6 Comments

• Alix 20th Jan '09 - 7:38pm

  I’m never sure whether I’m supposed to be pleased about this sort of stuff or not. I mean, yes, on the whole, of course I’d rather people were Lib Dems than not, if nothing else because it (presumably) ensures their votes in support of the LD agenda in Portsmouth.

  And sure, sometimes people make reasoned and reasonable defections from one party to another after deep wrangling with their inner souls, and that goes for former Lib Dem defectors as well.

  But three of them coming to us? We’ve got to be talking surely at least 66.6% awkward vengeful bastard of the kind that no-one needs, responding to the kind of bitterly internecine local crap that gives politics a bad name. It’s news, for sure, but I’m not sure whether it’s necessarily good news.

  Or is it just me?

• asquith 20th Jan '09 - 7:59pm

  No, it’s not just you as I share your concerns. Defectors should be viewed with suspicion until they prove themselves. A party worth its salt should demand of members that they share its values.

  Sometimes jumping ship is the right thing & a principled decision, but what was going through Saj Karrim’s head, for example?

  As with so much else in politics & life, you should tread carefully.

• James Shaddock 20th Jan '09 - 8:04pm

  As a member of the local party Exec here in Portsmouth, I can assure you that the decision to accept the 3 of them was not taken lightly, but was treated with care as any defection/s should be, but also treated fairly as any membership application is.

• David Morton 21st Jan '09 - 7:31am

  I think tis article is fair enought as its about a big council comming under majority control. However one of the things that finaly sent me over the edge on Liberal Democrat News was the absurd treatment of very defector as some sort of triumph when we all know it often isn’t. Indeed the proces goes both ways. We frequently lose people the other way. A case in point was the recent artilce about a Northhamptonshire Tory councillor dfecing to the Lib Dems. Very recently a LD North Yorks Couny councillor, sitting constituiency chair and former PPC went to the Tories.

  What does either prove ? That if a country has 22000 principal local auhority councillors and that that role is difficult to recruit to then occassionall some people will get hacked off with collegues.

  I wouldn’t want to name names but I know of one case where a Lib Dem councillor went Labour after a trully awful episode, then after 4 months he went Independent being eually awful to them. You’d think we’d just taget is eat and say good riddence but the courtship of him about a return began immeadiately. he was even given a copy of the group whip at council meetings copied on a differnt coloured paper.

  basically when control of a council is at sake all critical facilities are switched off.

• Painfully Liberal 21st Jan '09 - 9:36am

  As an activist I can’t help but feel a certain antipathy towards defectors as I feel a certian empathy with the people who worked towards getting them elected.

  They may have liked the candidates personally, but still there will be people who put a lot of effort into campaigning for these people to a large extent because they wanted Conservative Councillors returned. I’m sure I’d feel pretty annoyed if a candidate I’d campaigned for subsequently left the Lib Dems.

• Paul Walter 21st Jan '09 - 3:23pm

  It ought to be mentioned that the leader of the council, Gerald Vernon-Jackson is a remarkably conciliatory figure, and I suspect that the three defectors have come across in part because of Gerald’s approach.