The Bradley Stoke Journal

Jack Lopresti, MP for Filton and Bradley Stoke, went to Washington DC last week as part of his duty as an Executive Officer of the British and American Parliamentary Group. Jack was part of a delegation of Members of Parliament who flew to the USA on a trip to promote friendly relations and mutual understanding between MPs and Members of Congress.

The trip was also significant to Jack’s role on the Defence Department Support Group. During the visit Jack met with US Government Officials from the State Department and the National Security Council.

At the Pentagon, Jack met with officials from the US Defence Department and NATO to discuss the Afghanistan Conflict and the Strategic Defence and Security Review, due to be published later this month.

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Interesting article (Toasting the new politics) from Paul Barltrop, BBC Political Editor for the West of England, who managed to get Conservative and Lib Dem activists from Bristol North west together to chat on television about their parties’ parliamentary marriage.

Could we see a similar love-in on Bradley Stoke Town Council (BSTC), where the Tories out number the Lib Dems by 12 to 2? Could save a few bob on by-elections (£5k a throw, according to a recent report).

Might seem unlikely as Lib Dem stalwart Cllr Jon Williams was recently sanctioned for describing his (predominantly) Conservative colleagues as “a bunch of w****ers” at a BSTC Council meeting in December 2008.

Then again, David Cameron is apparently on record as saying his favourite joke is (was?) Nick Clegg.

A profile of Bradley Stoke’s new MP Jack Lopresti in The Daily Telegraph claims that the former mortgage broker received his “state education” at Bradley Stoke Community School (BSCS).

Somehow I don’t think that’s correct. By my calculation, Mr Lopresti, born in 1969, would have attended secondary school in the 1980s. BSCS opened in September 2005.

The turnout for voting in the Filton and Bradley Stoke Constituency has been provisionally announced as 70.1%.

With 69,008 eligible voters, that suggests that over 48,400 votes were cast.

We are hearing (unofficially) that Jack Lopresti (Conservative) has already reached 16,000 counted votes with the Lib Dem and Labour candidates having about 9,000 each.

Now that Conservative Jack Lopresti has arrived at the count, the eight candidates have just been invited to inspect spoilt papers.

With counting well under way, the rumours are that Conservative Jack Lopresti is looking the likely winner with up to 40% of the votes.

Liberal Democrat supporters observing the count are admitting that it doesn’t look good for their candidate Peter Tyzack.

Mr Lopresti has not yet arrived at the count but is expected within the next few minutes.

Dear editor

so the truth is out.

whoever the next government are, they will be making massive spending cuts to our public services

brilliant eh (!) they give themselves a pay rise, massive expense accounts and a second home while we have to put up with savage cuts in funding to our public services (!)

stuff that!!!!

lets just kick them all out (!)

Even the Prime Minister is up to it.

he says all he was guilty of, was of overpaying someone!

yeah right, why not try cleaning your own house, you lazy man, like the rest of us have to.

and dont give me all that “but ive got lots of public functions to attend” rubbish, some people have to hold down 3 jobs just to feed their families.

and whats your wife doing? she doesnt need to work, not with all the money youre on, cant she clean the house if youre so busy?

and as for that other bloke, if you like ducks so much, get down the park and feed them in the pond, like the rest of us!

is being a politician a career or a vocation?

if its a career, then stop bleeting on about wanting to do the job for the good of the country and its people!

if its a vocation, then how about leading by example and paying yourselves the average monthly wage of the regular joe bloggs

believe me that’ll still be well above what alot of low paid workers are on, doing jobs you probably wouldnt touch, even with your opposite numbers, fully expenses paid, barge pole.

and in case this looks like a biased attack on an already defeated mr brown, like kicking a man when hes down, how about the fact that our next prime minister, the person in charge of making these “savage spending cuts”, could be a man with a net worth of £30 million (!)

it stinks, but i doubt he can smell it, from his ivory tower, situated far far away from the local privy

and i doubt very much he’ll be needing the “public” services, that we wont be able to use for much longer either!

really theres only one way to get to these people, and thats to reject the lot of them!

if they really thought for one minute that we could and would vote them all out, then they would soon change their tune, wake up to reality, and get in touch with what its like to live as an ordinary person, in the real world

while we’re at it, who exactly are we paying back this humungous national debt to anyway? not the same bankers who got us into this mess in the first place, surely!!!!

phew!!! and relax!!!!!

of course these are only my personal views, and are in no way related, to my function as a “none of the above box” on the filton and bradley stoke ballot paper

these are the reasons, i personally, would use a none of the above box, but other people’s reasons could be totally different.

and if other people actually support any of these people and parties, fair play to them, its a democracy after all, and they are completely entitled to their opinion and voting preference, as i am mine

so thats why i personally would like to see a “none of the above” box on the ballot paper.

in fact in my opinion, the most democratic thing any government could do would be to put a “none of the above” box on every ballot paper and then make voting compulsory.

but i wont hold my breath waiting

yours

Mr Vote Zero None Of The Above