Fun and games on political carousel

LIFE AND OTHER BITS: SO, we are after all in for a bit of cosy political hokey-cokey (left and right legs in and plenty of shaking it all about) with Howard Sykes welcoming Jack Helmet’s local Tories into a sort of Con-pact to keep Labour out.

It keeps the Lib-Dems in control of the council and gives the Tories the only distant sniff of power in local political terms they were ever likely to get. In other words, there’s something in it for everyone except Jim McMahon’s Labour lot who prefer to be on the outside throwing little grenades (Dave Hibbert comes to mind) into the bun-fight marquee.
Jim describes the last two years of Lib-Dem control as calamitous which is a bit rich even for a Labour politician in view of the mess the last Labour administration left behind. A prophet of doom, Jim predicts that the Dave and Nick love-in is only a temporary infatuation and that on the local front he will be swept to power by an adoring electorate next May. We will see.

So how will the new coalition work? There’s no deputy leader’s spot for Jack, but he does get a cabinet post and makes the right noises about working with Lib-Dems to ensure that the council can deliver real benefits. There’s a first time for everything. Are the fingerprints of power-maker Charlie Parker all over this new political construct? With a majority in the council chamber, the Lib-Cons can get things done and there is nothing Charlie likes more than getting things done. Who needs to be an elected mayor?


POOR Ken Hulme abandoned the Labour Party in Saddleworth (it is rumoured that he was its only surviving member) and became a feisty independent. As such he had calculated it was his turn to be chairman of the parish council (well, it makes a change from the Lords and John Hudson).

But Ken, who had been building up points as a Labour parish councillor (for being a councillor not actually for doing any good) has discovered that quitting Labour means he has lost all his points and, like a snakes and ladders player or a footy club in administration, goes back to the start.

Councillor Brian Lord, probably struggling to keep the glee out of his voice, said: “It’s going to be a long time before Ken gets enough points for the chairmanship.” To Ken it is “political vindictiveness” and it is, but he’s been on the parish council for seven years — the new Lib-Dem leader and deputy leader only have four years’ service each — and nothing should surprise him.

It is a cosy, round-the-table talking shop where there are spats and arguments but it’s all so friendly and familiar, like a dinner party without the dinner and there has probably never been a seat for Ken at the table.


FINAL WORD: Two Milibands standing for the Labour leadership smacks of supermarket sales — BOGOF.