala-exercises.org/scala_tutorial/terms_and_types>https://www.scala-exercises.org/scala_tutorial/terms_and_types</a>
<br/> <script src="https://scastie.scala-lang.org/28U2aGjHTJC9fjMQaAPr3Q.js"></script>
<br/> </body>
<br/> </html>
</nohtml>
== ==
...becoming, once again, the only candidate to do so - with the almost instantly dispatched one-word answer: "Unreservedly!"
====== ======
|