Posts Tagged ‘ian lewis’

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

Chancellor Alistair Darling today delivered his second Budget, a full transcript can be read here, however the main announcements are listed below

• Supporting people back into work with an extra £1.7 billion in Jobcentre Plus.

• Supporting 18-24 year olds with a guaranteed job, training or work placement for all who reach 12 months unemployment.

• Supporting pensioners with an additional payment alongside the Winter Fuel Payment worth £100 for households with someone aged over 80 and £50 for households with someone aged over 60

• Supporting savers by raising the tax free Individual Saving Accounts (ISAs) limit to over £10,000.

• Supporting families with children by increasing the Child Tax Credit by £20 a year from April 2010.

• Supporting those made redundant by increasing statutory redundancy pay to £380 per week.

• Supporting homeowners with a £600 million funding package to build more homes through unlocking sites currently sitting dormant

• Supporting the housing market by extending the stamp duty holiday to the end of the year for properties under £175,000.

• Supporting business by extending the Business Payment Support Service to help businesses experiencing short-term cash-flow difficulties.

• Supporting the automotive industry by enabling people who scrap vehicles older than ten years to replace them with new vehicles at a discount of £2,000.

The scrappage scheme supporting the automotive industry is particularly welcome here on Merseyside and will benefit the Vauxhall plant in Ellesmere Port and the Jaguar Land Rover plant in Halewood as well as the numerous firms supplying those plants, a similar scheme is operated with great success in Germany.

David Cameron’s Conservatives do nothing but talk Britain down and shockingly some Conservatives even appear to be enjoying the recession.