Sally Allen: Hats off to Prosper Torbay. Let's hope it does

As we are all aware, life is difficult, and sometimes it feels that there is a mountain to climb without even the most basic pair of crampons.
I therefore feel I must congratulate Katya Maddison and Patrick Joyce for jumping ship from the Conservative cabal of councillors. It takes a lot of disappointment and disenchantment followed by courage to stick to your beliefs. So, hats off to the newly formed Prosper Torbay party. When we move in the next few months into the Wellswood ward, Patrick will definitely be getting my vote. I admire people who have the courage of their convictions.
I have got to the point where my own disenchantment with politicians, at all levels and of all hues, leaves me deeply unimpressed and wanting more ability, passion, dedication and most importantly, honesty. I have long come to terms with the fact that politicians appear to care more about their own ambitions and jobs, and less about their constituents than they should. This has long been mirrored in local politics too. National politics is awash with focus groups and fact finder surveys, and yet the findings are largely ignored.
It has already been established that the majority of the population would back the flights to Rwanda as a deterrent to the explosive number of rubber boats arriving from France, and yet, I have read that the “unelected” House of Lords is likely to rule against it. This makes me so angry.
Our whole political system needs a massive shake-up – and I mean total root and branch in-depth assessment and analysis. Currently, there are 827 members of the House of Lords, and they wouldn’t even all be able to find a seat if they turned up en masse at any one time! Not very likely of course.
In my former business life, I had to spend a lot of time at the City of Westminster, it was always enlightening, yet shocking, to see so many of the Lords sign in so as to get their daily allowance and then turn around and go straight out again. Not the best use of tax-payers' money.
In local politics, I think that all councillors should be limited to two terms and then have to stand down for one term, before they can stand again. There needs to be an influx of fresh thought at the very least and the last thing that is needed, or wanted, is people who have been there for an age, who know the ropes a little too well, and have lost any objective thought. I also don’t believe that there should be more than one member from any one family, at any one time, allowed to stand as a councillor. This can have so many bad interpretations. We need fresh ideas, new passion and for the members not to be, or feel, too comfortable in their own little fiefdoms.
However, until all local and national politicians have to prove that they have a legitimate track record in business, and I mean running a company, or have achieved goals and managed a network of staff, how on earth can they start to manage a town or a country? You would not give the keys to a fighter jet to someone with no experience, and yet that is what our system allows.
Talking of local politics, what on earth is going on at the former Palace Hotel site? Another major building firm collapses. Everything is very quiet on the situation with the Fragrance Group too. What’s happening there? Is this a get out of jail card for the Group? I hope not.
Also, the Pavilion, now hidden by Montel Engineering containers? All this for another white elephant project, this time the moving of the pieces around the board of the Strand. It will make zero difference to the commercial revival of the town. The only thing that will do that, in my view, and I repeat, is to open-up the town, top to bottom, to traffic. After that is done, then maybe new development could be considered.
Meanwhile, it is good to see two brave councillors put on their crampons and start the climb to try to sort out our once lovely and thriving town.