To say that we are unhappy with the recent Tory newsletter would be a major understatement.
It has a headline of "Say no to a travellers site in Broadfield" and starts "Alan and Marcella are worried that the Labour council may put the travellers in Broadfield" before going on to more specific lies. The first statement may actually be true, because if Alan and Marcella are really, really stupid, then maybe they are worried. But they would have to be very stupid indeed, as Marcella is on the council committee which is looking at the whole travellers issue and should know that every spare piece of land in Broadfield has already been rejected as a possible travellers site for one reason or another by that committee.
This morning I was taken aback by the sheer shamelessness of it, after one of our members refused to shake Alan's hand at the polling station and said "I'm having nothing to do with you after the lies you put out." Alan complained to Jayne about this and she pointed out that his newsletter was a blatant lie. He did not deny it. In fact he just shrugged and grinned as if to say – yeah but it worked didn't it?
This is not something we are going to forget. In politics we are often afraid to call anyone a liar, it seems to me that calling someone a liar is considered a greater wrong than actually lying. However, should we not win here today, I will have no qualms at all about making sure that every single reference to either of our Tory councillors contains the word 'liar', possibly even "self-confessed liar", since not only has Jayne asked around to discover the truth, but Alan has as good as admitted he will lie and mislead the people in Broadfield just to get their vote.
I think a complaint to the Standards Board or England may well follow…
The Toris told similar lies in a Ward near where I stood in 2003. The sitting Labour councillor just about scraped through! I sincerely hope Jayne wins and not just cos she is your missus and the Labour candidate.
Really sorry about your losing Crawley (don’t have any individual results, yet). Just watched that creepy Lanzer going on about the “concerns of the settled community” – I’d better not say how he came across. What a sickener.
Standards Board and Local Government Ombudsman -and letters to the papers – and that’s only for starters.
I don’t know what is worse. The prospect of Bob Lanzer running the council, or the idea that Duncan Crow will be his deputy.
How long do we give them before we ask why they haven’t managed to solve the traveller problem yet. After all, they know what NOT to do, apparently. What will they do? Hope it goes away?
They’ll probably put a travellers site in Broadfield, to ‘prove’ they were right.
As I see it, they now have that power – and will abuse and misuse that power – just as they do at County Hall.
As I said before, a Con-run CBC will make Machiavelli look a saint.
Labour – including the Skudders – need to stop ‘licking their wounds on what might have been’, and become a strong, effective opposition to expose the deception and deceit of this ‘shower’ – something they should have done before this disastrous election.
My first post in ages on my blog makes that very point – what Crawley needs, and what Labour needs, is a united and effective opposition. With a majority of 1, and the possibility that one or two Tories might miss a vital vote, the group must work together.
I think that the Skudders are of the same mind on this – they certainly made similar points when Labour were in charge. Whether other councillors see this or not will become apparent soon.
By the way, Richard, when did you stop standing under the ‘SCRAM’ banner and adopt the ‘Labour Independant’?
When Cyril Joad, the Socialist Christian Philosopher, was bowled ‘googlies’ like this one from you, Dani – as panellist in the wartime BBC Brains Trust (forerunner to AQ/QT) – he used to give himself time to answer the question with a catch-phrase : “It all depends what you mean by…”.
I will do the same with your question if I may : “It all depends what you mean by…’Labour Independent’ ?”
I have had to put my cerebral matter on overtime with your question, Dani, and I thank you for that.
One answer I have for you is this…
If I was voting in the post-war 1945 elections – with that social consensus of care so evident after the war – I would have voted Labour. There would have been no need to stand as an Independent.
So, Dani, to your direct question : “When did you stop standing under the ‘SCRAM’ banner and adopt the Labour Independent?” – I would answer that I never stopped.
It all depends what you mean by ‘Labour’…
Come on, Skuds, you’ve had long enough feeling sorry for yourself. This is your blog – so don’t ‘blog off’ 🙂
Gosh, this Joad fella seems like a prototype for a modern politician – instead of answering the question, he queries the semantics (just like Clinton famously did).
Richard, the Local Government Ombudsman is really for issues with maladministration by the council itself, and not individual councillors telling lies for electoral gain in councillor newsletters.
Judging by the monumental cock-ups with postal votes in Ifield and Southgate, postal votes going astray in Broadfield South and polling cards not being received by some voters in Broadfield South (I don’t know about other areas) and the apparent inability to count two wards simultaneously there may be some issues with the way the election was conducted, but thats not my concern.
The Standards Board is an option. I’m certainly not happy with the standards of my local councillor! But thats up to Jayne to decide if she wants to make anything of it.
Danivon is absolutely right – I hope he will play a full part in our constructive response. We need his increased involvement to counter the inevitable negative response I am expecting from other parts of the party.
Oh, I’ll not disappear. Not sure I can remain completely positive though…