Today is the official start of the formal election campaign with all those aspiring to be councillors having until noon next Wednesday to lodge their nomination papers.
It was also revealed on Independent Party councillor Anne Chalk's blog who are the Independent Party candidates at this years local elections. This was revealing for two reasons, firstly because there is no Independent Party candidate for West Shoebury proving that the Independent Party really do not care about the whole of Shoebury and secondly, even in the extremely unlikely event they won all the seats they were standing in, they could never control the council as they would only have a total of 14 councillors. Although this hasn't stopped Independent Party Leader Cllr Martin Terry in his new blog launched today trying to claim otherwise
With the Independent Party only contesting 9 of the 17 seats available I would not be surprised once all the nomination papers are in that another electoral pact has been formed with UKIP.
4 comments:
Tony, I did comment on Cllr Chalks blog but it looks like see hasn't published it. Basically, when I last spoke to her she made it clear that an Indie candidate in West Shoebury would be likely, I asked her on her blog why this hasn't happened. I also brought up the same point you did about if Indies really represent the people of Shoebury then they should stand in both wards (After all most residents don't see Shoebury as two separate wards the issues residents raise cross ward boundaries). Furthermore, it really cannot be hard for the Indies to find a candidate to stand in West Shoebury. I suspect Cllr Chalk probably does want a Indie candidate in West Shoebury. However, due to Indie leaderships obvious election pact with UKIP, it seems that Cllr Chalk has had to probably follow the party line. Strange? I thought there councillors and candidates didn't have a whip to follow. Anyway, this is not really a criticism on Cllr Chalk but more of the leadership of the Indies. I shouldn't really be complaining anyway if like last year in West Shoebury we have you and your coalition partners and UKIP an even more right wing party it seems that I am the only real alternative, if the people of West Shoebury want it.
Gary you might like to know that I cannot force candidates to stand in wards and at the time I spoke to you I thought that Evelyn Assenheim might stand as she normally does. However and quite reasonably she has decided to help her husband to retain his seat this year, rather than waste resources in Shoebury West. I suggest you leave conspiracy theories to Tony and his friends.
PS I overlooked your comment on my blog and it is now published
Anne this is a fair point although given that Shoebury Independents have had a whole year to find somebody to stand as a candidate it is surprising you haven't. To be honest last year I did not believe there was an election pact between the Indies and UKIP and I thought Tony was overstating this. Despite the fact that no UKIP candidates stood where the Indies where standing (except Kursaal). But to leave West Shoebury out this year is surprising considering your success in wards surrounding it. The more I look into organisations such as BERA I see that there are links between those in UKIP and the Indies. To be honest I have no intention to get bogged down in conspiracy theories. I will be holding the Tories and Lib Dems to account for their local and their governments policies (and UKIP's lack of local activity and far right beliefs) and not for election tactics or conspiracies.
Gray, the reason why there is no Independent Party candidate in West Shoebury is because their approved candidate is James Moyies.
The exception last year was Kursaal as the 'Independent' was a disaffected Conservative not a candidate approved my Martin Terry or Ron Woodley.
Anne makes the assertion that Evelyn Assenheim normally stands but this is untrue. Evelyn only stood in 2010 and received an electoral pasting, although calling West Shoebury residents cranks and nutters didn't help.
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