Saturday, February 26, 2005
Local politics
Local Politics
I posted yesterday praising the single unified attitude of the opposition parties on South Tyneside Council and it is worth noting and magnifying on one small sentence where I mentioned that the Liberal Democrats are unable to break their bonds with the Labour Party.
Since the introduction of universal suffrage in the last century, the Liberal Party has a had a strong voice in the North-East of England, they provided the main opposition to the Tories and Whigs, they controlled a number of Borough Councils and Parrish Councils after the Great War, and indeed quite often formed the Government of the country.
They were uniquely independent and free thinking, they provided this town's first Members of Parliament (Ingham, Wawn, Redhead), and yet today, the Liberal Party's current descendants the Liberal Democrats, seem unable to see their importance as an independent opposition party in South Tyneside.
When people decide to vote against the Labour Party, they do it for a number of reasons; the first of which is an undeniable disagreement with policy, the second will be a firm agreement with policies of your party of choice, thirdly you may take a tactical decision to vote for a party with the aim of preventing another from being elected, fourthly of course is the decision for voting for anyone who does not represent Labour - as a form of pure protest.
So what does an elector get when voting for the Liberal Democrat party in South Tyneside?
It appears, on the face of it, they get another Labour member, a representative who habitually votes with and for the Labour Party on every important decision. Yesterday's meeting to discuss the budget and decide the Council Tax increase for next year provided yet another good example of the Lib Dems sacrificng their independence and doing everything that their electors wanted to prevent.
Liberal Democrats, you were elected to oppose the Labour Party, part of the duties of any opposition is to provide a viable alternative form of government, and you singularly fail to do this! You fail in your duties to the wider community of South Tyneside, yesterday you had a clear choice to oppose and join the others in the opposition in providing an alternative to Labour, and help make a turning point in local politics here, but you decided to continue your slavelike adherence to Socialist policies.
Perhaps it is time that you squared this with the electors of South Tyneside and make an open and honest announcement that you support the Labour Party, in fact why not just disband and stand under New Labour's flag?
_________________________________________________________________
I posted yesterday praising the single unified attitude of the opposition parties on South Tyneside Council and it is worth noting and magnifying on one small sentence where I mentioned that the Liberal Democrats are unable to break their bonds with the Labour Party.
Since the introduction of universal suffrage in the last century, the Liberal Party has a had a strong voice in the North-East of England, they provided the main opposition to the Tories and Whigs, they controlled a number of Borough Councils and Parrish Councils after the Great War, and indeed quite often formed the Government of the country.
They were uniquely independent and free thinking, they provided this town's first Members of Parliament (Ingham, Wawn, Redhead), and yet today, the Liberal Party's current descendants the Liberal Democrats, seem unable to see their importance as an independent opposition party in South Tyneside.
When people decide to vote against the Labour Party, they do it for a number of reasons; the first of which is an undeniable disagreement with policy, the second will be a firm agreement with policies of your party of choice, thirdly you may take a tactical decision to vote for a party with the aim of preventing another from being elected, fourthly of course is the decision for voting for anyone who does not represent Labour - as a form of pure protest.
So what does an elector get when voting for the Liberal Democrat party in South Tyneside?
It appears, on the face of it, they get another Labour member, a representative who habitually votes with and for the Labour Party on every important decision. Yesterday's meeting to discuss the budget and decide the Council Tax increase for next year provided yet another good example of the Lib Dems sacrificng their independence and doing everything that their electors wanted to prevent.
Liberal Democrats, you were elected to oppose the Labour Party, part of the duties of any opposition is to provide a viable alternative form of government, and you singularly fail to do this! You fail in your duties to the wider community of South Tyneside, yesterday you had a clear choice to oppose and join the others in the opposition in providing an alternative to Labour, and help make a turning point in local politics here, but you decided to continue your slavelike adherence to Socialist policies.
Perhaps it is time that you squared this with the electors of South Tyneside and make an open and honest announcement that you support the Labour Party, in fact why not just disband and stand under New Labour's flag?
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