The Rambles of Neil Monnery

Following on from an earlier post the Lib Dems in Southend have issued the following Press Release which I have re-posted ad verbatim. Make of it what you wish:

Lib Dems tell Southend Tories to clean up their own mess

Southend Liberal Democrats Council Group told the Tories today that they must take responsibility for clearing up their own mess and refused to join what would be an unstable bid to seize control of Southend Council.

Cllr. Graham Longley, leader of the LibDem group said that the Tories had not been beaten out of sight in the local elections but had been sent a warning by Southend’s electorate that they needed to pull their socks up and improve the way they were running the town or they would suffer the full consequences in the elections in two years time.

The LibDem group had decided that the best course of action for the Town was to abstain from the election for leader today which was effectively being turned into a personality contest between the Conservative and Independent leaders but made it clear that their members were free to act independently if they wished to. This was not the time for gesture politics by the Independents or others he said.

Abstaining did not mean that the Lib Dems did not want to see change but the numbers making up the groups (Tory 25, LibDem 10, Independent 10, Labour 6) which would need the three opposition groups to join together for a majority of 1 (one) which would leave the council in an unstable situation which would be bad for our town. A Tory lead minority administration where decisions could be challenged and the Tories held to account would be better for the Town and allow all other parties to have a say. The Tories had to accept that they would need to involve people of all parties in running our Town and not cling to a tight grip on the towns development themselves.

Cllr Longley went on to say that leaving the Tories in control would be a disappointment to some but the low turnout (30%) in the local elections were inconclusive and although the Lib Dems and other parties had done well the number of changes were not high enough to allow significant changes to the way the council was administered. Lib Dems will be keeping a close watch on the Tory’s and looking for major concessions on the way the town is run.

This is a realistic approach to achieve stable local government for the town at the same time as forcing the Tories to clear up their own mess and involve others in our town.

ENDS.

I must say that the moment Dr. Vel abstained it put the Lib Dems in a tricky situation as even had they voted en masse for Ron Woodley the casting vote would have still gone the other way. Also the Tories running the show but not being able to push through everything and listening to the other members in the chamber is probably in reality a more realistic probably than the Labour, Lib Dem and Independent groups all working cohesively together.

However as I said earlier. Perception and reality are two very different things…

Today was the day when Southend Council voted on a new leader after last weeks election took the Tories out of a majority. The logical conclusion would be the Tories forming a minority government at the Civic Centre with the help of one or two independents but things didn’t exactly go down like that. The local rag reports the story behind this link

The choices were simple. Either independent Ron Woodley leading a coalition of independents, Lib Dems and Labour or Nigel Holdcroft leading a minority Tory government. There were no other names on the table. The 25 Tories voted for the Tory in a move that probably didn’t shock anyone. Labour all voted for Ron Woodley. All the independents voted with Ron Woodley bar one – Dr Vel – who in a move that shocked no-one abstained as deep down he’s a fan of the Tories despite being a former Labour councillor. This meant the scores on the doors were 25-15 with ten Lib Dems to vote. What would the Lib Dems do?

Nine of them would join Dr Vel in abstaining with only Ric Morgan voting for Ron Woodley. This means that Holdcroft carries on in the top job and forms a minority government using the cabinet system. Has he done a deal with the Lib Dems to give one of the cabinet portfolios to the Lib Dems? That I don’t know. We’ll find that out imminently.

What it does do is once more is show the Lib Dems as a party who are unwilling to challenge the Tories at a local level. Yes with Dr. Vel abstaining then the vote could have only gone 25-25 and then it would have come down to the mayor’s casting vote. The mayor is Labour up til now when Conservative Sally Carr takes over the position so the casting vote would have gone the way of the Tories and Holdcroft.

So it may be possible that due to Dr. Vel not voting for one of his own group it meant that no matter what the Lib Dems did they couldn’t stop Holdcroft today. When it comes out in the wash it might be the best thing for the Lib Dems in Southend but looking from the outside in you have to wonder. The perception is awful and the Lib Dems will get all the blame for propping up the Tories even though had Dr. Vel not abstained then it would have meant the Lib Dems votes actually mattered.

We’ll see how it all shakes out but the average voter will not care about Dr. Vel’s abstention as they’ll only see the Lib Dems letting the Tories get away with it. Someone no matter the reality the perception will always be the thing that resonates with voters. More on this as the cabinet appointments shake out etc…

One last thing. Here is one of the comments on the Echo’s story:

lol i dint evan bothervoteing dont see the point in wasting my time lol so basicly the toris lost power but got it straite back so everyone ho voted lose hahahah just like who the hell voted for a colition goverment did you did i no??? so they take it up on theres selfs lol its funny we are being controlled wake up lol we have no say in anything we are sheep bahhhh bahhh

I just don’t know what to say…

You might think it is a wee bit dramatic but during the #clegginar this afternoon whilst stealing one of Helen Duffett’s polo mints we were treated to a quite clear crunch as he bit the mint instead of sucking it. This is a worrying state of affairs as everyone knows that the best way to enjoy a polo mint is to suck it and soften it up.

So what have we learnt from this revelation? Well first Nick clegg probably has pretty good teeth. He may even bite on hard candy and not soften that up. This isn’t known at this juncture but if true it might be more newsworthy than Vladimir Putin’s photo shoot showing off his bare chest. Imagine if Nick Clegg is that hard he bites on hard candy. If that doesn’t get people to vote for him then I don’t know what would but that is a big step from biting polos but we’ll see.

I have an inherent distrust of people with certain characteristics. Those that eat mushrooms. Those that enjoy mushrooms. Those that would happily order a dish at a restaurant whose primary ingredient is mushrooms. I think you might catch my drift that I’m not entirely down with mushrooms. They are fungus people and have a hideous smell and look worse than I do after I’ve done five minutes of exercise. All the signs are there to warn people but yet some people just won’t be told.

Back to the polo thing and Nick Clegg. I don’t think this is such a big thing that ‘m going to withdraw my support for him but these are the little things that Lib Dems really care about. Gay Marriage, House of Lords reform, Act of Succession changes, how their leader eats his stolen polo mints. These are the things that might define Nick Clegg’s place in history. The economy, students, welfare reform, the NHS are all secondary.

In all seriousness the web conference with Nick Clegg this afternoon was worth listening to and although none of the overly critical questions got through it did show Clegg in his best light – when he is allowed to talk unfiltered. His passion for the Pupil Premium and Social Mobility are clear for all to see if they listen with an open ear and not a closed mind. This is why I always defend Nick Clegg from people who say that he is a Tory in Lib Dem clothing. Nick’s passions, the things that make his fires burn are liberal ones and not Conservative ones. That is who Nick Clegg is.

Is he perfect? Hell no but I’m just hypothesising here but I don’t think he has the easiest job in the world. Most political commentators say that the Lib Dems are having a disproportionate say in how the country is being run. The people on the doorstep think the polar opposite. It is one of those strange things that seems to be the case. Tories are moaning left, right and centre about the Lib Dem influence but the electorate think that the Lib Dems are propping up a Tory government in exchange for a few ministerial cars. The disparity between the political commentators and the electorate is vast.

This is the biggest problem facing the Lib Dems as a party. They have few bigger challenges as part of the government and in running the country but looking inward they have to get people to realise the influence they do have. This obviously isn’t an easy question to answer. It is in fact an extremely difficult question to answer but if someone can find an answer to that question then I think we’ll be fine.

So for now despite his polo mishap I’m still sticking with Nick, however Nick please start sucking your polos and when you leave I expect/hope that any future leader is far more normal when it comes to sticking a small mint with a hole into their mouths.

David Cameron himself is saying that the Lib Dems are holding him back from being as Tory as he wants to be. He says that the Lib Dems are curbing him. However everyone thinks that the Lib Dems are helping him run the most right-wing government in history. Either Cameron is more right wing that Thatcher on acid or maybe that rhetoric is just lazy media and political bluster.

Here is the top of the Daily Mail today:

Daily Mail 9/2/12

If Lib Dems don’t use this in Focuses over the next couple of years then Focus editors are dumb. It was kinda nice for the PM to write our headlines for us…

The Lib Dems are making a difference. People might not think they are doing a lot but when the PM is making it clear that he wants to do so much more just holding him and his party back is quite an accomplishment for the Lib Dems. Yes as a Lib Dem I’d love to have more influence but for what 57 MPs the party are doing well to keep Cameron and Osbourne on a leash that won’t let them stray too far too the right. If we had let the leash go in May 2010 then who knows where we’d be right now?

Now is the time that the Lib Dems need to make it clear that they are not just underwriting the Tories. The economy is the number one priority and always will be but there are other issues and as long as the two parties can sing from the same hymn sheet on the economy then everything else can be openly and honestly debated.

It’s all fun n games isn’t it?

We’ve all read the newspapers when they say that Nick Clegg will be bludgeoned if he stands again in 2015. We’ve all read that he has no hope of keeping his seat of Sheffield Hallam as everyone hates both the Lib Dems and him personally. We’ve all heard from the Labour activists who say that Clegg is just finished and that even if he waved a magic wand he wouldn’t be able to survive. His future in Westminster politics is more over than my endless and fruitless pursuit of women but is the rhetoric accurate?

Well let us look at this handy pie chart I saw of how Sheffield Hallam voted on Thursday night:

How Sheffield Hallam voted in the 2012 Local Elections

Doesn’t fully endorse the popular rhetoric does it?

However who cares about the truth when we have a story that sounds an awful lot better than the truth?

Two open ended questions with no answers. What English. Anyway I just wanted to point out that Nick Clegg isn’t finished and that the people of his constituency are still backing his party to a comfortable degree. What we saw on Thursday is a lot of Lib Dem councillors in seats where there is a sitting Lib Dem MP did ok and nowhere near as poorly as elsewhere. Look at Eastleigh with Chris Huhne, Colchester will Bob Russell, Portsmouth with Mike Hancock etc…

I’m not saying everything is grand because it clearly isn’t but don’t write off Nick Clegg yet. The people who voted for him directly in 2010 haven’t all turned their back on his party and that is important. The YouGov Poll which is always awful says that the Lib Dems are hovering at around 8-9% whereas the popular vote on Thursday put it at 16%. Maybe it is time for people to laugh at and mock the YouGov Poll just like women to do me when I try to talk to them.

Sad times…

90 votes. Wow that is a stunner – and not in a good way. I knew I wasn’t going to win. We all knew that but to get just 90 votes. Still it could have been worse as originally I got just 65 votes but they had put one of my bundles of 25 votes in with the Greens. Sadly it was only one and not twenty bundles or so but hey such is life.

The most striking thing is the apathy in the ward. A turnout of 21.92% is just woeful. Yes the weather didn’t help but this wasn’t just about the weather. It was about the state of politics in the ward where people just seemingly couldn’t give a shit. They care about the closing of the SureStart enough to mount a campaign over keeping it alive, a campaign that is still up in the air but looks promising for it to still run on a reduced basid but they don’t care enough to go out and vote.

That readers may be the most depressing thing about the whole thing. My striking out was disappointing but the fact that nearly four in every five people couldn’t be arsed to go and vote is a blow to democracy. People will moan about everything the Council are doing but when they have a chance to do something they just think it isn’t worth it.

One thing that did enthuse me was the fact that five of the six candidates – the five who showed up to the hustings and the count all got on well and the campaign was positive. No nasty literature and no personal attacks between any of us. That is something that I am proud of and all of us should be. I never saw or spoke to the other candidate but heck he still did better than me. 90 votes in a ward where there is a sitting Lib Dem Councillor. Still shaking my head at just how bad I did.

Having said that we didn’t run a vigorous campaign at all. Even yesterday on polling day all the Westborough Lib Dems were in the neighbouring ward of Prittlewell helping out a defending Lib Dem Councillor held on by 85 odd in the end. So we knew where our priorities lay. On a personal level my time was limited to the extenuating circumstances of losing my dad and an extremely busy period in my day job.

I only put out one piece of literature – but that is one more than the Green and the second independent and yet they both still beat me. My literature stood strongly on the grounds of saving front line services and getting a younger voice on to the Council as the Council is made-up of professionals and retired people in the main. This obviously didn’t go down well as my approach to be the voice of the voiceless generation at the Civic Centre went down like a lead balloon and they voted in a 73 year-old doctor.

The result was a surprise to me. I had Kevin Robinson stealing it for Labour. I had for weeks and even last night at the count. After the first two boxes it looked like he was cruising to a victory but the third box and postal ballots must have been heavily against him. I had disappeared by this point to wander around and see how we were doing elsewhere. When I came back I was shocked to see them counting and it even being close.

Whilst Dr Vel was the man elected to serve as councillor in Westborough the winner was clearly apathy and we can’t get away from that. Only 33% of postal ballots were even returned which is shocking.

As for me personally. First and foremost I am relieved it is over. It came at a bad time for me personally and I’m glad I can put political ambitions on the backburner for a while. If you were to ask me today whether or not I’ll ever stand again as a serious candidate then I’d say no but no-one needs to ask me that today and my answer may well be very different the next time I get asked that question.

I say that not because I’m disillusioned by my horrific and – to be quite frank – embarrassing result but because I was never sure I wanted to win anyway. I still rent and not sure if I will buy around here as housing prices are pretty high. When I buy somewhere and start putting roots down then I’m sure I’ll want to serve but by not winning it still gives me the option of flying my wings and putting my long-term roots down elsewhere.

Lastly I am still 100% sure that my natural home is in the Lib Dems. There is no debate and thoughts about that. My liberal roots and equality and fairness for all is what the Lib Dems fight for and what I believe in. I don’t think Labour have any answers to any questions except ‘we wouldn’t do that’ and the Tories will never be a home for a kid from a council estate. Sorry but that is just the way it is.

I’ll blog more about my overall thoughts on the night that Southend-on-Sea Borough Council moved from Tory control to No Overall Control later on today – or tomorrow – or sometime soon. For now it is leftover Indian take-away.

After the drama (well when I say drama I mean a few people on twitter thinking that a defection from the Tories to UKIP is the beginning of the end of the Conservative Party as we know it – and then there was a question whether the defector was even a member of the Conservative Party anyway) there was more drama this morning when Tristan Pithers defected from Labour to the Lib Dems – cue much rejoicing on my timeline (probably – he defected a good couple of hours before I woke up) but at least he has written why he defected and it is a good read.

You can read the full piece entitled ‘And it was all yellow’ – Why I’m considering defection to the Liberal Democrats. behind that hyperlink.

A couple of things really stood out to me. The first being this:

My problems with the Labour Party as an organisation have always been present. I’ve always been uncomfortable with the word ‘Comrade’ being used to greet me on entering a constituency office or reading a local party email.

Do they really do that? I had no idea. That enough would be enough to make me want to leave. Dear Comrade… really? I mean really? I know it only means friend, colleague or ally but I prefer the old fashioned why of greeting by using someone’s name. To me that is a lot more acceptable and palatable.

He goes on to say:

The Labour Party and its membership, bar a few increasingly out-of-place New Labour Blairites, are about more spending, more handouts, more debt, more tax as punishment for prosperity and less individual responsibility.

This is something that rings home to me. I think front line services are vital and people do rely on them and I have always been and high tax but amazing public services guy however I don’t like the more handouts culture. Provide the best public facilities in the world. I love Children’s Centres for example. I think they are one of Labour’s best moves of the Blair years. These provide not only a great place for children to interact but also a place for young parents to get together. I imagine being a young parent is often a lonely and difficult existence and knowing people in like-minded positions can only help. The more handout culture though irks me. Sometimes we all need help but I’d prefer prefer a helping hand to get myself on my own two feet than help to just keep me ticking over.

Tax should not be punishment for the rich. Yes it is only right and fair that they help shoulder the loud but not to extreme lengths. I have banged on for eons about how Labour just want to bash the bankers. The bankers did help fuel this financial crisis but they are also the ones that can help us get out of it. Just castigating the whole industry over and over again won’t do any good but yet because public sentiment is against the bankers then Labour will exploit this for every political need they desire instead of being grown-up about this.

Lastly for me to pick at:

I still believe that there is a place for idealism in politics, that there are arguments that can be won, that a vote does not simply have to be red or blue.

Yes. Yes. 100x Yes. I am still an idealist. I know it will be nearly impossible to reach the goals tat I think we can reach but I still want to fight for them. I don’t just want to think ‘well the future is either one of two parties as that is the way it has always been’ because things change. If enough people believed in change and not the status quo then change can really be reached.

So I welcome this young man to the Lib Dems. Is it a big deal like twitter has made it out to be? Probably not but it is always nice to here a fair and reasoned article about why someone does the things they do.

Yesterday I wrote for a new political blog over at SpeakerChair.com. This website launched this week and has already seen an article from an MP and I know of some very exciting op-ed pieces coming next week. My debut piece was entitled Why the Lib Dems are still a force for good which I think is a good place to start.

I shall still be primarily blogging here but some pieces will appear over there. Obviously all my non-political pieces will still be homed here but some of the politics – certainly the national Lib Dem stuff may go over there depending on how I feel.

A few words about this piece. I really do think many activists get too wound up about what is happening in Westminster and forget about what is going on in town halls and council chambers up and down the country. We worry about the big issues and forget about the small ones. So many people have left the party because of national issues because things are not going as they hoped and they feel helpless to stop it.

In doing this they are walking away from the good stuff that they can be part of locally. No Lib Dem Council has closed any SureStart Children Centre and no Lib Dem Council has closed any libraries. That sounds good to me.

Would I like the Lib Dems in Westminster to listen and act upon everything I say or think? Yes of course I would. However life doesn’t work that way. Would I like to influence more Lib Dem goals at local level? Yes of course I would. However sometimes you do as much as you can and doing something is far better than doing nothing. Fighting hours on end to save a Children’s Centre or a Library or whatever and succeeding actually has a real impact on lives. Giving in and doing nothing doesn’t.

This is why I am a Lib Dem. I’m not enamoured with a lot of what the national party is doing but I can’t influence that. At a local level I can still fight and do something and in all honesty I truly believe that doing something is far better than giving in and doing nothing.

Need I really say more?

I suppose I must.

Vince Cable has long been one of the most liked Lib Dems around. One thing everyone knew about Vince was that he wasn’t a huge fan of the Murdoch empire. None of the Lib Dems were. They never tried to curry favour with the empire unlike the other two main parties. Some argue that the only reason they didn’t was because the Murdoch’s saw the Lib Dems as insignificant but that is pure conjecture. These are the facts:

*The Lib Dems never liked the Murdoch’s.
*The Tories did like the Murdoch’s.
*Labour liked the Murdoch’s.
*Labour only stopped liking the Murdoch’s when the Milly Dowler phone-hacking case came to light and the national bandwagon of hate was rolling.
*Had the Telegraph not done that sting on Vince Cable then the Murdoch’s wouldn’t have the power they have today.
*Jeremy Hunt – who took over that role of deciding the Murdoch’s fate loved the Murdoch’s.
*Ed Miliband would have sacked Vince Cable for talking to people he believed where constituents regarding the nuclear option over the Murdoch’s.

Had David Cameron, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, Jeremy Hunt, Ed Miliband or any of the top tier MPs from either the Labour Party or the Conservative Party worked out that the Murdoch media empire wasn’t exactly all sweetness and light and tried to regulate them then we wouldn’t have got to the state we are in today. The media are not trusted in large part due to the Murdoch’s and lack of regulation.

The banking crisis was due to a lack of regulation as well. That one lies at the foot of Labour who had their eyes off the ball thinking that the good times would never leave.

What we have learned is that regulation is an extremely important part of our world. Without good practice bad things will happen. Even if my day job industry of Search Marketing there are Black Hat and White Hat ways of working. Black Hat will be great short term but if Google catches up with you then bad times are ahead.

Vince – in retrospect – was foolish to talk freely knowing that journalists are everywhere but one thing he wasn’t was wrong. Vince Cable was right to be ready to block the Murdoch’s bid for Sky News. He was right to look at the empire with cynical eyes. James Murdoch is currently on my TV proving one thing and one thing only – he isn’t his father – and that isn’t a good thing. Rupert knew how to talk his way out of trouble. James can’t talk his way out of a paper bag and nor can he stop digging a hole for himself and his company and those who backed them.

The Lib Dems were on in bed with the Murdoch’s. The other two parties were constantly squabbling over who would get to sleep with them.

Whatever you think of the Lib Dems one thing is for sure. The Liberal Democrats always want a free press and believe in a free press. The other two parties are willing to deal with a non-free press as long as the slant is towards them…

Note: Murdoch’s, Murdochs or Murdochs’? That is the question.

BBC are happily going with Murdoch’s so I have decided to go with them. If they are wrong then so am I.

Last Friday the Westborough Ward Hustings were held at the Royal British Legion in Northview Drive in the ward and myself along with four of the other candidates were questioned on a variety of subjects from our thoughts on reducing the number of councillors in the ward to what our biggest priorities are should we be elected to represent the ward on May 3.

Sadly one of the candidates didn’t show up. David John Glover one of the two independents didn’t make an appearance and no apologies were given but the incumbent independent was there as well as the Labour candidate who had been on the council before in another ward. The other three (Labour, Green and myself) would all be first timers.

I have to say I thought it was run pretty darn well. I didn’t like the £2 entry fee and I have said as much before but the actual questions were all pretty distinct and did have a lot of variety involving things that affect the people of the ward. I won’t comment on how I thought everyone did as that wouldn’t be right but I will say the Green’s line about the Tories having been in control in Southend for longer than the Communists had been in charge of Russia was a great line. His opinion that Southend-on-Sea Borough Council could dissolve and once again join Essex County Council didn’t go down as well.

I have no idea if anything any of us said would have changed any minds but I thought all the candidates were fair and there was nothing personal. Something that has in the main been the case across all of our literature. This is something I have been impressed with. I have seen leaflets from all over the country from all parties and some of them are horrible. In the main in Westborough all the leaflets talk about what the candidate does/believes they can do and that is nice to see. I’m very much pro positive politics.

The attendance was probably just shy of 50 and once you take out people who came in from outside who just like hustings there were probably 30-35 people who will vote on May 3. Hopefully they all got something out of Friday night. All I’ll say from my perspective is I hope people vote. I hope they take 30 minutes one day and read through all the literature and vote with who they think will represent them best, whether it is me or not.

Local elections do affect people and every vote really does matter. Westborough might be an extremely close ward come May 3. It could realistically go any of four ways. So just take time out and decide who would best represent you. That is all that I say.