Apparently, Oxford City Council now has two Tory councillors after they decided to defect from the Lib Dems. The seats themselves are up for re-election next year so there will be no by-election because of the cost to the taxpayer. This is, I think, actually a very good reason not to hold a by-election.
If the seats had been contested just a few weeks ago it wouldn't of course, but they weren't. Interestingly, and assuming the Oxford Mail is correct, these two councillors actually became Independents first, and then chose to become Tories.
The amusing thing in all this is that Rob Fenwick of Lib Dem Voice seems to consider the taxpayer cost of a by-election a "bollocks" argument, the implication being that their ought to be one. It should be noted that when defection traffic is in the direction of the Lib Dems do we hear implicit calls for by-elections from Lib Dem Voice? Of course we don't!
Does this represent a Tory revival in Oxford? Maybe, maybe not. It will all depend I guess on what sort of councillors these two are. I imagine that they will subjected to some pretty serious negative campaigning from the Lib Dems and be slagged off as bad councillors royally when the time comes. Let's hope they dig out all the quotes where the Lib Dems said how great they were for their counter-leaflets.
1 comment:
I didn't call for a by-election, I didn't imply there should be a by-election, I just said that their reason for not causing one was clearly, transparently, bollocks. They're not causing a by-election because they're afraid they'll lose their seats. So why bother with the clearly bollocks false reason?
Post a Comment