What excitrment in the Reading blogosphere. The Tory & LD blogs are up in arms. Has there been a revolution? No just a Labour Mayor using his vote to install another Labour Mayor.
In the past the Mayor has been non political, but with the sides evenly balanced that has changed. The Mayor had a deciding vote and can choose who runs the council. A Tory Mayor would choose a Tory council, so no shock that a Lab mayor has chosen Lab.
Mostly the Tory/LD blogs are attacking Lab Cllr Gul Khan in a nasty way, saying he stabbed a Tory deputy Mayor inthe back. As if they would not do exactly the same thing. Its not personal, its politics. Unlike the claims that Gul did it to get cash to get his teeth fixed.
They also attack Green Cllr Rob White as they claim he pledged to also support the Tory deputy Mayor. Actually he said after the election thst he had no plans who he wanted as Mayor. recently when he decided to abstain he called and told them. Which is probably more than they would do. Not a big deal really, but they claim he has been very very bad.
All this fuss about not much. While nothing was said about cutting services to those who really need them. When they said there was no money they spent a fortune on traffic junctions e.g. making the mess on the Shinfield Road. But not a penny for cycle parking or paths. Only unsustainable transport will get support from that coalition.
Lets see some of that passion turned into positive action. The negative moaning goes nowhere.
We shall see how the new Labour administration performs, as well as keeping an eye on how effective the opposition is.
update
http://www.getreading.co.uk/news/s/2093345_labour_takes_control_of_reading_
Has an account of the Lab, Tory & LD Cllrs behaving poorly. The ex LD Cllr Swaine showed why he was thrown out of his party with some silly stunt involving red noses. Perhaps he should just get a clown costume.
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14 comments:
I agree Adrian. The Tories would have done the same thing and in the past they have done it (to their own candidate in 2003). The idea of the deputy mayor becoming mayor is a convention, not a law. The Reading Tories and Lib Dems are at best politically nieve and at worst inept, if they expect a party to give its enemy the casting vote. Warren Swaine's behaviour is just childish, when Martin Salter said that he is "a tragic individual who needs to get out more", he was completly right. There are always winners and losers in politics and Councillor Cumptsy can accuse LAbour of being small-minded, but that only goes to show how much of a hypocrite he really is.
The Lab bad behavior being Cllr Gul Kahn not thanking his deputy. Tory and LD for shouting and walking out of the ceremony. Where does it say the mayor cannot be political? Just a tradition when one party has a majority. Lab used to have a huge majority and had some Tory and I think a LD mayor.
Tory, LD and Swaine were playing politics and their behaviour is shamefull.
I cant believe you have got me to agree with Salter! Actually I dont think Warren is so bad, but his behavior last night was very poor.
I wonder if he hopes his agressiveness will get him back into the LD.
His muckspreading website has been funny on occasion, but this is childish.
Swaine is very much a Lib Dem, despite his suspension. He helped the Lib Dems during the local elections, despite being suspended, which breaks the party's own rules, I think te Lib Dems must be getting desperate.
Why don't you simpy merge with the Labour Party. You (party) have sold out.
According to the Getreading article a bag was left on Rob White's seat... "It contained a rubber dagger, 30 pieces of silver, a Gordon Brown mask and a red Labour rose".
Hope he got a chance to nip to the chamber and grab it - hey 30 pieces of silver is 30 pieces of silver! Waste not want not! And the Gordon Brown mask could come in handy for scaring birds off the veggies!
Probably not real money Sez, not much real about warren. His claims as a lead cllr have not resulted in much action.
Gideon is this the start of a career in comedy. Or do you believe the Tories. This is a red herring they throw out to distract from their poor record in power and thier coalition. The poor old LD still claim to be all about reducing poverty and emissions but they did nothing about either, probably made it all worse.
How about a LD /Tory coalition, rename them Libservatives. I think I heard something like that before. Last year the LD did a Labservatives video; saying how similar those two were, before snuggling up to the Tories.
Gideon - have th Greens sold out, or do they just not want a repetition of the disastrous Con-Dem coalition that has controlled Reading? The Tories and Lib Dems had their chance at running Reading and they blew it, Labour has the most seets and won the most votes in Reading during the local elections, the Tories and Liberals have no mandate, the Greens can choose not to side with anyone, as they did in this vote.
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If the Tories and LDs had half a brain they would have realised that the results could leave it very tight on numbers this year and installed their own 'coalition' mayor last year just in case.
Politically naive might sum them up best !
Quite right Alex. In a sence we were between a rock and a hard place, and tried to choose the least bad option.
An alliance with either would be bad news as we dont back any of them. Abstaining and letting them battle it out has resulted in a minority Labour administration. If/when Labour do something we dont like we opposition can combine and defeat them.
In 2008 i think it was the then opposition Tory and LD once combined to put in their choice of Mayor. So thats the precedent for this year. Something denied by the LD and Tories now.
Greens could have voted one for Cumpsty and one for Lovelock..................that would have confused them, but with the same result !
Cheets Howard, not much point though. And the others would claim we were split.
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