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Ukip Loses Control Of What Was To Be Nigel Farage’s Safe Seat! Thanet was Ukip’s only controlled Council & the seat that rejected Farage despite his bluster & spin.
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UKIP loses majority on Thanet Council after 5th councilor quits
The UK Independence Party (UKIP) has lost its majority on Thanet Council, the first and only local authority to be controlled by the party and the region where leader Nigel Farage made his unsuccessful bid for MP in the general election.
Councilor Jeff Elenor quit UKIP on Tuesday to join four other defectors in a newly-formed party, the Democratic Independent Group.
The five UKIP councilors left the party over the direction council leader Chris Well had taken on the mothballed Manston Airport. UKIP made much of its pledge to reopen the airport during its May election campaign.
Former Green Councilor Ian Driver told RT that disagreements over Manston Airport could spell the end of UKIP’s control of Thanet Council.
The local split mirrors ongoing rows within UKIP’s national ranks, where Nigel Farage has clashed with the party’s only MP Douglas Carswell over which campaign to back for Britain to leave the EU.
Elenor, who joined UKIP in 2008, said he was concerned by the council’s inaction on the compulsory purchase of the airport.
“I was concerned by the lack of action with the [compulsory purchase order], but it was not an easy decision to make. I have been with the party for a long time but the issue of the airport became so important,” he said.
“It was important to behave honorably to the people who elected me.”
The councilor cited local Conservative MP Richard Gale’s intervention as a contributing factor in his decision to leave UKIP.
In an open letter sent to the council leader Chris Wells on Monday, Gale slammed the council’s delays regarding the airport.
Will the last #Ukip member to leave #Thanet council please stack the chairs, switch off the lights and set the alarm. Thank you.
“Your council was elected on a promise that I for one have to believe that you, personally, have no intention of honoring although other members and past members of your party wish to do so,” he wrote.
“My support for your leadership in respect of Manston Airport is therefore formally withdrawn.”
US firm RiverOak is seeking to partner with Thanet Council to buy and run the airport, but is waiting for the local authority to issue a compulsory purchase order [CPO] on the site’s current owners.
Former Thanet District Councilor Ian Driver told RT that UKIP councilors are disillusioned by the party’s approach to Manston Airport.
“Just like Labour and the Tories, [UKIP] were making misleading promises and now that they’ve taken power and seem unable or unwilling to do anything about Manston. A lot of the people who joined the party because of Manston and stood as councilors are now becoming very, very disillusioned and disappointed in UKIP.”
Driver predicts the ongoing division within UKIP will soon put the council back in Tory hands.
“I would think in the next few weeks, what remains of UKIP will probably announce that it’s breaking off negotiations with RiverOak, and that may see even more members quitting the party and becoming independents, or even joining the Conservatives.
“So you could well see the Conservatives back in control at Thanet Council fairly soon … I definitely think the Conservatives will be back.”
Well if the Conservatives think they can do any better then good but that’s just a promise like all the rest. The problem lies with all politicians and in particular local councillors thinking they can jump over the moon when in reality they have very little power. Local government is only an agency of central government and long gone are the days when local authorities could make rash decisions about compulsory purchase or raise and spend money to acquire property albeit an airfield or even housing. I suppose UKIP’s administration is now learning the hard facts and are finding it very difficult to deliver. Added to all this is the hope of cohabiting in a deal with an outside investor. Local government was becoming hamstrung thirty odd years ago and is now almost powerless to do much outside their budget restrictions. All the other parties will have the same problems.
I can confirm my belief that nearly every Councillor and for that matter most Members of Parliament have very little understanding of public sector finance. Last December there was a cross party debate about Money Creation and Fractional Reserve Banking in the Commons and only a handful bothered to turn up. The ones that did and understood the debate were even less. A year ago a channel four reporter stood outside the Palace of Westminster and asked MPs what they understood about the size of the national debt. Out of around twenty that were asked not one gave the correct answer with one answering that the question should be referred to someone in the Treasury. Most did not understand the difference between the deficit and the debt.
In the case of the Manston Airport saga the majority group are seemingly having a hard task trying to secure funding. I’m not surprised because as I previously stated other local politicians from any of the other parties would be experiencing the same problems. The ones defecting are only playing politics and don’t understand the problems.
All problems with local authority management stems from councillors not understanding how local government works and that’s not just UKIP councillors.
When I started in Local Government in the mid seventies, attending committees and answering for Town Planning and Borough Development, was the time full time councillor leaders were just starting to interfere in the daily work of the departments as if the full time staff were not to be trusted. More over this has also happened in Education and the Police Force to such an extent that we are now seeing the results of this interference, and it doesn’t make for better government, management or political oversight.
Of course there should be political accountability but not as we see it today and that is why so many politicians get themselves deeply into trouble without realising it.
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Greg Lance - Watkins (Greg_L-W)
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Geoffrey Bastin said
Well if the Conservatives think they can do any better then good but that’s just a promise like all the rest. The problem lies with all politicians and in particular local councillors thinking they can jump over the moon when in reality they have very little power. Local government is only an agency of central government and long gone are the days when local authorities could make rash decisions about compulsory purchase or raise and spend money to acquire property albeit an airfield or even housing. I suppose UKIP’s administration is now learning the hard facts and are finding it very difficult to deliver. Added to all this is the hope of cohabiting in a deal with an outside investor. Local government was becoming hamstrung thirty odd years ago and is now almost powerless to do much outside their budget restrictions. All the other parties will have the same problems.
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Greg Lance - Watkins (Greg_L-W) said
Hi,
I note you confirm that much of Ukip’s problem is bad management/leadership and lack of understanding of the job they have been elected to do.
Regards,
Greg_L-W.
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geoffbastin said
I can confirm my belief that nearly every Councillor and for that matter most Members of Parliament have very little understanding of public sector finance. Last December there was a cross party debate about Money Creation and Fractional Reserve Banking in the Commons and only a handful bothered to turn up. The ones that did and understood the debate were even less. A year ago a channel four reporter stood outside the Palace of Westminster and asked MPs what they understood about the size of the national debt. Out of around twenty that were asked not one gave the correct answer with one answering that the question should be referred to someone in the Treasury. Most did not understand the difference between the deficit and the debt.
In the case of the Manston Airport saga the majority group are seemingly having a hard task trying to secure funding. I’m not surprised because as I previously stated other local politicians from any of the other parties would be experiencing the same problems. The ones defecting are only playing politics and don’t understand the problems.
All problems with local authority management stems from councillors not understanding how local government works and that’s not just UKIP councillors.
When I started in Local Government in the mid seventies, attending committees and answering for Town Planning and Borough Development, was the time full time councillor leaders were just starting to interfere in the daily work of the departments as if the full time staff were not to be trusted. More over this has also happened in Education and the Police Force to such an extent that we are now seeing the results of this interference, and it doesn’t make for better government, management or political oversight.
Of course there should be political accountability but not as we see it today and that is why so many politicians get themselves deeply into trouble without realising it.
LikeLike