Thursday, October 13, 2005



So, Is He a Political Has-been?

Following the extraordinary outburst in Wednesdays Herald Express from Lib Dem councillor and deputy leader Cllr Chris Lomas that Lib Dem MP Adrian Sanders is a political has-been we are asking the question, are his days at Westminster numbered?

How widespread is Cllr Lomas' view? Very few MP's can last very long without the support of their party in the constituency. Is Mr Lomas alone in thinking that their MP is a political chancer who will say anything to 'grab a few votes'?

Rumours flew in the lead up to the election that the troubles between Mr Sanders' supporters and the main members of the councillors group had boiled over into open warfare about Mr Sanders' position.

His poor showing in the election has frayed tempers further with each side blaming the other, many local Liberals are saying that he has become everything they despised in the previous Conservative MP's: aloof, arrogant and distant while Mr Sander's supporters blame the awful Lib Dem council and local activists for the collapse in support.

Recently there have been stories in the press about Mr Sanders sacking his long-time agent and political mentor Cllr Ruth Pentney while a string of highly bitter arguments betwen the rival camps have spilled over into the public domain.

Will Mr Sanders finally show his mettle and take on the detractors in his own party? Or will he carry on, like he usually does, hoping that his troubles will all fade away. And is there truth in the persistant rumours that he intends to hang up his gloves at the next election or is this wishful thinking of other, envious and perhaps younger political movers in his local Party?

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Is Mr Sanders a has-been? No.

To be a 'has-been' you must have once been a somebody.

Mr Sanders has been a nobody.

Anonymous said...

If it comes to a fight between Sanders and the rest of the local lib dems sanders will lose. Many feel that he let them down by not sticking up more over the allowances thing and the school statement is seen by many more than just lomas as a major betrayal. many lib dems feel that they have worked damn hard to get it right locally and have been shafted by a few loud mouthed hypocrites who have done nothing except criticise.

Anonymous said...

Or is the "wishful thinking of the envious, and perhaps younger Conservative PPC"?

Marcus Wood said...

... except that the PPC is not younger and is, er, no longer the PPC.

Anonymous said...

Love the picture of sanders, but you should be the one wearing the boxing gloves and he should at least have a black eye!

Anonymous said...

at least he had the chance to try and get things right - unlike you!

Anonymous said...

'he had the chance to try and get things right' - and failed totally to do anything!!

Anonymous said...

Sanders is a waste of space, thank god the good people of Torbay are waking up to the fact at last that he is a two faced coward.

He prefers to skulk in London than do anything to stand up for local people and the sooner he is sent packing the better.

Anonymous said...

Or maybe Adrian recognises his job is in parliament and not the Town Hall. If he involved himself people would say he is interfering in a body he is not elected to....

Whatever one thinks of the council one needs to judge Adrian on his merits..

Anonymous said...

Adrian's "poor showing in the election" - would that that be the one in which he beat you Marcus fairly comfortably ?

Marcus Wood said...

You may think he beat me 'fairly comfortably' but that is not what Mr Sanders thought on the night I can assure you!

If I had seen my majority slashed by 2/3rds and my vote sink to it's lowest level ever I would be disappointed. Adrian genuinely was disappointed with his result, that makes 'disappointing result' a fair term to use.

For the record I was also disappointed with my result. Although I didn't expect to win and was happy with the percentage of the vote I received, I was sorry that we didn't persuade a larger number of Torbay voters to give me their support.

We clearly didn't win over enough new voters this time, but the Lib Dems lost a big chunk of their support, the momentum is away from them and to us.