Comment By Tony Walley.
Tony Walley
It’s now May, the city is five weeks away from one of the biggest changes in our 
city’s history. Our elected representatives will get to choose the new Council Leader from one of their own.
Whoever the new leader turns out to be, he/she will require the votes of 31 other councillors. The vote will be a ringing endorsement for that particular person, a vote of real confidence you could say.
Over recent times I have spoken to many people from all sides of the chamber and believe it or not, with just a few weeks to go to the big day, no one clear favourite has emerged.
Over the past three months, when you would expect candidates and their parties to shine like a beacon of best practice we have seen the main coalition parties implode.
So, is it now time for the city to seek a new direction and encourage our elected representatives to return an Independent council leader?
If you take my party the Libdems, just what do they stand for locally? I joined the party as they best represent my political views nationally. Here in Stoke I have yet to see a single Libdem policy in print, I have yet to be invited to any meeting, yet I have had a letter asking me if I am willing to stand as a candidate in 2010/2011.
Kieran Clarke is, from what I am told, an excellent councillor and portfolio holder. But anyone listening to the audio interview I did with him this week would struggle to gleam what the Libdems stand for in this city despite my probing and giving him several opportunities to tell us what the party could do for the city.
Jean Bowers has stepped down as leader in anticipation of being the next Lord Mayor. It has been suggested to me that there maybe a call for Terry Follows to be the next Lord Mayor in recognition of his efforts and support in helping to save Trentham High School. I don’t think many of the city’s electorate would argue against Terry Follows as he typifies everything you could ask for in a ward councillor. Mrs Bowers on the other hand has ruffled the electorates feathers on more than one occasion. She also has angered some of the other councillors in the chamber.
Zulfiqar Ali
Dr Ali has succeeded Paul Billington as deputy leader. This is a strange decision in many ways. Dr Ali has only been in the party and the council for just over a year where as Paul Billington has a wealth of experience and has demonstrated that he has great understanding of council procedures and is well known for his scrutiny of the officers. This change in the Libdem Party has highlighted a division equal to that in the Labour Party and has denied their party the front bench services of a fierce spokesperson.
Well, we have just seen the end to the popular TV programme ‘Hells Kitchen’ and it seems the heat of the EMB kitchen was too hot for a certain Tory EMB member Ross Irving. Apparently the heat of the grilling that councillors gave the EMB got poor Ross so hot under the collar that he fled the furnace of the Windsor room to the relative coolness of the council corridor.
Ross is tipped by many to be the next Leader of the council especially if the present coalition holds firm. But when you
Ross Irving
really analyse the Conservative and Independent Alliance you discover that as well as having not one single policy they also have no natural leader now that Roger Ibbs has stepped down. I know Ibbsy is as popular in Trentham as a Jehovah’s Witness at an atheists convention, but come on, could you ever see Ibss walking out of any meeting because the argument got too fierce for him? There is no way he would have stormed out. He would have argued to the end and stood firm in the face of adversity with the usual stubbornness or is it arrogance?.
Lee Wanger would never be able to lead that group for reasons well known. Clive Rigby and Hazel Lyth are far too quiet. So where is the real leader of that group. More importantly the only possible candidate for Council Leader from that group has proved that he can’t stand the heat of the battle.
So in my opinion two out of the three coalition parties have no single policy of their own to pursue. They are happy to cling on to the coat tails of the Elected mayor and my understanding is that, most of the EMB expect to be in any new cabinet of the soon to be Council Leader.
The Labour party seem to be getting their acts together at the grass roots level but their are major cracks appearing within the council group. Labour councillors not speaking or even communicating with each other. Question marks over who will be the next leader of the group. Differences of opinion on whether the party should or should not be in a coalition. There is a strong possibility that the labour party may become the main opposition party united behind a new Leader that is not tainted by the EMB brush. The national executive come to Stoke next week to interview group councillors and to establish whether there will be any disciplinary action taken against the group leader and fellow Labour EMB members for voting against the group whip. The National Exec will also consider counter allegations made by the EMB members. More worryingly they will decide whether to hold an AGM where any new leader would be voted in. They need to consider their actions very carefully as the wrong move could turn more of the electorate against the traditional party of the working class and encourage them to vote for the far right BNP.
The city expect, no demand a ‘new’ City Labour Party either heading the coalition or leading the opposition.
Brian Ward
That leaves the City Independents. Maybe our city would benefit from an Independent leader and who better than the ‘silver fox’Â Brian Ward. He is a great speaker and a thoroughly nice guy. He is experienced (unlike Mr Rigby) and he is sure to give the Council management a hard ride on behalf of the electorate. He is outside the tainted discredited EMB and has often been seen to lead the vocal oppostion against the EMB/coalition. If the new council leader is to signal a new era for our city isn’t it better to have a politician with no visable baggage?
I ask for one thing from the new leader whoever it may be. Pick the best candidates for the cabinet. Make sure the peoples champions Peter Kent-Baguley and Mick Salih are there to give the sort of scrutiny we have come to expect from them. Recognise that the city is crying out for change.
Maybe an Independent Leader is just the thing that is needed in this city, that and the fierce opposition of a committed, revitalised and rejuvinated Labour Party united behind a new effective leader ready to oppose any decision that they think is taking our city in the wrong direction.
Maybe then the Tories and the Libdems in this city will be forced to seek their own direction and their own policies. This in turn will give us the electorate real choices to make at the next local elections.
Our council chamber should then be a vibrant, exciting, diverse room with heated but reasoned debate that may well make our city the inclusive society that we all crave for.
“Our council chamber should then be a vibrant, exciting, diverse room with heated but reasoned debate that may well make our city the inclusive society that it craves.”
Tony don’t make me laugh – the problem is that the vocal minority,have no policies with the result that reasonable debate is not possible and it degenerates into macho shouting matches. People like salih, kent bagguley, ann james, john davies, joynsons, joy garner etc, need to take a good look at themselves and see what they are actually doing for the benefit of this city and not just for their own egos.
As you are now a Lib Dem shouldn’t you be saying positive things about Kieron Clarke and Dr. Ali rather than putting them down and saying the Billington is better?
I don’t think this means that the Lib Dems are divided, it just means that they make their own decisions on who to elect as their leaders. I suppose that if Joy Garner is re-elected as the Labour leader she will be getting it from you as well?
You must be having a laugh about Mick Salih being in the new cabinet.
This is a man who as part of Ted Smith’s and Barry Stockley’s incompetent gang presided over disasters such as Worldgate, Cultural Quarter and Britannia Stadium (community use which never materialised). And Mike Barnes is very quiet about all of this and pretends he was never there.
We might as well go all the way and get all the dinosaur brigade back!
I agree that we probably should have an Independent lead council. That is what people want-the voters, not the councillors. But I do worry about the merits of a lot of the independents in that I’m not sure many of them are up to the job-of course I don’t know them personally so perhaps thats unfair.
On the Lib Dems (the less said the better) my view is that have seriously missed an opportunity by not getting Paul Billington as their leader. But never mind, as a member of a competing party I won’t be too worried, and it won’t make too much difference to the future of the city anyway.
On the Tories, I agree broadly with what Tony has said. However, I would say that I do slightly disagree with Tony when he said that there is no automatic replacement for Ibbs as group leader now that he has sadly gone. In fact, Ross is the natural candidate for leader of the group. Indeed, some of us were urging him to get the leadership instead of Ibbs for a very long time. His experience, length of service, knowledge of the council and political sense makes him the leading candidate for the group leadership. Of course, he has very sadly blotted his good record of 30 years with the Trentham High fiasco and his loyalty to Ibbs.
I also disagree with Tony’s implication that Lee Wanger could lead the group if it weren’t for his other…issues debarring him from doing so.
The fact is that there is no way in the world that the Conservative group would be ALLOWED to serve in a coalition with Independents under an Independent leader even if they wanted to. The local party membership would not stand for it, and I suspect that Tory Central Office would not stand for it. So that possibility is simply a non-starter.
Although I would like to see a Tory-Indy-Lib dem coalition running the city, I do think that it would be very unwise for the Independents to make their move on the leadership at this time. Far better to let Labour limp along as an ineffective minority for a year or two and then win power by election then.
If they take office too quickly now, Labour will be able to rebuild and reunite in opposition. The people of the City will be all too happy to then go back like sheep to the Labour Party at the first available opportunity in one or two years time (especially if the city council elections are in 2010 on the same day as the general election. That would inevitably cause some sort of boost for the Labour vote in the city elections; as it would with the other major parties at the expense of the independents).
If the Independents want-as I do-a longer period of office with Labour consigned to opposition, they may be best in waiting for a while longer and allowing Labour to hang themselves in a year or two time.
“allowing Labour to hang themselves in a year or two time.”
Say… May/June 2011 until May/June 2015 if we end up going down the full council elections route?
Yes. 2011-2015 would look like a period of Independent control (hopefully in coalition with Tories and Lib Dems) so long as Labour are allowed ro remain in office until then.
Of course, that isalways presuming that labour do not quickly bounce back in the city following their loss of the general election next year- or that they remain in office nationally after 2010 as a minority or coalition government.
Remember that ANY movement by Labour in opposition either locally or nationally would most likely lead to a significant bounce in their support at the next city council elections.
As a non-political person, can I remind everyone that their Party affiliations are only a label with which to delude the populace, in the hope that the Party can gain ascendancy with its lust for power. At one time, Labour meant for the workers, Tories for the bosses, and Liberals – well!
Having said that, I still have a great deal of respect for many of our past and present elected representatives, and whatever happens, I expect to continue to do so in the future. The democratic process is absolutely vital for our City, and what should unite us all is the need to throw out the present autocratic regime, that has demolished perfectly good houses, closed perfectly good schools, and tried to close down one of the most enjoyable and efficient leisure centre’s ever. The privatisation and partnership “initiatives” should be opposed by all the candidates, and demands made to keep and develop the management of the family silver for us all.
In a properly developed democracy, where people of goodwill would prevail, governance would be by consent of the people, not by the imposition of outsiders with their alien and unpopular notions. Our candidates should declare their loyalty to popular opinion, andbe judged accordingly.
Why the hell not.
As a resident of Trentham I would prefer Terry Follows to remain an active local councilor rather than have to distance himself by wearing the mayoral chains of office. We only have one useful, effective local representative please don’t take him away from us.
Me again
For what it is worth I think that whoever is elected as council leader they would be daft to put ANY current EMB member into their cabinet. We need to take the opportunity presented to shut the door on the EMB way of working once and for all.
Warren,
Why not? Because our City is being ruled by outsiders who don’t even have the decency to even live in the City that they claim to work “for”. The City should be a “State of Independence”, but never will be unless our people become sufficiently savy to reject the rulership and propaganda of alien agencies that can never hope to represent our spirit and our soul. We have been manipulated ideologically and intellectually by press, TV and radio alike, and need to start thinking for ourselves. Quangos and other shady organisations such as Renew North Staffordshire, Common Purpose and the EEC have no place in Stoke-on-Trent, and I would dearly love our elected representatives to tell them so.
Our City is entering an exciting epoch. With the weak pound, our tradition of industrial manufacture and production can revive, and our new, democratic, Council can and should assist in the facilitation of this process. The new great task of our people is to ensure that a new, great, leadership emerges from the ashes, phoenix-like, to revive our spirits, hopes, aspirations and productive capacity.
At one point not so long ago i made a regetable comment about Brian Ward stating he should not be the next council leader however i dont mind admitting i was wrong and i have said the same to Brian directly. Brian would make an excellect council leader our would listen to follow cllrs and also residents of this City.
On the adviser panel i would like to personally see the following members without bias. Cllr Kent Baguley, Cllr Salhi, Cllr Ali, Cllr Coleman, Cllr Barns, Cllr James, Cllr Follows & Cllr Reynolds to name a small selection that have stood out in chambers. Note i fail to mention and conservatives that stood out in Chambers thats because they would be better if they literally stood out of chambers.
ken – simply you are deluded.your best bet would be to build a 10ft high wall around your house and pretend the rest of the world doesn’t exist.
I agree kp. We only have one decent councillor in Trentham due to our mistaken voting habits (well I didn’t personally vote for those other two) and the traitorous behaviour of our other two councillors. So I’d like to keep Terry as a highly functional councillor able to argue any case in council, rather than stifling him as Lord Mayor. At least until such time as we can vote some other decent people in to join Terry. Maybe he could do the role if he wished later when we’ve got a good set of councillors in Trentham and Hanford.
Derek Capey was more useful to the city before he was Lord Mayor, although I’m sure all those functions they get to go to are enjoyable for whomever is Lord Mayor.
As Jean Bowers rarely makes any useful comment in council, it would be no great loss to see her as Lord Mayor. However she’d need to go on some training on how to chair meetings and how to use a microphone.
It seems to me that ken is idealistic rather then deluded. Some of the ideas are very good, it’s just making them work that’s problematic.
As for deluded, isn’t it the case that politicians are the ones who are deluded and have built a 10ft high wall around them and pretend that the voters don’t exist. And inside that wall they are spinning so much that they have started to believe themselves and are totally out of touch with the world outside.
Meanwhile the electorate have woken up and smelt the coffee while the politicians are still not quite awake. We can vote whatever way we like and people will try that and demand to be represented for the privilege of our vote. But that doesn’t get us too far because there’s not a lot of decent choice. So instead we will shout out, protest and campaign for what we believe in.
I don’t think the 31 votes will be a ringing endorsement for the leader. Some will be voting for who they really believe in, the others will be picking their least bad option, just like any other election.
“is it now time for the city to seek a new direction and encourage our elected representatives to return an Independent council leader?” – absolutely it is!
Tony I think you are right to criticise Kieran Clarke for his bland interview, despite you being a libdem. You presented him with plenty of opportunities to tell us what the libdems on the council are about and he failed to use them. In any case the libdems are few in numbers so do not much matter, except that because the council has no strong majority party or group, any of the small groups could have the power to influence a vote, so really they should be taking up the opportunity to think what they want for the city.
… testing … submitted a comment on another blog – two times. Disappeared completely not even showing as awaiting moderation. It had web links in it.
As much as I would be thrilled for Terry Follows to receive the honour of Lord Mayor, I too would like to see him remain as an active (and excellent) local councillor. Why is Jean Bowers in line for the title anyway – at the EMB meetings I’ve been to, she generally leaves after her particular portfolio subject has been discussed and reminds me of someone who has wandered into the wrong place by mistake and can’t quite figure out where they are or why. She would be useless at chairing meetings, or, based on evidence I have witnessed so far, meeting and engaging with people at any level – all important factors in the Lord Mayor’s role. Shaun – I ask in all sincerity – what has Ross Irving done for his constituency or the constituents of his ward during his period as councillor? I have lived in the area for over 12 years and never once have either Irving or Ibbs canvassed here or given me a reason to vote for them – I’ve never even seen them around locally so would like to know what you base your comment of his 30 years ‘good record’ on. I’m interested in your comments – which I can’t agree with – that ‘Ross is the natural candidate for leader of the group’. Length of service shouldn’t come into it, competency should and, based on my experience, I don’t consider this a quality he – or Ibbs – holds.
Nicky i find when posting web links you need to remove the www. as most sites seem to pick these up.
Julie, I fully understand what you’re saying about Ibbs and Irving. However, I would ask you to understand the difficulty a councillor has in being regularly in touch with people in their wards-particularly when their parties organisation has been run down over a number of years. Don’t forget, there are over 10,000 people living in the Trentham ward. How long would it take you to go around and speak to them all? Presumably you would also want some time to eat, sleep and go to work, not to mention a little bit of leisure time too? With a move to smaller wards, it would be possible to stay in touch with all the voters of the ward but it is not at present.
Also, I would question whether we should judge a councillor’s effectiveness based on how many times he knocks on the door or pushes through a leaflet saying what they think.
And while I agree with you that in Ibbs’s case he hasn’t set foot into his ward for years-even during elections! Ross by contrast has always been diligent in his duties there.
I have taken part in election campaigns in Trentham in which Ross has single handedly fought for Roger Ibbs’s re-election without any help whatsoever from the man himself. We have all asked the question ‘why do you do it?’, and he has replied that he wasn’t doing it for Ibbs, he was doing it for the Conservatives and for Trentham. I have great respect for that.
That is why I have been so sorry that Ross Irving has blotted his record of the last 30 years of good work by making a HUGE error of judgement over the Trentham High issue. That is unforgiveable and I seek to offer no explanation or excuse for it.
But still I won’t deny that Ross Irving has the knowledge, the skills and the experience to be Leader if he was chosen to be so. This isn’t an expression of preference. My own hopes as to who leads the council are well known and have been expressed many times before. I am just trying to consider it impartially. I’m even prepared to say that Ibbs has the knowledge, skills and experience to be leader, and everybody knows what I think about that too!
Shaun – thank you for your response. Certainly I do understand the logistics but I do not think it too much to ask that any person seeking to become a councillor has a responsibility to advise their potential constituents what they stand for and why they should be elected. I also think that, at some point in the 12+ years of living in Trentham, there ought to have been at least 1 occasion I could cite has having witnessed either Ibbs or Irving in the neighbourhood and I don’t think you’ve answered my question about have they contributed to benefit Trentham/Hanford during their time as ward councillors – this is a genuine question, as there may well be lots of positive instances that I am not aware of. You will also not have witnessed them addressing members of the Trentham Action Group, both at Action Group meetings (2 in total) and both EMB/Full Council Meetings (when they should not have been addressing us at all) with such spite and hatred, and I use those words carefully and with consideration. They have shouted at us and treated us with nothing short of contempt – disgraceful. I do fully respect they represent your party but not, necessarily, in the manner you would wish or your specific views, and you are in somewhat of a difficult position though.