Friday 2nd May 2008
Comments: 2
Stars 
: 0
Election results
With 11 of their 23 seats being defended, as widely expected Labour failed to hold 9 of the 11. With 2 gained added to the 2 retained Labour now have 16 Members, plus the Elected Mayor. That will read as follows:
16 Labour (23) 11 up, lost 9; gained 2.
9 Conservative & Independent Alliance (10) 4 up, lost 4; gained 3.
5 Lib Dems (4) 1 up, lost 1; gained 2.
14 City Independents (10) 2 up, held 2; gained 4.
9 BNP (6) gained 3.
2 Potteries Alliance (4) 2 up, lost 2.
5 Non-aligned (3)
Mike Tappin, Labour Group leader lost. He is the 4th successive Labour leader to defeated, following in the footsteps of his predecessors, Barry Stockley, Mick Salih and Terry Doughty. The possibility of being the 5th successive loser is unlikely to influence those jockeying for the vacancy to lead the Labour Group, now reduced to almost half the size of what it was when I ceased to be the deputy leader in 2006.
If there is a desire to continue the Labour/Tory/Lib Dem coalition, it would be possible as the fugures show they can muster 30 votes plus the Elected Mayor.
Despite this massive shake-up, with 16 of the 20 seats up for election changing hands, because only a third of the 60 seats are up for election the impact of the electorate's signal for change is largely dulled.
Back to entries Comment on this entry
Are there actually any independents left in the 'Conservative & Independent Alliance' (with the obvious exception of Lee Wanger).
To be honest, I'm not surprised at the Lib-Dems getting cosy with Labour, that was always the way the party was heading when I was a Stoke West councillor for them.
None of the main political parties seem to want to stick with their principles these days, hence the fact that so many independents and splinter groups have formed.
Now a coalition of the non-political parties would be more interesting, people of Stoke-on-Trent working for Stoke-on-Trent instead of feathering their political careers.
If the Labour vote collapses much further such a coalition would be needed, if only to prevent the BNP from holding the balance of power.
Yes, when I was first elected for Labour in 2002 I was VERY party political but soon became disillusioned. Once suspended, when I left Labour, my desire was for a non-party political grouping but with a clarity about principles and policies. I find that difficult to detect with the City Independents. I saw them collapse in a coalition with Tories when I was first elected - they had no diea where they were going and I fear they still don't.
0 Star(s) awarded