Powys Council. Confused? You will be.

In the 70's there great deal of frustrations amongst plaid members in the South that in areas like Gwynedd who had Plaid MPs members were still standing as Independents .

It was of course a tradition amongst the other parties as well and the argument was that Party politics should not take place at such a level and in any case "They (the voters) al know what I am" was put foward .

Time have changed in Gwynedd there may be a few Plaid members standing as Independents but most candidates  do so in the Party name and they are the largest group there .


Indeed this has ben reflected throughout Wales and Independents are no longer the power they were

 

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Welsh Unitary Authorities
	Control	Con	Labour	LibDem	UKIP	Green	Plaid	Others
Blaenau Gwent	Lab		33					9
Bridgend	Lab	1	39	3			1	10
Caerphilly	Lab		50				20	3
Cardiff	Lab	7	46	16			2	4
Carmarthenshire			22				28	24
Ceredigion			1	7			19	15
Conwy		13	10	5			12	19
Denbighshire		9	18	1			7	12
Flintshire		8	30	7			1	24
Gwynedd			4	2			37	31
Isle of Anglesey			3	1			12	14
Merthyr Tydfil	Lab		24		1			8
Monmouthshire		19	11	3				10
Neath Port Talbot	Lab		52				8	4
Newport	Lab	10	37	1				2
Pembrokeshire	Ind	3	9	1			5	42
Powys	Ind	10	7	8				48
Rhondda Cynon Taff	Lab	1	60	1			9	4
Swansea	Lab	4	49	11				8
Torfaen	Lab	4	30				2	8
Vale of Glamorgan		11	21		1		7	7
Wrexham		5	23	4			1	19
Wales Totals		105	579	71	2	0	171	325

 But even the nature of the remaining Independence . With the idea that they are above Party politics becoming somewhat confused as they break up into separate groups and begin fighting each other.

In Ynys Mon this led to the Welsh Government attempting to gerrymander the council elections by creating multi wards and postponing the election.

The result however was the various Independent grouping united to run thew council.


Now we have a similar council of In Powys council leader David Jones today lost a vote of no confidence 

Mr Jones was forced to quit the post he has held for 19 months in a vote that ended up 40 against and 32 for.against .

After two rounds of votes Barry Thomas of the Non Political Group?? was voted in as the new leader. He started his role by dismissing the current Cabinet promising a new cabinet to be voted in by next Wednesday.

So once agai we have Idependents fighting amongst each other and leaving the poor electors confused especially as they face like all council the need to address their budget.

I now direct to you to the excellent Wales Eye who males  valiant attempt to make sense of this and explains it better than anybody has so far  , But I warn you you may end up being as confused as I was .

Which brings me to the point that Independents can no longer claim to bring stability to our councils  and that they are above the petty squabbles of political parties.

As Ynys Mom Powys and Pembrokeshire show having Independents in power leave you with no idea what they stand for .

How many Independents have political views or even are members of a political party that those who vote for them would reject.

Back in February the Tanned one  Peter Hain has said Labour would l face "closet Tories" when it took on independent candidates at May's local elections. 

He warned the Welsh Labour conference of a "wave of so-called independent councillors


 Plaid Cymru pointed out that Labour was in coalition with independents to run Carmarthenshire council.

When a student at Aber in the late 80's .students standing for election could not stand for election if they were members of a political party and this was retrospective so that you could not resign from the |Tories say and then stand.

I'm not suggesting thisas a policy for local government, but perhaps Independent councillors and candidates should be made to disclose any Party membership in their electoral addresses.