By Election Special - Dane Valley the final stretch and whatever happened to Labour

Just a quick posting before I head off to cast my vote, this election is, when all is taken into consideration only remarkable for its origins and background.

The resignation of absentee, Cllr Broadhurst I recall never really occurred, since his letter of resigning, was found not to be acceptable by council officials, eventually he was automatically removed from the council, the handling by the local Conservative party of the situation was typically of the light, sloppy and weak managerial approach shown by their administration of Thanet council.

Anyway we, that is us voters, have in the last few weeks had more than a few leaflets, on the blog sites’ there has been the usual insight, from middle-aged gits like myself, some with an axe to grind like I think a rather cheeky Cllr Nottingham who comes out with this tosh “I note that Tony Flaig rejoined the Liberal Democrats recently and think with his frequent comments on the by-election campaign it would be best if readers saw writing or an image or clear writing so that they knew they were reading a yellowtinted opinion. In what looks like typical sanctimonious Labour style, we then read, that he, puts his party membership at the top of his blog, as well he might being employed as a Eurocrat Labour functionary (and has for some time). Please note my joining the Liberal Democrats (about three weeks ago) does not make me a zombie.

Down to the nitty-gritty, this election was eventually triggered for no other reason, than we have had an absentee representative in Dane Valley and the law at least requires our representative to show their face at council, but the electorate prefer more than some party member, who’s been given a seat by the local hierarchy what we want is someone who will actively represent us.

Therefore it would be nonsense to pick a candidate because they happen to be more local than the next which seems to be the thinking of some of our lightweight contenders, also we need to ignore emotive nonsense like this from one candidate “ I will simply not get into the mud-slinging " blah blah blah…. presumably that’s down to somebody else then.

Here’s what my choice is based on, knowing that the candidate I’m voting for has done much hard work for this constituency has already shown a willingness to do a bit of hard graft.

So I’ll be voting for Bill Furness (Lib Dem) today, because this is a local election, not a referendum on how Labour has impoverished the ordinary people of Dane Valley (which they have), or whether the Conservative Party should take over from Labours onslaught on working people.

Finally I see Clive Hart’s crew, seems too embarrassed to be associated with Labour, maybe upfront Cllr Mark Nottingham could explain that one ? instead they have in the most recent communication put the logo “thanet Local Labour” rather than remind the electorate of just who they represent.