Tuesday 23rd May, 2023
And so how are those coalition talks going to agree on a new LibLab administration for Colchester City Council?
Not very well, it seems.
EIGHTEEN days after the Election of the Dull, and still no formal announcement of who our Overlords will be for the next Civic year.
Time is running out. A new administration needs to be announced pretty sharpish if the AGM is still to take place at 10:30am tomorrow.
Disclaimer, disclaimer: it *should* be in in place by the time you read this. But we thought it was worth pointing out what a complete farce the past three weeks have been.
Some are more to blame than others…
Ex-Labour Leader Adam Fox hasn’t been shy about coming forward, mixing things up online from the relative safety of no longer being involved.
Meanwhile, new Tory Leader Cllr Paul Dundas sits with the largest number of Councillors (19) but is prevented from forming an administration as the LibLab lot plot amongst themselves.
Just about holding all this together is ‘Labour’ Cllr Steph Nissen. Her defection from the Greens to Labour last December gives her new adopted party 15 seats – the same number as the LibDems.
The difference is that the LibDems won 15 wards, whilst Labour trailed behind with the electorate endorsing 14 Labour Councillors.
It may not be the moral victory, but it is certainly the mathematical one.
You have to feel sorry for ex-Tory Leader Cllr Darius Laws who may have missed out once again on his year in the sun, should the LibLab continue to fail to reach agreement.
This doesn’t bode well for consensus politics in Colchester over the coming Civic year. The only real shared aim is that they don’t want the Tory Bogeyman to take back control. Oh – and also not to appear the junior partner in the run up to a general election.
Labour wasn’t quite over the line with the momentum, so to speak. They had hoped to position themselves as the party in waiting locally.
The plan was to gain a few extra seats three weeks ago, and then spend the next year as the party in waiting ahead of the General Election.
How did that one work out, Comrades?
This stalemate and jostling for power is not unique to Sunny Colch. The Graun has reported how Labour at a national level insists on signing off on any local coalitions.
This is why residents of Colchester are still waiting to see who will run the Council, three weeks after going to the voting booths.
Coalition is a dirty word for Labour in Westminster with the return of machine politics. It’s not a good look for Kier Starmer who appears increasingly shifty whenever someone mentions LibDem coalition to him.
And whilst we’re at it, who is the current Leader of the Colchester Labour Group? It appears that Cllr Julie Young is now the third Leader this year.
This was slipped in quietly post elections. Cllr Chris Pearson held the position for less than two months.
Anyway, we’re expecting white smoke from the Town Hall in the next few hours with everyone making up and putting up the front of a coalition that can work together.
The truth behind the scenes is very, very different.
The Chronic has a Patreon page over here if you want to support my work.