Here's the latest rumour, from an anonymous commenter on my previous post, I repeat, it's still only a rumour as no official statement has been made yet;
"The white smoke was seen over County Hall today. Dominium Kevin 'Leader of the Council' Madge.
The official news is that Kevin Madge has secured the leadership of the Labour Group. His chief rival from Llanelli Tegwen Devichand has been bought off with being Deputy Leader of the Labour Group and Council.
The independents listened with closed ears (for all of 5 seconds) to Plaid Cymru. They sent a delegation consisting of those well-known Plaid lovers in the former administration Councillors Meryl Gravell and Pam Palmer to hear them out (at the insistence of the independent group at Parc y Scarlets on Thursday). Talks broke down between Meryl and Pam and Plaid Cymru quite quickly - in fact the talks broke down about a week before they started.
So the smoke above County Hall has turned red. Kevin Madge will lead the Council. He will have two deputies; one independent (Pam Palmer) and one Labour (Tegwen Devichand)
Tipped for the cabinet are Meryl Gravell who gets the Regeneration portfolio, so the Mark and Meryl show continues.
Chairman of the Health Committee Jane Tremlett is tipped for promotion to the cabinet for the same portfolio.
Pat Jones has been given her P45 by the Llanelli Labour Party for trying to shut the care homes.
Also being promoted to the cabinet is Cllr Jim Jones as a reward for crushing an independent group rebellion that wanted to do a deal with Plaid.
We await more news from County Hall as the deal is thrashed out over the weekend ready to be unveiled on Wednesday"
Update 13th May; Latest gossip....
It would seem that the best way to decide who's running the council would be to have some sort of competition, It's a Knockout perhaps with a greasy pole climb as a finale. The latest gossip is that Plaid may have thrown a desperate spanner in the works by offering the Independents the pick of the sweetshop, ie 9 out of 10 cabinet posts, keeping Meryl on for a bit and most of the committee Chairs. The independents are meeting today to decide who to side with and the Labour group meet tonight to ratify their offers to the independents. Apparently there is also division within the independents with several threatening to set up their own group if the main camp sides with Plaid and a couple threatening to remain 'unaffiliated' if the they join with Labour. And for those still puzzled by the very idea of an Independent group, so am I.
The sweeties, of course, are substantial; on top of the basic allowance there's an extra £35k for Leader, £18.5k for each Deputy Leader, £17.7k for the other 8 cabinet members, and between £7 to £10k for the committee chairs.
With the independents divided it looks like a shaky, but politically interesting, administration will emerge, whoever plays the trump card.
Another source has said that an attempt by Giles Morgan and Huw Richards (both Ind), to lead a decamp to Plaid, without Meryl, failed due to lack of sufficient volunteers. There are also problems within the Labour group with the old guard wishing to preserve the pre-election status quo but the newcomers not so sure.
6 comments:
Terry Davies told Golwg that the Labour group would be meeting to elect its leader on Monday - whether that is now just a formality, we'll have to wait and see. If they stick with Kevin Madge, we'll have the dimmest council leader in Wales. Hard to see him being anything more than a puppet, with the usual suspects pulling the strings.
Oh God. How horribly depressing.
Everyone knows that Muppet Madge has simply been a puppet controlled by Mark and Meryl for the last 4 years, so it will be surprising if Labour hang on to him. Mind you Tegwen Devichand is so disliked on a personal level that they may stick with him just to spite her.
What I find really spineless of Labour is the fact that they seem to be prepared to allow Meryl Gravell to continue on the Executive Board. Many people voted Labour rather than “Independent” to get rid of her, so that will be a big insult.
With Meryl and Madge still there the credibility of this new administration will be dead before it has started.
Carmarthenshire has for a very long time been run just like Angelsea. The only diffrence is, just about everybody in Carmarthenshire Council are nodding donkeys and in most part just agree to what there told by higher authority. The time arguing about schools would be much better spent trying to get people into this county . We need people here to keep schools open, as we need people in care homes to keep them open. The fact that people who are able bodied want them open and the old and infirm want to live at home seems to be forgotten about.
Good it keeps Plaid out good luck to you all , and please put the meetings on the net live
Spot with regard to the attempt by Huw Richards , Giles and a few of the new boys to persuade a change and coalition with Plaid but the old boys and formidable gals tightened ranks but how long will Labour be able to control its troops under the lack lustre rule of Uncle Madge and the one cell brain
Post a Comment