Leading the successful Political Manoeuvring over the committee places on the Huntingdonshire District and St Neots Town Council, sorting out the former and helping Sally and Michael with the latter. A particular problem with one of our elected members, Tony Carmedy, who revealed a criminal record which would disqualify him from office and so I proposed a deal with the unaware Tories which would not need a vote yet would get Michael Pope as Mayor regardless. Another nice sunny day and I wish I could have done more work and got nearer my boat than be running round after everyone
I had heard from Jim Lomax, the District Council Labour leader, who was now back from holiday and we had discussed the tactics for allocating the opposition committee and working party seats on the District Council. I will be pressing Derek Holley for larger committees and working parties so that the political minorities can both have a seat on the more important of them but, if not, we have roughly agreed a satisfactory division of them, now we both have equal group numbers. We are still keen on working together as a combined opposition to the vastly numerically superior Tory majority party despite their best attempts to divide us. Whilst still dozing in bed with my morning tea, Sally Guinee called having had some difficulty in putting together the structure of the Town Council committees ahead of this afternoon's meeting of Sally and Michael with the Tories.
** "Read More" BELOW for the complete story **
She then popped round fifteen minutes later after I had showered, shaved, dressed and breakfasted and we typed in a committee structure with names and parties to use as a draft. We dropped one copy in for Michael to look at and then I gave Sally a lift to the Abbey National where she was doing a morning's work. This morning, I also had a call from Rob Williams, our election agent, who reported a conversation last night with Tony Carmedy, one of our successful candidates. It seems that he has confirmed that he had a conviction for "receiving" with a penalty of six-months imprisonment, suspended for two years, from late 1987 to late 1989 and Rob seemed to recall that this is an offence that could disbar him from taking office as councillor. Rob and I agreed that this was a suitable matter for us to get advice from the ASLDC (the councillors association) and he undertook to do so.
As the morning progressed, I became more worried about the implications and so telephoned ahead and then went in to the St Neots Reference Library and looked up their copy of the Local Government Act, 1972. This appeared to confirm (under section 80) that "Subject to the provisions of section 81 below, a person shall be disqualified from being elected or being a member of a local authority if he - (a, b, c, ) d. Has within five years before the day or since his election been convicted in the United Kingdom (etc) of any offence and has had passed on him a sentence of imprisonment (whether suspended or not) for a period of not less than three months without the option of a fine (etc)". All this was beginning to look rather insoluble and so I took a copy of it and came home. After thought, I mapped out a strategy to rescue a solution out of the jaws of potential disaster and went to see Percy Meyer with the idea.
It would have involved letting the situation run past the first council meeting on Wednesday provided that we could reach a deal with the Tories on the mayoralty and committee seats that would not need a voting division in Tony's absence. Then we would approach Ross McKay and say that we were sad to have to oppose him, but it was vital to us to get all of the Eaton Socon seats and the majority of seats on the Town Council and Derek to join the rest of us and Mike on the District to get our group equal second with Labour. For us to say that he did his best but that it was evident that, as an independent on his own, he could not beat a well-organised Liberal Democrat team. That we always admired his commitment but it was the following problem areas that prevented us from approaching him; namely, his early National Front party membership and then that of the Conservative Party, his highly critical stance on twinning with which we ambivalent but we thought he went too far, his equally-critical stance on schools without going through the proper channels first of governors, teachers etc and lastly his occasional un-diplomatic outburst such as going a "duck" too far.
We could then ask him, if the passage of time and hard experience had mellowed his views on the above, whether he would wish to join our team if we could create an early re-entry for him to the Town Council. he would have the help and guidance of a competent team, the use of FOCUS as a channel of communication and the support of colleagues. Once the first Town Council meeting was out of the way and Michael safely elected as Mayor, we could see if our philosophies could coincide and, if he agreed to join us, we could confide in him that "one of our team has personal circumstances that we now find would make it very difficult for him or her to fulfil his or her council responsibilities now elected" His chance could therefore come quite early if we brought it to a head. In fact, if we asked him/her not to sign the acceptance rather than wait a while and cause a by-election, it might even be possible to promote Ross into one of our places (as the sixth-placed candidate) without even having to have another election; but that might not be possible.
We could then present the following public relations scenario to him: "Ross McKay joins Liberal Democrat team on Town Council - "never-say-die reconciliation" - Former Independent hopeful Ross McKay (who polled 6th out of 15 Town Council candidates on the Town Council elections in Eaton Socon Ward behind five Liberal Democrats and ahead of the Labour and Tory parties) may join the Town Council after all by taking one of the Liberal Democrat places and joining the Liberal Democrat group. One of the successfully-placed Liberal Democrat candidates had run into unexpected personal circumstances which would have made it difficult, if not impossible, to fulfil the duties of a councillor and has allowed Ross the opportunity by declining the oath of acceptance". If the returning officer concludes that the retiring candidate never even became a councillor, Ross could be theoretically promoted from 6th place to take one of the five council seats sworn in within days without even the need for a further poll.
If not, then the Council could co-opt Ross to fill the vacant place if no other party made a challenge and then, even if a poll was requisitioned, with his own personal support and the backing of the popular Liberal Democrats, Ross would still be firm favourite to resume his old seat. Said Liberal Democrat Town Council spokesman Cllr Guinee, "We did not want to put Eaton Socon through another potentially divisive election so soon, particularly as we know that Ross is regarded by many as having the concern of Eaton Socon at heart. In this new Town Council situation of compromise and cooperation, I am happy that he has decided to join us and I am pleased to extend the support of the group." Said Ross McKay, "Nobody could have tried harder than me to blaze the independent path, but I now realise that the electors recognise the benefit of team-work and wanted a Liberal Democrat team for Eaton Socon. In my view, there had always been more that united us than divided us and the Liberal Democrats offer locally-active councillors a lot of support. I am just pleased to be back.
" Percy Meyer thought that this would be the best way out of our fix, and I then set off for St Neots to see how the negotiations had been going. They had gone well. The Tories had agreed that Michael could be Mayor and we that Graham Hunt on their side could be deputy. The rest of the committee places were carved up subject to the endorsement of our mutual members and the results would by-pass the awkward sole Labour member, Daisy Seager, who was hoping to play both sides off against the middle. A haircut for me and then quick meetings with the Agent to hear of his discussions with the errant Tony Carmedy and then with Michael who I warned not to expect Tony at the crucial Wednesday meeting and so to proceed on consensus as planned.
A call to Percy to let him know the outcome and now we are all on tenterhooks between now and next Wednesday's Town Council meeting lest anything of this leaks out and puts the Tories off the deal. This Mayor-making is hard work and Eaton Socon politics will be the death of me! If I can pull all this off without bad publicity, it will be a bloody miracle! Up latish, typing up these couple of days' journal as the plot was so fascinating that I daren't it fade into oblivion. Another nice sunny day and I wish I could have done more work and got nearer my boat than be running round after everyone.