In the most recent Liberal Focus the incumbent Councillors have praised their achievement in resolving the recent debacle regarding the election of a new leader of the Council. What they failed to tell us, was in one instance they were voting in agreement with the Labour Party and then after some clandestine activity with the Tories, the Liberal Leadership was suddenly in tune with the local Tory Peers....?!! Bizarrely enough the Liberals gained position and influence through that decision, whilst they also, managed to malign the Labour Party and undermine any scheming our incumbent Labour Councillors probably intended, with their own intended package of sanctions on the Conservatives.All this secretive, "behind close door" scheming undermines the local political process, besides we should query whether the intention of the Liberals was predominantly an opportunity for increased salary and position or the the Reviews they have stated they have endorsed (which probably would have been an inevitable process anyway...?
They painted a good picture of achieving a shared political future with wider depth of opportunity and vision. What is worse having political figures from the same party making the wrong decisions or those from a wider range..?
6 and two 3's if you ask me!
Makes you laugh though does it not....? If only more of our councillors would pull their fingers out and actually facilitate some change.!
True I have not seen the Focus newsletter but I do think your post is somewhat unfair. The fact is that 4 Conservative cllrs quit the party and formed their own IC group in opposition. This meant that there was no combination of opposition groups that could form a workable majority and an administration. This would have left the borough rudderless and in limbo. The LibDem leadership, [true not Chadwell clls] did the sensible thing for the residents and abstained to allow a minority Conservative administration. But not without concessions. One of them, that opposition cllrs should chair scrutiny committees, who scrutinise the cabinet, has long been their position and is not without merit. The Conservatives would argue that they would have prioritised school places, a new swimming pool and library for SK anyway but the fact remains that it was a written agreement with the LibDems.
ReplyDeleteI accept your view and reiterate, however the Ilford Recorder made a valid point that initially talks were also being undertaken with the Labour Party also and verbal agreements were in place, before the revelation of the Liberal collaboration. Obviously the Conservatives, found the proposition of working with the Liberal Party a more valuable opportunity for reasons we are not party too. Whatever happened and was discussed the Liberal Leadership have gained fiscally and influentially and it will always be a matter of conjecture, that the need for private discussions rather than an all party forum to get to this resolution means this decision resonates with an air of bias and personal favour. There can not be anyone on the council that disagrees or is unaware that the most volatile and pressing demands on our council are for a forward plan for schooling, the Swimming Pool fiasco and a library for Seven Kings. It could not have been a hard decision for Councillor Prince to make...?
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