"Councillor Wildgust is organising a Torfaen-wide petition calling for proportional representation, and is planning a major protest march from county hall in Cwmbran to the civic centre in Pontypool at the beginning of July.He said: "I have had dozens of letters and e-mails calling on me to act. I want to motivate the population and get people marching for democracy.
"My message to the Labour leadership is democracy is coming." "
South Wales Argus 19th June 2008
See full report here.
Thursday 19 June 2008
Democracy Petition is Coming (Argus 19th June)
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7 comments:
Is Cllr Wildgust mad? As I understand proportional representation, it is that a proportion of the seats will be given to those parties which have received sufficient votes to qualify as a party. Therefore each of the parties (Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat, Plaid and, possibly Torfaen People's Voice if they are registered as a political party) will get a proportion of the seats allocated for proportional representation in addition to those who are voted in as ward members (assuming we're not talking about the whole of the Council being proportional representation). If we are talking about the latter then he is completely mad since there would be no councillors responsible for a ward which would allow for, say, a 'Party for Cwmbran' to gain 55% of the seats and run the Council completely for the benefit of Cwmbran (and please don't give any silly responses that they do this already because they certainly do not).
In none of these scenarios would all the independents have any seats or play a part in the power structure since they are not a party but, by definition, independent. They would each, since they are recorded independently, not register enough votes to gain seats or attain power. If they form an ad hoc party, then they are not what their voters voted for i.e. independent and therefore let them down.
If he is petitioning for proportional representation within Council of Cabinet, Chairs of Scrutiny etc, that is totally unworkable and independents would be equally unable to take part (unless they cease to be independent) as they would have to undertake some kind of whip or every decision would take a very long time to make (the conservatives having to form agreements with those independents or People's Voice who are actually further to the left that the Labour Party (not difficult I know).
There are so many things that need to be done in Torfaen to improve the borough that it is a total waste of time taking people on a wild goose chase. Please can you get on with the job you were elected for - and, on another issue, please remember that in our political system, you vote FOR a person and not AGAINST a party. So, people voted for Plaid and expect them to do what is best for the borough according to their party's policy and not to vote slavishly against the Labour group. There has been no sell out to their voters.
I hope a change will come, but fear certain councillors have already been leaned on not to support the petition. Their weakness and unwillingness to act on their constituents pleas has been proven today at the coalition vote. SHAME. The electorate craves democracy not dictatorship. Please pass them some cotton buds for their blocked ears!!!
Jekyl, stop hiding and come out and show yourself... if your a councillor be proud, unless your one of the famous five then keep hiding. I fully understand your view points, but trust me your a lone voice.
You dont know anything about the aims of the petition, its much bigger than proportional representation. I am informing you now that the PR element of the pitition is regarding power sharing on all member committees from the leadership down. The petition is legal and will be voted on in full council, so democracy is coming....
there will be a few interesting points within the petition that will focus the mind of the labour party and the electorate.
I hope you sign the petition and support the campaign. there is much to do in Torfaen your right and thats because we have lived though decades of one party controlling the council and not being challenged.
well trust me, its a whole new ball game now and bob wellington is not used to fighting....
Jekyl are you indeed Cllr Rees the Plaid turncoat??
I hope not I hate duplicity. Transparency and honesty are so much better character traits. Try them on for size, they feel good.
Does it really matter who Jekyl is? Let us hear an opinion that he is right or wrong and why?
Well they promised that the new councils' meetings would be interesting, but I never thought that they would be entertaining as well...in fact if anyone is looking for political assylum....come to Pontypool, its the finest assylum in the world, the address is Council Chambers, Town Hall, Pontypool !
For once the Labour members sat quiet, with the exception of the Mayor Councillor James, who was up and down out of his chair like someone about to perform a mexican wave, in particular to demand that Councillor Paul Williams to leave the chamber for poor conduct....which paled to insignificance when Councillor Veronica German left as well after a making a loud barrage of allegations against various personnel which were immediately defended as unfounded by the chief legal officer who very professionally did well to keep her cool.
Following a short recess, Councillor Paul Williams having returned to the chamber, did the honourable thing and formally apologised to the Mayor which received a round of applause from all. During the recess, Councillor Graham Smith additionally apologised for the poor conduct of his colleagues, then Act Two started and then unfortunately so did Councillor Graham Smith who practicing his annunciation and illiteration commenced an abnormally long questions session from a list of 14 scripted questions most of which had already been answered at the start of the council term, with some provocation by Labour members suggesting that if he attended more meetings then he would have known the answers.
However the highlight of the evening was a question posed by Councillor Neil Mason in respect of Councillor Fred Wildgust and his decision to drop his Independent status and join The Peoples Voice party and then a further call for him to resign as a councillor and re-stand in a bi-election.
This was answered by Councillor Wildgust who defended his decision and stated that it was in the interest of democracy. The "famous five" sat silently throughout the sequence, the expression on some of their faces displaying obvious amusement since presumably Councillor Wildgust would himself now enjoy the same critical comments from the press having turned his back on his electorate as one of them later suggested.
Well you have to hand it to the guy, in just two months he has managed to be an Independant, an Independent and member of The Torfaen Peoples Coalition Group ...at the same time, renounce his Independence and join a political party The Peoples Voice and announce that he will remain as a member of the Torfaen Peoples Coalition Group... at the same time, start a campaign for Proportional Representation, argue the case for a debate for a new Incinerator to replace Rechem, try to re-organise the councils constitution and organise a rally and march for democracy at the beginning of July ( which unfortunately I missed)....all he needs to do now is find a cure for all known diseases, achieve world peace, stop global warming, single handedly finish building the space station and then when he gets bored or fed up of his latest political liason, say in a couple of weeks, possibly try joining the Tory party group, the famous five, the Liberals or Plaid as well...it pays to keep your options open.
Either way, it was a great nights entertainment, next time I'm going to take some popcorn and coke !
I viewed the meeting as well and I was appalled by the disgraceful behaviour of Councillor German and several of the new members.
As for the remark made by Councillor Wildgust referring to the reading ability of a councillor during the questions session I was absolutely disgusted that someone in public office would stoop to say such a below the belt comment. And as a resident if there was a bi-election I wouldn't vote for him again, disgraceful.
I was hoping that there would be a new breath of fresh air with the old councillors being replaced by a new band of diverse blood, but given,as one person pointed out, the immature and inexperienced antics of some of the new members
I was pleasantly suprised to see some sense and stability brought to the meeting by a moderated and dare I say subdued Councillor Wellington who answered a never ending list of seemingly pointless questions from a councillor who performed most of the night with a childish, supercilious grin who was only upstaged by presumably another colleague who embarassingly mumbled his way through a batch of questions which resulted in him losing his temper and was asked to leave by the Mayor, who didn't perform any better either and seemed to lose control over the meeting.
Roll on the next election!
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