Yesterday the IW Councillor vacancy for Newchurch ward - caused by the death of Brian Mosdell - was won by the LibDem candidate with a slim 12 vote majority over the Tory candidate. This is the first by-election since 2000 that the local Tory by-election machine hasn't won. The last time the LibDems won a by-election was in 2000 in Brading.
What Brading 2000 and yesterday had in common was no Labour candidate. Ever since 2000 Labour has always stood a candidate. However, we decided not to put up a candidate this time as this is a ward we don't normally contest and we wanted to see how it went without us.
Back in the 1990s Labour standing at by-elections made little impact on the LibDem vote - it clearly does now. The result of this by-election is very interesting - and it will give all three main parties on the Island food for thought.........
12 comments:
Come on Geoff, share your thoughts?
My guess is Labour should stay out. Let the Libs fight back. Next election looks like a closer fight than I thought. People are getting unhappy with the Tories, maybe the cabinet has been too secretive. A few more oppo councillors must be a good thing?
It'll still be a Tory council next year thou eh.
There's a slight snag with Anon's plan. The councillor elected for Newchurch, Colin Richards, is a decent enough cove, but he held the seat before and was part of the LibDem payroll vote. There is just no point in electing more of the same - the council will just swing back and forth beteween one set of has-beens and another. Mr Richards says he will be interested to look into the present council's finances. Pity he didn't do that last time round, when he was a small cog of the ruling LibDem group.
I don't see much prospect for Labour in Newchurch, to be honest, but to "stay out" is no kind of option. Anon's almost certainly right that it will still be a Tory council next year; but let's try some REAL opposition, not a bunch of tired old chancers desperate to get their backsides back on the seats of power...
With all due respect, of course...
Robert.
Always good to read your comments. You are right of course. What is the point of Labour 'staying out'if all that then happens is a return of many of the old Island First mob like Richards ? Or Fox, Rees and Harris......?
Of course it isn't going to happen. Labour has been the only real opposition to the Tories these last four years, and Deborah and I (and others) have no plans to stand aside for a LibDem !
Nonetheless it would be a good thing to get some other non-Tories with talent and energy on the next Council. After all Labour usually only puts up candidates in about half the wards.
Agreed, but it's hard to find that combination of energy and talent .. many of our present councillors have neither. Somehow, we need to encourage more people to come forward, younger people particularly. It has never ceased to amaze me that when even bright individuals get elected to councils, or selected for membership of boards, so many of them think "that's it, I've arrived" and turn their brains off. Yes, they ask questions - but of the trivial, nit-picking kind that's designed to show they're paying attention, to get their comments minuted etc. The big, fundamental questions, eg "why are we really doing this", the most basic of all, so rarely get asked.
Mind you, having seen the way you are so often treated by the ruling group, I can well understand why; there's only so much patience anyone can have for banging their head against the wall. Francis Pym was right; landslides are a bad thing: they hand power to mediocrity and marginalize talent (you could take Vince Cable as an example, without wishing to muddy the waters too much!).
I've always supported party politics in local government, but I think it would be healthy if a few independents, ie really independent in mind, not Tories in disguise, got in to County Hall and gave it a damn' good stir-up. I also think that if political parties don't allow their members a lot more freedom to disagree and take their own line, they will seal their doom in local politics; we don't want the same old see-saw.
I'd like to see a tough, combative Labour group, and a fair sprinkling of open-minded, questioning Independents, giving a much reduced ruling group a hard time, not out of Sadism, but because it's good for them. And throw away the party whips: politicians should agree on principles, not petty details.
I knew I shouldn't have started this, I never know when to stop. But as no one else has said it, I will: I like the new picture: very avuncular and man-of-the-people.
I hear the night before poll from Brian Mosdell's widow swung it/ She urged the locals not to votge Tory!
What a great story if true. Tells you a lot about Pugh & Co. By the way I see in The Gazette this week that Pugh is going to see the baby Jesus at Christmas. Nice, ahhhh
David Pugh is interesting; whenever I've seen him in action, he makes very competent, logical speeches. He's 30 years younger than I am, and that's impressive. But when he's not actually speaking, he's either lost in his Blackberry or speaking exclusively to his most immediate colleagues - he doesn't seem to look out beyond his own kraal; and so the suspicion grows that like my good friend Shirley Smart, he talks to those who boost his ego, & those whom he knows will agree with him. In this lie the seeds of his ultimate defeat, unless he changes radically. He needs to encompass a much wider constituency, especially if he has ambitions to be MP one of these days. He is emphatically NOT stupid; but he may be too insular -his best friends, of whom I'm not one, should encourage him to look out beyond his immediate circle. His recent spat with the MP was appallingly damaging - it should never have been allowed to happen. As an ex-agent, I can't believe that party officials sat back and allowed it. He seems, of all things, shy and isolated to me, and has to get beyond that if he's to do any good. Youth is allowed a certain amount of latitude; go beyond it, and you've had it. It would be a pity if the youngest council leader we've ever had, whether one agrees with his politics or not, should turn into a nodding donkey before he's even become a stalking horse. But he shouldn't underestimate the sheer calculating chilliness of the Tory machine, which knows that Islanders respect, like, and sympathize with Andrew Turner, and which will ditch David in seconds if he steps any further out of line. Why I should care, I don't know: I have precious little in common with him. But ... someone has to lead this island to better times, David Pugh has the youth and the intelligence - but he needs two things; a big knock to his ego, which he may get at the next elections, and positive encouragement to search for talent way beyond his political comfort zone. He seems to me both arrogant and shy, the one doubtless reinforcing the other - get over those problems and he could yet do some good.
A good and fair assessment. You're obviously fairly close..
Mr Pugh should realise that Andrew Turner is not only popular on the Island if he ever wants to do anything other than be a big fish in a little Island pond. Turner is a genuinely nice man who is also popular with his colleagues (and I'm not a Tory!). His re-election to the 1922 Committee demonstrates that, and Tory MPs are a pretty cohesive lot. If he ever stands for Parliament criticising Turner as he did will get around the constituency and will not go down well. Our very own Besley may also have played a hand in Pugh's future - tags like Pughnoccio will come back to haunt him - mark my words....
I think Robert Jones is correct in his assessment of David Pugh. He is no fool, but he has the inexperience of people relationships that comes with youth, although they can never see it; because of their youthful inexperience! His Cabinet is letting him down at every turn. What has the Council achieved since Andy Sutton left? It's damaged it's reputation because of the education debarcle! Chapel St traffic mess up! Bus fares! Riverside Centre funding! County Hall move! the list of damaging issues is endless - even with it's vast spin machine - or is it down to poor leadership? Perhaps David Pugh needs to listen to those outside of his Cabinet to get a truer picture of how he's doing and what the Council should be doing.
David Pugh only listens to people who are agree with him.
Dear Geoff
What should the Labour Party National Executive Committee be doing to enable you to fight every seat at some point in the not too distant future.
Hat tip to Luke Akehurst for including you in his local Labour roundup.
Peter Kenyon
Labour Party NEC member - constituency section
Peter K - Geoff will make his own response when he's done with roistering and feasting over the holiday, but let me get in as one who was Labour agent here for many years. What the NEC can do, and should do, is hold the Labour government to account on behalf of its members, supporters and potential support. Without going all rhetorical on you, though I could, the gap between what I hear from ministers on radio, even the way they speak, and the average Labour supporter is turning into a chasm.
To fight every seat on the IW you need members, canvassers, leafletters, people who'll join the party because the government enthuses them to do so and gives them something to believe in beyond crisis management of a debt crisis we all know should have been anticipated.
I'm sorry to say this, but the time for thinking that it'll all come right in the end if only everyone stays loyal and buffs up on their interview techniques is long, long gone.
Post a Comment