Category: Local Elections

BASILDON LOCAL ELECTIONS 2019 The dust has settled on Thursday night and there is no getting away from the fact that it was not a great night for the Conservatives. Nationally, the Tories have lost over 1,300 councillors. Labour also lost seats nationally and, although they lost less than 100, they have little to crow…

As usual, I must apologise for the length of time it has taken me to write up the Annual Meeting of Basildon Council, which took place on Thursday 26th May, just over a week ago. It does sometimes take me a while to find the time to sit down and put pen to paper (or,…

Firstly, an apology. I never wrote up the last meeting of Full Council, which I think is a first. I decided to wait for the audio recording to go on the website, as it makes it much easier for me to do the write-up but, low and behold, the Council’s audio-recording system failed again and,…

Well, it was only a matter of time and all of us in the Conservative Group predicted it would eventually happen – how could it not with such a motley assortment of waifs and strays? – but the inevitable has finally officially been announced. The UKIP Group on Basildon Council has split. Councillors have formally…

So, thought I’d write-up the Basildon Council Annual Meeting held on Thursday. These are normally quite civil, set-piece affairs, where we elect our Mayor and Deputy Mayor for the municipal year and also pass the winning party’s Order Paper, enabling them to form an Administration. The Order Paper confirms the Leader and Deputy Leader of…

It is now officially Polling Day and chronic insomnia allows me this opportunity to make some election night predictions and speak briefly about the elections before us – not just the General Election to Parliament but also our own local borough council elections. Every politician says at every election that it is “the most important…

The events at last week’s meeting of Full Council were fairly hum-drum, considering the backdrop and the huge changes to the Council’s composition over the past few weeks, and I therefore anticipate this blog will be more ‘gossipy’ than usual. So, if political gossip and intrigue does not interest you then read no further. First,…

Not quite ‘the morning after the night before’, considering the night before did not actually end until 4 o’clock this morning and I am now writing this at 7 o’clock in the evening on what is technically the same day, having just regained some sense of equilibrium – but you take my meaning. I am obviously still feeling…

Election time is upon us, with Polling Day on Thursday 22nd May for Basildon Borough Council and also for the European Parliament. It has been nice getting out in Billericay East ward and getting to meet with and chat to many of you. It has been a little under a year now since I won…