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Vic,you are right in some way about the Mayor,but not 100%.The Mayor is chosen openly as I have said on here before,but if you are the ruling group yes you will have a meeting and decide who is going to be put forward,the same as the Indies do.Then because one group has a majority they will almost certainly become Mayor.
Would Gordon Brown say that George Osborne is a good chap I will give him a job as Chancellor.No!If Paul Watkins was impressed with say my work,would he say how about you becoming Chairman of the Council.No!So why do you find it strange the Town Council operate the same way.Would the ruling group nominate an Indie to be Mayor.No!
In politics you get nothing for coming second,in the 4 years I was a Town Councillor no one ever told me to vote for someone,I listened to who wanted to stand and voted accordinally.
There was the case of a Mayor 5 years ago that the Indies backed and made it clear that they had some arrangement with him for the Indies to support him even though he was a Labour Councillor.We had met and nominated someone else,but we decided that we would not split the group and as he had made it clear he wanted to stand then we felt it was better to have everyone's backing.The cost to me was that I would have been deputy Mayor elect,but I wasn't under the re-think.Did I have a problem with that? No because it was seen to be the best for the People and the Town,the way I have always voted.
Being Mayor is not an easy job,first you want to do it and remember it is almost a full time job,with only expense as payment,then you have got to have time to do it and it can be very expensive new suits for men new dresses for ladies.I know they get some/most of it back but....then in my opinion you have got to be ready for the Job,and that means being able to do it,and when I resigned 3 years ago for reasons that were well documented,I felt that I was not ready because I could not trust the Mayor at that time,I had told him that he had to earn my respect and if I saw anything I wasn't happy about I would be gone.He lied to me not once but several times and although politics can be a dirty trade,I have never and will never put up with lying to your collegues.So i resigned as Deputy Mayor and as a Councillor,then that was followed by 2 other Cllrs who had that same principle,he is no longer in politics,he called me once and said People don't like quitters,I agreed but said they preferred honesty and principle.