Posts Tagged ‘Conservative’

One of the most amusing – and breathtaking – acts of political cheek of recent times is to see the Tories claim that they are the true party of progressives.Below is a  little reminder of just  how ‘progressive’ the Tories really are.

British People are losing their homes, David Cameron is Losing Track

You would think watching the hubris demonstrated by Wirral Tories that Seacombe has suddenly turned into a safe Tory seat, simply because former Socialist Cllr Knowles has abandoned his obviously shallow principles for reasons known only to himself and joined the Tories (though I suspect that losing his £20k + Merseytravel allowance had something to do with it).

The reality is that there is a great deal of anger from the people of Seacombe in the way Cllr Knowles has treated them, with many unhappy in the way they have had a Tory Councillor foisted upon them, and all we have spoke to want him out.

No doubt Cllr Knowles is enjoying mixing with his new Tory chums like Cllr Chris Blakeley, Tory Party Chairman Eric Pickles and no doubt he is looking forward to meeting the great leader himself David Cameron, but if Cllr Knowles had an ounce of decency left then he would resign and let the people of Seacombe have their say. But I doubt that will happen as everyone knows including Cllr Knowles and the Wirral Tories that the Tory hubris in Seacombe is pure fantasy.

However there has been one side effect, that is the number of people beating a path to the door of Seacombe Branch Labour Party in order to join the Labour Party and help rid Seacombe of former Socialist Cllr Knowles.

The other day I blogged that former Socialist Cllr Knowles was using the services of a spin doctor his new Tory chum Cllr Ian Lewis to contact constituents on his behalf. Further to that reproduced below is the reply to a Seacombe resident who was surprised to say the least to receive a reply from Cllr Lewis, having contacted Cllr Knowles.

Hello Mr ……

Thanks for your email, regarding the decision by Cllr. Denis Knowles to leave the Labour Group and join the Conservatives. Councillors, across the country, do switch parties.  It’s rare but not unheard of – here in Wirral, councillors have, in the last five years, left the Liberal Democrats to join the Conservatives and left the Conservatives to become an ‘independent’.

There is no law or ruling that requires a by election – either in a local government or Parliamentary seat – as we saw when a Conservative MP (who, I admit, I had never heard of) joined Labour and is now a Labour  Minister, all since being elected as Conservative in 2005.

The election of a councillor is as much about the person as the councillor.  We saw that in the 2004 elections when Denis Knowles won more votes than the longest-serving councillor, even though both were Labour.  As such, it is the winning candidate who signs the oath of office pledging to do ‘his or her best for their community’.  The Party isn’t mentioned in the oath.

Personally, and you could say ‘you would say that’, but I don’t think there should be a by-election when a councillor defects – plenty of people change their minds about which Party to support, why not councillors?

Sorry if this all sounds a bit ‘politician speak’… 

Ian Lewis

Conservative

Councillor for Leasowe & Moreton East

You would think that with all those years of experience of being a Councillor, former Socialist Cllr Knowles would be able to write to his own constituents without having to rely on a spin doctor fellow Tory, Cllr Ian Lewis to do it for him. Or is it the case that judging by the following quote from fellow Tory Cllr Lesley Rennie’s Twitter feed, Cllr Knowles holds the public in the same contempt as his Tory colleagues obviously do

“The Globe has just arrived. Great piece about OUR Denis, some nark having a ‘go’ in letters page.”