Tunbridge Wells Borough Council: 2022 will be interesting!

 In 2021 the Conservatives lost control of the council, a control only possible with the deciding vote of the Conservative mayor.  The Conservative Leader of the Council retained his position as did his Cabinet.  It is anticipated the Tories will lose seats at the May 2022 elections and power will transfer to the opposition councillors - Liberal Democrat, Alliance, Labour and one Independent. The Conservatives have only themselves to blame having ousted Roy Bullock and replaced him with a dithering nonentity who promptly lost his seat to UKIP.  On his departure he was replaced by a councillor who lived in East Sussex (although qualified to be a councillor),  was certainly more dynamic, and managed to split his party before losing his seat. Since then there have been Leaders who to put it mildly have overseen drift and decline.

It remains to be determined if the current three opposition parties will be able to form a coherent controlling group.  Prior to the May elections what are these parties going to do?  Will they agree on electoral pacts as after all they will have to unite behind one set of policies post the elections?  Will the parties stand on a policy platform agreed before the elections and placed in the public domain?  Or will we see squalid secretive deals done after the elections thus making the electorates' choices irrelevant?

Opposition is easy, promises can be made, negative criticism aired, outlandish assertions made all of which will come back and bite.  Will the new 'management' be up for the fight or will it succumb to in-fighting and thereby lose the trust of voters?

We may be amazed of course by the Tories pulling off electoral victory!

Kent Tories wobble but not toppled.

The Conservative held on to control of Kent County Council....just.

UKIP came from nowhere to win 17 seats, Labour failed to regain all the seats lost in 2009 and the Liberal Democrats trod water.  Had UKIP been able to mount contests in more Conservative seats, as distinct from fielding 'paper' candidates, we could have been looking at a council with no overall control.

As it is the Conservatives will form the cabinet.  We await with interest signs that opposition councillors are capable of mounting  effective scrutiny.

UKIP gained Tunbridge Wells East from the Conservatives.  A good result, followed by a stab in the back.

http://www.thisiskent.co.uk/Successful-Tunbridge-Wells-UKIP-candidate/story-18881621-detail/story.html#axzz2SENnnEGj

The UKIP challenge in Tunbridge Wells North came to nothing as the electorate followed the lead of Capel's electorate last year and refused to elect Brian Ransley.

The English Democrats had a hopeless campaign and dismal results.  At least they brought comedy to the elections with a candidate living at a non existent address and two candidates who live in Swanley, stood under other names and gave as their home address a location outside the county.

The English Democrats performance in Kent was matched  in Doncaster where they lost the Mayoral election having been successful in 2009.  It wasn't even close.  Hower, in typical English Democrat fashion, a gloss was put on the heavy defeat.

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Cload and dagger

The county council elections are upon us.  Expect an avalanche of election literature in Tunbridge Wells as the Conservatives seek to repulse UKIP's charge and forays by the Liberal Democrats and Labour.

The most intriguing contest is in Tunbridge Wells East.  The Conservatives held the seat in a by-election last year, just - the seat is a three-way marginal.

The recent surge by UKIP in the opinion polls must encourage the party to believe it can win the seat.  The Liberal Democrats also hope to win as the electoral division includes their strongest ward.

The decision of Terry Cload to stand as an Independent adds to the uncertainty in predicting the result.  Mr Cload is a former Conservative councillor on Tunbridge Wells Borough Council and a former Vice-Chairman of the local Conservative Association.

In 2012 an Independent achieved a resounding victory in Pembury at the Borough Council elections. He is also a former Conservative councillor.

Tunbridge Wells North should be interesting.   The long-serving Conservative member was de-selected.  One ward in the division is a Conservative/Liberal Democrat marginal.  Labour has won two seats on the Borough Council in one of the other wards making up the division.  The 'surprise' candidate is the former Conservative borough councillor, Brian Ransley, who is standing for UKIP.  Mr Ransley has had a few mentions on this blog.

Finally, the contest in Tunbridge Wells West could produce a surprise.  Normally a very safe Conservative seat,  UKIP has won two seats from the Conservatives on the Borough Council in Rusthall ward.  Last year UKIP gained a seat by ousting the Leader of the Borough Council.

In or out?

Some Conservative MPs are stepping up the pressure on David Cameron to offer the great British public an 'in-or-out' referendum on EU membership.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/eu/9700867/Tories-cheer-Cameron-in-Europe-and-demand-referendum.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9700903/Mark-Pritchard-Only-an-in-out-referendum-will-do.html

Doubtless Cameron's deputy, Nick Clegg, will support this, won't he?   After all his party put this out at the last general election:

Lords reform scuppered

The electorate dispensed with the Liberal Democrats AV proposals with a resounding 'no'.  The Coalition agreement linked the AV referendum with proposals for parliamentary constituency boundary revision, not with House of Lords reform.  Now that Clegg has been given a bloody nose over Lords reform by backbench Tories he is retaliating by refusing to support constituency boundary reform.  Says all that needs to be said about the Liberal Democrats.

http://conservativehome.blogs.com/thecolumnists/2012/08/andrew-lilico-the-conservatives-havent-welched-on-the-coalition-agreement-but-the-lib-dems-have.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/telegraph-view/9455912/Nick-Clegg-shows-his-true-colours-on-equal-votes.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9458909/Cameron-to-push-ahead-with-boundary-reform-despite-Lib-Dems-wrecking-vow.html

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/davidhughes/100175026/the-tories-to-lose-a-by-election-so-what-its-lib-dem-opportunism-on-boundary-changes-we-should-worry-about/

I doubt the electorate would have put up with another layer of well paid party hacks in a reformed upper chamber, hence the refusal to put the issue of Lords to a referendum.  As for as I am aware the list system was to have been used for elections to the upper chamber, the list order being determined by the political parties.  Jobs for the boys and girls who follow the party line.

Of course the main beneficiary of AV and Lords reform would have been the Liberal Democrats who would have become the perpetual tail wagging the dog.  Back room deals between the parties would become the order of the day, and hang the electorate.

Really, the Conservatives should be looking to ditch the Liberal Democrats.  A press report today

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/9455794/Labour-poll-lead-widens-as-Tories-agitate-for-UKIP-coalition.html

states that six out of ten Tory activists would like the Conservative Party to enter into a coalition with UKIP.

See also: http://networkedblogs.com/AJOwf

One assumes that the main reason for this is strong anti- EU sentiment within the Conservative Party membership.  The Liberal Democrats are the most pro-EU major political party in England, which makes for strange bedfellows within the Coalition.

See also:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/liberaldemocrats/9458069/Lords-reform-Lib-Dem-minister-breaks-code-by-voting-against-boundary-changes.html

UPDATE:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/telegraph-view/9459046/Clegg-cares-more-about-revenge-than-fairness.html

Good Conservative hold

Interesting comments concerning the Lib Dem election organisation.

http://aldc.org/elections/by-elections-commentary/2645/16/12/2011/Time_to_reflect

Promises, promises.

Not worth the paper they are written on:

Trust the Liberal Democrats?

We know students have a poor opinion of the Lib Dems broken election promises as the party engaged in a grubby power-grab after the 2010 general election. We know also that the party is fanatically europhile as witness its uncritical, sycophantic support for the EU and all its works.  I came across a leaflet published by the party before the 2010 general election. 

A classic example of a party thinking it has no chance of power making promises with the comfort of knowing it will not have to implement them.  At least Cameron was consistent. The Conservatives promise of a referendum was conditional on the Treaty of Lisbon not having been signed by the UK government.  Who will forget the furtive manner in which Gordon Brown signed the treaty, turning up a day late?

See also:

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/danielhannan/100117244/scotland-should-hold-an-independence-referendum-and-so-should-the-united-kingdom/