If I had a pound for every time someone told me how much they detested Bristol Lord Mayor George Ferguson, I’d have a lot of pounds and none of them would be Bristol pounds. One of the first Liberal councillors in the city, not to mention twice failed parliamentary candidate for Bristol West, Ferguson jumped ship at the last moment before the mayoral election, leaving Nick Clegg’s tarnished Lib Dem brand to run, notionally, as an “independent”.
Ferguson has squandered millions on his 20 MPH speed limits all over the city whilst doing absolutely nothing to address the travel chaos hundreds of thousands of Bristolians suffer every single day of the week and now the great man imposes residential parking zones to make it harder for people to park. Well, thanks George. You can tell the ego of the man from the most cosmetic change he made right at the start, changing the name of the ‘Council House’ on College Green to ‘City Hall’ in a vainglorious attempt to make his position sound as glamorous and important as the mayoral position in London. He probably wants to be like Boris Johnson, another gimmick-ridden insubstantial comedy act.
What on earth did Bristol do to deserve old red trousers himself? Well, it didn’t vote. When an referendum was held in 2012 to ask the Great Bristol Public whether they wanted a mayor, over 75% of them stayed at home. And when the unwanted election actually took place, 62% of them stayed at home. Do you see what happened here? An unnecessary, expensive non job was created but due to extreme apathy, an unnecessary expensive mayor was then elected.
It is all very well to launch a petition calling for the mayor’s position to be scrapped – I’d vote for it to be scrapped if I lived in Bristol – but it’s quite another thing to complain about something that was easily preventable by the simple act of voting.
In short, the genie is out of the bottle and Bristol is probably stuck with a mayor it doesn’t want and, with police numbers dramatically falling, a police commissioner it doesn’t need. This is the economics of the madhouse.
If we’re stuck with a mayor we don’t really want, but ended up with, let’s hope that when the people of Bristol get another vote, they actually do get out and vote. It can be argued that Ferguson does not have a proper mandate to run Bristol but if people have the right to vote but then don’t use it, what can we do?
We all know the arguments, don’t we? People fought through world wars to maintain our freedom, so we have a duty, surely, to vote in a free election. I suppose, by the same token, we have the freedom, too, to not vote if we so choose, but if we decide not to vote, let’s not complain about who we end up being ruled by.
3 comments
My son took part in an Army Cadets parade in the Centre on Saturday and, as part of that, visited “City Hall”. “Where?” I asked, having lived in Bristol for all of my 54 years. When he explained I realised it was the Council House. This is Bristol, UK not Washington DC. Also, I am at a loss to understand why the Mayor is promoting his Green policy at the same time as approving the decimation of trees and woodland at Simms Hill (Stoke Park, near Dower House) (proposed Metrobus route) during PEAK nesting season 🙁
The guy’s an arrogant moron. End of conversation
People have to take responsibility for the guy to have hit into the role. It’s precisely this type of thing that “should” make people realise that their vote counts and it’s a timely reminder, with a general election just 2 days away.
Use your vote !!
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