Gazetteering, again …

Hmmm …

Well, THAT little picture seemed to upload ok …

You will let me know if it didn’t, won’t you … ?

At any rate, you can probably guess that — as I’ve posted a Gazette banner, here — that I’ve sent them ANOTHER email, can’t you … ?

Well, if you hadn’t worked that out, by now … !!

Says I, smilingly … !

At any rate, I’ve not just sent one, this week, I’ve actually just sent my second of the week.

Should I maybe apply for a job, there? Trevor, Adrian* … ?

At any rate, the first one was something I’d been meaning to send, since the May 6th election that led to the coalition government we now have: here’s what I said to them …

Dear Sir,

I’ve got to admit, I read both the Letters page and the Politics Briefs in this week’s Gazette with a great deal of interest. And will happily admit I’m a life-long Liberal voter that’s seriously thinking of voting Labour at the next General election, if not at local government ones.

After all, I happen to think Councillor Chilvers has done a very good job. And will continue to do so, now Brentwood West has an extra Lib-Dem councillor to work with.

I’m also very aware that a Lib-Dem coalition with Labour — under Gordon Brown, or who-ever takes over as party leader — would not have had the parliamentary numbers to be able to be an effective government. And that, for the Conservatives, forming a minority government would also have presented difficulties.

Under our current voting system, I’m very conscious of the fact that Nick Clegg had little option, other than to form the coalition he has with David Cameron.

But seeing this coalition being built has left me feeling sickened.

And feeling that I, and roughly 11000 other voters in Brentwood and Ongar, have been deeply betrayed by the party we voted for.

I can only hope the promised referendum — and I’m very cynical about that — happens.

That’s about the only thing seriously that’s stopping my vote going elsewhere. For now.

Now the second one was in response to the Gazette’s article about a local school that’s received an award for doing well with its IT: couldn’t see me leaping on that one, could you … ?

Dear Sir,

I’ve got to confess that I’ve just had a re-read of this week’s edition of the Brentwood Gazette, and I think — think — I could well have added more to my recent emails.

Specifically in relation to the fact that a Brentwood primary school has done rather well in its use of IT.

Good for them!

But …

And you could tell there’s a but, there, couldn’t you, given my tendency to jump on a technology story … !

But I’ve got to admit, given my well know tastes for using and promoting software that isn’t made by Microsoft, I have to wonder why this school — and others like it — are teaching our towns children that Microsoft products are the be all and end all of both operating systems and office software.

Now, in a recent blog post — and emailª to you — I wrote of how disappointed I was to see how the Liberal Democrats had joined a coalition with the Conservative party.

I personally believe that this is a sickening betrayal of Liberal-Democrat values, voters and activists.

But I can only hope that one of the changes that Nick Clegg seems to have sold his party’s soul for is the encouraging of an exploration of alternatives by both children and adults, especially in such an important area as information technology.

There we go, I hope ONE of them gets published.

But leave me a commentº and let me know what you think, folks … !

* Adrian, stop that, I can see the grin, from down here … !!

º Coherency would be appreciated, Kevin … !!

ª I’m talking about the first one, obviously …