The state of the parties in the Council today is as follows:
1. Labour - 41 seats
2. Conservative - 10
3. Independents - 8
4. CAP - 7
5. Liberals - 4
6. Independent Conservatives - 4
One vacant seat.
So at the moment the Democratic Alliance of the CAP and Liberals are the official opposition. The leader of this group will be opposition leader - which means that the official leader of the opposition will represent a party that has 7 or 4 members out of 75.
But this will no doubt change. If there are any more defections from CAP the Tories will be the official opposition.
Watch this space.
Friday, 9 May 2008
Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory
Imagine you are a local Tory - it is May 1st and after years of hurt and pain you see that the party nationally is on the up and locally it has won seats and is going to be the official opposition in Wigan with 14 seats.The leader of the party is articulate and is an effective opposition leader - unlike the last one whose only memorable phrase was ' it's a disgrace' And what a coup for David Cameron - he will be able to boast that the Conservative Party is the official opposition in of all places Wigan
and then - four members of the Party defect to form the Independent Conservative group which means that you are not going to be the official opposition any more.
Bummer
and then - four members of the Party defect to form the Independent Conservative group which means that you are not going to be the official opposition any more.
Bummer
CAP - the Con Artists Party
I was going to leave the subject of politics at this point but it has just been reported that yet another sitting councillor has deserted the CAP to go independent. This has become an annual event. I now count six Independent Councillors serving on Wigan Council who were once members of this Con Artist Party.
Clearly any thought of the electorate goes out of the window when these politicians act in this way. Councillor Wilkes ( the defecting Councillor in Winstanley) says in his press release that he did not defect before the election because it would have damaged the chances of his friend Councillor Barnes in the election. ( this by the way is from the party that tried to con the people of Wigan at the outset that they were non-political)
This Party has a lot of previous
In the past three years we have had a Councillor in Ashton standing as CAP but had left the party before the election in 2006 without telling the electorate.Last year we had the CAP joining with the Liberals to form the Democratic Alliance in the Council chamber to become the official opposition - no word of this to the electorate - and now you have the Councillor in Winstanley leaving the Party without a word to the people of Winstanley to ensure his friend is elected. Oh yes I forgot - they are non-political.
To me there is a fundamental point of decency here. If I as a Councillor decided to join another party I would have good grace to tell the electorate what I was going to do and then would ask them for their verdict.
Another question which must be asked is: Who is next to desert the sinking ship?
Clearly any thought of the electorate goes out of the window when these politicians act in this way. Councillor Wilkes ( the defecting Councillor in Winstanley) says in his press release that he did not defect before the election because it would have damaged the chances of his friend Councillor Barnes in the election. ( this by the way is from the party that tried to con the people of Wigan at the outset that they were non-political)
This Party has a lot of previous
In the past three years we have had a Councillor in Ashton standing as CAP but had left the party before the election in 2006 without telling the electorate.Last year we had the CAP joining with the Liberals to form the Democratic Alliance in the Council chamber to become the official opposition - no word of this to the electorate - and now you have the Councillor in Winstanley leaving the Party without a word to the people of Winstanley to ensure his friend is elected. Oh yes I forgot - they are non-political.
To me there is a fundamental point of decency here. If I as a Councillor decided to join another party I would have good grace to tell the electorate what I was going to do and then would ask them for their verdict.
Another question which must be asked is: Who is next to desert the sinking ship?
Saturday, 3 May 2008
A question
I would like to hear from Labour supporters who did not vote in last Thursday's elections or who voted against us. Please could you tell me your reasons for your decision to abstain or vote against. Was it national or local issuues that influenced you?
Friday, 2 May 2008
Spectacular loss
On a night when the Labour Party lost the most number of seats in 40 years we witnessed the results of six years of incompetence by the Community Action Party when it managed to lose two seats, one of which was its leader Peter Franzen.
They must be the only party in the country to have achieved this spectacular piece of political mismanagement when every other party was gaining seats from the Labour party.
Is this the end for the party that was going to be the answer to all Wigan's problems and put an end to the Labour Party in Wigan?
They must be the only party in the country to have achieved this spectacular piece of political mismanagement when every other party was gaining seats from the Labour party.
Is this the end for the party that was going to be the answer to all Wigan's problems and put an end to the Labour Party in Wigan?
Elections 2008
Reasons to be gloomy
By any standard Thursday's election results were a disaster for the Labour Party nationally and very disappointing locally.We believe that we fought a good campaign in Ashton with a candidate who has worked selflessly for residents of Ashton. We spent four weeks canvassing and putting our message over but it became more and more evident as time went on that national politics were influencing people's decisions. A lot of people decided not to vote for us because of issues like the abolition of the 10p tax rate. I get the impression that these people did not vote against us they just abstained. Clearly the party nationally needs to listen and act to address this.
Or perhaps we are just at the bottom end of the political cycle and we have to accept this ,keep our nerve and struggle through to the next general election Given that the Labour Party has been in power for 11 years it has up until last Thursday been virtually untroubled by bad opinion polls. Compare that to the Conservative even under Margaret Thatcher and John Major in the 90s. However, the mood in the press and the public is to blame us for everything under the sun, some criticism justified and some not. I am sure Tory readers of this blog will remember how that feels during the last days of John Major.
So Peter Franzen and members of the CAP Party might get what they have always wanted in two or so years time - the end of New Labour. Well I hope they like David Cameron's Tory Party better. I can remember 1979 when the country got rid of the Labour party in government and got -- Margaret Thatcher.
Reasons to be cheerful
1.We did not lose any seats in the Makerfield Constituency despite the electoral carnage elsewhere.
2. Wigan Council is still Labour controlled despite losing five seats.
3. The leader of the Community action party was defeated in Golborne - see article above.
Our reaction as a local party
We will continue to do what we have been doing for the past few years doing working in the community, helping both individuals and groups, communicating with the people of Ashton through leaflets and surveys asking local people what we can do to improve Ashton and not just at election time. It's what we do.
By any standard Thursday's election results were a disaster for the Labour Party nationally and very disappointing locally.We believe that we fought a good campaign in Ashton with a candidate who has worked selflessly for residents of Ashton. We spent four weeks canvassing and putting our message over but it became more and more evident as time went on that national politics were influencing people's decisions. A lot of people decided not to vote for us because of issues like the abolition of the 10p tax rate. I get the impression that these people did not vote against us they just abstained. Clearly the party nationally needs to listen and act to address this.
Or perhaps we are just at the bottom end of the political cycle and we have to accept this ,keep our nerve and struggle through to the next general election Given that the Labour Party has been in power for 11 years it has up until last Thursday been virtually untroubled by bad opinion polls. Compare that to the Conservative even under Margaret Thatcher and John Major in the 90s. However, the mood in the press and the public is to blame us for everything under the sun, some criticism justified and some not. I am sure Tory readers of this blog will remember how that feels during the last days of John Major.
So Peter Franzen and members of the CAP Party might get what they have always wanted in two or so years time - the end of New Labour. Well I hope they like David Cameron's Tory Party better. I can remember 1979 when the country got rid of the Labour party in government and got -- Margaret Thatcher.
Reasons to be cheerful
1.We did not lose any seats in the Makerfield Constituency despite the electoral carnage elsewhere.
2. Wigan Council is still Labour controlled despite losing five seats.
3. The leader of the Community action party was defeated in Golborne - see article above.
Our reaction as a local party
We will continue to do what we have been doing for the past few years doing working in the community, helping both individuals and groups, communicating with the people of Ashton through leaflets and surveys asking local people what we can do to improve Ashton and not just at election time. It's what we do.
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