WELL IT'S TRUE FOLKS THE GOOD COUNCILLOR IS RIGHT i AM A THREAT TO THEIR AUTHORITY, I mean just see what I did BELOW! 
Would you vote for this prickly customer? Mar 13 2007
Sandy McKenzie, Evening Gazette
Middlesbrough's mayoral election race has a prickly new contender. A cactus - Mr Cacti Kactus - is being nurtured as a candidate.
Cacti's spokesman Gordon Shippey - a local community activist from Saltersgill - expects the cactus will help get over a few points to the electorate.
He said: "Mr Kactus is at least 18 but small for his age."
Mr Kactus shared his opposition to the elected mayoral system, he said.
He hopes to give opponents the needle by declaring: "The system is too much like an elected dictatorship.
"Over the past ten years I have been involved in a number of campaigns in Middlesbrough and Redcar & Cleveland and often I hear people saying 'why bother?'.
"Even if Mr Kactus's nomination is not accepted he hopes people will still write 'cactus' across their ballot paper and spoil their paper as a sign of their dissatisfaction," said Mr Shippey.
He said the aim was to allow people to make a protest and to generate more interest in the election on May 3.
Mr Kactus has his own website at www.freewebs.com/kactus.
Mr Shippey, who has taken part in campaigns such as those against the demolition of homes in St Hilda's and Gresham, said Mr Kactus also hoped people would write to him.
A Middlesbrough Council spokesman said: "We are not getting prickly on this but we do not intend commenting on spurious nominations."
So who is Mr Kactus?
He is a member of the succulent plant family Cactaceae often used as ornamental plants, but some are also crop plants.
They have adapted to extremely arid and hot environments, showing a wide range features which conserve water.
Their stems have expanded into succulent structures containing the chlorophyll necessary for life, while the leaves have become the spines.
Cacti come in a wide range of shapes and sizes. The tallest is Pachycereus pringlei, with a maximum recorded height of 19.2m and the smallest is Blossfeldia liliputiana, only about 1 cm diameter at maturity.
Many species are night blooming.
Check out BBC TEES for the Cactus second photo op and radio broadcast 
May 3rd 2007
The Council refused to count the Cactus votes and declared them all spolt papers, spol sports!  |
