Fred Wildgust will stand for Parliament against Paul Murphy

Fred sent out the following email today....

Dear Group Members

In today’s Freepress you will see an article about me. It is publicly announcing that I intend to stand as an Independent Parliamentary Candidate in the Torfaen constituency, I didn’t inform you prior to the announcement in the press as I am well aware that some members of the group feed information directly back to the Labour party. I had to keep this as quiet as possible both for political and financial reasons. The timing of the announcement has been critical because by May 10th 2010, there will have to be a general election called by the government. This gives us a maximum of 362 days to change history and make a Torfaen, a better place to live and work. I ask you to pledge your support to this campaign in anyway you can… Please call me 07852268419, email me, stop me in the street or just knock on my door, let’s do this together. I have no serious money to fight this campaign it will be done on a shoestring and with lots of physical effort on my part. On May the 18th there is a community meeting planned where residents of Torfaen are welcome to meet me and discuss issues that affect their lives, the meeting is an open forum and commences at 5.30 at the Ponypool Civic Centre.

It has always been my intention to stand, the day after I won my seat on the council I had made the decision to stand against Paul Murphy. I have even made a point of telling him face to face to prevent any doubt. I have been informed that he does worry about things, so why not give him something real to worry about other that how much more he can squeeze of the parliamentary expenses system. Paul Murphy is a good man, but he is a bad local Parliamentarian. He is so wrapped up in his ministerial duties that he does not deal with the needs of Torfaen, this is compounded by the fact that he is so closely linked to the Torfaen’s Labour Council he will not challenge them or hold them to account. If he had the interest in Torfaen at heart, he would be confronting this council over the mess they have made of it over the past twenty plus years since he took his seat in Westminster.

You may be thinking why should I support Wildgust, he will be just like the rest.. Well you are very wrong, I know the value of a pound, I know what needs to be done to develop Torfaen and I actually care about people…. Our local political representatives have completely lost touch with reality, we need a fresh start a politician that is free of party politics and will listen to the voice of the people, represent their views and then act in the best interest of Torfaen and its residents…

No longer can the party politics be allowed to control our lives without the people of this fair land being able to challenge a clearly bad decision. It is important to note that over the coming weeks and months I will be attacked in the press, I will not react by entering into personal insults and mud slinging… There are better ways to win, its important just to focus on the real goal of a free Torfaen.

I await your thoughts

Fred

See also Argus Article Here

Please comment

This man is a Hero!

For those that don't recognise him this man is Stuart H Evans, Independent Councillor for Blaenavon. Since May 2008 he has been leader of the opposition and has to be congratulated for his dignity and integrity in carrying out that position.



However the main thing he should be congratulated for is his refusal to accept a position on the cabinet, with an extra allowance of £13000 plus.

It may look like a liberal idea to offer a cabinet post to the leader of the opposition but it is one of the most divisive aspects of the constitution, giving the leader of the council effective control over the opposition leadership.

For the £13000 the opposition leader hold no portfolio and has no specific duties, it is basically just a perk, almost hush money. They just have to turn up to some of the cabinet meetings. They may have a say in theory but after a while they realise they have no effect on decisions so they say very little. Then, when it becomes time to challenge the decisions in the council, they do not, because, although they had little say, they feel they have been a part of a collective decision.

It worked for years with Margaret Pead, a conservative member who led the opposition, she said virtually nothing in Council, and offered no effective opposition.

Stuart refused to be put in this position. This decision will have cost him personally over £50,000 in the four years of this labour administration. This man is a hero, a man of principle, someone you can trust. We need more like him in power.

Who will be Deputy Mayor?

Update 20th May 2010: At the Annual meeting last night Tom Huish, Independent Cllr for Blaenavon was nominated by The Labour Leader for Deputy Mayor. He was elected by 28 votes to 16, the other candidate being conservative Margaret Pead.

The AGM of Torfaen CBC will be held on the 19th of May, at 5pm and should prove interesting.

Nye James is retiring as Mayor. It is usual for a retiring Mayor to be given a position of extra responsibility by the leader but the rumour from the ranks is that he will be left out in the cold, having been a bit of a loose cannon over the last year (all to his credit I think, but he does get a bit confused at times).

Bob Jones, labour member for Upper Cwmbran is taking over and he is apparently a bit apprehensive about the role. It is a much more difficult job now, with a real opposition, than in previous times.

So who is going to be deputy Mayor? This has a Special Responsibility Allowance of (SRA) of a mere £5534 so none of the cabinet are going to accept that as their current allowance is £13,839. Similarly those labour members with scrutiny chairs get £8,304 SRA, as do the Chairs of Planning and Licensing, so they won't be happy with a reduction.

So who is left out of the labour members who is likely to accept the position of Deputy Mayor?

No-One!

In fact to be offered the position of Deputy Mayor this time or last time will be or indeed was AN INSULT, not an honour it might appear. In a stretched labour coalition you don't put your best troops in the firing line!

So the labour leader might have no other solution than to offer the post to an opposition member. If he does I am sure he will make out that he is doing it in the interests of democracy and listening to the people but WE will know better. Of course it will do no harm to democracy if the mayor in one years time is not from the leading group.

What are the other possibilities? Buy some more labour support from the opposition group like he did after the last election? Possibly, I am sure there are a few more there who will bend their principles for the extra cash. What about Alistair Cunnington or Maria Graham for Mayor? Who knows?

Interesting times (all information gratefully received).

Councillors Vote Themselves a Pay Rise

It came as little surprise in the end, but, at tonight's meeting on 31st of March 2009 the council voted by 23 to 16 to reject a conservative amendment to freeze allowances because of the present economic crisis.
Ordinary Councillors will now get a basic allowance of £13,030 per annum. (Backdated to last January)
All the labour members present and the three Plaid members and two independents who support the labour controlled council all voted for the full pay increase whilst all but one of the others, voted to freeze the allowances.
So apart from Independent Blaenavon Councillor Tom Huish all those who voted to increase the allowances will get, in addition to the £13,030 per annum a special responsibility allowance which varies from an extra £5,534 per annum up to an extra £27,679 for the leader. Cabinet members will get a total of £26,869pa plus expenses, the leader will get £40,709pa plus expenses (he claimed £5,651 last year) and everyone who voted for the increase will now get a minimum of £18,564pa plus expenses. They also benefit from a pension scheme, and many of them are already retired and in receipt of a pension or pensions.

Discuss?

UPDATE

Monmouthshire Councillors voted NOT to take the same payrise.

"Monmouthshire councillors rejected the increase at a meeting of the full
council, with leader of the council Peter Fox saying the acceptance of such a
raise would be ' wrong and immoral '. "

See Argus article here

Making the Right Decisions!

(The following is a response from Cllr Cunnington to the news that The Independent Group - Torfaen is leaving the Torfaen Peoples Coalition. It is copied here with his permission.)

Following the election I was criticised by some of the newly elected councillors for not joining the Torfaen Peoples Coalition and was agressively jibed at for having the forsight to choose, in the interest of stability - to form a different strategically balanced coalition with some current Labour Councillors, another Independent Councillor and three Plaid Cymru members.

This has proved to be a stable situation where democracy is actually working following; the much needed re-working of the Labour Group, a “new listening man change of outlook” by the Leader, sound advice and sensible ideas from the Plaid Cymru members and some fresh ideas and experience from Peter Cathcart and myself.

For myself, I considered that following an initial pre-meeting of the TPC, it was clear that the main interest of the group was to “settle old scores”. It was also apparent that with so many people pulling in different directions that it was doomed from the start for disaster.

More importantly, I can confidently announce that - I am more convinced now than I was at the start that I made the right decision, since having heard first hand some of the ludicrous proposals that have been presented in the last ten months of council - and I firmly believe that had the Coalition been successful - Torfaen would have been wrecked and become a laughing stock as with some of the antics by its members.

Initially, this became apparent when, after Cllr Wildgust’s failure to campaign and organise an Historical Overturning Petion ( promising thousands and thousands of signatures by dissatisfied voters) and mass marches, (presumably bringing the streets to a standstill) - when after just two months as an Independent, he then decided to join the Peoples Voice party!. After several months, he then “left” the Peoples Voice Party and unsuprisingly has recently left the TPC as well - and is currently in the wilderness, I am not aware to date of any other party that he would be able to join, presumably after such memorable proposals like building a new Incineration Plant…baring in mind that after years of campaigning the good people of Torfaen have only just got rid of Rechem!

Since it was only a matter of time, as per my initial prediction; I now present the latest farce with the publication by Cllr Liz Haynes of the much awaited press statement, as follows:

“Statement from the Independent Group - Torfaen.

The Independent Group have reflected on their membership of Torfaen People’s Coalition.

On Monday 16th February 2009 at 6pm, at an Independent Group meeting, the decision was taken to withdraw from the Coalition.

In May 08, a Coalition was formed with the sole purpose of ousting the Labour Controlled Administration. Due to the decision of 5 newly elected members, this was not to be.

The Independent group are strong and focussed and we wish to step back from the Party politics that is currently evident in this Council.

As an Independent group, we will continue to work hard in our communities, whilst scrutinising the decisions within Council.

We are still opposition Councillors and even though not a Coalition, we will
continue to hold the Labour administration to account.”

It is apparent that the infighting within the TPC group has caused it to fall apart at the seams, yet still it persists in trying to blame the 5 councillors with any sense who didn’t join…with its failure by not being members ! - thereby acknowledging and confirming that the 5 councillors that they criticised initially have made the right decision. With statements like “scrutinising the decisions within the Council and holding the administration to account”, I would have to point out that thus far they can’t even hold themselves together let alone claim that they could run a council.

This alone confirms that a gung-ho approach, inexperience and personal ambition is ultimately rewarded with failure.

To date, as a result of lack of cohesion, direction and poor leadership, not one sensible proposal has been presented by the TPC, save for endless rhetorical questions and political diatribe in the council chamber much to the weary dismay of people in the public gallery…and councillors & officers. The subsequent current dissolution of the group will be a magor benefit to the people of Torfaen since presumably any remaining floating councillors with any forsight and sense will see fit to actively join in with business rather than theatrically voting against every proposal simply because they are in opposition.

Unfortunately, due to the initial lack of forsight and following a farcial 10 months where they have achieved absolutely nothing, manifest in the Coalition falling apart, it is difficult to to forsee any sensible councillor wanting to form an alliance with any of the former members of the TPC now posing as new Independent Councillors (Group?), since I am sure they would not want to be aligned with the same track record, or lack of it and its only a matter of time when the “new group” will fall apart when greed and ambition take root.

Thus far in council the TPC will only be rememberd for wasting ten months with continuous critisism, repeated pointless questions, monthly policy change proposals and taking up space.
Sadly, as a badly fragmented collection of groups with no direction or leadership even the largest formation of members as a sub-group will have little or no effectiveness since no one will take them seriously, given the nonsense thus far.

I can’t help saying - I told you this would happen….actually I did at the first meeting

Alastair Cunnington 19th February 2009

Campaign for Democracy?

"Concerned" from St Cadocs/Penygarn ward has posted on our Grumble Sheet as follows!

"I wonder had People's Voice had more of a success at the elections would they still be campaigning for democracy?"

This subject warrants further discussion. Correct me if I am wrong but People's Voice only won seats where there was no independent candidate. Also I believe Fred Wildgust, as an Independent, beat a Peoples Voice Candidate by a wide margin.

Maybe people actually wanted an independent representative on the council?

What do you think?

PEOPLES VOICE CHALLENGE THE COUNCIL

Torfaen Councillors will be asked at the September council meeting to accept a motion put by Cllr Tom Gould to freeze their basic allowances, and reduce the extra allowances allocated to the Leader, Deputy Leader, Cabinet Members and all Chairs of Scrutiny Committees by 50%
Cllr Gould says, “We are being constantly told that there will be a tight budget, so it is only right that we set an example to the people we serve” How the vote goes will give us a real indication of the stature of councillors we have.

DISCUSS !

(For information below is a table comparing the allowances given to councillors in Torfaen and Gwynedd . You will note that if the motion is passed then the allowances will be similar in both boroughs. Gwynedd is larger than Torfaen in terms of area, voters and budget)

Councillors Allowances 2007/2008	Torfaen	Gwynedd
Basic	£12,718	£11,862
Leader	£27,017	£14,154
Mayor (Chairman in Gwynedd)	£8,105	£3,523
Cabinet members with portfolios	£13,508	£5,544
Chair, scrutiny committees	£8,105	£4,435
Chair, planning, Licensing etc	£8,105	£2,217
Vice Chairs scrutiny	£0	£2,217

Prison Action Group, press release

Press release from Cllr Elizabeth Haynes as follows...

Over the last few months, residents have become increasingly worried about the
rumours surrounding the siting of a Prison in Cwmbran.
Many Residents
contacted the 2 ward Councillors who have been campaigning against this since
March. They are Councillor Elizabeth Haynes (St Dials Ward) and Cllr Catherine
Lewis (Greenmeadow ward). Along with some residents,
they have been collecting signatures on a petition since March and have set up
an Action Group.

After the Press Release by the MoJ last Wednesday
(6th Aug), stating that Cwmbran was in the final list of 4 options, Residents
worries turned to outrage. Many have contacted the 2 Councillors and want
action.

Torfaen County Borough Council Leader has stated his plans
to assist other Boroughs who have declared they want the prison in their
areas. Residents are not completely happy with just
this. They feel it is more important to let the Ministry of
Justice know how much they do not want it in Cwmbran.

The Action
Group, headed by Cllrs Haynes & Lewis, planned a series of
events that will be publicised shortly and would welcome all residents
involvement.

The first event is a Demonstration
outside the former Police Training College on Greenmeadow Way, Cwmbran. It
will take place at 2pm on Sat 16th August. Please make a banner or
poster and come along. All are welcome & needed!.

The Action Group have made contact with Gwent Police with a view
that they want this Demonstration to remain peaceful and for it to remain
legal.

Cllr Elizabeth Haynes says “I became aware of this Prison
issue in 2007. Cllr Lewis and I joined forces with a Resident, Keith
Williams of Greenmeadow, and we started collecting signatures for his
petition. In March 2008 I purchased the Title Deeds from Land
Registry for the Training college site, where it clearly stated that the land
was sold for 6.5 million pounds in March 2007 to the Home Office Custodial
Property Group. The campaign to oppose the prison has been stepped up
since then. Last Wednesdays announcement was the trigger to start
this series of events. We have very little time to oppose this. We
have only 10 weeks before the opportunity to air our views are gone.
I cannot stress how important it is for residents to get involved. Please,
make your banners & posters and turn up!”

Cllr Catherine Lewis
says “It is imperative that we show the MoJ how opposed we are to this
prison. I believe that actions speak louder than words and feel that our
plans will send the message to them”

For more details on the
Demonstration, or for more information please telephone Cllr Elizabeth Haynes on
01633 870119 or Cllr Catherine Lewis on 01633 766557

Any Comments?

The Petition for Democracy is Launched

It is the 23rd of July and the much talked about petition is launched today. If you want to discuss the need for the petition, or the way the campaign is going then please do so by commenting on this post. You can see the full details of the petition here.

University Challenge

I’ve had my curiosity awakened by reading some of the responses to the last posting – especially the fascinating stuff about just how many memberships and committee places our elected councillors can boast of holding, even though it clearly means they wouldn’t have time to sleep or eat if they gave each one the attention it deserves. And being easily distracted by fun, I got kinda carried away - so I logged onto the TCBC website and began flipping through the councillor profiles where all this information is listed...here’s a handy print-out-and-keep table of the number of memberships of various committees and outside bodies our councillors currently hold (all information taken from TCBC website at time of posting).

I’m actually interested to know how many memberships you guys think is ‘too many’ for one councillor to handle – let’s get a dialogue going, ‘cos some of this lot must have access to time machines to be able to represent all of their commitments effectively...

NAME	AFFIL.	COMM.	OUT. BOD.	TOTAL	CV/BIO
A. Cunnington	Independent	6	3	9	No
A. James	Labour	5	5	10	No
J. Cunningham	Labour	2	11	13	No
B. Mawby	Labour	1	7	8	No
B. Whitcombe	Independent	4	6	10	No
B. Matthews	Peoples Voice	3	1	4	No
C. Lewis	Independent	3	3	6	No
C. Thomas	Labour	7	6	13	No
C. Beynon	Labour	0	1	1	No
D. James	Conservative	3	0	3	No
D. Jones	Peoples Voice	4	1	5	No
E. Haynes	Independent	4	3	7	No
F. Cross	Plaid Cymru	3	1	4	No
F. Wildgust	Independent	4	3	7	No
G. Smith	Conservative	1	2	3	No
G. Clark	Labour	0	6	6	No
J. Rees	Plaid Cymru	5	3	8	No
J. Marshall	Labour	5	12	17	No
J. Biggs	Labour	1	3	4	No
K. Williams	Lib Dem	2	0	2	No
L. Jones	Labour	2	20	22	No
M. Pead	Conservative	4	5	9	No
M. Graham	Plaid Cymru	4	1	5	No
M. Thomas	Labour	2	12	14	No
M. Barnett	Labour	1	15	16	No
M. Jeremiah	Independent	4	1	5	No
N. Mason	Labour	6	7	13	No
N. Parrish	Labour	6	1	7	No
P. Williams	Conservative	4	8	12	No
P. Cathcart	Independent	5	4	9	No
P. Seabourne	Labour	6	1	7	No
R. Mills	Conservative	5	3	8	No
R. Williams	Independent	1	0	1	No
R. Clark	Labour	1	11	12	No
R. Jones	Labour	7	5	12	No
R. Wellington	Labour	2	17	19	No
R. Jones	Independent	3	0	3	No
R. Burnett	Independent	3	0	3	No
S. Richards	Labour	7	13	20	No
S. Evans	Independent	5	7	12	No
T. Huish	Independent	4	1	5	No
T. Gould	Peoples Voice	3	2	5	No
V. German	Lib Dem	5	1	5	No
W. Tomlinson	Independent	3	1	4	No

So - top of the league table of overachievers is Deputy Leader Lewis Jones (Lab) with a magnificent 22 memberships of different groups and committees - followed closely by Sarah Richards (Lab) with 20 – then it’s the Leeeeda himself, Bob Wellington (Lab) with 19 (well, the leader’s job IS quite demanding so...you know) then our friend John Marshall (Lab) with an impressive 17, and Mary Barnett (Lab) hot on his heels with 16 memberships. I have it on good authority that all the above members have cloned themselves at least twice, in order to make good on their commitments to each of these groups. 

Now - you may have noticed there’s a column on the right of the table that relates to whether or not a councillor has submitted a biography or CV... And it’s there because on the official page for each councillor there’s a space at the bottom for them to proudly display their qualifications and achievements...except not one of them has done so. Not one. And I know there are a lot of very intelligent councillors amongst them. People with degrees, perhaps - or at least diplomas and good old fashioned ‘O’ levels here and there. But I’m also positive there are councillors that would break out in a cold sweat at the thought of their electorate finding out they’re as academically accomplished as a bucket of wet sand. And at least wet sand holds together when you try and make something out of it...

Look at it like this. Being a councillor is one of the only jobs in existence where qualifications don’t matter. The chances of you getting an average, regular job that carries little or no responsibility and doesn’t afford you any power over the lives of other people is dependent on your ability to produce evidence of intelligence and expertise – quantified and legitimised by examination results, right? But that isn’t the case with our elected representatives. It seems we’ve entrusted certain people to work for us that appear to have trouble signing their own names, let alone understanding the implications of the decisions they make...you can spot them fairly easily wandering about the Civic Centre just waiting for the next ‘overview and scrutiny’ committee to form, so they can leap on board and secure another foothold in the political arena.

What I’d like to see is for that ‘Bio/CV’ column to start to get filled – but the only way to do it is by asking your councillor to provide the information. We all have a right to know how capable our councillors are, don’t we? Then let’s find out. Should be good for a laugh in more than a few cases, I reckon.... 

Predictible or What?

Today the Argus reports that a new executive member has been appointed, with responsibilities for equalities. It is being given to Councillor Cynthia Beynon! It is obvious this post has been created for her because she was the only labour councillor to not have a position of extra responsibility, as there were not enough to go around after handing out 5 posts to the 3 plaid and two independent councillors who sided with labour. Executive members get £13,508 pa in addition to the standard allowance of £12,718. She now gets £26,226 pa and every labour councillor is getting a minimum of £18,120 pa.

Councillor Beynon may be an excellent councillor but is this the time to go creating new cabinet positions? Also I cannot believe that each and every one of the Labour Councillors deserves the extra money or is capable of the posts to which they have been appointed.

What do you think?

See this earlier post

Don't blame Gordon Browne!

You cannot blame the abolition of the 10p tax band or Gordon Browne for the demise of the labour vote in Torfaen. If you take away the inherent inbred bias towards voting labour then the labour party have done very badly indeed. People wanted a change. The labour members were gutted, but showing the superb skills that have kept Bob Wellington in charge over the years a defeat was turned into a victory.

Yes good men were lost, but battles are like that; however out of defeat the labour leadership have negotiated a victory. Now with the loss of some top men even the lowest member of the labour ranks has been promoted to the officers mess. It's an ill wind as they say. They can all hold their heads up high, as they know in their hearts they are the only ones talented and experienced enough to govern, the rest are just a disorganised rabble.
Any comments?

Fun Things to do While You're Waiting for Democracy to Kick in.

So…I’ve been clicking around the TDF site – giving due consideration to all sides of the argument concerning certain elected public servants and their ‘strategic’ decisions – and then I find this link to ‘Clause 4.16.9’ of the TCBC Constitution. And suddenly I go from mildly amused, to terribly intrigued. That same part of me that quite likes ‘The Da Vinci Code’ and gets all excited by cryptic puzzles and unsolved mysteries suddenly took over, and I found myself gazing in amazement at the list of conditions that now qualifies a public question as inappropriate, and therefore able to be rejected outright.

Wow. Talk about ‘Gordian Knot’ – you might as well replace the current list of criteria with one that reads:

‘Any question composed of words and/or syllables – constructed as a sentence or phrase, being either written or spoken, and relating to anything at all, ever. Clicksies, no comebacks.’

Seems to me that Clause 4.16.9 (apart from sounding ever so Biblical) was lovingly crafted to be a foolproof ‘get out of answering anything even remotely sticky free’ caveat – and I’m using the term ‘caveat’ in its root definition as a warning and as a mechanism to halt proceedings. It’s there quite simply to prevent people like us from opening our big gobs and exercising our right to question. It’s a censorship tool – nothing more, nothing less.

But it’s also a fun way to while away a few hours while you’re waiting for the Labour Party to implode. You see, I’ve come up with an idea for the whole family. It’s called…

BEAT THE CLAUSE!

And it’s really easy to play. All you have to do is come up with a direct, meaningful question to put to the Cabinet that can’t be shut down using Clause 4.16.9. Now I’m not saying for one minute that you should actually go and submit any of these questions to the Cabinet – ‘cause, let’s face it – that’d be pointless. They’d only go away and create Clause 4.16.10 and it’d probably look just like the one I came up with above. All you have to do is post them as a response to this blog, and we’ll see if we can prove beyond all doubt that there isn’t one single meaningful and direct question any of us can come up with that TCBC wouldn’t be able to reject using Clause 4.16.9…

And if anyone DOES manage it – could you then turn your attention to solving the problem of free energy and world hunger? Cos you’re obviously some kind of genius…

Join The Campaign For Democracy in Torfaen!

This blog post is specifically for anyone who wishes to express their support for the petition campaign to make the Labour-run council of Torfaen aware of how and why we will not accept them as our DEMOCRATICALLY elected representatives, and for anyone who wants to fight for democracy in our wonderful county! Although Cllr Wildgust is spearheading the campaign we can assure you that we the people (of many diverse backgrounds and political persuasions) are the driving force behind the desire to establish a better system of governance in our local area. Please support this issue with any comments or more if you want to get involved!

Democracy Petition is Coming (Argus 19th June)

"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.

Well Done Labour

On the Free Press website yesterday a John Turner has made the following comment,

"Well done Labour for retaining control of the Council. Clearly the opposition could not agree to power sharing so labour showed them how it should be done. Hopefully this will give the Council some stability to get on with the job of governing and by those with experience and ability rather than by an unfocused rabble of an opposition."

I am guessing that this is former New Inn Councillor John Turner who was a respected member of the cabinet before the May election. Is he implying that labour would have been willing to share power? I am copying his words here to allow comment from others, and to ask a few questions of the current labour group/leadership and Mr Turner.

• Would they have been willing to share power with the opposition, ie in a coalition of all parties, with political balance on the cabinet?
• How small a majority would they have to have had before they might think that they should share power.?
• Due to reduced numbers all but one labour member has a position of extra responsibility. Does each and every one of those have the necessary dedication, experience and ability to perform those duties?
• Does Mr Turner consider all the opposition to be lacking the ability and experience to take a meaningful part in the government of Torfaen?

What you see (vote for) is not what you get!!!

Every election (local/regional/national) there seems to be the same chorus " Empathy is everybody's enemy" "People should vote for what they think!". Well certain (Famous Five/Labour) Torfaen councillors should be proud in their ability of killing any pride or respect that people had in them and confirming the worst beliefs that people have in all politicians. 

How can they hold their heads high knowing they have SOLD OUT themselves and everybody who voted for them. 

Vote Plaid or independent?? Why bother....? If you are sick and tired of Labour in the valleys, but I can already hear " its always been that way!!" I respond 'well look where it has got us', vote for a party that stands for something. Conservative or liberal at least you know they stand for something. 

I have seen what councillors get and the cushy chairs and committees - what I haven't see is the return on that investment. How about being accountable, being selected and keeping roles based on competence and results? No lets base it on party and.......lottery, personal preference, direction of the wind?? 

I must opologise to all those councillors that work long and hard on the behalf of those who voted for for you - I just don't know who you are, as you have all been tarred by colleagues actions or lack of them.

Councillor Cunnington answers his critics

Let me elay any fears that I am a Labour supporter, far from it, baring in mind that I still have the scars from when they stabbed me in the back!
On the face of it and the mis-reporting by the Argus (which they agreed was as a result of incorrect information given to them initially), I quite appreciate that the electorate will feel betrayed, I would feel the same, however my decision when explained will I hope, prove to get the best deal for our ward, which is what I promised to do - and to achieve this I had to seize an opportunity to gain what is probably the most important casting voting position in the County, which I intend to use as a lever to get facilities in Two Locks and Henllys in particular, not forgetting the rest of the county. continues....

Press Release from Councillor Fred Wildgust

As an independent councillor, I am free of any party whip and cannot be controlled by the restrictions of party policy. When I stood for the council my mandate was that I would work to secure better financial accountability, improved environmental management and where dubious or immoral decisions had been made I would root it out. more....

Only Labour Can EVER Lead Torfaen!

Well that is what senior members of the labour party think, by definition. No-one else has the experience to form a leading group. So in spite of a poor show at the polls, for the labour party and himself, leader Bob Wellington has justified his "arrangement" of eventually finding 5 former sworn enemies to support his next year in a very well paid office to bring "stability to local governance in Torfaen" See Argus report here dated Tuesday 27th May 2008

"But council leader Bob Wellington said the "arrangement" would bring stability to local governance in Torfaen.

Senior Labour councillor John Cunningham, cabinet member for operational services, called the independent coalition members "hypocritical" for joining with the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.

He said the five Cwmbran councillors would not necessarily support Labour, who he said were the most experienced party and the best placed to run Torfaen council."

So no-one but the labour party is experienced enough to run Torfaen, AND no-one but the labour party members will get any position that would allow them to gain any experience (yet every labour member, clever or dim, old, young or inexperienced gets some position of responsibility.) very clever, a bit of a catch 22 situation if ever there was one.

Add to that the opinion that Independents were hypocritical to even think of a coalition with Conservatives and Liberals (they don't mention that that would have been under the leadership of independents) yet it was in the public interest for the labour party to tout round with a chequebook for literally anyone to support their continuation in office and you can see what sort of mugabe-istic thinking is behind stable governance in Torfaen. How badly would labour have had to have done in the polls for them to begin to even think that they should at least share power?