Boys will be boys*

And councilors will be politicians, at the risk of offending just about everyone, the results of Standards Board of England's deliberation, contributes little if anything to either justice or the dignity of public office.Lets just refine the facts a little, it seems a minor fracas, in which personalities clashed at some social do, has resulted in threats bad language etc, this then results in complaints to the standards board of England organisation.

Reprehensible as it all looks, their is nothing here worth wasting the time of yet another government organisation the standards board of England is just one of those overlapping regulatory authorities which frankly serves little purpose other than escalating petty clashes by local councillors into something which they are not, that being something of significance to local democracy.Had those alleged "crimes" amounted to anything more serious, than in my opinion handbags at dawn (or similar) then they should have been referred to Kent constabulary or other agencies , to me all this kerfuffle is just part and parcel of local politics and incredible as it seems even I have been known myself, to go off on one, for instance at work recently my fingers were trapped by some idiot with a bar (used as a lever), at first I said something like " stop! you've caught my fingers", although the guys grip on the English language was fairly limp, I was still surprised when he decide to put all his energy into crushing my digits to a pulp, naturally my next few words contained the word stop and many four letter words as is possible in about ten seconds. Unlike the gentile world of politics, there was no complaint to any authority, and once I'd finished my brief but comprehensive English as a foreign language lesson, master class in abuse, we carried on building a railway as if nothing had happened.

Obviously one shouldn't treat public displays of disharmony too lightly and no doubt, both Sandy Ezekiel and Doug Clark will have their own interpretations opinions etc. on the outcome of the standards board judgement, and probably both feel unjustly treated. I believe that either of the accusations, had the complainants felt strongly enough, should been referred to more experienced agencies.

We ought to learn one thing from this incident, politics is about passion for what we believe is right, and the consequence of the type of incident detailed in the Gazette should be no more than a bit of embarrassment in the local rag. Still its worth remembering that John Prescott who always seemed to me to be a bumbling, populist, knockabout, politician, famous for throwing a punch or two, at some yob, on the election trail, was the prime mover on the creation of the Standards Board of England, which seems ironic since there would appear to be odd flaw in his own conduct.

The Standards Board of England, which is suppose to improve standards of conduct in our councils, actually has a detrimental effect, I have personally have witnessed what I consider interference by council "officers" at meetings, and seen these unelected employees of the council "advise" councillors whether they can speak on issues or not.

I would be surprised if the Standards Board of England will have stopped one bent deal since its creation, what it has done most definitely, just here in Thanet was stop at least one local councillor from writing their blog, and I suspect another more recently, also it prevented at least one councillor from speaking during a debate, either of these proves that this organisation is a complete waste of money, and is corrupting local democracy and handing power to petty officials of limited imagination in councils across the country.

If you type in standards board of England into a search engine you will find a growing number of examples of how this is interfering with local government.

* this could also be applied to girls as well, in my view adults might hide it but under pressure we all revert to childish behaviour