Andy Mayer has a very good take on a recent defection from the Liberal Democrat group in Southwark.
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A good article, although rather than getting on one’s moral high horse when someone defects to another party by requesting a by-election, we should favour legislation by making it compulsory.
Appreciated. The thinking in this case is that Labour might actively wish to pursue a by-election to test their own claims that residents don’t want the Liberal Democrat-Conservative coalition running services. That was also the main reason cited for the defection.
That they don’t, suggests a certain lack of confidence. The Borough’s MORI polls certainly seem to indicate that resident satisfaction continues to rise, although this wasn’t reflected in the swings during this year’s election.
Interesting idea in respect of automatic by-elections. Currently though the principle (for single/multi-member constituency elections) is that we elect an individual who happens to represent a party, rather than a party that happens to be represented by individuals. Automatic by-elections would reverse that principle which needs thinking about in respect of what impact it would have on the power of parties and role of independents.
Instinctively I believe we tend to favour empowering the individual against the institution so I’m not sure we should go down that route.
I feel the same as Andy about automatic by-elections. It would increase the power of the parties by creating a big disincentive for councillors who feel as an issue of conscience that they should leave their group to do so. What about where a councillor is thrown out by their group – should that cause a by-election too?
If constituents are unhappy with a defector’s decision, they can vote them out at the next election same as any other councillor with whom they disagree on an issue.
The record for defecting and defecting back is 2 days, so 7 years is not bad. This was set last year in Manchester when Councillor David Royle resigned on the Wednesday from Labour, joined us, did a Press Release and then defected back on the Friday.
His indecision has not done him any favours – that said, his record as a Lib Dem Councillor was 2 days! Anyone beat that?