Denbighshire Free Press Letter of the Week

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