UKip, Lib Dems, Greens, Cons and Independents have all made a coalition to run Burnley Council in a big blow to Labour.

No that is a diverse and partnership

Info from Mike Stevens on twitter.
BBC news chap in the North West.

Labour mps no that they can't win a general election.with Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott.so time for them to stand up to the.far left of the party

Coalitions can work but that's a lot of diverse parties to keep together,i'll be surprised if they last a year,but with current political fortunes who knows.

If Labour were seeking a junior partner normally you'd figure the Lib Dems or the Greens would be a natural fit,but clearly if talks were held with one or both of these they came to nothing.

On the one hand its good that Labour's smug view that it has a permanent residency in the big house on Manchester Road is rattled, on the other hand how can so many different political groups reach a consensus? Is it for altruism, effective government or 15 minutes of fame. Labour were too smug and a few people are settling scores - that's OK. But come on, UKIP and Birtwistle can join up, when Gordon drives half his own party into the Padiham and Burnley wilderness. Its a bit pathetic all round.

Thank goodness Burnley does not have control of education, police, fire brigade, social services and the NHS.

First step is to reduce the number of Burnley Borough Councillors from 45 to about ten.

Shouldn't all politicians work together ... for the good of the people.

Thought that's why they were voted in.

Believe that their party politics should be irrelevant at that point. Sadly we all know that isnt true

dpinsussex wrote:Shouldn't all politicians work together ... for the good of the people.

Thought that's why they were voted in.

Oh, you were being serious.....

Certainly the UKIP councillors I know are local councillors first and foremost.

Maybe the Tory government will release some extra money for the town now it's not Labour run.

Quickenthetempo wrote:Certainly the UKIP councillors I know are local councillors first and foremost.

Maybe the Tory government will release some extra money for the town now it's not Labour run.

As much as i dislike the idea of UKIP et al, if they are locally focused, and represent ALL their local constituents, fair enough, and yes, there may be a lot to be said for a coalition more aligned with central govt when funding decisions are made, rightly or wrongly.

tiger76 wrote:Coalitions can work but that's a lot of diverse parties to keep together,i'll be surprised if they last a year,but with current political fortunes who knows.

If Labour were seeking a junior partner normally you'd figure the Lib Dems or the Greens would be a natural fit,but clearly if talks were held with one or both of these they came to nothing.

Here in Welwyn Hatfield the Labour (13 seats) and Liberal (12 seats) groups outnumber the Conservatives (23 seats). The LibLab coalition lasted about 30 minutes so we now have a Tory minority council. The coalition failure was due to the Liberals wanting control of planning and the budget! LaLa land.

HatfieldClaret wrote:Here in Welwyn Hatfield the Labour (13 seats) and Liberal (12 seats) groups outnumber the Conservatives (23 seats). The LibLab coalition lasted about 30 minutes so we now have a Tory minority council. The coalition failure was due to the Liberals wanting control of planning and the budget! LaLa land.

The answer should be a 3 party coalition.

For me, local councils, possibly up to and including county should be non-partisan and everyone should stand as independent. Small c conservative etc by all means, but party allegiances seem to be more unhelpful than otherwise in most cases

dpinsussex wrote:Shouldn't all politicians work together ... for the good of the people. Thought that's why they were voted in.

Believe that their party politics should be irrelevant at that point. Sadly we all know that isnt true

Labour were offered a powersharing deal with seats on Burnley Council's Executive, working with other parties, but they turned it down !!
They either want to run it on their own, or not be involved, although they have accepted the Chairs of two out of the four Council Committees.

The new leader of the council is my ex wife's cousin. Good guy, hard working and a Burnley fan. His son played a major part in the creation of the memorial garden at the Turf.

The labour party in essence is now a coalition of Marxist, Trotskyites, Hard left, Anti-Semites, plus a smattering of decent people who just want to improve the lot of the ordinary working/non waged person. Alas the latter are in a minority.

ZizkovClaret wrote:For me, local councils, possibly up to and including county should be non-partisan and everyone should stand as independent. Small c conservative etc by all means, but party allegiances seem to be more unhelpful than otherwise in most cases

Totally agree, as it is good local independents suffer from people voting for wet wipes under the big party badges.

HatfieldClaret wrote:Here in Welwyn Hatfield the Labour (13 seats) and Liberal (12 seats) groups outnumber the Conservatives (23 seats). The LibLab coalition lasted about 30 minutes so we now have a Tory minority council. The coalition failure was due to the Liberals wanting control of planning and the budget! LaLa land.

Funnily enough I have a letter on my desk from the MP for Welwyn and Hatfield inviting us to participate in a careers fair in June. Only just received it, the letter is dated 10th May and requests that we confirm our attendance no later than 18th April.....

Him and his family used to live round the corner from me when I owned a bakery/sandwich shop a few years ago and were fairly regular customers.

summitclaret wrote:The answer should be a 3 party coalition.

To all intents and purposes it is. Conservatives have all the responsibility but don't have the numbers to get anything through without some cross party support. But if the Labour group can't agree with the LibDems, or FibDems as they call them, then there won't be a 3 way coalition.

Quickenthetempo wrote:UKip, Lib Dems, Greens, Cons and Independents have all made a coalition to run Burnley Council in a big blow to Labour.

Don't worry it won't last long - normal service will resume soon.

Clarets4me wrote:Labour were offered a powersharing deal with seats on Burnley Council's Executive, working with other parties, but they turned it down !!
They either want to run it on their own, or not be involved, although they have accepted the Chairs of two out of the four Council Committees.

Committee chairs and membership are based on a tried and tested formula to ensure proper representation of party numbers. All they do is input the seats won by each party into the computer and it prints out a list of committee places by party. The parties then determine who fits where in their portion of the allocation.

And I would never have shared power with UKIP or the Tories and, to be honest, not the the Lib Dems either (3 more manipulative, lying, self serving groups I've never heard of)!

Labour's deposed Council leader, Mark Townsend, was on the radio this morning, saying that they had refused a joint power-sharing coalition, meaning they would have to work with the Conservatives and UKIP, because of Labour's " values of equality, diversity and fairness " .

This is two days after the Equality & Human Rights Commission launched a formal investigation into the Labour Party, after receiving many complaints regarding institutional anti-semitism in the party, and Labour's failings to address this. Only the BNP has ever been subject to a similar investigation before. Burnley Councillor, Shah Hussain , still serving, was suspended from Labour in 2016 for " anti-semitic" Facebook comments, directed at an Israeli footballer.

Blackburn's Labour Council are apparently not quite so fussy, Trevor Maxfield, a former BNP regional organiser, served as a Labour Executive member on their Council for several years ....