We Want A By-election In Calne - I'm Told

Why is it that the older you get the faster time seems to pass? Is there a cure? Perhaps it’s just something that happens to Calne folk. It’s also quite sad that you wish your working week away but wish the weekend to last forever.

This weekend started with lots of phone calls regarding the situation in the potential by-election in Lickhill Ward, Calne. It seems several people are very keen for there to be an election and are sounding out the opposition. You can never be quite sure about the motives of those wishing to stand but I know that as a Calne man, my aim, irrespective of party politics has always been to do my best for the people of Calne. I like Calne and it has been my home for 35 of my 47 years. I went away aged 24 and came back aged 36 and for the 12 years I was away I always knew that I would return. Despite its problems Calne isn’t that bad a place to live, it could be better, but, having experienced life in other communities, I know it could be a great deal worse!

So, come midnight tonight we will know if the required 10 letters have been received to request a by-election and then presumably the gloves will be off. Whatever happens I would like to think that the contest will be a fair one and there will be no disruptive external influence that I have experienced in previous years. It is up to Calne people to decide what is best for them not these quasi-politicians from elsewhere.

Saturday was interesting, my girlfriend and I went down to the coast for the day and ended up in Mudeford. If you’ve never been it’s a splendid little seaside place not far from Bournemouth and despite it’s name isn’t actually muddy. The weather was pleasant, cold and sunny but at least it was dry and it helped that there weren’t too many people about. A highlight of my day at least, (although my girlfriend wasn’t that impressed), was that in the Haven Café on the seafront whilst drinking tea I noticed a familiar face. I’m sure we’ve all done it, seen someone we are sure is a celebrity, but never quite had the certainty to approach them in case it isn’t who you think it might be and you end up looking a plank. Fortunately there was no chance of me looking a plank, no, honest…. as I wouldn’t have intruded on the man’s privacy, but on the table opposite was none other than Ron Harris. No, not the Australian painter with a didgeridoo, but the ex-Chelsea footballer from the sixties and seventies who most males of my generation would be familiar with. I wasn’t a great football fan but I did know a lot of the players then. I suppose it was because, in those days, all of the players that played in Britain were actually British and had pronounceable names. I even googled “Ron Harris” on my mobile phone to check and yes, Chopper (as he was affectionately known, for some reason) Harris it was as I checked him against the photo on my phone. Apparently he has published an auto-biography that has a picture on the cover that left me in no doubt it was he. What with fresh cockles from the seafood stall and fish and chips a bit later on, a splendidly old-fashioned day out was quite perfect.

Talking of footballers, our local vicar, related to the sport in his Sunday sermon at the Remembrance service yesterday. He spoke about the tragic loss of life and of certain qualities that all individuals could have contributed to society, caused by armed conflicts in the past and that sadly continue today. It certainly provoked thoughts of what our society would have been like today should there not have been the wars that we are all too familiar with. Despite the rain there seemed to be more people present at the service and at the wreath–laying than in previous years. This seemed to be borne out by a comment made on the BBCs coverage of the national service of remembrance, that there were more veterans present for the march-past this year than there have been for several years despite nature reducing the numbers from World War II. Let’s hope this continues so that for once a year this country can be united for one cause at least.