For the past few days, John Mann’s website has been advising people :

If The Phone Rings On Thursday Evening – Please Answer It!
On Thursday evening (21st January 2010) John Mann MP is conducting an automated telephone poll in Worksop and surrounding villages on the Vesuvius site issue.

Today, he published the results of the poll:

A poll last night, Thursday 22 January of residents living in Worksop, Carlton, Blyth, Langold, Oldcotes, Welbeck has revealed that they are overwhelmingly opposed to Notts County Council’s proposals to cut, privatise and price hike services for the elderly and vulnerable.

Eh? What happened to the Vesuvius site poll?

We think we know. He had a poll running on his website sampling visitor opinion regarding the Vesuvius planning application. When the voting was starting to favour the Council’s decision, it was removed in very short order.

Looks like he’s backing down on Vesuvius, doesn’t it?

We joined up to Facebook and added John Mann as a friend. We then joined his Facebook Campaign on the ASDA planning application. In the hope of sparking a lively discussion, we left a link to this site so participants of the group could see another side of the story.

Our Facebook friendship with Mr Mann lasted all of 5 minutes, after which we were booted out of the Campaign and blacklisted. So much for a lively debate, eh?

Mr Mann has the Worksop press in his pocket – The Worksop Guarding Mann – who will print his spoutings without any regard for the  factual content (if any). In the past, a friendly press has been a great advantage for politicians of every persuasion. But this is a brave new world with the internet allowing alternative views to be published and available to anyone with an interest.

Mr Mann does not like alternative views, it seems.

But, we are all for freedom of speech. Mr Mann is welcome to leave a comment on any of our posts and we will publish it un-edited (providing we are sure of the source).

We’re not afraid of healthy discussion. So, what about it, John?  We know you read this blog. Spare us a few words.