This letter appeared as Letter of the Week in the Denbighshire Free press BUT Plaid Candidate Peter Ryder's name was removed!!! He became : A politically aligned candidate! Indeed!
Dear editor,
Retiring councillor Paul Marfleet wrote last week
extolling the virtues of so called “Independent” councillors. In the interest of
balance I would like to reply on behalf of candidates ready to disclose their
political allegiance - unlike “Independent” councillors.
I wrote “so called Independent councillors” as presumably
they vote in Welsh, British or European elections for a political party. They
will vote for a party which is on the ‘left’ or ‘right’ of the political
spectrum: a party that is Wales or U.K. orientated. Their very real but
undisclosed political mindsets will be regularly sympathetic or antagonistic
towards the very type of decisions taken at County Council level.
While “Independents” hide their really political
identities a political tag allows voters to know how their representatives will
vote. I am sure that Free Press readers
would know how a candidate with a political tag would vote in the following
scenarios- but an independent?
Would they vote
for policies which would privilege the maintenance of council services to the
vulnerable or for those policies which reduce the financial burden on council
tax payers? Would they vote for policies
which privilege the supply of local Welsh produce or for freer market policies
which might cut costs?
Also which “Independent” group will the “Independent”
join? The “Independent” group or the
“Independent First” group or with the “Non aligned”? Indeed is it not somewhat ironic that the so
called “Independents” then band together into one of these “Independent”
groups.
Mr. Marfleet then states with regard to improvements in
Denbighshire County Council, and I quote “This change is in no small part due to
the way in which all elected members from all political groups have worked
towards a common aim.” Naturally! they
all have an interest in improving Denbighshire and crucially no group political
or any of the “Independent” groups has or will have a political majority.
In the forthcoming elections electors have a real choice.
They can take the “pig in a poke” and ‘ad hocism’ approach or vote for a
coherent political programme and a political candidate, from whatever party,
who will do “What it says on the
tin”.
Peter Ryder Plaid
Cymru Rhuthun