I’ve often thought being a local councillor must be a bit of a thankless task, for one thing I suspect you never get a moments peace, that you are never seen as ‘off duty’ and that you probably can’t put a foot in the village on a Saturday morning, to buy so much as a pound of streaky bacon , without being besieged by constituents wanting to bend you ear on anything and everything from the amount of dog poo in the park, extortionate parking charges at the leisure centre, global warming or the war in Afghanistan, anything goes, your a public face and therefore public property.
We have some steady workers on our local parish and borough councils; of many political persuasions and some independents too, for good measure, my experience has been that they have been both approachable and proactive (and in the case of the felling of ‘memorial tree’ by borough council employees, they took no prisoners either.) I hope they get the recognition they deserve, however down in Bournemouth, councillor Ben Grower obviously thought he deserved a little more praise than he was getting.
A councillor came under fire today for using a pseudonym to praise his own work.
Ben Grower posted comments under several aliases on the Daily Echo’s website.
But the newspaper in Bournemouth, Dorset, decided to name and shame the councillor after he posted praise for himself under the name Omegaman.
In one post about plans to build Europe’s first artificial surf reef in Boscombe, the Labour councillor wrote: “At least two councillors seem to be concerned about this mess. Well done Cllrs Ratcliffe and Grower.”
When exposed by the local newspaper he was unrepentant
“I have done nothing against the law and probably next time I will just use a different pseudonym.”
When asked if his approach was appropriate given his public role, he was quoted as saying members of other parties did the same.
Nice chap eh? just the sort of person you want in public office.
Uphilldowndale 
Unfortunately, there are more than a few of them out there and they tarnish the ones that quietly get stuck in. Even more unfortunately, some of the self-publicist egotists get voted in over the ones who’ve been getting on with it for ages.
Ah well – who was it who said the price of democratic self-government was having to keep an eagle eye on the duly elected rascals?
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