BelperStuff Blog is evolving

At the risk of repetition, this blog was created to promote an alternative viewpoint during the run up to the 2015 UK general election, prompted by a serious media bias against the Labour Party. The election came, and disappointingly went leaving all of us to the left of centre shaking our heads in misery and disbelief. True to form the Labour Party is now undergoing a period of navel gazing which so far has proved to be less than edifying.

BelperStuff has had enough of this. A week of introspection is more than adequate; the national party can string out the process until the autumn but look what happened in 2010, the months of soul searching turned into years and we only started to emerge from our self imposed purdah in 2014. Too late. We must not repeat such idiocy.

At branch level we have a fight on our hands with a blue-washed town council and the loss of control in Ripley. The time for analysis is over. We don't need to quantify why we lost because it is obvious that the local electoral performance was heavily influenced by the national mood. We campaigned well and there should be no doubts about that. Could we do better? Of course we could but rather than try to fix what does not need fixing we should build on the achievements of the rejuvenated local Belper Branch. We should move forward.

To this end BelperStuff is undergoing a development phase to make it more reflective of the local scene. Yes there will still be self indulgent posts on national politics but with the creation of separate sections within the blog it will now be possible to host a running commentary of Tory performance at town and borough level. There will be reportage and analysis of council meetings and committees.

Hitherto this blog has been like the inside of Fido's head ............... oh look a ball must chase it ........... oh no what's that smell must sniff it ............ oh no I forgot the ball ............ oh great a tail to bite but I just can't quite reach it so must go round in circles ............. my human is whistling me but I'll ignore them ............... oh look there's that ball again ........... I could do with a biscuit ........ well you get the picture. I have no doubt that this trait will continue on the home page but by creating separate council tabs the more serious stuff can be accessed in a more targeted way.

The addition of a "socialist" tab offers the chance to explore what is at the heart of our movement and hopefully will give us strength for future struggles. More tabs can be created as the blog matures with perhaps reports at county level and to group similar articles under themed tabs, for instance a "Green" tab.

All this will take some time to settle down. No ............. let's be honest ........... it will take a while because the "brains" behind this blog are on a very steep learning curve in blogospherics. There will also need to be additions to the editorial team as the aspirations listed above are far beyond the capabilities of one person.

I think that's enough from me this fine, sunny Saturday morning. Time for an hour in the garden before I head into town to enjoy a lunchtime pint. My mood matches the brightness of the day, full of optimism and hopeful of what we can achieve in opposition.