With the question of the council leadership and control still under intense speculation it's probably pointless me mentioning it again until firm announcements are made. However, having become a bit of an anorak about these things I'll continue with the rumours a bit longer. Comments on my previous post can be seen here and predict Plaid taking control but the latest tweets from the Plaid camp, who, you remember, now have 28 seats on the council are not so optimistic and it appears that Labour (23 seats) have managed to entice more 'independents' than Plaid;
"Meeting for 3 group leaders scheduled for tomorrow am, but hearing now Labour and Independents have already done a deal"
and
"Hearing that it will be 5 Independent and 5 Labour members on the Carmarthenshire Executive Board....."
Update 10th May; A source tells me that an Indie/Labour coalition looking likely with the Indies meeting tonight to hand out the sweeties. More info may emerge from the councillor induction meeting at the Scarlet's stadium this afternoon. Word has it that Labour may sideline Kevin Madge as leader in favour of someone more, er, what can I say...
I have also noticed that an extra county council meeting has just been listed for the 25th May; the AGM and full council is still next week on Thursday. This extra meeting is described as 'adjourned meeting county council' - which I presume means that next week's meeting will go on so long that it will have to be adjourned...sounds like they have a full programme planned.....
In other news, I see that the Editor of the Carmarthen Journal left the paper today. I wish her well. According to Northcliffe Media the hunt for a replacement will begin immediately, let's hope no one in County Hall sees this as an opportunity to extend the Council spin empire any further, or even formalise the current arrangements. Perhaps former Editor, Robert Lloyd, @rlloydpr, would kindly save the day and quickly apply for his old job back?
Finally, a mention of Llanelli Labour AM Keith Davies, 71, who was caught misbehaving at a hotel in Cardiff. AM's from 'out of town' stay in a rather plush hotel courtesy of the taxpayer, by way of an apology for his drunken rampage he has generously agreed to pay the hotel bill himself and hopefully the bill for the 'mystery woman' too.
7 comments:
Keep the rumour mill turning, please, Caebrwyn. The blogosphere seems to be the only place to get any news out of Calamity Hall.
The Plaid group met this morning, and alas the atmosphere was less up-beat than previously reported.
It seems Queen Pam has now seduced some of the break-away 15 back into her evil lair, claiming life in the Plaid camp would be simply ghastly.
One Indie codger happily offered his alliegence to PHG, though ... on condition he was made Council Chair! I'm glad his priorities are in the right place, then.
Keep it up , its the good place for the latest news
Re KD AM - Oh FFS! How Sordid! The rumour I heard was that old KD AM was staying in posh hotels - funded - when he already had accommodation in Cardiff. This extra bit is a revelation! Eeeww. He's a bit old for a "mystery woman" too, isn't he? As my dearly departed old mother would have said:- "its high time he put his tools away".
as an employee behind the iron curtain of spin this blog is my only source of truth. Please keep me informed & in touch with the real world.
Btw I was really hoping to hear of you taking up a seat in the politbureau - your time will come!
If this turns out as expected, it will be another triumph for the first-past-the-post voting system.
Plaid polled 10,000 votes more than Labour, and the Independents (even excluding the two real Independents) polled about 400 votes more than Labour.
So Labour comes third and gets to run the council.
The rason for the adjourned AGM is simply because there are proposed constitutional changes to the set up of the council - the number of cabinet positions, the portfolios and the number and nature of scrutiny committees are set to change. So therefore the new administration needs to be decided upon (who is leader and how many supporters they have) before the changes can be confirmed.
Once we know who will lead the council and which groups and the size and composition of these groups are known then the new leader knows what sweets are available to dispense. This will then be decided officially at the adjourned meeting. The life of the new administration will then REALLY begin at the Executive Board meeting on Monday 28th May.
So we find out who is in bed with whom next Wednesday and who is Leader and Deputy Leader. We then have to wait until the 25th May's meeting to find out who has sold their souls for cabinet posts and committee chairmanships for power.
Habemus Papam!
The white smoke was seen over County Hall today. Dominum 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 Techwen 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 Gravelle and Pam Palmer to hear them out (at the insistence of the independent group at Park 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 (Techwen Devichand).
Tipped for cabinet are Meryl Gravelle (the Queen is dead, long live he Queen) 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 from committee to cabinet is 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.
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