The CP accurately reports today that Wednesday’s Isle of Wight Council meeting heard from current deputy leader Cllr George Brown that the former Council leader (Andy Sutton) was told to stand down in September 2007 because a majority of his Cabinet refused to serve under him and his deputy, Cllr Patrick Joyce.
As Brown made his statement Sutton and Dawn Cousins (who has been on the Cabinet since 2005) both looked to me to be very irritated at what Brown was saying.
Interesting that after Sutton stood down with Joyce and Melanie Swan back in September 2007, Ian Ward and Jilly Wood were both sacked from the Cabinet by the new leader. I make that 5 out of 10 members of the then Cabinet – and with Cousins, whose expertise makes her pretty much unsackable by anyone ????? You can do the maths…..
I suspect Sutton's resignation was more to do with the Tory Group as a whole and a minority of ambitious Cabinet members.
4 comments:
Well your sums add up Geoff - but I know for a fact that the rest of the Tory group were kept completely in the dark about what was going on. Andy Sutton could simply have appointed other people to replace the cabinet members who refused to serve - he had enough to choose from after all.
Do you remember Win McRobert saying on IW Radio that the meeting to choose Pugh as leader went ahead without some members of the group knowing about it? There was definitely something fishy going on.
Pugh and his cronies have repeatedly said that there was no coup - and that Andy Sutton stood down voluntarily. Doesn't say much for their integrity that Cllr Brown has suddenly remembered things so differently does it. The CP should be digging hard and looking at what they are quoted as saying in the past. The Pughnoccio label is richly deserved it seems.
Incidentally - rumour has it that the report from the Standards Committee will not make happy reading for the Conservative Party on the Island. Interesting times....
I recall Win Laden saying exactly that on the radio. This was almost certainly a coup, with Brown and Pugh the principal beneficiaries. In politics there is alwys someone close waiting for their chance. What a horrible business.
It has never added up at all - I don't think we know the truth even now, despite George Brown's "Oprah Winfrey meets George Washington" moment of apparent candour.
On the night of the Palace Coup, a functionary to the Cabinet (who subsequently became a very high profile Cabinet Member)took me to one side to inform me that Andy Sutton had "been thinking about standing down for some time ". To be fair, when I laughed out loud he did give me a knowing look...
Very funny. As was your Palace Coup quote at the time. As you note, we'll never know the full (real) story.
Post a Comment