The Lord Provost for Dundee has decided to end his long affiliation with Labour and will support the SNP in a vote that will hand power of the city to the Nationalists.A boon for the SNP and a smack in the jaw for democracy.
Maybe every one of the voters of John Letford's Lochee ward voted for the man rather than the party but I seriously doubt it. We can't have a system where people stand for one party and then when the balance of power shifts they jump ship in order to suit themselves.
John Letford may well have been having "serious problems" within the Labour group for a number of years and he may well have "agonised" over this decision but the man was elected on a Labour ticket and consequently he has a duty to his constituents to serve them under the Labour banner.
If a councillor, or any politician for that matter, wishes to switch party or become 'independent' between elections then they should step down and fight a by-election after doing so. Simple as that.
So yes, a doubtless coup for the SNP in winning control of Dundee but it is something of a hollow victory if Dundonians are feeling shortchanged.
On a not entirely unrelated point, I have no idea if John Letford is leaving Labour to cling on to his position as Lord Provost but I thought this rather amusing quote might shed some light on answering that question:
“He loves being in the limelight — when he passes in his car you can see him waving like the Queen.”
12 comments:
I agree with your assessment Jeff. Politicians who 'jump ship' should ensure their voters are behind them and the only way for that is for a by-election. Of course that won't happen.
I wait, but not with baited breath, to see the improvements an SNP council make to Dundee.
People vote with the knowledge that a politician may change sides whenever he wishes. Or at least they should. The sooner we get rid of the mentality where people vote for the party rather than the person or the policies, the better in my view.
Had a chuckle about the him waving like the Queen myself!!
I remember him babbling on about buying locally produced goods to support local jobs, or something like that, but of course his official limo is a Volvo s80!!
Subrosa
Of course, with the next council elections probably delayed for a year to stop us getting mixed up with the ballot papers, he also gets an extra year to hang on to his chains!!
Doc Vee
A fair point, but in truth people know they don't really have a choice in the matter rather than genuinely acquiescing to the fact that politicians can change sides when they wish.
Of course, many vote without much enthusiasm anyway, and this facet is just one of the many aspects of politics they don't really like.
Duncan,
Do you honestly think people vote for Labour candidates for the person and not the party? I am too polite to name particular individuals to back up my argument the other way but I think that's a bit ridiculous.
As for "they should", we don't get to tell people what they should think when they vote and this councillor will know he is selling out here and not taking his voters with him, as Subrosa says.
I agree it would be nice if we voted for the individual and not the party but not everyone is as discerning as you and I. Politicians should respect the voters however imperfect they perceive them to be.
Furthermore, the councillor stood on a Labour manifesto, that was his mandate and that leaves him little room for manoeuvre even if it is ok in theory to change sides.
Would it have been ok for Tony Blair to implement a Tory agenda after the Labour faithful had voted him into power? Actually, scratch that last one... ;)
in todays modern politcal world, is it wrong to be opposed to him because hes a mason?
Jeff,
If people really vote for Labour rather than the person, that is their problem. Those people didn't read the ballot paper. On a ballot paper it is the candidate's name which is given the most prominence. The only time you vote for a party is the regional vote in the Scottish Parliament.
If voters are unhappy with John Letford, they are perfectly entitled to vote him out at the next election. That is how representative democracy works. Politicians may do any number of things to upset the voters, but we always must live with it until the next election. As undesirable as this is, short of holding elections every week I don't see a way round it.
I'm not sure what your point about the manifesto is. That's not his mandate. His mandate comes from all the people who voted for him. Just as you don't seriously believe that people vote for the politician rather than the party, I don't seriously believe that people read a manifesto.
Blogger Stuart Winton said...
Had a chuckle about the him waving like the Queen myself!!
I remember him babbling on about buying locally produced goods to support local jobs, or something like that, but of course his official limo is a Volvo s80!!
=====================================
Not many cars built in Scotland or Dundee come to that. There was a move by Ford to set up a production umit in Dundee in the 80s but Labours paymaster in the TGWU soon put a stop to that nonsense, giving jobs to the sweaties, what ever next? I believe Cadiz saw the benefit of that particular knifing incident.
Labours most memorable product from Dundee is Georgeous George Galloway, Saddam Husseins bum boy.
==================================
http://tinyurl.com/d5h2uj
LEST WE FORGET:
Mr Galloway himself is no stranger to property dodges; he probably imagines that everyone has forgotten the time when he arranged for his then girlfriend to jump the housing list in Dundee, an issue which was highly publicised at the time, and which prevented George from becoming a councillor. The council seat was taken by a redoubtable lady, and staunch trade unionist, Bunty Turley, whom we have mentioned before.
http://tinyurl.com/dj44a4
He learned his craft well.
Key bored warrior
Absolutely, but he could have had one of those Rover 75 saloons which I think were still produced when he got the Volvo, indeed I think they did a stretched version for VIPs like Cllr Letford.
Indeed, if he wanted a British built motor he could have had a Nissan built in Sunderland, a Toyota built in Derbyshire or a Honda built in Swindon!
Also, since Cllr Letford recently made a bit of a fool of himself by saying that if disabled taxi drivers couldn't handle disabled passengers then they shouldn't be in the job, and seems keen on taxi drivers having wheelchair accessible taxis, perhaps he could have had one of those Glasgow-built Euro taxis for his official car.
But I doubt if one of those 'vans with windows' would have been in keeping with his image!
Fine for the hoi polloi though.
An interesting read, but I think you miss an important point.
If Cllr Letford were to resign his position entirely, what would happen?
Based on the 2007 elections in Lochee (both the Full Council election, and Nigel Don / Alan Ross by election) and even the most recent by-election in Dundee, I don't think it's entirely 'out-there' to suggest that the SNP would win that seat.
So what would you have then? A 15 strong SNP group, with control over everything. Is that more democratic? I don't think so. Especially since two of those were SNP gains from Labour at by-elections where the votes didn't really change much, but in essence we had a FPTP election to fill in a gap with STV - it's entirely untenable.
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