Cllr Iain Lindley – Conservative Councillor for Walkden South Ward
The Wikipedia article for this year’s Council elections has just been updated – you can find it here.
Anyone under any illusions over the scale of Conservative progress in Salford over the past few years would be well advised to have a browse through the equivalent article from a decade ago – the 1998 Salford City Council elections. The contast is astonishing.
A couple of belated notes from last week’s Council Meeting:
Firstly some new challenges for me – I have been appointed as opposition representative on the Greater Manchester Fire & Rescue Authority, and as spokesman for Planning matters on the new Salford Conservative Shadow Cabinet. I relish both roles and will be commenting in much greater detail on both positions over the course of the year.
Secondly, it was very clear over the Council Meeting that the ruling Labour Group have absolutely no intention of listening to the local residents who gave them such a bloody nose on 1st May. They intend to plough on regardless with their fingers in their ears – starting with the Building Schools For The Future programme.
There are two years until the next set of local elections, but local residents in 2010 will have a clear choice between a Labour Party which will have continued to ignore local concerns and a Conservative Party which listens to residents and stands up for local communities.
Where do you find Greater Manchester politicos – press and politicians alike – on their Sunday off? Having read David Ottewell’s blog, clearly the answer is at the cricket, although I found myself amongst a different section of the barmy army on the other side of the ground.
I can’t agree with David on one point though:
Anyway, I bet Gordon Brown wishes he’d been there. Not because he’s any great cricket fan, but because England’s win might have restored his faith in miracle come-backs.
As Guido would doubtless agree, if Brown had been in attendance then England would clearly have lost!
Just got back from Cheshire this afternoon after listening to David Cameron in Crewe town centre this morning. I’ve had about four hours sleep in the last two nights but it has been worth every ounce of effort – what a fantastic result.
Local residents in Crewe & Nantwich have rejected the vindictive, negative politics of a Labour Party which has nothing left to offer and directly embraced an excellent Conservative candidate in Edward Timpson.
More soon when I’m less exhausted!
I understand that Community Action Councillor Rick Houlton (Irlam Ward) is set to agree a deal to take the Liberal Democrat whip on Salford City Council.
Local residents in Irlam who voted Houlton in will feel very short-changed when they hear this news. The Community Action Party campaign in Irlam essentially consisted of two planks. Firstly, that they were a local small party who would not have to take a party line, and secondly that they were opposed to the congestion charge.
By joining the Liberal Democrat Group, Cllr Houlton is now effectively part of one of the “big parties”, and not only that but joined at the hip to a Liberal Democrat Party that supports road pricing and whose Salford Leader told Channel M News during the election campaign that the congestion charge wasn’t a big issue!
Cllr Houlton has been an Irlam representative for only two weeks but already he has broken his election promises and let local residents down. Only the Conservative Party in Irlam offers a real alternative to the Labour Party.
(For the record, the Liberal Democrat candidate in Irlam ward on May 1st secured only 161 votes – that’s just 5.76%!)
Councillor Geoff Ainsworth (Weaste & Seedley, re-elected 2007) has left the Liberal Democrat Group and will now sit as an independent liberal. There seems to be some confusion over the political status of Swinton South Councillors Joe and Martin O’Neill.
I understand that Cllr Norman Owen narrowly retained his leadership of the Salford Liberal Democrat Group by 6 votes to 4. I doubt that is the end of the fun and games though…
(Apologies for the radio silence, I have been in Crewe & Nantwich)
I wrote on Sunday night about the disgusting content of Labour’s election literature in the Crewe & Nantwich by-election. Labour have made a big issue of Conservative candidate Edward Timpson’s house, and even took a paparazzi-style photo of it to feature in their election literature. I thought I’d do a little more digging and here are two images for your information:
On the left is Edward Timpson’s nice house in the country, which Labour have worked themselves into a spin about. On the right, meanwhile, is Labour candidate Tamsin Dunwoody’s modest two-bedroom end terrace… oh wait, sorry, it’s a nice house in the country too. What contemptible hypocrisy from the Labour campaign.
Of course, there is one difference between the two. Edward Timpson’s house is in Cheshire, a few miles from Crewe & Nantwich. Tamsin Dunwoody’s house is in South-West Wales. “One of us”?
I thought that Council Leader Cllr John Merry would be the first Salford leader to come under pressure from his Council Group, but instead it is Cllr Norman Owen, the Liberal Democrat Group Leader, who according to today’s MEN is facing a challenge to his leadership. I look on with interest…
Conservative Party News
A Final Thought On Crewe & Nantwich
I spent yesterday at the Test Match at Old Trafford. It was a very pleasant and highly enjoyable way to spend a bank holiday Sunday, especially as England somehow managed to dig themselves out of the hole they’d burrowed for themselves in the morning session!
I thought I’d share a final few thoughts about Crewe & Nantwich.
I spent a lot of time across the constituency during the election period, and by the end it was quite clear to me that in many ways that part of south Cheshire is quite a good microcosm of the country as a whole. There’s green fields and pleasant villages (like Shevington, Willaston and Wybunbury), a market town (Nantwich) and of course there is Crewe itself, a much more urban historically working-class town built around local manufacturing industry.
The key outcome of course is that all those three sections of Crewe & Nantwich turned out to vote for Edward Timpson and the Conservative Party on Thursday. Labour were decisively rejected across all sections of the community – and that bodes extremely well for Conservative prospects across the country, including here in Salford.