{"id":306,"date":"2009-03-24T12:30:11","date_gmt":"2009-03-24T12:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/agraham.org\/blog\/?p=306"},"modified":"2021-04-03T12:50:02","modified_gmt":"2021-04-03T12:50:02","slug":"labour-in-disarray","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/agraham.org\/blog\/2009\/03\/24\/labour-in-disarray\/","title":{"rendered":"Labour in disarray"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the 2007 Council elections the balance of power had shifted to 13 SNP<\/acronym> councillors, 10 Labour, 3 Tories, 2 Liberal Democrat and 1 Independent. Borthwick, the independent had previously stated – correctly – that it was undemocratic for Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Tories to deny the SNP<\/acronym> their place in the administration.<\/p>\n

One of the SNP<\/acronym> councillors resigned as councillor and prompted a by election. The SNP<\/acronym> won this comfortably<\/a> with 48.89% of the first votes.<\/p>\n

Earlier this year a Labour councillor resigned. At the by election the SNP again won it comfortably.<\/p>\n

This shifted the balance to 14 SNP<\/acronym>, 9 Labour, 3 Tory, 2 Liberal Democrat and 1 Independent. Needing 15 for a majority it seemed clear that the SNP<\/acronym> would take power with Borthwick as kingmaker, and in this case democrat.<\/p>\n

Today there was a shock though. John Letford, the Lord Provost and most prominent member of the Labour Party in the city resigned the Labour group<\/a> and now sits as an independent<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This shifts it to 14 SNP<\/acronym>, 8<\/strong> Labour, 3 Tory, 2 Liberal Democrats and 2 Independents. The two independents being Lord Provost and Depute Lord Provost can probably show what deal is being struck.<\/p>\n

In the course of 6 years Labour have went from largest Councillor group to being 3 behind at the election, losing 2 by elections by clear margins and a defection. A defection of their most prominent, well known, longest serving councillor?<\/em> and to be fair, most well liked member in the city.<\/p>\n

It is worth noting the thoughts<\/a> of the Labour Party spokesman after the by election. He is anonymous but believed to be former Information Minister in Iraq<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\nWe are pleased that Labour increased our share of the vote in what the SNP<\/acronym> were convinced was a very safe council seat for them.<\/p>\n

Coupled with recent by-election wins, it shows that the momentum is moving from away from the SNP.\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course reality, as ever, contradicts the Labour Party.<\/p>\n

\"Dundee

Dundee Councillors 1995 to 2009<\/p><\/div>\n

Jim McGovern has written a piece on his site.<\/p>\n

In it he implies that John Letford has no principles and is only out to line his own pockets. He also mocks him for a claim he made about what was at his core – Labour and the Trade Union Movement.<\/p>\n

Quick Quiz:
\nIf you cut the Labour Party in two what would you find?<\/p>\n

(Comedy Option: 2 Tory parties)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the 2007 Council elections the balance of power had shifted to 13 SNP councillors, 10 Labour, 3 Tories, 2 Liberal Democrat and 1 Independent. Borthwick, the independent had previously stated – correctly – that it was undemocratic for Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Tories to deny the SNP their place in the administration. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[216,218,53,215,217,219,214,54],"class_list":["post-306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-dundee-council","tag-john-letford","tag-labour","tag-liberal-democrats","tag-local-politics","tag-resignation","tag-snp","tag-tories"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/agraham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/agraham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/agraham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agraham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agraham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=306"}],"version-history":[{"count":26,"href":"http:\/\/agraham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4077,"href":"http:\/\/agraham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/306\/revisions\/4077"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/agraham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agraham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agraham.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}