There will be a husting for the general election on 2nd December. Questions need to be in by 28th November.

The candidates for the Oxford West & Abingdon constituency in 2019 are:
James Fredrickson – Conservative
Layla Moran – Liberal Democrat
Rosie Sourbut – Labour
Allison Wild – Brexit Party.

It may not be quite as exciting as the hustings in 1865, which I read about in the Reading Mercury in the British Newspaper Archive, but you never know, …

“On Monday last, the nomination of Candidates for the Representation of this County in Parliament, took place Abingdon. The hustings was erected in the Market-place, opposite the Queen’s Hotel. The windows at the County Hall, and every available space on the roof of the building, were crowded with ladies and gentlemen who appeared to take great interest in the proceedings. Special trains, engaged by both the Liberal and Conservative candidates, brought a considerable number of electors from all parts of the county, and although there was an absence of flags and banners, and even bands of music, the Market-place presented a lively and exciting appearance. The Conservatives mustered in great strength at the Crown and Thistle Hotel, and were first to march to the hustings. The Liberal candidates and their friends quickly followed from the Queen’s Hotel, and both parties were received with cheers from their supporters. During the progress of the proceedings, many noisy interruptions occurred, and the Conservative party were certainly not so courteous to the speakers on the Liberal side as their opponents were during the delivery of the Conservative addresses. It was evident that the Conservatives had done their utmost to bring together a large body of men, and it was also evident that some of their party possessed stentorian voices, which were freely and coarsely used to drown the unpleasant and distasteful remarks of gentlemen on ‘the other side.’ …”

Boris Johnson is to be the next Prime Minister. I see on his facebook page that he has been in Abingdon more than once. In 2015 he said ‘Brilliant to be back in Abingdon campaigning for Nicolas Blackwood.’ Nicola was the Conservatives MP for Abingdon from 2010 to 2017.

On another facebook post I did see that Conservative MP for Aberdeen, Ross Thomson, said ‘Boris Johnson as PM will do for the whole of our country what he did for London as Mayor. From Aberdeen to Aberystwyth; Abingdon to Antrim.’

A Special Meeting had been called earlier on 21st May to make some quick decisions after the election. The most noticeable decision was to change the flag flying policy and allow the rainbow flag to fly over the County Hall. It was also resolved in committee to organise an Abingdon Pride event and set aside £1,000 for that purpose.

This evening’s Town Council meeting began with prayers.

Grant cheques were presented to a number of community groups.

I asked a question about cycling safety on roads and the town bus service and got a detailed reply from Cllr Sam Bowring, the new Town Council leader. These things are being considered and they have a cycling expert to help them.

The Abingdon Carbon Cutters did a presentation about their activities. The last Town Council meeting before the election had declared a climate emergency. That was not common knowledge so Carbon Cutters asked for more publicity.

The Carbon Cutters announced Abingdon’s move towards a plastic free town (I will do a separate blog on that soon).

Once the meeting proper began we found that most of the decisions had been taken in committees …

The Town Council is to undertake an appraisal of the Albert Park area to stop inappropriate developments.

The planning committee had no objection to the creation of  a kayak and canoe storage facility on Abingdon Lock Island. The district council will now decide.

The Amenity Committee agreed to do tree surveys and possibly cut down trees, and use more suitable trees, around the River Close play area . The trees are blocking out light to some houses despite repeated pruning and this has long been an issue.

Replace the notice boards in Bath Street, Roysse Court and Market Place.

Purchase three new replacement bus shelters.

Transfer some planters to Reynolds Way in the autumn for planting in winter spring etc.

£1,000 will be allocated for Pest Control in the closed churchyard of St Helen’s Church.

The Communication Committee agreed to start publishing the Town Crier in the autumn, something the previous Conservative led council had not done. Then do a communications review.

To move the Information Centre to the ground floor reading room in the Roysse Court offices, and look further to try to find a better place.

The Finance Committee agreed to appoint a sub-committee to consider the future of the 41 town bus which comes up for renewal in October.

These committee papers did not take long to discuss. There then followed a 35 minute debate about whether Town Councillors should wear robes at Town Council meetings and civic events. The new leader, Sam Bowring, said there was no policy and they needed to decide. There was one new councillor in particular who had almost decided not to stand for council when she heard she would have to wear a robe. All councillors agreed robes should be worn at civic events. 8 voted to keep the gowns at Full Town Council meetings, and 6 voted against. It was a passionate debate on both sides and did show that even though the council has now 18 Lib-Dems and 1 Green, they have many voices. The leading voice to keep the gowns came from a young, new councillor. He wanted to honour the tradition and heritage of the town. While a more established councillor described it as wearing fancy dress, and another as setting councillors apart.

Polling stations in Abingdon have been open for the second time this month. Three weeks ago they opened for the district and parish elections, and this Thursday it is the European elections, which were supposed not to happen as the UK should have left the European Union on 29th March 2019.

Abingdon is part of the South East of England and we were given the following choice of parties and Independents:
Change UK (10 candidates)
Conservative (10 candidates)
Green (10 Candidates)
Labour (10 Candidates)
Liberal Democrats (10 Candidates)
The Brexit Party (10 Candidates)
The Socialist Party of Great Britain (10 Candidates)
UK European Union Party (2 Candidates)
UKIP (10 Candidates)
Independent – Jason McMahon
Independent – David Round
Independent – Michael Jeffrey Turberville

We each had one vote.

10 MEPs will be elected to represent the South East of the UK. MEPs are elected by proportional representation. The number of MEPs each party gets is calculated using a formula called d’Hondt after the Belgian mathematician Victor d’Hondt, who dreamed up the formula in 1878, long before the days of computers. According to Wikpedia….
After all the votes have been tallied, successive quotients are calculated for each party. The party with the largest quotient wins one seat, and its quotient is recalculated. This is repeated until the required number of seats is filled. The formula for the quotient 

quotient = V / (S + 1)

V is the total number of votes that party received, and
s is the number of seats that party has been allocated so far, initially 0 for all parties. 

European elections do not usually enthuse people as much as national elections but on this occasion they are being treated by some people as a protest vote. In the UK there are two new parties. The Brexit Party has been created to allow people who voted Leave to show their discontent with parliament’s handling of Brexit. Change UK has been created by people in parliament to challenge the referendum result.

The UK should still leave the European Union (EU) on 31st October 2019. If the UK and EU ratify the withdrawal agreement before then, it would be earlier. So these elected MEPs could be in post for a very short time. But parliament has not managed to agree the withdrawal yet so it could be longer.

Polling has finished and we will know the results on Sunday.