Search This Site
Forest on Twitter

TFS on Twitter

Join Forest On Facebook

Featured Video

Friends of The Free Society

boisdale-banner.gif

IDbanner190.jpg
GH190x46.jpg
Powered by Squarespace
« Election 2010: Philip Davies (Conservative) | Main | Election 2010: Martin Cullip (Libertarian) »
Sunday
Apr252010

Election 2010: Old Holborn (Independent)

Yesterday I was in Cambridge when I spotted a familiar figure handing out flyers and stickers in Market Square. (Teenage girls especially seemed drawn to this masked crusader.) Yes, it was libertarian blogger Old Holborn who is fighting to "put Guy Fawkes back in Parliament".

The last time I saw OH was at Forest Bank prison in Salford last month. He was carrying a suitcase containing £8,500 in £10 notes. That was the amount required to secure the release of jailed landlord Nick Hogan. (Full story HERE.)

Old Holborn set up the appeal fund following a spirited post by fellow blogger Anna Raccoon. Five weeks later he's a prospective parliamentary candidate for Cambridge and Anna is his election agent!

"I want to remind our lords and masters that they are OUR servants, not the other way around," he writes. "Apart from bringing some much needed fun back to politics, I stand for direct democracy where your voice can be heard. I want them to ask us what we want and then do as we say ... Vote Old Holborn and let's give them a May 6th that shall never be forgot."

For more information click HERE.

Reader Comments (15)

Its great to see people like Old Holborn and Martin Cullip putting themselves up for election as Independents.
The more the better, to put a broadside shot in the main three parties bows.
Up real democracy!

April 25, 2010 at 12:10 | Unregistered Commenterann

All the best Old Holborn and others - put some squibs up'em!! :)

April 25, 2010 at 12:50 | Unregistered CommenterJenny of Yorkshire

Well done OH, hope you have a sack of dynamite and that the lousy 3 see stars for many a year to come!

It would be a real change to finally see a government who remember and recognise what their role is, as you say, to serve us, not be our masters. These days they are too big headed and self obsessed to remember who pays their wages and expenses!

April 25, 2010 at 16:11 | Unregistered CommenterLyn

The main 3 are just more of the same.
My vote will go elsewhere.
I'm not from Cambridge but the best of British luck to you OH.

April 25, 2010 at 16:13 | Unregistered CommenterSpecky

Yes - the VERY best of British to OH !!

But (a welcome sense of mischief aside) aside, let's not be TOO romantic about Guy Fawkes' intentions (if we are to believe the 'official' version, at any rate):

To destroy our newly-minted English/Scottish form of governance, and replace it with something rather more 'European' (the authority of the Pope).

A more modern version of Guido would probably be Ted Heath.

Or Peter Mandelson.

Thanks to such gentlemen, 'our' Parliament HAS effectively been destroyed, anyway.

I've always suspected both of strongly Counter-Reformationist tendencies.

No - it's a new Henry VIII we need now.

And a New Reformation...................

(Discuss)

April 25, 2010 at 22:05 | Unregistered CommenterMartin V

No we need a Henry VII or a Henry V.

April 25, 2010 at 22:13 | Unregistered CommenterSpecky

Okay, okay:

What about a Henry II (esp if played by Peter O'Toole) ?

At least with the Henrys, we DO have something resembling a 'choice'................

April 26, 2010 at 6:28 | Unregistered CommenterMartin V

Haven't we got enough "fun in politics" with the now weekly Big Debates that we are being subjected to in the run-up to the General Election on TV?

Anyone who seriously cares about the future of our country will want to see an established Government with the powers to set new rules and laws, and the only way to get that is by voting for one of the big parties. Love them or loath them, we need them, as much as they need us.

I don't care who your personal choice is, as long as it is for a party with the strength to govern. Even another 5 years of Labour would be preferable to a hung Parliament.

It is bad enough that we have these other minor parties (I won't mention any names) who are doing their best to throw a spanner in the works of democracy, by trying to force a hung Parliament on us, but when we start getting ridiculous parodies like Old Holborn stepping into the fray and taking away, even a few votes from people who have dedicated their lives to politics, I don't think that is fun at all.

I think it is a selfish and self centred act, which can only end in helping to defeat what is left of democracy in this country.

April 26, 2010 at 10:57 | Unregistered CommenterPeter Thurgood

I'm sure what you say is true Peter, but people are just so sick of the arrogant, unaccountable and intrusive way that governments have morphed into in the past decade, not to mention the rise in quangos and health and safety police snooping further into peoples lives at even closer range and the way they dont even listen anymore to the electorate.
That the people have just about had enough and are just going to vote in spite, in the hope they will get the message and maybe start listening to them in future.
They know a hung parliament will be chaos, but after living under chaotic changes to their lifestyle followed by a collapse in their living standards by the govts big player friends, figure it will give them a reality check to get back to the drawing board and learn to 'govern' in the true meaning of the word and start taking notice of what the people have to say.
They had their chance but they didnt listen.
Time to bear the consequences now, so let's ALL suffer together for a change.
You'd never know, but maybe the pubs would start opening again and we could all drown our sorrows while smoking our fags in the comfort we were accustomed to!

April 26, 2010 at 15:44 | Unregistered Commenterann

I know this is repeating myself Ann, but I replied to someone else on another thread here this morning, and I have just copied it and pasted it here to you, as I think it is relevant to what you are saying as well:

You are right Jenny. But do you know what? I was talking to a guy yesterday, in a Spanish bar where my wife and I sometimes go to in London.

The conversation got dragged into politics, as I overheard a lot of other people doing exactly the same. This guy was Irish but lives in London, and said this his business is pubs. He owns about 8 (I think he said).

This then was my perfect opportunity to ask him the question that is on most of our tongues on here; "With so many pubs closing now, has the smoking ban effected your trade at all?" I asked, and I was so surprised to hear his answer, which was an emphatic "No"

"Then why do you think so many are closing?" I asked him. He blamed the whole thing onto the big PubCos and the prices they are charging on rents and their beer.

I do not think this guy was lying in any way, as he was a smoker himself, and joined us on the terrace outside for another drink and a smoke.

I must admit, it left me feeling a bit down, with one of our main arguments shot down in flames.

April 26, 2010 at 16:01 | Unregistered CommenterPeter Thurgood

Peter, it all depends on what type of pub it is, the smoking ban didnt affect all pubs.
That guy probably makes his money on being able to serve food in his pub or the ability to put in a good smoking area or beer garden or he may be just plain wrong.
A lot depends too on a pubs clientel or location, where if a pub closed down a pub nearby would benefit.
Rented pubs seems to be a poor argument too because in Ireland where the pubs are not leased from brewerys there have been massive closures, even worse than England, and especially in rural areas where pubs are nearly all family owned.
There is nobody who would ever say that the smoking ban was good for the pub trade or tourism.
Maybe he has just been convinced by the brainwashing, like everyone else, that the smoking ban was good for business!

April 27, 2010 at 8:55 | Unregistered Commenterann

I would like to think that you are right Ann, but this guy's pubs are all in South London, in areas like the Old Kent Road and the Walworth Road, where space is at a premium, and outdoor areas are few and far between.

I would also think that if his particular pubs did sell food, then what on earth was he doing in the Spanish tapas bar, where I met him, where he was eating a meal at the bar?

This particular man seemed to be a very nice guy, and obviously an astute businessman, as well as a smoker, so I also doubt very much whether he would be susceptible to brainwashing.

Please don't get me wrong Ann, I personally think the smoking ban has killed many, many pubs. All I am doing here, is giving you the point of view of someone who is in the pub business, who seems to believe that the decline of the British pub is not directly connected to the smoking ban???

April 27, 2010 at 9:15 | Unregistered CommenterPeter Thurgood

For anyone still in doubt about the corruption, paralysis and contempt for voters that a hung parliament would bring, maybe they should read the article in today's Daily Mail about Italy's hung Parliaments

April 27, 2010 at 9:51 | Unregistered CommenterPeter Thurgood

Quite right what Peter implies about hung parliaments - an expression which many Americans would doubtless find an oddly 'inappropriate' one to apply to our House of Eunuchs.

Despite their well-known volubilty, lack of martial vigour, and the 748 'governments' they've had since the War, the Italians have never really taken politicians that seriously.

For them, how you LIVE has always been more important than WHOM you live under.

If I'm ever forced into exile from my beloved England, then Italy is the place I'd fly to (volcanoes permitting)...................

April 28, 2010 at 10:45 | Unregistered CommenterMartin V

Very true Martin, the Italians treat everyone in authority as a joke, while carrying on doing their own thing.
They can be anything a govt wants them to be, even communists and they will be good catholics for the Pope while being athiests at the same time!
Hung parliaments would'nt bother them in the least.

April 28, 2010 at 21:08 | Unregistered Commenterann

PostPost a New Comment

Enter your information below to add a new comment.

My response is on my own website »
Author Email (optional):
Author URL (optional):
Post:
 
Some HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong>