Town Council Meeting – Wednesday 8 September 2010

Town Council Meeting – Wednesday 8 September 2010
As usual no members of the press were present. However we heard from Cllr Tor Clarke that members of the press no longer attend Town Council or County Council meetings due to ‘economic restrictions.’
The Council resolved to appoint a Communications Tzar to communicate with the local press. Sounds like something from Cold War Russia – doesn’t it? Pravda eat your heart out. So there you have it a Councillor is to be relied upon to be the official spokesperson of all proceedings on Oakham Town Council and the press will not or cannot be bothered to ascertain what is really happening. No doubt the Communications Tzar will fail to report on matters like the auditor’s ‘qualified’ approval of the Town Councils accounts – as reported to Town Councillors on 8 September 2010.
If one hasn’t a free press or even an energetic enough press to report on the Council proceedings it falls to us poor squibs on blogs to do so. However the Town Councillors are so anti freedom of speech that they will do their utmost, and I rather think this might mean harassment of their critics, to such an extent that they or their chums are willing to hack into email accounts.
The price of democracy is vigilance, if the press are not willing to exercise that vigilance then it is up to the blogosphere to do so. However those of us who do blog need to be protected from malicious hackers who try to subvert freedom of speech.