A night of shame for Walsall Conservative Party

by danielbarker on 21 May, 2018

Tonight the Conservatives tore up council conventions to snatch power in Walsall. Every year, the Mayor stands down and allows someone else to take on the role. Not this year. For the first time since World War Two, the sitting Mayor stayed in the job. Why? What crisis brought this about? No crisis apart from the desperate need for the Conservatives to take power.

The Tory leader Mike Bird had either done his sums wrong, or just took the votes of the two independent councillors for granted. Either way, he told everyone they were taking over, so they had to, even if it meant that Cllr Paul Bott was treated with great cruelty.

Imagine if you’d arranged a party. You’d invited all the guests including your nearest and dearest and then with days to spare you had to uninvite them for political reasons. That’s exactly what the Tories did to Paul Bott this week.

It was no surprise then that emotions were running pretty high at the council house tonight. Cllr Bird knew this, and he knew that if he twisted the knife a couple of times in his speech he would extract a hurt outburst from Paul Bott. It worked well, making the Botts and anyone who stood with them look like the bad guys.

It needn’t have been like this. If the Mayor genuinely believed the Tories had a mandate to take over which necessitated a return to politically appointed mayors, why didn’t he nominate another Tory who hadn’t been mayor? Why did he insist on inviting his family along to a meeting that was bound to have a bear pit atmosphere?

The whole thing seemed barbaric and unnecessary. The Tories have changed the rules to suit themselves, and both democracy and the people of Walsall are the losers.

I hope they are ashamed of themselves. I and everyone I have spoken to about this thinks that they should be!

Content published and promoted by Dan Barker (Liberal Democrats) all at 13 Greaves Close, Walsall, WS5 3QT

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