Manchester councillor defects to Tories
Written by Richard Huzzey on 2nd January 2008 – 7:19 pmA Lib Dem councillor in Manchester has defected to the Conservative party, giving them their first representation on the council since 1996. Faraz Bhatti had been PPC for Stretford and Urmston in 2005.
The Lib Dem leader on Manchester City Council, Simon Ashley, has told the Manchester Evening News that the defection comes after Cllr. Bhatti’s bitterness in a selection matter. The paper credits former Lib Dem MEP Saj Karim with engineering the defection.
Posted in News
2nd January 2008 at 7:54 pm
At last - you’ve found time to give this story a mention.
2nd January 2008 at 9:42 pm
Hmmm. Any chance for him to retain his seat in the next election, whenever that is?
2nd January 2008 at 11:29 pm
No chance!
unfortunately he was re-elected last may,so will serve til 2011, but in Whalley Range (the ward he serves),the Liberal Democrats polled over 2000 votes,and the Tories just over 200.So we’ll get rid of him when we get the chance…
3rd January 2008 at 9:46 am
And the Tories come fourth behind the Greens…
3rd January 2008 at 10:13 am
I think to dismiss this would be a big mistake. It is a trojan horse for the Tories in the North West.
3rd January 2008 at 10:21 am
They’re going the wrong way, the fools.
3rd January 2008 at 7:30 pm
It is dangerous for us to dismiss defections from Lib Dems as irrelevant or ill advised and defections to the Liberal Democrats as something else altogether
Asians / ethnic minority councillors, members, activists are increasingly attracted by the Tory image of actively seeking to promote ethnic minority representatives within the Party.
OK so we all know that the Tories are only going out of their way to woo ethnic senior ethnic minority individuals from other Parties purely for political expediency
But if we just ignore defections like these we do so at our peril
3rd January 2008 at 9:30 pm
Of course the Tories are actively seeking to promote ethnic minority representatives. Just like Plantation Owners needed their Uncle Toms.
Rabi, you say we shouldn’t ignore these defections; so what should we do? Over promote people just because they come from Ethnic Minority Groups? Isn’t that:
a. What got us into this mess in the first place.
b. Predjudice in another form.
c. The failed strategy we have been pursuing for the last ten years?
We could avoid so many of these problems if we made it clear to all people who join us that they are expected to prove themselves by years of hard work on the ground before being put into positions of responsibility.
Cameron’s strategy will back fire on him just as Blair’s Babes did on the Labour Party. We should stop trying to take short cuts.
3rd January 2008 at 9:46 pm
Sad that these folks who defect get elected in the first place as Lib Dems. The difference between us & the Tories is just so huge that people like this have taken us for a ride & therefore we are better off with out them if they have so little conviction.
If what is attracting Asians/ethnic minorities to the Tories is their promoting representation - then I’ve got to wonder if they agree with Tory policy/principles? If they do fine - they shouldnt belong to another Party like us , Labour etc. If they dont & still join them???????? If someone doesnt agree with our Principles why are they a member?? If a member feels disadvantaged - then lets discuss it & try & sort it.
People so easily seduced or out for themselves I have no time for - perhaps I’m just getting old & grumpy!
4th January 2008 at 2:07 am
faraz bhatti should resign!! he has betrayed our community!!! this is for his benefit!!
4th January 2008 at 7:49 pm
You’s guys are saddos
sajjad karim he defected so whats your problem if faraz did!
Lib dem or not he and others helped the community.
So learn the faults before you hate other people.
You need the full story this is only half the story.
He defected because his collegue didn’t get selected.
He threaten the party if his collegue didn’t get selected he’s going.
4th January 2008 at 8:46 pm
Firstly, Happy New Year to all.
Greenfield,
I think you have a fundamental misunderstanding of the way in which some people align themseleves to parties.
Sure, there are some that are “born” into a party. They will tend to follow a single party come what may. This is another manifestation of the “core vote” - something that the Lib Dems don’t have much of, incidentally, which is both a bane and a boon for you guys.
Then there are people - like me, in fact - interested in politics who, given the prevalence of party politics in much of the country, have to choose a party. So what does a liberal-minded, fairly centerist chap like myself do? Well, I could probably fit into any of the parties without too much complaint. So, after a great deal of reading around and talking to people, I choose one that seems to be closest to my personal political position (which is fairly clearly not the Lib Dems for reasons I would be happy to elaborate on but would be rather boring here).
But, if we want to get a little abstract for a moment, relatively small shifts of a party in “political space” can quite legitimately pull people one way or the other. In other words, I don’t think that it is unreasonable for someone to believe now that Cameron is the best bet for delivering a centre-right, liberal agenda where they didn’t feel this a year ago.
On top of this, it is quite possible that people compromise at the beginning (e.g. if I had decided to join the Lib Dems I have no doubt that I would be a Councillor by now given the political makeup of the area I am from) and then realise that in fact their heart is telling them something different.
Or, of course, thy could be just careerists although, as has been pointed out by the calls of “we’ll wipe this guy out come 2011″ this career is unlikely to be at the Councillor level, and the vast majority of the reasonable Conservative PPC slots for the next GE have been bagged already.