Liverpool

[SWJ]

The forthcoming by-election in Croxteth, caused by the sad death of Rose Bailey, will be for two seats. LibDem councillor Phil Moffatt has resigned as he is moving to Northern Ireland.

Has the date for the by-election been set?

[Trident]

Not as far as I am aware.

[OldWarHorse]

Someone asked me today about how the LibDem Party in Liverpool could be so diverse. How could it have true libertarian laissez faire politicians sitting in the same group as true right wingers. I didn't have to think about my answer. In Liverpool this group is not really the LibDem Party, in reality it is the "NOT Labour Party". It is the repository of everyone in our city who is not Labour. Were all the factions of the LibDem group as it currently exists to divide into smaller parties truer to the idealogies of each individual, it could result in many new political groupings, Liberals, LibDems, Tory, BNP, SWP, Nationalists, etc and some of the councillors would be happiest in Labour if they only but knew it (and some do already know it and are talking with us about it).

This isn't me being a stirrer, it is how I see it. I suspect the same situation exists in other councils - where a two party system has grown up between the natural choice of the population and a grouping to represent "the rest".

[Neil M]

I think that is the case nationally- I'm not sure they're an 'anyone who isn't Labour' party here in Plymouth (although possibly in Sheffield). I'm not sure what unites the Lib Dems apart from a loose notion of Liberalism.

What is the other party in the two party set up in Liverpool though? Steve Radford's bunch? The Greens?

[erlend]

Not knowing the LD group in Liverpool well I will just comment that it is probably not untrue that in most places where one party (Con/Lab?LD) has a very large group that quite a lot of them are not automatically true blue/red/orange  (yes I prefer orange posters to yellow althow the more gold shades are equally fine)

[Trident]

There is speculation that various Liverpool LibDem councillors are to be elevated to the peerage to help bolster the ConDems' numbers in the House of Lords:
http://blogs.liverpooldailypost.co.uk/dalestreetblues/2010/07/speculation-over-liverpool-lib.html

If I were them I would grab the opportunity, as it is likely to be the only chance of a Liberal Democrat from Liverpool making it to Parliament for the next few decades......

[Mark Senior]

  I notice Phil Moffatt is still listed on the council website as councillor for Croxteth , I presume the announcement of his resignation was premature .

[Trident]

Well, there was an article in the Liverpool Echo saying he had resigned, with quotes from the man himself. I imagine the Council site is out of date.

[Mark Senior]

  Reading the Liverpol Daily Post article carefully it quotes him as saying he is going to resign which is future tense not past tense .

[swampie]

the LibDem Party in Liverpool ... this group is not really the LibDem Party, in reality it is the "NOT Labour Party". It is the repository of everyone in our city who is not Labour.

Whilst that may be over-generalising a bit, I think that there is more that just a nugget of truth in this analysis.

[Trident]

Ian Jobling, LibDem councillor for the Picton Ward on Liverpool City Council, has defected to Labour:
http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-news/local-news/2010/08/24/senior-liverpool-lib-dem-defects-to-labour-100252-27122773/

[Neil M]

Aah, he's a senior councillor. Is that because the local paper says so or is he actually, either through service or posts held?

[Arthur Figgis]

Aren't all people who defect or speak out, whether they're the council leader with 30 years' service or a councillor who was only first elected 2 weeks ago?

[DBIV]

In the same way that any public school that's in the news is always a "top public school".

[Arthur Figgis]

Of course. I think mine was described as such by one newspaper. Not a bad achievement for an inner-city Comp.