David Mackintosh And The Curse Of Abington Street

At Monday's council meeting, leader of Northampton Borough Council, David Mackintosh gave his final, final, final, decision on reopening Abington Street to traffic. And he was unanimous in that.

However as he chose to ignore his final chance of not going against the majority of the Northampton people, did he lay prostrate on the sacrificial slab his political ambitions in next years General Election?

Mr Mackintosh has proven himself since taking charge a man of dedication to his cause and his place as leader. A local person (as he keeps telling us), with a will to do what (he thinks) is right for his home town. At all costs?

There is something to be admired of someone who has such dedication and belief that what he is doing is correct. However when by chance of life, you find yourself in so much power that you actually can do (albeit locally) almost what you chose, it makes your beliefs and dedication inherently bad to everyone else.

It perhaps comes with the territory of a politician that they can be a little self centred and only interested in their own opinions, except when it comes round to voting time. Therefore perhaps in this respect Mr Mackintosh is the ideal politician. Self interest at all times.

However a touch of humility wouldn't be a bad thing. Knowing you just might be wrong on the odd occasion is useful perhaps. Whether it be that you really shouldn't have claimed for that item on expenses, or maybe this bus station really isn't going to be big enough. It wouldn't hurt the odd politician once in a while to look human. One of us.

However back to the subject in mind here. There is no question that Mr Mackintosh truly believes that his parties plan (it was in the manifesto) to open the street is, unquestionably the right thing to do. So much so, he has totally and thoroughly ignored the majority of the Northampton public, even going as far as to ignore everything that their own "public consultation" found.

So we reach the point of no return? Whether it is successful or not time will tell. Most doubt it will be.

However time will also tell whether Mr Mackintosh, who, let me remind you again, needs your votes next year, will get them.

To be continued...