Boris win poses existential threat

There were no doubt a few hearty cheers in the Medway Conservative Group last night that Boris Johnson had secured the London Mayoralty for another four year term.

After a routing at the English Local elections and Labour once again securing its domination over the Scotish and Welsh electorates yesterday we did see the first signs that Labour is returning as the only true one nation party of the United Kingdom. From Sefton to Southampton, Carlisle to Cardiff, Newport to Norwich the Tories fell like bowling pins.   

The Tory party was mauled across whole swathes of the United Kingdom; yes as a response to incompetence in government but also because of the inept way in which Conservatives manage local finances and Councils. Look locally over the financial mess over the Chatham road system, the bus station, the Brook regeneration, the school-programme mismanagement, the Aveling & Porter demolition, the Hawkins flyover. 

Mismanagement and fiscal incompetence as standard; omni-clustershambolic.

They were mauled also because people are loosing trust on Tories not willing to stand up to government and fight for them. Tories are quite simply not on your side; they fight for the elite.

An elite which alas comes from local party structures transposed onto central government. Tories in local government who have created fiefdoms where the old school-tie and Association glad-handling guarantees you a Council place; it is a sickly way to conduct local politics that shuts out the single parent, the family man, the worker, the state school pupil or indeed ethnic minorities. It is quite literally a little-Englander and stale way of conducting 21st century politics; in Chatham & Aylesford Tory Councillor's dont even need a democratic mandate from members; as incumbents they are selected on the nod. 

 The election of Boris however does present Medway with a clear and present danger; as many Medway Tories celebrated his success last night they were in fact celebrating further months of pain and anguish for the Hoo Peninsula and Medway for the sake of a partisan win. It is that type of pure partisan self-interest which characterises local Conservatives; instead of fighting Boris they have sat back and given him an easy ride during his election period. Many have also openly backed him.

The Council will now have to fight one of the most powerful and influential Conservative Politicians in the country who will now seek a major piece of infrastructure to his name, a man who is only interested in London and who will happily tread on local residents to get what he wants.

The Hoo Peninsula have now had four years of Tory dithering, flip-flopping and threats and yet some of the Parish Council's up there continue to give tacit support to the way in which local Conservatives are managing this process. 

I salute your efforts; but you can not trust Tories. Your residents, whose businesses are threated, whose houseprices are wrecked, need an aggressive position. They need you to challenge the MP; threaten their chances in 2015 and you begin to get an audience, believe me, in the upper echelons of Westminster. 

It is base politics but it works; it worked with Heathrow when campaigners threatened to oust local MPs there, it worked in Gatwick with the Crawley Labour MP. If you threaten the Parliamentary MPs in hyper-marginal constituencies across North Kent with anti-Tory leaflets you will make them sit up. I sense the Tories on the Peninsula are whispering the ear that only a cross-party and unified campaign will work; that is true but also a big fib. You wave the potential sword of Damacles over the MPs and you will make CCHQ sit up and listen if you start to threaten them.

They will tell you that by attacking the MPs you will loose cross-party support and make it more likely for an airport; that is false, as it is we have ineffective representation in Westminster who are not making the case strongly enough. We have Cameron who has u-turned at will and Osborne visiting China to discuss infrastructure projects. 

The simple truth however is that MPs fear loss of control over a campaign; all the efforts thus far by Medway Conservatives have been attempts of control. Over the Christmas period last year they were overtaken by events, and the same happened in March.  

If local activists step up and state to Cameron that if you push this airport we will actively campaign against Tories across North Kent; believe me the man will listen. 

Cameron has now been mauled in the Midlands and his Estuary marginals can not be put at risk.

A referendum for Medway; which is something the Labour Group has advocated will allow a message to be sent; because the result will be a resounding No.  The cost of such a referendum is utterly spun by those with a vested interest; an interest to retain control. If conducted at the same time as another election the only cost would be to print the ballots and the staff time for counting a simple yes/no ballot. 

It is basic common sense that this would not cost £250,000-£300,000; it is total Tory scaremongering. 

And what of the pro-campaign; the Yes DRINK campaign cant even organise attendance to its own events; the pro-lobby has zero resources and no campaigners on the ground; its derided as a joke by Councillors from all parties. They will get butchered by the three local party machines working in tandem with a grassroots and political base; there is no groundswell of popular support for an airport. There is a lack of education on the issue which relies of the fib that jobs will come the moment the airport is given the nod.

Local Parishes on the Peninsula, whose no vote is assured, could easily call for a local ballot, and yet there appears to be a lack of willingness to rock the boat. 

Politics is about rocking the boat, its about pushing vigorously.

Of course I would say this wouldnt I. A Labour politician with a vested interest; yes, but my vested interest is no Estuary airport and to attack anyone who fawns loyalty to any machine that supports it. Tories locally are fair game; they pay for Cameron and they campaign for Boris who have quite frankly led and continue to lead the destruction of my community and have also undertaken u-turn after u-turn. 

I have a vested interest which is punishing those, democratically, who support those who want to destroy my community and I absolutely, categorically, do not trust a word that is said from local Conservatives who have called this wrong so many times. Time after time after time.

Prior to last year Tories promised this idea would never see a government consultation; this after three years of detailed analysis from London Conservatives. We saw the Boris Island proposal slip onto an onsite solution and then we have Justine Greening MP step into the Transport brief; this is too co-incidental and entirely predictable.

Having backbench 'irritant' events in Westminster is a useful part to the campaign; but unless our MPs can get a grip and start to publicly and actively lobby Cameron and Osborne we wont get any movement on this issue. They will sit up and take listen if campaigners and community activists start to threaten the North Kent marginals; believe me. 

Why is it that Zac Goldsmith can threaten to resign the whip and the party and yet Tracey Crouch, Mark Reckless or Rehman Chisthi cant promise the same? 

Ask yourself that question and you get the answer; because Zac knows the anti-airport campaign would target him directly; and he would lose. Our MPs think they have control over the campaign so have no need to step up.

If I were the Tory MP now; I would get all my chums together in North Kent and say simply; you plonk and airport in our area and we all quit.

Done and dusted; if they wanted it to be.

Not one of our Tory MPs stood up for our area and attacked Boris during the election in a full throated manner. We have had four years of threats and now, with the election of Boris, we will have four more years.

Tories can sip the champagne for now; but at what cost to Medway. 

Tory Mauling

Have just cleared away the pizza boxes, beer bottles and crisp packets from an extroadinary night of Political theatre which is a harbinger of things to come locally.

If we translate it locally the Medway Conservatives are now only going one way; down. On the polls last night and swings noted in other unitary authorities we would see the fall of Strood South, Strood North, River, Princes Park, Gillingham South and Watling. We would be poking Strood Rural and Rochester West. 

The dithering, incompetent and tired Conservatives were mauled across huge swathes of middle England and most crucially of all in the marginal Parliamentary seats that they are looking to defend in 2015. The Tories made no substantive in roads against the Lib Dems in many seats and in one, to my surprise, Eastleigh, the Lib Dems have trounced the Conservatives.

The most pleasurable defeat was in Southampton. Having campaigned in a number of the marginal wards and hearing the shocking lack of integrity displayed by a Young Conservative Councillor cohort; it is particularly pleasurable to knock out the future for them locally. Royston Smith; the Union basher, was also served notice; a P45. 

Today Tories are licking the wounds and are making the classic mistake; Tories are not loosing because of positioning but because of competence. I would be very happy to see the Tories revert back to their perceived (and behind the pretty logo they are still) sneering, backward, frustrated, dated and dogmatic views on society; they will get routed even more. It appears that is what the membership want; so let them fight UKIP whilst Labour takes the centre. This is no 1980s moment; Labour has planted its purple flag on the centre ground boys; and we aint deviating one inch from it. 

Labour has more to do however; this was not a 1995 moment and though the Labour flags were waving high over defeated Tory citadels last night; North East Lincolnshire, Great Yarmouth, Harlow, Southampton, Birmingham, Reading, Nuneaton, Cannock Chase, Carlisle, Birmingham, Thurrock, Sefton, Chorley, Plymouth, Norwich, Newport, Dudley, Derby, Wirral and Rochdale this does not mean we can walk into Number 10. 

Labour across the country needs to be a campaigning and grass-roots force; some very strong campaigners were elected last night; well trained after 10 years of grassroots change which I believe the Tories have utterly underestimated. Whilst they are comprised of tired Association structures selecting the same old fella's from the old school; Labour are busy creating a more representative democracy. 

The Lib Dumbs last night will be in reflective mood; this is the second year of the Labour barrage and they are being knee-capped across whole swathes of middle England. Sometimes pleasure does come before business; and last night the greatest comment in the room was on the utter denial of the Lib Dem Parliamentary Party to see the wood for the trees. 

We wait to see the Boris result this afternoon; a man who has planned the destruction of the Hoo Peninsula who will no doubt get the full and fawning support of the Medway Tories; putting community second as usual to the, and words that Tim Montgomerie used, the 'ruthless party machine'

Not so ruthless as incompetent, inept and failing Tim

Medway Labour AGM

They say a week is a long time in Politics which makes a year an epoch; as a newly elected Councillor last year this is only the second AGM I have attended which made it perhaps the most important. 

Last night saw a very positive and unanimously agreed change on the Labour Group. 

The Group has returned a campaigning leadership slate which is very much engaged in the issues which impact Medway residents; be they children at schools, commuting adults or working people. The Group also picked the youngest leader for an opposition group in the South East of England; highlighting just how influential and open to change the group is under a new and dynamic team locally; many of whom were Council candidates at the last local election 2011.

It presents an opportunity to be at the cutting edge of campaigning and a useful contrast with the tired and dated Tory front bench. A party of power so factionalised it is paralysed by infighting, dithering and poor calibre Councillors who are propping up some extreme right wing MPs. 

The Medway Labour Party has sought to rebrand and position itself as a true champion of local people under Cllr Vince Maple who has been a strong cheerleader for change as Deputy Leader. 

He will bring this energy and passion to his position as leader which is why his election was unanimous; he has the right mix of experience, character, diplomacy and campaigning ability. He is also able to build bridges with the community which is extremely important if politicians are to regain trust in Council. 

His Youtube video last night sent the right message that we want to engage voters who have lost faith in the political class locally

Despite the expected Conservative line that Medway Labour is tacking to the left nothing further could be the truth. 


As a party we aspire for power, and we aspire for Labour Councillor's representing their community across every single ward; we will present a centrist and reasoned prospectus for 2015 which will fully grasp the current financial constraints of local government with some exciting and notable differences in policy from the current Conservative administration. We want to run the Council; simple. 

Labour is a broad church locally; we have a healthy diversity of experience across age, creed, background and experience; from those who manage and work within small business to those from a campaigning and trade unionist background. 


We should not apologise for our upbringing but celebrate the fact that it is Labour locally that can attract solicitors, health professionals and bankers in addition to teachers and students. We are reaching out to new supporters weekly.

The election results for Council Spokespersons below

Leader & Finance:  Cllr Vince Maple

Deputy Leader & Health: Cllr Teresa Murray

Communities: Cllr Glyn Griffiths

Education: Cllr Adam Price

Planning: Cllr Nick Bowler
Group Whip: Cllr Julie Shaw

The election results for Executive positions

Chair: Cllr Paul Harriot

Deputy Chair: Cllr Nick Bowler

Treasurer: Cllr Dorte Gilry

Online Media & Press Spokesperson: Cllr Tristan Osborne

Secretary: Cllr Nick Bowler

Anyone for a DRINK?

Just read in this yesterdays paper that local politicians had rejected the invitation by DRINK (the pro-airport) lobby to attend a debate last Friday 27th April.

Until the 25th I had no knowledge of the event and nor had I received an invite by press, letter, phone call, [or even by Boeing 747] as they would like to see introduced over our skies

To organise an event during the working day when many Councillor's have full time jobs is alas rather ironic from those same 'business' people who could, alas, find the time on a working day.

I work, like the majority of other Medway citizens, on a Friday morning; as do I might add most of the same voters they are trying to persuade.

Coincidentally, I did offer a senior DRINK individual a debate at the Rochester Corn Exchange in February this year; I stated it would be a sensible idea to pit pro against anti. I received a salutory message and then nothing.

If DRINK want to be seen as credible and representative; they need to manage themselves accordingly. 

Last week looked to me like they were playing a political stunt on attendance to an event which they had not organised well; and if that is all they can do, then so be it, but it won't win them any argument.

Tories silence local press

The furore surrounding the closure of the Medway Times continues to rumble in the press with Conservatives being challenged for the manner in which the Medway Times was evicted because of the apparent 'politically' controvertial views.

There is still an unwillingness by those in power to understand the distinction between the editorial views of the Medway Times with that of printing ad-verbatim press releases from all political views, and none, across Medway. 

There is also no response on whether it is really apprpopriate, reasonable or proportionate to evict a site such as this, on the back of the news site containing 'political' stories which I would argue do no way constitute a 'political campaign outfit' as defined by the Council. Whilst the tenancy agreement or contract does stipulate no political campaigning I believe that definition to hardly be covered by what Medway Times were doing. 

To call Medway Times a 'political campaign outfit' is laughable. 

Not only is the Medway Times not a politically registered party, agency or body but it prints none of its own political leaflets or views; nor does any of its staff have any outward or individual views expressed to change the party in power locally; The editorial position of the Medway Times was barely evident under Steven or Helmut; these guys really did have no axe to grind and to me were solely entrepreneurs trying to manage a small business; I know of no party political or other affiliations to the men.

The Tory administration via the Council are clearly happy to spend public tax payers money in challenging the press article yesterday in the Medway Messenger, which took the reasonable line that summarily shutting down news publications because they happen to deviate from a 'Conservative-sanctioned' line is perhaps an afront to democracy. It now looks like the KM Group is suffering the same form of hectoring that the Times experienced and does represent an overstepping of some form of grey line to me; in whose interest is it to push this issue, the public or the politicians?

It should be a warning light to organisations like Rochester People, Medway Eyes and Medway Broadside that should you deviate from the administrations position you will get a cold wind from Tories desperate for positive news.  

Tory Councillors pretend to be in it for the community; but shutting down community news sites is hardly community drive. It is the worst instincts of the controlling and lecturing right wing.

The rebuttal from the Council Press office makes no mention of any other reason for the eviction other then the political content. As I understand that totally contradicts a number of other briefs; and actually makes the Council position look even more unreasonable, because the public dont look favourably on independent news sites being closed solely because they had the audacity to challenge the administration. 

The reasonable course of action in this case would have been to ask Medway Times to retract and publish an apology on the content deemed inappropriate; to the life of me I still can not understand why the administration continues to be unwilling to accept it overeacted. 

Of course what this all points to is a loss of control. As we enter the fag-end years of the Tories in Gun Wharf they will become increasingly desperate to control the message that they are doing a reasonable job with your tax payers pounds. 

Of course they are not; and they are being exposed to this position by the cold reality of the print and online press.

Paul Godwin steps down

It is with great sadness to note that the Labour Leader for my group on the Council is to step down after 13 years of dedicated and strong leadership. 

As I tweeted yesterday; Paul always put principles and people first in his role as leader and was able to build bridges and alliances through logical and reasoned debate. A strong and diplomatic leader he always sought others views and was a truly consensual individual; his work on the Kent Police Authorty and his command of matters relating to law-and-order was second to none; and having been a leader of the Council was able to understand how the structures of the organisation work. 

A success of his leadership has been to retain Labour as the main and only party of legitimate opposition in Medway. Everyone accepts that during the Labour Government an area like Medway, with a larger Tory block vote, will struggle to elect a Labour majority administration, but he has successfully kept us as the only effective representative of opposing views in Medway.

Over the last 13 years the Labour Group has had difficult periods; as a party we lost control of Medway Council that we created in the early 2000s and have seen a number of issues around candidate selection resulting in a poor period from 2009-2011. The party opened up its selection in 2011 selecting a candidate under 35 in every target seat and is now very much looking to the next generation of activists to step up; it is becoming increasingly outward facing. It is talking about train fares, about water bills, about buses, about improved community safety. It has the right structures in place; its now about getting and training the next generation... 

Labour can now look to new future and leadership; a leadership that will continue, as Paul did, to reflect the fact that Council leaders and cabinet members can not continue to be divorced from campaigning and engaging with the public; a party that will work with people and groups on issues across all of our towns, involved in every argument for our future and most importantly challenging the record of lamentable fiscal management from our current administration in Gun Wharf.

Labour;  challenging power aggressively and robustly

Fuel Prices real local concern

A very interesting video from the CfJ on fuel prices from early March which has been missed by the local mainstream media. 

As Tories debate and squabble over who is going to be the next Kent Sheriff, or the next mayor, the reality on the ground is people are really struggling. We, sadly, have an out of touch mob not only in government but locally too; simply totally out of touch.

The Tories promised a Fuel Duty Stabiliser but it was another promise broken by Eton Cameron and his cabinet of millionaires.

Until the Tory Party puts working people, or those from normal backgrounds, at the top of government this will only get worse. Only utter fools would pledge support to a party that his riven with chauvanism and false hierarchy like the Tories; its entire structure is elitist from top-to-bottom which makes it, and its people, unrepresentative of the towns.

As Nadine Dorres, A True-blue Tory MP put below:

Cream Lapping

Figures published as part of the Taxpayers’ Alliance Town Hall Rich List 2012 show that of the 10 highest paid town hall officials, nine work for Tory controlled councils, and one works for a Labour controlled council.

There we have it; the Tories 'talk' a good game but locally have botched multi-million pound projects whilst claiming they can protect front line services by cutting the same front line services

Medway Tories, like their colleagues elsewhere, are hoodwinking the electorate. They are fiscally incompetent and can not be trusted with your money. Indeed; when it comes to lapping the cream 9 out of 10 of the highest paid Council Chief Executives sit in Tory Council areas:

Council	Position	Remuneration 2009-10	Remuneration 2010-11	% increase	Control
Hammersmith and Fulham	Chief Executive	270,474	281,666	4.14	CON
Essex	Chief Executive	267,442	271,060	1.35	CON
Kensington and Chelsea	Town Clerk and Chief Executive	268,423	268,475	0.02	CON
Suffolk	Chief Executive	267,775	267,775	0.00	CON
Buckinghamshire	Chief Executive	258,868	259,104	0.09	CON
Bexley	Chief Executive	250,627	258,782	3.25	CON
Norfolk	Chief Executive	263,700	256,900	-2.58	CON
Surrey	Chief Executive	176,073	253,133	43.77	CON
Gateshead	Chief Executive	245,581	252,838	2.96	LAB
Barnet	Chief Executive	249,210	250,818	0.65	CON

Cllr Mike is running...

Well after weeks of intrigue, innuendo and investigative mutterings in Gun Wharf the multititled Cllr Mike has now put his copper hat in the ring for the Sheriff top-job. 

Was he reading....?

This blog has been leading the charge, without handcuffs, for the Portfolio Holder for Community Safety and Customer Contact, and, Medway Community Safety Partnership Chair (breath) to announce his position on the role and put an end to the speculation. 

It is welcome to see him taking the advice of the opposition

We speculate however that Cllr Mike may be playing a clever move; ever the fox-like chess player; we think he may be pitching his deep blue tent firmly for the deputy job which will certainly not be a part-time undertaking if the Colonel takes the top job.

The big question on the lips of many is whether Cllr Mike can now continue to put the independent interests of Medway citizens first as Chair of the MSP, whilst also canvassing across the whole of Kent for this position; first as the Tory nominee and secondly as candidate for November 15th. 

The public will want a full-time pair of eyes on crime in Medway and not an individual with an eye on a bigger job elsewhere. Mike therefore should think about his position and dedicate himself full time to getting job. A foot in both camps and roles will look disengenious. 

All eyes are now the great and the 'white-haired' good on Kent County Council; will the blue-rinsers in Kent County Hall support a Medway Conservative candidate? I suspect they will find this difficult. Secondly eyes will be on the ever gregrarious Cllr 'River' MacKinlay, to see whether another Medway Tory will put his truncheon on the table for the top job

Medway is suffering at the moment; as Medway Tory factions play a death dance with each other over Council positions and police sheriffs we are seeing significant cuts to Police budgets of up to 20% and a rise in opportunistic theft; we are seeing crime statistics which were heading downward from 1997-2010 flatlining as upto 500 front line officers are being cut from the thin blue line

The Police are also threatened with privatisation as G4S and other private-providers move into police stations. The profit motive does not sit well with a force which is the last line of defence for individual liberty.

Meanwhile Labour will move ahead with its ballot for our candidate. I am hoping for a strong woman; who can show part-time Collins and sunset Mike a thing or two about managing law and order.

Mid-term blues hit early

With open hostility in the ruling group surrounding positions and the number of officer departures I suspect the hand-quivering clustershambolic leadership of Chambers and Jarrett must be on the close.

All eyes for this week will be on Full Council on Thursday night where we will finally get a confirmation on the Mayor and Deputy Mayor and on the discussion around member allowances. 

Medway Labour of course had a consistent policy on both these issues last year which we believed reflected the public interest; namely a return to the fair points-based system around mayoralty selection, which takes the pathetic partisanship (observed in the Conservative Group this year) out of the Queen's appointed representative for Medway; and a cut of the Conservative party chairman & deputy chairman perks who we believe are 'lapping the cream' of public money whilst the majority of Medway taxpayers continue to pay huge sums of Council tax for poor political leadership.

It is of course good to note that members will be taking a pay cut this year, as per the recommendations of the independent panel, but this does not go far enough in my mind and what we need is specific focus on those mid-level takers of public money.

We do not need so many Tories on the payroll at Gun Wharf. 

The other points to note from the meeting come from the public and member questions for the evening. A number of noticeable themes emerge

The first is that the Tory attempt to introduce a 'fake' Freedom Pass, as promised in their local manifesto in 2011, has clearly backfired badly. The Tories have a terrible record on the Freedom Pass having spent most of 2010 opposing any form of public subsidy for bus travel for young people because of cost, seemingly taken out of a hat, and pubicly lambasting the opposition Labour Party for proposing the idea. In 2011, the Tories took the Freedom Pass and audaciously added it to their local manifesto and claimed Labour were opposed; but the budget in 2011/12 only allocated a pathetic sum to the scheme, and so Labour called the Tory rat out. 

Rightly so, as we now have a scheme which to huge numbers of parents is woefully substandard; and I expect many more will continue to articulate not only the rank Conservative hypocrisy but also why we continue to suffer a worse deal then our neighbours in Gravesham, Sittingbourne and Maidstone who have a Conservative-controlled County Council.

Roads and re-surfacing also make an appearance with the announced overspend of £1.2m on the Stoke Crossing, dubbed the 'Bridge to Nowhere' by the press. With Tory-leaning Parish Chairman and Councillor's citing the money could have been better spent elsewhere, and the public outraged at the scale of spend whilst residential road budgets are seemingly 'gerrymandered' into Tory wards with a number of roads slipping budget cycles, this will prove controvertial.  We all know the Tories have spent millions on road schemes in Chatham no one voted for or wanted, and that have gone millions overbudget; taking money from what could have been spent on residential roads. 

Tories will no doubt spread the blame; who will it be this month... I cant wait. 

A number of other questions relate to the botched care home closures and privatisations which have been totally mishandled by the administration, and which descended into a farce, when the Council refused to extend the consultation on a proposal from Medway Health to take on the closing Balfour Centre. The Tories also ignored local campaigns calling for a limited partnership and stakeholder co-operative model of management favouring overt privatisation. We now go into the future with no public care home provision as a number of privately-owned homes continue to fail CQC reviews. 

The way in which the cabinet managed the Balfour process was nothing short of incompetent; as standard from Medway Tories. 

Marlowe Park and the campaign by Cllr Igwe to safeguard this facility is also on the table; Cllr Igwe led the campaign and called-in the manner in which the Medway PCT communicated and acted. 

Lastly the Community Safety Plan is due to be discussed; now that Cllr OBrien has returned from his 'fact-finding' tour of Kent it is interesting to note the precious little change in the document that all these visits were apparently tasked. Given Medway has seen a massive reduction in crime from 1997-2010 there will surely be commentary around the cuts to PCSOs, cuts to Police numbers and the real concern that opportunistic theft and crime is increasing across our towns. We may also get an announcement on whether our multitiled Cllr Mike will be standing for Police Commissioner on the back of his record as Medway CSP Chair. Then again; we may not.

A busy night ahead.