I believe tonight to be an evening which we should all note. It is a milestone in local politics. Labour's coming to power in December may have been a shock but tonight's events revealed that its possible to top it. Today we saw the creation of the Alliance.
Labour and TIG voted together so many times there cannot be any doubt that they have now formed a single Group and with that came quite awful votes over Chairmanships. Tories were blocked out with Alliance Members spreading them amongst themselves with a token gesture on Governance. This has dangerous implications for this Council and in the case of Overview will basically neuter it.
Chairmanships went as follows:
Council - Chair - Cllr Clark (Labour)
- Vice Chair - Cllr Dark (Labour)
Planning - Chair - Cllr Cohen (TIG)
- Vice-Chair - Cllr Campbell (Labour)
Licensing - Chair - Cllr Nicholson (Labour)
- Vice Chair - Cllr Huxley (Labour)
Overview - Chair - Cllr Driver (TIG)
- Vice Chair - Cllr Harrison (Labour)
Governance/Audit - Chair - Cllr Worrow (TIG)
Vice Chair - Cllr S Tomlinson (Con)
Joint Transportation - Chair - KCC Cllr Robert Burgess (Con)
- Vice Chair - Cllr Alexandrou (Labour)
A new Housing & Planning Cabinet portfolio was created with around 30 hours notice, which went to Cllr David Green. The Shadow Portfolio went to Cllr Ken Gregory so congrats go to them both in their new roles. Hopefully this will relieve some of the pressure on Iris Johnston, though I need to have a good look at what exactly is moving because I think I noticed something amiss.
The wider implications of all this for Thanet... I think Im going to do what Simon Moores is doing and sleep on it. But I can definitely say that the tectonic plates of Thanet's politics have shifted again.
4 comments:
Thanks James, I also think David G deserves congrats on his appointment! Time will tell if either of us were right for the job!!!
James I look forward to catching up on whatever I missed, sorry for not saying goodbye but I was somewhat harassed by what I thought to be bullying Tigs
Unreal - haven't seen stitch ups like this since I left Zimbabwe!
Must be a hard pill to swallow for Harrison as the Conservative admin gave him the chair of Overview pre-election. His own group only give him vice!!
Oh - that must be what they call 'cross-party co-operation' - a term that Labour bandied around before the Tinies came along.
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