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  • "Andrew raises a valid point, when does a political group become a political party?
    At the moment we may assume that there are no groups of independent candidates with collective policies as they would then have to register as political parties, under non independent names, pre election.
    However post election, any two councillors can declare that they wish to be regarded as a political group and others may also sign up to the join this, or any other declared groups. Independent or no-name councillors are not required to join any group and are then regarded as independent councillors unaffiliated to any group.
    AS a block of independent unaffiliated councillors they would qualify to sit on committees based on the balance of numbers of seats for each group.
    Thus it would be possible for the majority of unaffiliated independent members to form the controlling political group and retain their mandate of individual independence without the need to join any group.
    As Dave suggests, Independent councillors are already on track to form the next majority group without any votes. What posseses independent candidates to sign up to join a group without any collective mandate from the electorate?
    Would we knowingly vote for the continuation of the political group made of the same members who have presided over the previous failed council?
    When senior council officers have been accused of not providing councillors with proper information to enable them to fulfil their statutory requirements, what confidence can new independent councillors have in their advice?
    Who does a formal independent political group benefit? The policy less Group Members who can then share out high paying positions or officers who then only have to advise one political group of councillors?
    Indeview - John Hudson."
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Pembrokeshire County Council Elections - 3rd May 2012

4:13pm Thursday 12th April 2012 in Blogs Photograph of the Author By Andrew Lye

If you have read some of my other articles, you will see that I am a committed Liberal Democrat.

That said, I am not going to abuse the hospitality of the Western Telegraph and make some political rants that could be used by others to complain that the paper has breached its "independent" stance.

I was reading the list of nominations yesterday and I can see that there are 13 councillors already elected, as they have been returned unopposed. The same figure as last time. What a shame for democracy that 13 out of 60 seats are already filled!

There are just 4 nominations for the Liberal Democrats, 13 for Plaid Cymru and 18 for Labour.

There are 36 who call themselves Independent and 39 with no description at all, so its safe to assume they are independent as well.

The most obvious change from last time is the fact that there are 30 Conservative candidates. As many people invariably say that Independents are really Conservatives but afraid to show their true colours, the My 3rd elections are certainly going to be interesting.

Is it possible that the Independent Political Group could actually lose their majority this time round as its possible that the Conservatives could increase their number and thus deprive the IPG of the majority they've had alll these years.

So could there then be a ruling IPG/Conservative coalition?

Or could there be a Rainbow coalition of the other parties to deny the IPG of power.

Whatever happens over the next few weeks, could we see some surprise on May 4th, once the results are known?

I look forward to seeing what the parties have to say in their manifestos. I understand the Conservative manifesto is to be launched today.

The big question is, will the Independents actually produce a manifesto?

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