8 June 2009
Sensational Victory
Politics has had one of its most sensational days ever. Cabinet reshuffles at government level that appear almost irrelevant, like moving deckchairs around on a beleagured and doomed Titanic. None of it appears to make sense, its almost as if Westminster has lost complete touch with reality, they go on building houses of cards of almost extreme irrelevancy. In the meantime out in the real world, real people have voted, and my gosh have they given Labour an absolute hammering. The party is in near-collapse. No more so than here at local level in Dover. Up to now its fair to say Dover Town has been a safe Labour 'seat' at KCC but not any more. The Conservatives have stuffed Labour by a wide margin...reversing a similar wide margin previously in favour of Labour. Nigel Collor, thats him in the picture on the left speaking on TV, running with fellow teamster Roger Frayne, has pulled off one great win over the former Labour incumbents Gordon Cowan and Bill Newman. The party is well and truly over for Labour.
I spoke to Nigel Collor on the phone a short time ago ( friday night 7.30pm) and I think its fair to say the Tories are in jubilant mood. They might even be having some light liquid refreshment round about now in a local tavern! And who could blame them after quite a sensational turnaround, after quite a sensational victory. PB
Details as follow.....Dover Town/ KCC Election Results.
29.45% Turnout
Candidates Party Votes Swing
COLLOR, Nigel John The Conservative Party Candidate 2825 7.92%
FRAYNE, Roger The Conservative Party Candidate 2590 7.46%
NEWMAN, Bill The Labour Party Candidate 1894 -9.84%
COWAN, Gordon The Labour Party Candidate 1781 -12.05%
MACKIE, John Bullivant Liberal Democrat 1732 2.56%
STILES, Dean Martin Liberal Democrat 1691 3.94%
Add your comments below. Always welcome.
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Ken comes in from the cold;
Joins Doverforum and will rejoin Labour Party.
There is no doubt about it but Ken Tranter is a controversial figure, loved by some while others arent quite so sure. However he was an action man in his political days and now he is returning. Many of you will have noticed his name on our anchor page in the past day or so, which has in effect put an end to his period of obscurity. His best years were of course with Labour and during those times he became Mayor of Dover. A year or so later he jumped ship and joined the Conservatives, which took many by surprise and annoyed many others. There is a picture of Ken with former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith and Charlie Elphicke, taken the day Ken crossed the floor to the Conservatives, in our WHO'S WHO section(page 2). Ken of course was also a former top contributor on Doverforum.
It is interesting to note that Ken wants to now rejoin The Labour Party and I believe he has already re-applied. His period of time with the Conservatives clearly didnt work out as planned. But will he be welcomed back? PB
The picture shows Ken in his heyday as Mayor of Dover, also in the picture is Diane Smallwood, Deputy Mayor at the time.
The Expenses Scandal and Gwyn Prosser MP
As you will all know by now...The Daily Telgraph has been shocking the nation with its revelations about the ghastly greed of our Westminster politicians. Its fair to say every one of us have been shocked and angered right down to our grass roots. Yesterday, among others, it was the turn of our very own MP, Gwyn Prosser. There were some perhaps unfortunate revelations but in comparison to others it would probably be considered mild. But as PM Gordon Brown has often said about revelation after revelation..."there are questions to answer" and Gwyn has answered them here for us on Doverforum...
The following immediate quote is from the Daily Telegraph website june1. There was a larger feature in the Daily Telegraph itself on page 4, June 1.
"Gwyn Prosser, a Labour MP, paid his brother from his taxpayer-funded expenses to carry out work on his London flat - despite the fact that he lived almost 200 miles away. He also submitted claims on his parliamentary allowances for work carried out on another London flat that he owned although it had not been his designated second home for three years and he was renting it out."
The Gwyn Prosser Response Statement below......
Work done by my brother, Huw, who has run his own building firm in Swansea for the last 20 years.
The Telegraph have all my correspondence with the Fees Office together with the receipts and they know that I declared in writing that I was employing my brother for this work, which entailed removal of carpets, laying of laminate flooring, bathroom tiling and treatment of damp.
They also know that I received a quote from Heritage Flooring and two other London contractors and the cheapest one – for the flooring job alone – was more than £200 more than my brother’s charge for the whole job, partly because I helped him with the work. I contributed to his travel costs out of my own pocket so at just £650 the work was very good value for money and worked out less than the cost of re-carpeting. I defy anyone to laminate 3 rooms and a hall for that price and he did a number of other jobs which I didn’t claim for.
Claim for removal of asbestos etc
The Telegraph have seen my correspondence with the Fees Office about this. These were Section 20 works carried out by Southwark Council for the whole block of flats and each owner was obliged make payment. I was living in the flat (designated as my second home in London) when the notices were published and the work was carried out. Six months later I moved to my current flat because I needed dedicated parking and better security. The invoices for payment from Southwark should have been sent to me when I was still resident – and had they done this my claim would have been settled in the normal way and there would be no issue to discuss.
Southwark’s invoices were delayed due to disputes with the owners and when I was being pressed to settle the late invoices I wrote to the fees office setting out the circumstances of the late claim, providing them with all the paperwork and asking them to give consideration to the claim – the lateness of which was beyond my control.
My second homes claims
My claims for second homes allowance are substantially below the maximum and I’m confident that all of them – including those mentioned by the Telegraph – will stand up to the scrutiny of the Standards Commission. End.
See also the MP Expenses thread in the Members Club Forum.
