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The TisVis Committee held open house at the Nadder Hall this evening. There was an efficient display of annotated boards all of which could be ‘be-stickered’ with little dots.

Apparently the Committee has been sitting for two years so far, and its members have obviously worked very hard, and done all they saw fit to do. Surely things should have moved on by now? Has not the village already answered the points re-posed this Thursday evening? Will one really need to re-constitute TisVis as was suggested on one of those display boards?

It will be interesting to see the final report. Hopefully it will be more explicit than that we all wish for ‘Mother and Apple Pie’.

One was re-asked the same old questions and wonders why? Was it just to test our ability to give the same answers as we gave last time, or were the previous answers not the right ones?

There is too the possibility that we were never asked the right questions that MIGHT HAVE BEEN ASKED. One such would have been whether it would be a good idea for the Parishes of West Tisbury and Tisbury to amalgamate. Have just one Parish Council, Have but the one Parish Clerk. There would not only be a saving of money, but too a more equitable distribution of the Parish Precept. Tisbury pays for the facilities that West Tisbury shares. Another question might have concerned the matter of Elections . We in Tisbury and Teffont combined, return two District Councillors to Salisbury. Each of us can cast two votes, providing one does not attempt to cast them for the same candidate. There are other Salisbury District Council Wards who have three Councillors, and each voter can cast three votes in an election. Although this is the correct procedure it is none the less entirely WRONG that it should be so. What happened to ONE MAN ONE VOTE?

It is of course entirely understandable that I should be allowed to cast multiple votes, however I can see no reason that the rest of you should be encouraged so to do. (That was a Joke.)

I mentioned this to one of the Candidates now standing for Election and was advised that it was all a matter of saving money etc. It has nothing to do with money. If we each cast our one vote, and there are say as in Tisbury, possibly four possibly five Candidates, then the two Candidates polling the higher number of Votes are the ones deemed elected. It might so be that the one candidate has 99% 0f the votes and the others share but 10%. So what ? The greatest of the runners up becomes our second Councillor. Only thus can the Poll be equitable.

There is an associable point. Say a Political Party ‘X’ was to field a Candidate for each of the two available seats, would not the result of the election be on the basis that one Political Party’s Machine is stronger than the other. If all of us had but the one vote then the power of the Party Political Lobby would be obviated, on account that none of us would have a second vote to cast. Let us change the system. Make it that we all have but the one vote, and the first two past the post are deemed the chosen ones.

People are disillusioned concerning all levels of Government. Consider that they have no influence on the outcome of an election, and the numbers who bother to cast their vote diminishes year in year out. I have submitted these my personal views to the Electoral Commission, but possibly you, and certainly the Political Parties will reject the idea.

That matters not, but such topics are of the kind that might have been considered in the TisVis questionnaire. Surely some £5000 of grant money should not have devolved down to such irrelevancies as to whether or not we should have a village Optician , or come to that whether we think the Public Loo is well maintained. The question that might have been asked about that was whether the village thinks we should retain the Loo now that the Village has directly to pay for it (put a tick in the yes box).

HAVE YOU SUBMITTED YOUR PAPERS TO BECOME A PARISH COUNCILLOR ? ONLY COUPLE OF DAYS LEFT SO TO DO. ELECTION MAY 3RD.

QUOTE OF THE WEEK : : It's the economy, stupid. This was a sign hung in Bill Clinton's campaign headquarters to keep everybody "on message" in 1992. James Carville put it there.

contact : J.B.Pope
Email : pionono@tiscali.co.uk


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