Hi, I'm Karsten Evans. You may remember me? From previous local elections standing for
the Swindon Org UK party, the Green party and now as an Independent candidate standing as a "Protest Vote"!

Are you fed up? Of expense scandals, secret deals, rising Residential parking fees?
Do you like me feel that politics is mainly a load of obfuscated bollocks and excuses? You don’t trust the ‘system’ where a party can be 3rd according to the number of votes they receive, but get the most seats in Parliament, or where residents views on parking are ignored by ruling councillors. Want to express your frustration, but believe there is no point in voting? I did too!

I am standing in Central locally and in South Swindon in the General Election, so that every vote for me can be counted as a protest!
In Central, it is a protest against rise in the Parking permit fees and a vote of no confidence in the parking Deparment. of Swindon Borough Council.
In the South Swindon, it is a protest about the low standards of Members of Parliament and the government civil service that should have been checking them.
Remember the TV sitcom 'Yes, Minister!'? Supposedly a satirical spoof, but recently seems more like a documentary!

I’m fed up of obfuscating Bollockticians and the ‘Humphrey’s and ‘Bernard’s that pull the bollocktician’s strings.
I am fed up of Resident’s Parking being used as a Cash Cow, fed up that vital charities funding is cut while there are local civil servants in SBC that earn more than the Prime Minister!
Fed up of ‘secret’ deals like the Digital City WiFi ‘scandal’ (remember Springfield’s MonoRail? ;-).
Fed up of SBC not acting to save the Mechanics.
Fed up of Swindon buildings being demolished by a “New Swindon” company without clear plans for using the free space.
No matter what colour bollocktics presides, it always ends up the same with ‘Promises, promises’!

Will your vote mean more as a protest or if you use it to support a colourful bollocktician?
If you vote tactically for one party and another wins your vote will have meant nothing! Protest Vote and you vote will be counted as such, no matter who wins! If 2 or 3 or maybe 7 thousand protest vote, will the party that wins be able to ignore it?
In the unlikely event more people protest vote than vote, just imagine how small the House of commons would feel if I were to speak and tell them that the voters of Swindon thought they all spoke a loads of bollocks!
Who knows pigs might fly? I know the proverbial ####, definately does after it has hit the fan.(expenses). :-)
This is your chance to tell them what you really think. Let them know they are accountable to the public by protesting and not simply voting.
Don’t abstain from your right to vote and stick your head in the sand.

“The accomplice to the crime of corruption is frequently our own indifference”.

My main reason for standing in Central is to protest about Resident’s parking fees and to get them back to what they should be (for the residents) and to revoke last year’s increases.
I want SBC to cut costs in ‘Parking’ by reducing the ten Parking Attendants allocated to residential zones and not by increasing permit costs. I want to find out the ‘real’ income from parking fines as I don’t believe SBC gets only £163,000 from parking fines. Milton Keynes get over £5million a year in income from parking fines.
I am against the unfair parking fees at the hospital (another SBC cash cow) and will fight for fairer fees for patients and visitors

What might we have in common?
Well, I have been fined for parking in front of my house; I don't own a duck house or have a second home, I own a house in Central Swindon. I was made redundant after the Credit Crunch hit and I am a single parent.
I was born in Cardiff, and first moved to Swindon in ’89. I have lived in Ford street since ‘95 and I know most of my neighbours.
I have never spoken to or met my local councillor or MP. Personally, I admire Clegg and Joanna Lumley for getting long overdue justice for Ghurkhas, but wonder how and why the Government blocked it twice.
I do not admire Bliar or respect Brown for ‘rescuing us’ from the banking crisis as Brown gave free reign to the w bankers in the first place! :-((

What can I promise?
Unlike professional bollockticians, I can’t promise anything, except to fight to get Residential Parking back to what it was, to dig and expose anything I find that is not right in SBC, to oppose new house building on greenfield sites just for the sake of it, to regularly litter pick somewhere in Swindon and to be available to help any one in Swindon with a real problem to get their voice heard.
I can promise that every vote I get is not wasted. Every one will be a vote of no confidence in the existing system and will make both local and national bollockticians nervous.
Current polls and voting quotas will put Labour 3rd, but they will get most seats and still be in majority.
Is that fair, democratic? Maybe to an MP, but not to me!
The council is mainly answerable to the public only via elections. That was the gist of the reply to Anne Snelgrove’s question about the ‘secret’ Digital City deal to a near-empty House of Commons.
I have nothing against Anne, but will supporting Labour or the Conservative really change anything?
Show the House of Commons and SBC that your vote DOES count.
Help me persuade SBC to make Residential Parking fair and do not tolerate bollocks (old English meaning “nonsense”)