>When confronted by the Record, he said: "This has been going on for three or four months now. She is a very keen gardener but I’ve got a new car and plan to use my garden as a driveway. It will be nice when it’s finished.
&
>Above all I am allowed to do everything.
What a nasty arsehole.
He’s a Tory what did you expect compassion? That’s antithesis to this lot, they’ve gone full Disney villain and then give shocked pikachu face when called on it
If you look at how many Tories voted against free school meals then you'll realise how heartless they are.
To actually vote against providing young children meals that may be the only main meal they have all day.
I'm guessing that it's because of the trope that all poor people must be lazy and on benefits. However, there will be a huge number that will be working 1 or more jobs whilst struggling to put food on the table for their children. These types of parents are rarely mentioned. It's only the good old Tory vendetta against the disabled, lazy & poor groups that the biased media keep on focussing on in order to make people less empathetic towards these groups.
Utterly disgusting.
This is what always gets me about it.
Even if you were to say that their entire worldview was true, the parents are completely and entirely at fault. The parents are fully, 100% lazy and spending money on drugs instead of feeding their kids or whatever these people believe.
Even if you concede all of that, I ***still*** don't understand how they can then also believe that the CHILDREN deserve to be punished for their PARENTS' behaviour.
They believe in bloodlines, heritage, and class disparity. They attribute at least some of their success to their heritage, and certainly blame the impoverished bloodlines for their misfortune.
> These children were born poor, it is up to them and them alone to get out of that poverty. Why should I [by proxy of taxes] pay to help?!
That is their mindset.
When people say this I always ask them if they the names of the parents of any significant people through history who are known for achieving great things.
The only way your children are your legacy are if you are part of a hereditary monarchy! In reality, nobody thinks that Origin of Species is the legacy of Darwin's parents, or that Guernica is the legacy of Picasso's parents!
I ask them what their great, great grand parents’ names were and more often than not they stare at me blankly because they don’t have a clue. I then point out how utterly forgettable we are even to our own descendants.
Sure we have social media now so future generations will be able to look back at their family but that is only presuming that the current SM sites last 150 years into the future to preserve those profiles, which is highly doubtful. Even if those records do survive and remain accessible, people may have a glance at their ancestors once on a lazy Sunday and then never think about them again. The “my legacy” people really forget how utterly insignificant the vast majority of us are in the big scheme of things.
If you really want to leave a legacy, you’d be better of leaving great art, design, literature or music in this world but for most of us that also ends up being utterly forgettable!
I've done a lot of research into my family tree. I knew in advance that my mum's family is only a few generations down the line from the landed upper classes, but even after learning about them, I still remember very little about their lives and legacies. The only one I really recall is one of my distant grandparents who lived in London around the 1810s and had a silk handkerchief nicked out of his pocket by a couple of boys. They were caught and arrested, found guilty, and were sentenced to transportation to Australia. For stealing a handkerchief. They were aged 12 and 13. I remember their names. Researched them, found their descendants still living in Australia to this day. But I don't even remember Mr Fancy Hanky's name, only that he's the reason for two families being Australian instead of British.
Those are the vast majority of people who truly leave legacies: the people who have a story nobody would want to have. The names in my family tree that always stick with me are the family of poverty-stricken thatchers who were repeatedly arrested for stealing food from their local market because they had no money to buy any. A distant ancestor who publicly ended her life over having her heart broken. My great-uncle who died at Verdun in WW1 and never met the son who was named after the battle he died in - and how that infant son and his mother both died from the Spanish Flu only a couple of years later.
Those are legacies. The people today who are obsessed with leaving one will be forgotten in a hundred years, just like everyone else. The only exceptions are the ones who'll leave a legacy they'd be ashamed of having.
In Sunak's defence, he stops eating at 5pm on a Sunday because he's been consuming a mix of the fresh juicy blood of orphans and the tears of poor people since 11am brunch, and its quite filling.
For a lot of the Tories I've known, it's a moral issue: these people are poor because they're bad. That way, it's easier to pretend that losing jobs or becoming homeless won't happen to "us" because "we're" good people, and those things only happen to bad ones. This extends to the children.
Further to that, this thinking allows them to behave like in this article. "I'm a good person, so therefore my actions - regardless of how they're perceived - are good" not "My actions are good, therefore I am good".
Exactly even if they are the worst parents in the world, it is never the kids fault. A good school experience may be what the kid needs to escape that life. It's is the cheapest form of intervention we got but the tories just need a fall guy for their shitty policies so brown and poor people get it both barrels from them.
Not only did they vote against free school meals, but when forced to actually do something about the problem, which could have been easily sorted with food vouchers, they turned it into a moneymaking opportunity for their cronies by awarding big contracts at £30 per head but only supplying around £6 of food per parcel (costed at asda at the time).
https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/feb/04/firm-in-meagre-free-school-meals-row-to-pay-for-half-term-provision-compass-marcus-rashford
There is plenty of info about this if you google the subject.
>If you look at how many Tories voted against free school meals then you'll realise how heartless they are.
That includes Rory Stewart who people like to paint as a "nice" Tory.
Look at the kind of comments they were making and defending around that period as well. Ben Bradley MP for Mansfield said he couldn't support the FSM extension during covid because he just knew that anyone in his constituency who needed that kind of support would sooner go waste it on crack and hookers before seeing their own children fed. He said this *about his own constituents,* presumably some of them who must have voted for him, during a period when huge numbers of people up and down the country found themselves in an utterly shite situation through no fault of their own. He has *never* apologized for these comments and in fact when the press started calling him out, rather than being punished by the party, other Tory MPs came out and defended the statement saying it was pretty on point!
No one even seems to remember this episode anymore meanwhile that "bigoted woman" comment has been going strong for nearly 15 years already.
there are tories that wanted not only to stop FREE school meals, but to ban children even bringing IN food.
In their minds, poor children should learn from being hungry that they should just accept their station in life
Neh, even the Disney villains weren't this bad. Watch the Cuella movie and you'll actually become sympathetic for her. Nothing in this world could make me feel sympathy for a Tory.
Remember that _Cruella_ and _Maleficent_ are later retcons into the story, and they didn't have that nuance in the originals.
Maleficent was publicly snubbed and responded by cursing an innocent _baby_.
Cruella just wanted a unique coat.
As a political party, tories are dicks.
However in this case his neighbour’s bush was growing over his boundary, he cut away the bush that was overhanging.
What’s the issue there? I completely understand *her* upset at the situation.. but it’s over his boundary.
Legally speaking though he should have offered her the trimmings I believe.
The neighbour being autistic and him being a Tory are irrelevant, the article is clearly just trying to stir up drama and Reddit are eating it up so mission accomplished.
Because she's autistic and so could be classed as a vulnerable person. He could have just been a decent human being instead of 'the law is on my side', and worked a compromise.
We've lost all compassion and sense of decency over the last few years.
Don’t disagree with your sentiment but it still doesn’t change the legal part of it..
There’s always neighbourly disputes about situations like this going on, we all know this particular case is only being reported because he’s a Tory councillor and she’s autistic. It wouldn’t be newsworthy without it.
As I said, the article is just shit stirring and people are eating it up.
The legal part is the legal part. A decent human being can still decide to not enforce the decision. This is him just showing how powerful he is.
Shit stirring or not. He's a part of the government. He should be better. We should all be better.
> There’s always neighbourly disputes about situations like this going on, we all know this particular case is only being reported because he’s a Tory councillor and she’s autistic.
And also because he's being a massive cock about it and obviously parading his political privilege. He literally just said he can do whatever he wants.
But don't forget Rayner needed a full police investigation and daily media updates about the non crime.
But this is just so unfair to the poor Tory and the media being bad.
Being a vulnerable person isn't an exemption though.
Why should he have to compromise on his own property?
It's not her land, it's his. The rules are really very clear.
According to the councillor, the hedge is the property of the local council (and I assume that extends to the land that the hedge is planted in as well). That doesn't make it his property.
He could compromise because she's a human being? I fear you may not fully understand what being vulnerable means.
Vulnerable people dont always fully comprehend societal rules. But 'the law says im right so screw what thy feel' seems to take precedent. There seems to be no appetite of handling any thing with sensitivity.
She's a grown woman who lives on her own. Are you saying that autistic people are too dumb to understand basic concepts like property and ownership? is she too dumb to understand that this is his space and he needed it for his car?
And not had a drive? Being a decent person has to have reasonable limits and a woman demanding you don’t touch a hedge on your own land is over that line.
Compromise: hey your hedge looks great and I see you working hard on its up keep. Do you mind if we trim it a little so I can get my car in?
Everyone's happy. No article written.
Anyway... Tories out!
People don't seem to be capable of compromise anymore. It's my way or the highway mentality. Maybe it's all the pollution and plastic/lead in our bodies that's fucking with our brains...
Correct, I used to to do trees and hedges years back and people would honestly believe they owned the whole tree as the trunk was in their garden so therefor all overhanging tree/hedge into neighbours garden should be left alone.
Some would come out screaming, swearing and threating this that and the other, I used to pretty big hard and muscular back then but also chill most the time so would just treat them like angry tired kids and take to explain the law on it all.
What shut them up almost every time is saying the job was not priced to get rid of the waste and by law we would dump it all on their property unless they wanted me to have a word with the other neighbour and see if they would pay to get rid of the waste as a gesture of good will. In reality we always would get rid of the waste anyway lol but it worked to help to somewhat keep the peace.
But in terms of having good relations with your neighbours the legal position is irrelevant. Neither party are qualified to understand it anyway and may be interpreting the law wrongly. But it just isn't worth it. The stress and havoc of a dispute is not worth it over a stupid hedge. We live in a small country and it only works if people are very considerate.
I wonder if something more is going on here. Just speculation but maybe the Tory was trying to build clout by arguing with a "Karen".
Which is funny because he won't be using that line again in a hurry unless he wants people to read about the time he cut down his vulnerable neighbours hedge after she'd asked him not to and then gloated about it 🙃
I work at a tourist site and councillors are assholes. One is allowed to flout the no dogs rule even though *everyone else* has to follow it. And on one occasion got angry because a member of staff didn’t recognise them.
“I have the right to be a cunt and therefore I will” just expressing this sentiment alone should be grounds for some form of permanent exclusion from society
...Wow, he actually posed for that photo. I assumed that must be somebody else from the story, but no, that's him, doing his "What did I do?" pose right in front of the destroyed hedge. Which, if I understand his statements correctly, he considers Council property and therefore he is allowed to take it down himself?
I kinda miss when they at least pretended to care about how they looked.
Even if it is council property... private individuals don't have a right to cut down council-owned property
The fact he's a councillor doesn't mean he owns the council
He not only believes he did nothing wrong and it's his God-given right to cut down her hedge, he also apparently believes he has friends in high places with the police who will make it all go away.
There aren’t many people willing to do it left. I was elected town councillor in may. A lot of councillors decided not to re stand because of the abuse they receive/what a shit job it is having to run more services with less resources and power than ever before.
In my county 80% of local councils went uncontested in the May election as there were too few candidates.
And in my town not a single Tory bothered to even stand.
Local politics is another area of the country in a crisis and a democratic deficit right now. It’s no wonder idiots like the above get into office - most of the time all you have to do is bother to stand
I certainly don't envy you having to deal with some members of the public, but hopefully there is some satisfaction from enacting positive change? I had no idea how many councils were like that, although it's not too surprising given the looney tunes out there.
**Obligatory Thick of It quote:**
Emma Messinger : Peter, *you* can't say the *public* are fucking *horrible*.
Peter Mannion : Yes I can, I've *met* them
Doing God's work.
I need to do a FoI request at some point to find out how many councillor seats had *no one* run.
The compensation is not enough for the amount of work expected. Its why you have a lot of older councillors because they've retired and can take the time to do it.
Parish councillor here, I'm the youngest member by some 40 years, we've never had a contested election. We have nearly 1,000 residents, but we never get more than 10 people who aren't councillors attend, and most of those are people who have to be there because they do volunteer work on behalf of the parish council (e.g. the guy who fixes stuff, the guy who does the neighbourhood plan, the lady who does the emergency planning)
How do you even get into that? Do you just throw your hat into the ring or is there like an application thing? Like could literally anyone just decide they’re doing that or is it more of a you need x qualification?
If you want to do so as a party member then the local branch of the party will decide, so you need to put yourself forward to them
Not sure what you'd have to do as an independent
Independents go and fill out a form and get the required numbers of signatures (I think it's three for district council) from residents, then hand in the form
Another issue is it's dominated by old people. Read a comment from a younger person who was a councillor and it was grim reading. Basically the councillors were stripped *everything* from young people's services - clubs, youth group, you name it - to fund pointless vanity projects and random stuff that *only* pensioners were realistically able to benefit from. Like defunding and shutting down a youth program to install some extra benches in one of the councillor's favourite parks.
Right now the only people able to effectively have the time or money to do the job are old people. Younger people simply aren't represented.
I agree. I’m 30 and making it my goal to field a slate candidates in their 30s next time round.
Currently I’m the junior on the council by about 20 years. Out of 14 councillors haha
I've considered trying to get into politics. But I'm not strong enough to take the abuse, and not canny enough to avoid the inevitable media lashback against my policies.
"The lady next door was upset to say the least, but the hedge is certified as council property officially and I’ve been snipping away."
Thinks councillors own council property apparently
i think you should be able to trim a neighbors hedge back, but cutting it down completely is obviously a nob head thing to do. otherwise he'd just be choping down his own hedges and he wouldn't be in trouble would he.
It's a sorta 'border' hedge, so half on his side half on hers. He wants to change his side from garden to drive so he can park his car.
edit:actually checking on google maps it looks like it's actually _his_ hedge, but the section in question is definitely bang on the border, half & half.
I guess his stance is that it is the council's hedge, perhaps because they are both council tenants so he could well have permission from the owner.
Possibly he owns, she is a council tenant, so he could have permission from the council to go ahead.
His argument is so thoroughly stupid.
1. Councillors aren't allowed to destroy council property. Only a council employee is allowed to do that.
2. If it is council property, that would make the land underneath it council property, meaning he can't use it as a parking space.
3. If the hedge is council property, he would have to send a request to the council to remove it
4. Why was he charged with vandalism? This is destruction of property
All of that is irrelevant. As, “it will be nice when it’s done”.
If you have a further issue I think you’ll find he “is allowed to do everything”.
So, reign your neck in.
Although, wouldn’t be nice to start a go fund me, to raise enough for some massive fucking trees to be planted. Big scratchy ones.
Of course they don't. We've just had a decade of historically low interest rates. Usually, competent governments will use those conditions to invest in improving infrastructure, shoring up national services, etc.
Instead they've cut funding in everything, sold off assets to their mates, run the entire country into the ground. They've left the entire mess for Labour to pick up. Not to mention the upcoming possibility of war.
They walk off, leave us drowning. Ten years later waltz back in and act like they're the change we need. Scum scum scum.
Tbf I’ve always assumed for parties like that it’s always nicer to be able to just sit on the sidelines and snipe at everything going wrong rather than being in charge and actually having to do stuff
So because it’s council property he has the right to remove it because he wanted space to park his car?
That can’t be right, surely it would be either up to the council or the tenant. If it creeps into his property then common law allows you to prune any that cross onto your property, it doesn’t give you the right to remove.
Let’s be honest though, we’re not surprised at shitty Tory behaviour.
What is insinuated by the article is he thinks he can do it because he's a councillor.
If it truly was on council land then he definitely can't just do it on a whim.
The article is quite biased but it does seem like he's being a grade A a-hole. The quotes are so bad.
Yep it sounds like he just went "I am a councilor this is council property so I can do what I want"
But it could also be that he abused his seat to get the go ahead to trim down the hedge. In which case he is in the right but a massive cunt.
“Above all, I am allowed to do anything… if you want to know anything else about me you can Google me”.
What a nasty fat narcissistic old bag. He’s got the mental age and maturity of a school bully.
I don't see why they needed to put that she's autistic in the headline, seems rather insulting to autistic people that they're suggesting this is worse because she's autistic.
The fact is the guy is a cunt who ripped up a hedge that legally belongs to his neighbour, is boasting about it, and is someone in public office who should hold higher standards that vandalism of other people's private property. Even if he wasn't, it's still a criminal offence.
Autistic people can have a need for things that bring them security and for this woman her gardening was her security. She hardly leaves her house and she said her gardening is "all she has". It means much, much more to her than the average person so the emotional consequences for her are considerable.
Ftr I'm autistic and I didn't find it insulting personally. My heart goes out to her.
Tbh considering that her garden does mean so much her, makes me think that asshole knows *exactly* how much it means to her, which is why he's taking delight in fucking with it.
I remember bullies taunting kids like that at school - "oh! oh! this stupid little thing you love means so much to you does it?!" and then "whoops!" they break it because they get a thrill out of hurting people, especially if they are vulnerable. This piece of crap clearly never matured out of that mentality.
What a cunt, and he's posing in the photo like some pensioner who got a newspaper article because they complained about too many Spanish people at their hotel in Spain. Looks like an absolute twat.
It used to be considered ‘aspirational’ to vote Conservative, but now the Tories really are becoming a low class party. There is a downmarket quality to this behaviour, as there is with the ‘betting scandal’.
Here in London, the Tories nominated a Mayoral candidate who really could have been Vicky Pollard’s grandmother. The leaflet their parliamentary candidate sent out last week continued with the ‘I hate Khan, I hate ULEZ’ theme and included a conspiracy theory about Labour planning a ‘nationwide ULEZ’.
The Tory base seems now to be people who say they are patriotic, put flags on their (polluting) cars or vans and throw litter out of the windows. Welcome to the Chav-servative Party.
He said the hedge was technically council property, so why was he allowed to clear it for his drive? Surely he should be charged for vandalism of council property then? Even if he’s a councillor, he can’t undertake council business by himself, without proper authorisation. Plus, shouldn’t the neighbour have been told to tidy it up herself, if it was really overgrown?
Wait, did a police Sergeant show up and tell this rotten man that it was "case closed" and he interpreted it as "I got away with it" but what the Sgt meant was "I've got you bang to rights and I'll see you in court"?
If its over your property line, you do with it as you wish, there is no debate or reason for compromise its the law.
However going past that is just cuntish, regardless of who owns it.
Me reading a book about how casinos are designed to trap their victims putting it to one side due to reading one horrible thing after the other and not quite having the stomach to continue. I'll look on Reddit for funny memes, the first thing that pops up is this.
Fuck me the world it filled with abhorrent people.
Sounds like an arrogant twat, and just because he is a councillor it doesn’t give him any extra rights. If he is turning his garden into a driveway I hope he has applied for all the appropriate permits. It would be such a shame if he was forced to put things back.
It is council property, I am a Councillor, therefore I can do what I want seems to be his argument.
Not that it is on his side. Just that she is a tenant in a council property
Safe seat, then? Being absolute cunts hasn't stopped them the last 14 years. Can't see it happening now... at best, it'll be a tory/reform coalition, and the reunion handshakes will be very hilarious.
Pretty sure being a Councillor doesn't give you the right to destroy council property. Sounds like he's abused his position to legally get it removed. Major conflict of interest that's all too common in local government.
He's allowed to trim the bit overhanging his property, not hack the entire thing down unless the trunk is on his land, which it is not.
I'm betting the 'autistic' lady is a bit of a nightmare as well. Both sound ghastly tbh.
Need to pay for whoever stands against him in elections to have HUGE posters saying what he did.
He seems to hate a combo of women, disabled people and the elderly with a deep deep deep hatred.
Also as thats a garden area, I bet he hasn't got planning permission to hardcoat the area.
I'd just like to personally apologise for having voted Conservative twice and enabling these...charming individuals. Rest assured, I will be abstaining at the next election and will probably never vote again as recognition of not knowing what the hell I'm doing.
>When confronted by the Record, he said: "This has been going on for three or four months now. She is a very keen gardener but I’ve got a new car and plan to use my garden as a driveway. It will be nice when it’s finished. & >Above all I am allowed to do everything. What a nasty arsehole.
He’s a Tory what did you expect compassion? That’s antithesis to this lot, they’ve gone full Disney villain and then give shocked pikachu face when called on it
If you look at how many Tories voted against free school meals then you'll realise how heartless they are. To actually vote against providing young children meals that may be the only main meal they have all day. I'm guessing that it's because of the trope that all poor people must be lazy and on benefits. However, there will be a huge number that will be working 1 or more jobs whilst struggling to put food on the table for their children. These types of parents are rarely mentioned. It's only the good old Tory vendetta against the disabled, lazy & poor groups that the biased media keep on focussing on in order to make people less empathetic towards these groups. Utterly disgusting.
Even if the parents are lazy, you’ve got to be pretty evil to think a child should be punished even further for having crap parents
This is what always gets me about it. Even if you were to say that their entire worldview was true, the parents are completely and entirely at fault. The parents are fully, 100% lazy and spending money on drugs instead of feeding their kids or whatever these people believe. Even if you concede all of that, I ***still*** don't understand how they can then also believe that the CHILDREN deserve to be punished for their PARENTS' behaviour.
They believe in bloodlines, heritage, and class disparity. They attribute at least some of their success to their heritage, and certainly blame the impoverished bloodlines for their misfortune. > These children were born poor, it is up to them and them alone to get out of that poverty. Why should I [by proxy of taxes] pay to help?! That is their mindset.
Yep, they're also obsessed with their "legacy". One old friend (don't talk anymore) literally told me that was why he wanted kids - "legacy".
When people say this I always ask them if they the names of the parents of any significant people through history who are known for achieving great things. The only way your children are your legacy are if you are part of a hereditary monarchy! In reality, nobody thinks that Origin of Species is the legacy of Darwin's parents, or that Guernica is the legacy of Picasso's parents!
I ask them what their great, great grand parents’ names were and more often than not they stare at me blankly because they don’t have a clue. I then point out how utterly forgettable we are even to our own descendants. Sure we have social media now so future generations will be able to look back at their family but that is only presuming that the current SM sites last 150 years into the future to preserve those profiles, which is highly doubtful. Even if those records do survive and remain accessible, people may have a glance at their ancestors once on a lazy Sunday and then never think about them again. The “my legacy” people really forget how utterly insignificant the vast majority of us are in the big scheme of things. If you really want to leave a legacy, you’d be better of leaving great art, design, literature or music in this world but for most of us that also ends up being utterly forgettable!
I've done a lot of research into my family tree. I knew in advance that my mum's family is only a few generations down the line from the landed upper classes, but even after learning about them, I still remember very little about their lives and legacies. The only one I really recall is one of my distant grandparents who lived in London around the 1810s and had a silk handkerchief nicked out of his pocket by a couple of boys. They were caught and arrested, found guilty, and were sentenced to transportation to Australia. For stealing a handkerchief. They were aged 12 and 13. I remember their names. Researched them, found their descendants still living in Australia to this day. But I don't even remember Mr Fancy Hanky's name, only that he's the reason for two families being Australian instead of British. Those are the vast majority of people who truly leave legacies: the people who have a story nobody would want to have. The names in my family tree that always stick with me are the family of poverty-stricken thatchers who were repeatedly arrested for stealing food from their local market because they had no money to buy any. A distant ancestor who publicly ended her life over having her heart broken. My great-uncle who died at Verdun in WW1 and never met the son who was named after the battle he died in - and how that infant son and his mother both died from the Spanish Flu only a couple of years later. Those are legacies. The people today who are obsessed with leaving one will be forgotten in a hundred years, just like everyone else. The only exceptions are the ones who'll leave a legacy they'd be ashamed of having.
And what a waste of a life it would be to spend it fretting about what people might remember of you when you’re dead!
They're fascists, they're naturally going to subscribe to fascist ideologies like [sippenhaft.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sippenhaft)
Not eating is a lifestyle choice. /s Ask Rishi Sunak. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-68129595.amp
In Sunak's defence, he stops eating at 5pm on a Sunday because he's been consuming a mix of the fresh juicy blood of orphans and the tears of poor people since 11am brunch, and its quite filling.
For a lot of the Tories I've known, it's a moral issue: these people are poor because they're bad. That way, it's easier to pretend that losing jobs or becoming homeless won't happen to "us" because "we're" good people, and those things only happen to bad ones. This extends to the children. Further to that, this thinking allows them to behave like in this article. "I'm a good person, so therefore my actions - regardless of how they're perceived - are good" not "My actions are good, therefore I am good".
Exactly even if they are the worst parents in the world, it is never the kids fault. A good school experience may be what the kid needs to escape that life. It's is the cheapest form of intervention we got but the tories just need a fall guy for their shitty policies so brown and poor people get it both barrels from them.
Starmer and Sunak looking nervously at this and wondering if they are the baddies for keeping the 2 child cap on child benefit.
Not only did they vote against free school meals, but when forced to actually do something about the problem, which could have been easily sorted with food vouchers, they turned it into a moneymaking opportunity for their cronies by awarding big contracts at £30 per head but only supplying around £6 of food per parcel (costed at asda at the time). https://www.theguardian.com/education/2021/feb/04/firm-in-meagre-free-school-meals-row-to-pay-for-half-term-provision-compass-marcus-rashford There is plenty of info about this if you google the subject.
>If you look at how many Tories voted against free school meals then you'll realise how heartless they are. That includes Rory Stewart who people like to paint as a "nice" Tory.
Rory Stewart has been whitewashed by having a successful podcast, but he has a lot of questionable opinions.
Look at the kind of comments they were making and defending around that period as well. Ben Bradley MP for Mansfield said he couldn't support the FSM extension during covid because he just knew that anyone in his constituency who needed that kind of support would sooner go waste it on crack and hookers before seeing their own children fed. He said this *about his own constituents,* presumably some of them who must have voted for him, during a period when huge numbers of people up and down the country found themselves in an utterly shite situation through no fault of their own. He has *never* apologized for these comments and in fact when the press started calling him out, rather than being punished by the party, other Tory MPs came out and defended the statement saying it was pretty on point! No one even seems to remember this episode anymore meanwhile that "bigoted woman" comment has been going strong for nearly 15 years already.
there are tories that wanted not only to stop FREE school meals, but to ban children even bringing IN food. In their minds, poor children should learn from being hungry that they should just accept their station in life
Neh, even the Disney villains weren't this bad. Watch the Cuella movie and you'll actually become sympathetic for her. Nothing in this world could make me feel sympathy for a Tory.
Remember the motto: Torys fuck kids...just close your eyes and think about that for a second and tell me that isn't true
Don't remember that motto, but yeah I can't tell you it's not true.
Remember that _Cruella_ and _Maleficent_ are later retcons into the story, and they didn't have that nuance in the originals. Maleficent was publicly snubbed and responded by cursing an innocent _baby_. Cruella just wanted a unique coat.
Why is Cruella the bad guy just for having high standards of dress sense?
Well, the whole "attempting to steal the puppies" thing might have had something to do with it...
I was gonna say, seems standard procedure for a Tory cuntsillor
As a political party, tories are dicks. However in this case his neighbour’s bush was growing over his boundary, he cut away the bush that was overhanging. What’s the issue there? I completely understand *her* upset at the situation.. but it’s over his boundary. Legally speaking though he should have offered her the trimmings I believe. The neighbour being autistic and him being a Tory are irrelevant, the article is clearly just trying to stir up drama and Reddit are eating it up so mission accomplished.
Look at the picture. He's destroyed it, not merely cut back the overhanging parts.
Because she's autistic and so could be classed as a vulnerable person. He could have just been a decent human being instead of 'the law is on my side', and worked a compromise. We've lost all compassion and sense of decency over the last few years.
Don’t disagree with your sentiment but it still doesn’t change the legal part of it.. There’s always neighbourly disputes about situations like this going on, we all know this particular case is only being reported because he’s a Tory councillor and she’s autistic. It wouldn’t be newsworthy without it. As I said, the article is just shit stirring and people are eating it up.
The legal part is the legal part. A decent human being can still decide to not enforce the decision. This is him just showing how powerful he is. Shit stirring or not. He's a part of the government. He should be better. We should all be better.
This a Tory Government where the mantra is 'Fuck you. Got mine'.
> There’s always neighbourly disputes about situations like this going on, we all know this particular case is only being reported because he’s a Tory councillor and she’s autistic. And also because he's being a massive cock about it and obviously parading his political privilege. He literally just said he can do whatever he wants.
But don't forget Rayner needed a full police investigation and daily media updates about the non crime. But this is just so unfair to the poor Tory and the media being bad.
Being a vulnerable person isn't an exemption though. Why should he have to compromise on his own property? It's not her land, it's his. The rules are really very clear.
According to the councillor, the hedge is the property of the local council (and I assume that extends to the land that the hedge is planted in as well). That doesn't make it his property.
He's been charged with an offence though.
Maybe he can become next Tory leader then, I hear you can't get in without one anymore.
He could compromise because she's a human being? I fear you may not fully understand what being vulnerable means. Vulnerable people dont always fully comprehend societal rules. But 'the law says im right so screw what thy feel' seems to take precedent. There seems to be no appetite of handling any thing with sensitivity.
She's a grown woman who lives on her own. Are you saying that autistic people are too dumb to understand basic concepts like property and ownership? is she too dumb to understand that this is his space and he needed it for his car?
No... Im saying we don't have to be cunts all the time.
Sounds like you really understand the issue.
And not had a drive? Being a decent person has to have reasonable limits and a woman demanding you don’t touch a hedge on your own land is over that line.
He's not claimed it's his own land, and your language is very telling.
Compromise: hey your hedge looks great and I see you working hard on its up keep. Do you mind if we trim it a little so I can get my car in? Everyone's happy. No article written. Anyway... Tories out!
People don't seem to be capable of compromise anymore. It's my way or the highway mentality. Maybe it's all the pollution and plastic/lead in our bodies that's fucking with our brains...
It seems Twatty public figures have made it ok to be a cunt.
Correct, I used to to do trees and hedges years back and people would honestly believe they owned the whole tree as the trunk was in their garden so therefor all overhanging tree/hedge into neighbours garden should be left alone. Some would come out screaming, swearing and threating this that and the other, I used to pretty big hard and muscular back then but also chill most the time so would just treat them like angry tired kids and take to explain the law on it all. What shut them up almost every time is saying the job was not priced to get rid of the waste and by law we would dump it all on their property unless they wanted me to have a word with the other neighbour and see if they would pay to get rid of the waste as a gesture of good will. In reality we always would get rid of the waste anyway lol but it worked to help to somewhat keep the peace.
Thats presumably why "A 69-year old man was charged in connection with the incident."
It growing over his boundary doesn't entitle him to remove the entire hedge. Just trim it back so it's not longer overhanging.
Or he could have come to a solution by talking to his neighbour
Is it overhanging? Where does it say that? He's just saying it is council property therefore he can do what he wants
But in terms of having good relations with your neighbours the legal position is irrelevant. Neither party are qualified to understand it anyway and may be interpreting the law wrongly. But it just isn't worth it. The stress and havoc of a dispute is not worth it over a stupid hedge. We live in a small country and it only works if people are very considerate. I wonder if something more is going on here. Just speculation but maybe the Tory was trying to build clout by arguing with a "Karen".
You misspelt cunts.
> Above all I am allowed to do everything. The Tory party line
He sounds like the villain in a movie where the hero is a dog
“If you want to know any more about me you can Google me.”
Which is funny because he won't be using that line again in a hurry unless he wants people to read about the time he cut down his vulnerable neighbours hedge after she'd asked him not to and then gloated about it 🙃
What a vile person
I work at a tourist site and councillors are assholes. One is allowed to flout the no dogs rule even though *everyone else* has to follow it. And on one occasion got angry because a member of staff didn’t recognise them.
The council own the hedge. He's a councillor. So he owns the hedge. It's the Tory way.
>I’ve got a new car Probably not for long now this story has come out
“I have the right to be a cunt and therefore I will” just expressing this sentiment alone should be grounds for some form of permanent exclusion from society
This has to be fake? Lol sounded like a movie villain If not I suspect he's gonna be in for some surprises by the local community when word spreads
He's a Tory - would you expect anything less?
Is it because the hedge don't belong to any of them and it was overgrown and he didn't want to scratch his new car?
My cousin is a tory councillor. He's also a massive cunt.
But you repeat yourself...
A little redundant, as Tories will soon discover.
And their redundancy package is far more generous than us mere mortals are entitled to.
My sister in law used to be a tory councillor but is now standing for reform to become an MP. Coincidentally she is also a massive cunt.
I don't think that's a coincidence.
True
My great uncle is a Tory councillor. He's a nice chap but a nimby and very old.
...Wow, he actually posed for that photo. I assumed that must be somebody else from the story, but no, that's him, doing his "What did I do?" pose right in front of the destroyed hedge. Which, if I understand his statements correctly, he considers Council property and therefore he is allowed to take it down himself? I kinda miss when they at least pretended to care about how they looked.
Even if it is council property... private individuals don't have a right to cut down council-owned property The fact he's a councillor doesn't mean he owns the council
[удалено]
It’s definitely a case of someone being given the tiniest modicum of power possible and it going straight to their head
I am the Council!
You know you're a loser when you have to take your own compoface pic
He not only believes he did nothing wrong and it's his God-given right to cut down her hedge, he also apparently believes he has friends in high places with the police who will make it all go away.
"It's a Council hedge, I'm a Councillor, it's basically mine. The police said it was case closed" \[The police charged him\]
I mean. That can still happen right?
It actually amazes me how bad some candidates for office are.
There aren’t many people willing to do it left. I was elected town councillor in may. A lot of councillors decided not to re stand because of the abuse they receive/what a shit job it is having to run more services with less resources and power than ever before. In my county 80% of local councils went uncontested in the May election as there were too few candidates. And in my town not a single Tory bothered to even stand. Local politics is another area of the country in a crisis and a democratic deficit right now. It’s no wonder idiots like the above get into office - most of the time all you have to do is bother to stand
I certainly don't envy you having to deal with some members of the public, but hopefully there is some satisfaction from enacting positive change? I had no idea how many councils were like that, although it's not too surprising given the looney tunes out there. **Obligatory Thick of It quote:** Emma Messinger : Peter, *you* can't say the *public* are fucking *horrible*. Peter Mannion : Yes I can, I've *met* them
Why do they wear clothes with writing on them? And why are they so fucking fat?
Doing God's work. I need to do a FoI request at some point to find out how many councillor seats had *no one* run. The compensation is not enough for the amount of work expected. Its why you have a lot of older councillors because they've retired and can take the time to do it.
Parish councillor here, I'm the youngest member by some 40 years, we've never had a contested election. We have nearly 1,000 residents, but we never get more than 10 people who aren't councillors attend, and most of those are people who have to be there because they do volunteer work on behalf of the parish council (e.g. the guy who fixes stuff, the guy who does the neighbourhood plan, the lady who does the emergency planning)
I’m a parish councillor for my village in Suffolk and your comment mirrors my experience.
How do you even get into that? Do you just throw your hat into the ring or is there like an application thing? Like could literally anyone just decide they’re doing that or is it more of a you need x qualification?
You register as a candidate in your local ward, fill out some paperwork and I think pay a small deposit, then it’s democracy time baby
If you want to do so as a party member then the local branch of the party will decide, so you need to put yourself forward to them Not sure what you'd have to do as an independent
Independents go and fill out a form and get the required numbers of signatures (I think it's three for district council) from residents, then hand in the form
Another issue is it's dominated by old people. Read a comment from a younger person who was a councillor and it was grim reading. Basically the councillors were stripped *everything* from young people's services - clubs, youth group, you name it - to fund pointless vanity projects and random stuff that *only* pensioners were realistically able to benefit from. Like defunding and shutting down a youth program to install some extra benches in one of the councillor's favourite parks. Right now the only people able to effectively have the time or money to do the job are old people. Younger people simply aren't represented.
I agree. I’m 30 and making it my goal to field a slate candidates in their 30s next time round. Currently I’m the junior on the council by about 20 years. Out of 14 councillors haha
I've considered trying to get into politics. But I'm not strong enough to take the abuse, and not canny enough to avoid the inevitable media lashback against my policies.
being a councillor is such a shit job on so many levels its a given.
"The lady next door was upset to say the least, but the hedge is certified as council property officially and I’ve been snipping away." Thinks councillors own council property apparently
Is he not allowed to take up a hedge on his side of the property tho?
Look at the pictures, he's cut it down at the trunks.
i think you should be able to trim a neighbors hedge back, but cutting it down completely is obviously a nob head thing to do. otherwise he'd just be choping down his own hedges and he wouldn't be in trouble would he.
Did I miss something? Does he plan to park in her garden?
It's a sorta 'border' hedge, so half on his side half on hers. He wants to change his side from garden to drive so he can park his car. edit:actually checking on google maps it looks like it's actually _his_ hedge, but the section in question is definitely bang on the border, half & half.
If that is the case an different form the article then it requires both owners permission to remove it.
I guess his stance is that it is the council's hedge, perhaps because they are both council tenants so he could well have permission from the owner. Possibly he owns, she is a council tenant, so he could have permission from the council to go ahead.
His argument is so thoroughly stupid. 1. Councillors aren't allowed to destroy council property. Only a council employee is allowed to do that. 2. If it is council property, that would make the land underneath it council property, meaning he can't use it as a parking space. 3. If the hedge is council property, he would have to send a request to the council to remove it 4. Why was he charged with vandalism? This is destruction of property
4 is probably Scottish law weirdness
All of that is irrelevant. As, “it will be nice when it’s done”. If you have a further issue I think you’ll find he “is allowed to do everything”. So, reign your neck in. Although, wouldn’t be nice to start a go fund me, to raise enough for some massive fucking trees to be planted. Big scratchy ones.
I am convinced that the Tory party does not wish to form the next government.
Of course they don't. We've just had a decade of historically low interest rates. Usually, competent governments will use those conditions to invest in improving infrastructure, shoring up national services, etc. Instead they've cut funding in everything, sold off assets to their mates, run the entire country into the ground. They've left the entire mess for Labour to pick up. Not to mention the upcoming possibility of war. They walk off, leave us drowning. Ten years later waltz back in and act like they're the change we need. Scum scum scum.
Tbf I’ve always assumed for parties like that it’s always nicer to be able to just sit on the sidelines and snipe at everything going wrong rather than being in charge and actually having to do stuff
So because it’s council property he has the right to remove it because he wanted space to park his car? That can’t be right, surely it would be either up to the council or the tenant. If it creeps into his property then common law allows you to prune any that cross onto your property, it doesn’t give you the right to remove. Let’s be honest though, we’re not surprised at shitty Tory behaviour.
What is insinuated by the article is he thinks he can do it because he's a councillor. If it truly was on council land then he definitely can't just do it on a whim. The article is quite biased but it does seem like he's being a grade A a-hole. The quotes are so bad.
Yep it sounds like he just went "I am a councilor this is council property so I can do what I want" But it could also be that he abused his seat to get the go ahead to trim down the hedge. In which case he is in the right but a massive cunt.
“Above all, I am allowed to do anything… if you want to know anything else about me you can Google me”. What a nasty fat narcissistic old bag. He’s got the mental age and maturity of a school bully.
I've seen Bond villains less outright malicious than this dickhead.
Bond villains are charming bond villains are smart, tory’s are just scum
I don't see why they needed to put that she's autistic in the headline, seems rather insulting to autistic people that they're suggesting this is worse because she's autistic. The fact is the guy is a cunt who ripped up a hedge that legally belongs to his neighbour, is boasting about it, and is someone in public office who should hold higher standards that vandalism of other people's private property. Even if he wasn't, it's still a criminal offence.
Autistic people can have a need for things that bring them security and for this woman her gardening was her security. She hardly leaves her house and she said her gardening is "all she has". It means much, much more to her than the average person so the emotional consequences for her are considerable. Ftr I'm autistic and I didn't find it insulting personally. My heart goes out to her. Tbh considering that her garden does mean so much her, makes me think that asshole knows *exactly* how much it means to her, which is why he's taking delight in fucking with it. I remember bullies taunting kids like that at school - "oh! oh! this stupid little thing you love means so much to you does it?!" and then "whoops!" they break it because they get a thrill out of hurting people, especially if they are vulnerable. This piece of crap clearly never matured out of that mentality.
Why not just put up a fence up, or is his parking that bad!! 🤔
What a cunt, and he's posing in the photo like some pensioner who got a newspaper article because they complained about too many Spanish people at their hotel in Spain. Looks like an absolute twat.
It used to be considered ‘aspirational’ to vote Conservative, but now the Tories really are becoming a low class party. There is a downmarket quality to this behaviour, as there is with the ‘betting scandal’. Here in London, the Tories nominated a Mayoral candidate who really could have been Vicky Pollard’s grandmother. The leaflet their parliamentary candidate sent out last week continued with the ‘I hate Khan, I hate ULEZ’ theme and included a conspiracy theory about Labour planning a ‘nationwide ULEZ’. The Tory base seems now to be people who say they are patriotic, put flags on their (polluting) cars or vans and throw litter out of the windows. Welcome to the Chav-servative Party.
He said the hedge was technically council property, so why was he allowed to clear it for his drive? Surely he should be charged for vandalism of council property then? Even if he’s a councillor, he can’t undertake council business by himself, without proper authorisation. Plus, shouldn’t the neighbour have been told to tidy it up herself, if it was really overgrown?
He will probably become the chairman for an autism charity as he understands the challenges they experience in life! Hedging his bets!
Wait, did a police Sergeant show up and tell this rotten man that it was "case closed" and he interpreted it as "I got away with it" but what the Sgt meant was "I've got you bang to rights and I'll see you in court"?
If it’s been going on a few months, politically speaking, couldn’t he have acted like a feudal turd at a more convenient time?
What an absolutely selfish cunt. Poor woman, having to live next to that piece of filth.
If its over your property line, you do with it as you wish, there is no debate or reason for compromise its the law. However going past that is just cuntish, regardless of who owns it.
https://www.south-ayrshire.gov.uk/article/40076/Councillor-Gavin-Scott His council page if anyone wants to file complaints
He looks like a mental case, I'm suprised he's able to live amongst us.
Me reading a book about how casinos are designed to trap their victims putting it to one side due to reading one horrible thing after the other and not quite having the stomach to continue. I'll look on Reddit for funny memes, the first thing that pops up is this. Fuck me the world it filled with abhorrent people.
A good representative of the nasty party. Tories will torie
Ah yes, the well known legal principle whereby being a councillor allows you to do anything you want with council property.
"Ah my lovey new hedge is growing. Whoops all Japanese knotweed!"
Sounds like an arrogant twat, and just because he is a councillor it doesn’t give him any extra rights. If he is turning his garden into a driveway I hope he has applied for all the appropriate permits. It would be such a shame if he was forced to put things back.
A tory doing tory things. Can we really be surprised by how much of an entitled prick he sounds from the article?
Tory councillor just makes it open what an asshole they are.
He’s tried to get it solved for months and it was hanging over his property. It’s unfortunate but the article is blowing this out of proportion.
To be fair, being a c*nt is pretty on brand for a Tory counsellor
Why is it that all local councillor seem to have *wee guy complex’s*? Scoundrels the lot of them.
Didn't look like it was looked after.. was it on his property too? If yes he should have cut his side but not hers.
It is council property, I am a Councillor, therefore I can do what I want seems to be his argument. Not that it is on his side. Just that she is a tenant in a council property
I think anyone with common decency knows this is poor and pretty cruel.
Oh dear, with that new gap a sprinkler system would go right through there. Hope there's nothing easily damaged on the other side.
Safe seat, then? Being absolute cunts hasn't stopped them the last 14 years. Can't see it happening now... at best, it'll be a tory/reform coalition, and the reunion handshakes will be very hilarious.
The hedge was on his property. There is no issue here
This giving "In The Loop" energy to anyone else? (Steve Coogan's character)
This is literally like the wall scene from ‘In The Loop’ and I love it.
Pretty sure this was the plot of that thick of it movie.
> “Above all I am allowed to do everything.” That’s exactly the attitude you want in a politician
Pretty sure being a Councillor doesn't give you the right to destroy council property. Sounds like he's abused his position to legally get it removed. Major conflict of interest that's all too common in local government. He's allowed to trim the bit overhanging his property, not hack the entire thing down unless the trunk is on his land, which it is not. I'm betting the 'autistic' lady is a bit of a nightmare as well. Both sound ghastly tbh.
A real piece of shit for a Tory councillor, sounds pretty on brand.
What a cunt. Believes he can do everything and likely claim he is the true victim.
Need to pay for whoever stands against him in elections to have HUGE posters saying what he did. He seems to hate a combo of women, disabled people and the elderly with a deep deep deep hatred. Also as thats a garden area, I bet he hasn't got planning permission to hardcoat the area.
Let me get this straight... it was overhanging his property... so he ripped them out the ground? That's an insane overreaction.
If he owns that house then do what he wants simple stop been pussys she can go tickle flowers anywhere
I'd just like to personally apologise for having voted Conservative twice and enabling these...charming individuals. Rest assured, I will be abstaining at the next election and will probably never vote again as recognition of not knowing what the hell I'm doing.