A trio of local council news:
- Andrew Reeves reports on the sacking of a Scottish Labour councillor William O’Rourke over his comments about rape (and credit to Labour, they looked to have moved much more quickly and firmly than the Conservatives did in the recent similar case of Bill Aitken)
- Horsham Conservative councillor Keith Shepherd has switched to the Liberal Democrats
- Eastleigh councillor Keith Day has quit the Liberal Democrats and is now sitting as an independent
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9 Comments
Does that make 4 councillors that have resigned from the party in Eastleigh this year?
As regards Eastleigh, you only mention Keith Day – but according to the local press two Hedge End local councillors are involved, with both Keith Day and Jenny Schwausch having quit the Lib Dems and intending to stand as independents.
The article also provides a glimpse into their stated motivations.
Cllr Day said, “I felt the Lib Dems have been losing left wing supporters. They are picking up more right wing followers now they are in the coalition and I think they will look at a move to the right to appease these new supporters. If that is the case I couldn’t see myself staying so I felt it was more honest to leave now. I understand the need to compromise but I feel they have broken their promise over tuition fees and the ‘no more broken promises’ promise.”
Cllr Schwausch said, “For me it was a matter of conscience, I felt the Lib Dems had betrayed tactical voters and courted the youth vote very assiduously only to throw it back in their face with tuition fees.”
Presumably the ‘tuition fees are a done deal, stop whining about them, the public will get over it’ meme so frequently cited on here hasn’t reached Eastleigh yet.
That said, the Southampton/Eastleigh area is about to get ugly for both Lib Dems and Conservatives. Southampton city council attempted to impose pay cuts on 4500 council employees, but the unions wouldn’t agree to it. The council gave three months’ notice to all 4500 of them, so they’ll all be jobless (and Southampton will suddenly be very short of staff) unless they individually agree to sign new contracts including a hefty pay cut. If I were anywhere near Southampton (or Birmingham or Nottingham) and in any way associated with the current government either local or national, I’d be trying to assert my individuality too.
@Ben
Does that make 4 councillors that have resigned from the party in Eastleigh this year?
From the Echo article:
“The pair are currently deciding whether or not to rest as independents. This followed a crossing of the floor at borough level that saw Glynn Davies-Dear, Andy Moore and Dave Broughton leave the ruling party to form the Independent Party of Eastleigh Councillors.”
If the statements in the article are correct, I guess it makes five. Councillors Andy Moore, Dave Broughton and Glynn Davies-Dear apparently stated that their departure was motivated by unhappiness with “the national coalition, the decision on tuition fees and local party politics.[…and] what they called ‘a crack in the party'”
Moore’s prediction in January was, “Others may well leave soon too as I know there is a lot of bad feeling about the coalition and our MP who has sold us down the river.”
Still, according to that January article the Lib Dems still had 36 councillors, the Tories four, the new party with three and Labour with one – so it’s a drop in the ocean even on a local level. There also appears to be a local intrigue behind the January affair. Politicians behaving badly, coming soon to an elected body near you. Oh, the drama.
@daft ha’p’orth That Union newsletter makes interesting reading.
My reading of their figures is that those on low wages are to receive a flat rate £250 pay increase and those above that level will receive no increase (or to put it another way, no cut). Those on very high salaries may lose a market rate supplement and/or a reduction in mileage as well.
The Union’s reading of the figures seems to be that because the employees are not getting an increase for inflation, and are not getting a further ‘increment’, whatever that is, that this is the equivalent of a pay cut.
This suggests to me that the Union is not living in the real world where millions of people have agreed to take actual pay cuts, or reductions in hours, during the past few years, in order to reduce the need for redundancies.
@Liberal Neil
I am simply stating that there are a lot of pissed off employees in Southampton today. You may well come to the conclusion that the Union don’t live in the real world, and therefore all the employees are wrong. Personally, I don’t find the Union’s report gives me enough contextual information to come to an overall conclusion one way or another. Although I am impressed by the sheer nastiness of Soton’s approach, I am not in a position to judge the impact, necessity or legal validity of the move.
Still, this dispute is likely one reason why the powers that be are not flavour of the month, alongside all those good old Eastleigh issues – alleged abuses of power, planning issues, grandiose projects and all that.
Jenny Schwausch is a Hedge End Town councillor rather than an Eastleigh Borough councillor. I’m never impressed by defections which follow a sitting councillor being de-selected, whether they come to us, or leave us.
Are these councillors up for re-election in May anyway?
@tonyhill
There seems to be a tradition of toys-out-of-pram deselection defection 🙂
I see two Wyre Forest LibDem Councillors have chucked it as well http://www.kidderminstershuttle.co.uk/news/8899028.Lib_Dem_councillors_quit/