Hull Tory councillor who works in Guernsey forced to resign

Andy Sloan, one of the three Tory Councillors in Liberal Democrat-controlled Hull, has been forced to resign after being caught out still claiming his councillor’s allowance even though he has lived and worked in Guernsey since August and hasn’t attended a Council meeting since June.

Andy, of course, was elected as a Liberal Democrat originally but was suspended by the party whilst some rather erratic behaviour was being investigated by the Region. He then bizarrely joined the Consevative Group on Hull, justifying this in an article in the Yorkshire Post which carried the heading:  I want real values, so I turned to the Tories. Just a pity he didn’t have any values of his own. The Tories in Yorkshire look pretty silly this morning.

The Yorkshire Post has the full story:

www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/Councillor-took-the-money-.4717995.jp

Well done to Duncan Brack as the 5000 figure is passed

There was an enormous brouhaha in the Liberal Democrat blogosphere during the party’s Conference when just woman was called to speak during the key ‘Make it Happen’ debate. My own blog at the time Good debate – but where were the women? and the resultant lively and informed comments, took the party to task especially as it was the one debate of the week which might have had a wider audience. So I would like to think we were partly responsible for the subsequent admission by the Conference Committee for admitting their error.

 

The full statement by Duncan Brack in the Conference Call newspaper says:

 

Federal Conference Committee discussed the issue at length in its post-conference debrief. Let me state right at the outset that we believe the decision only to call one woman was wrong the chair and aide team for the debate also now accept they made a mistake: more women should have been called to debate.

 

Well done to Duncan and the Committee for holding their hands up on this one. It is interesting to note that the Chair of that debate is no longer a member of the Conference Committee having not stood for re-election in the recent round of internal party ballots. Speaking of which, I noticed that just 12 first preference votes (about 1% of the turnout) can secure you a place on the Interim Peers List! I’m not sure if one can call it a mandate but there are several hoops before anybody elected to the list can take the ermine.

 

Finally, my blog has burst tiptoed through the 5000 viewership figure. Many thanks for everybody who has read my blog and especially to those who have commented. By way of information, the most widely read blog has been News from the frontline of Haltemprice & Howden Liberal Democrats and the least, Credit crunch means companies will have to work harder – and not before time, which suggests to me I have a readership keen for news from Haltemprice & Howden! As it is the AGM on Wednesday those people can anticipate some further news from Haltemprice & Howden by the end of the week.

Let’s be blunt – Kilroy-Silk is sticking two fingers up at his electorate

The news that MEP Robert Kilroy-Silk is to spend several weeks in Australia as part of a ‘reality’ TV programme I’m a Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here, has rightly been met with derision from his colleagues in the European Parliament, most of whom are calling for him to forfeit his substantial EP salary whilst he appears on the show. Of course he should but it actually goes further than that as he is cheapening the role of an MEP and short-changing his electorate.

 

There are several important votes coming up in the European Parliament over the next few weeks not least a vote on the use of pesticides.  The European Parliament is aiming to reduce the number of pesticides in use, by moving from a risk based assessment to a so-called ‘hazard based approach’. If adopted it will mean that some substances will be banned if they have certain properties, whatever the low nature of the risk associated with them. For example, the withdrawal of pendimethalin, used to ensure the clearance of previous crops like potatoes before a pea crop can be established, is particularly opposed by farmers.

 

East Yorkshire, which has a large pea growing area, would be particularly affected and the local Liberal Democrat MEP for the area, Diana Wallis, has been campaigning on the issue and is hoping to move an amendment which would essentially allow the continued use of current pesticides (particularly pendimethalin) until an economically viable alternative becomes available. This amendment if accepted will likely be voted in the European Parliament in December. The pea growing industry in the East Midlands is substantially larger than that in Yorkshire so where will Kilroy-Silk be when this key vote takes place… And this is one of many key issues that will affect his constituents. By poncing about on a TV show he is effectively sticking two fingers up at his electorate.

 

His response to the criticism has been that he asks a lot of questions. Well, make no make no mistake these are not oral questions these are written questions so he can sit in his hacienda in Spain and email these off at whatever frequency he likes. Frankly he is so rarely in the European Parliament I can only wonder at the nature of these questions. I suspect they are along the lines of ‘where are the toilets?’ and ‘what time is the gravy train leaving?’!