Having been away from the City on Saturday, much to my surprise I returned to find several people concerned about my health and wellbeing.
This appears to have its genesis in your coverage of the local election results and in particular the use of 3 photographs of me apparently looking “stressed”.
I am one of the least emotional people around and was entirely phlegmatic about Fridays likely election results.
Had your photographer stalked every candidate in the room then he could have at some point come up with a similar shot during what was a long counting session (around 5 hours before the first results were available).
You coverage distorted the atmosphere and I can only assume that your staff wished to pander to the triumphalist element who choose to express their views in personally abusive terms. It has been evident for some years that The Press was prepared to tolerate such – minority – extreme views on your website. Your willingness to demonise local personalities in your pages is, I suppose, just an extension of where the national media is going. That doesn’t make it right
Had you looked a little closer into the backgrounds of some of the candidates for election, then you might have done the community a service by providing an objective comparison.
Nor did I leave the count “abruptly”. I was in the room for several minutes after my result had been declared and then left to ensure that the result was published as soon as practical.
I have over the years had some respect for the independence of The Press but your editorial on Saturday with its reference to the Barbican suggests that some of your reporters still have their own political agendas. In respect of helping residents to understand options and the constraints on important policy issues, in recent years, you have failed.
You have also failed to analyse the voting trends . The Liberal Democrat vote across the City was broadly similar to 2007. What happened was that Labour voters turned out in larger numbers as evidenced by the higher overall turn out. That is fair enough and signals a healthy democracy.
People make their judgements based on a variety of influences.
We have no doubt that the national situation played its part, not least in allowing Labour to generate apparently unlimited amounts of money to fund their campaign.
Many of the claims in the Labour literature were bogus but received little media scrutiny. In effect, on a range of issues, Labour have succeeded in giving the impression that they might change, what they caricature, as existing policies (cuts, privatisation, reduced spend on offices etc) while reality will be that they have few alternatives available to them. Time will prove that to be true. Although there will be a few symbolic gestures early on in the course of the new administrations term of office, the major financial choices available to them are limited. To admit such in their literature would, of course, have been disingenuous.
I fear for the future of the City if the “Big City, Big Growth” option now becomes the blue-print for the future. That is what Labour threaten to do and most York people still have no idea about the consequences of such a policy, not least on the setting and appearance of the City.
I am confident that history will record that the last 8 years have been amongst the most successful in the development of our City.
We now have a much changed and more resilient economy while street level service standards are higher than for our competitors. Crime has reduced dramatically. The education system has been modernised and there has been huge investment in leisure; some of which will only become apparent gradually as first the Barbican, then the Hull Road Sports Village and finally the community stadium open their doors. The much vilified new council HQ will open in 2012 saving around £17 million in cost to taxpayers. Council housing has been modernised as has specialist social services accommodation. Reduced central government support has been offset by an efficiency programme which has largely preserved front line services and which is the envy of many other Councils.
Effectively the new administration gets off to a flyer.
I wish them well in moving the City forward. I hope that they enjoy the backing of the media when it is deserved. I hope also that their plans and polices are subject to explanation in an objective way – something that I feel we did not enjoy from you over the last few years.
I will now be taking a break from public life. I welcome the opportunity to spend time on other projects. To that degree I am grateful to the electorate for freeing me from the time constraints faced by every Councillor. I doubt very much whether some of the recently elected new Councillors have any idea of the commitment required to do a good job for their wards. I do hope that they will get up to speed quickly
Time will tell.