{"id":564,"date":"2018-05-10T13:12:26","date_gmt":"2018-05-10T13:12:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/?p=564"},"modified":"2018-07-26T13:13:56","modified_gmt":"2018-07-26T13:13:56","slug":"democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/05\/10\/democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"DEMOCRACY"},"content":{"rendered":"

CAT AMONG THE PIGEONS<\/span><\/p>\n

In a blow to the Labour Group on Lancaster City Council, Cllr Oscar Thynne, John O’Gaunt ward councillor and current Lancaster student, has relinquished the Labour whip and gone independent.<\/span><\/p>\n

As you might expect, the announcement of his defection on Facebook hasn’t gone down well with local party members, with the level of abuse and indignation (some of which came from senior figures who should know better) reaching fever pitch. Cllr Thynne’s Facebook page vanished shortly thereafter.<\/span><\/p>\n

The biggest\u00a0 objection from local Labour activists was that, as Cllr Thynne had effectively changed his party allegiance without forcing a by-election, he was depriving residents of the opportunity to elect a councillor ‘who represents the party of their choosing.’<\/span><\/p>\n

Fair enough…<\/span><\/p>\n

… Although why local Labour members didn’t fulminate in the same way when Cllrs Andrew Kay and Sam Armstrong defected from the Greens to Labour without a by-election is anybody’s guess. Are the residents of Bulk and University & Scotforth Rural wards not entitled to a councillor who represents the party of their choosing or something?<\/span><\/p>\n

***<\/span><\/p>\n

BACK TO THE POLLS<\/span><\/p>\n

It’s election time on campus! Again.<\/span><\/p>\n

University & Scotforth Rural ward residents will soon choose two new councillors to serve in place of Cllrs Sam Armstrong and Lucy Atkinson, who are stepping down. Polling day is on Thursday 17 May and the successful candidates will serve for just under a year, before they’re up for re-election again in May 2019 along with all the other councillors. There are eight candidates: two each from the Conservatives, the Greens, Labour and the Liberal Democrats.<\/span><\/p>\n

subtext is pleased to see plenty of posters on campus – and equally pleased that so far no-one has wrongly tried to Enforce The Poster Code and remove them.<\/span><\/p>\n

Aside from a vaguely warm feeling about democracy, though, why should those not living in the ward be interested? Well, there are two reasons to look out for the result. Firstly, the turnout. The last time there was a by-election on campus (see subtext 156), the turnout was a whopping 7.12% and the winner was elected with fewer than 100 votes cast, something that usually only happens in areas heavily depopulated due to war.<\/span><\/p>\n

Secondly, control of the city council hangs on the result. If Labour wins both seats, it’ll have 31 out of 60 seats and retain overall control of our district. But if Labour fails to win either seat, it’ll be reduced to 29 out of 60 seats, and will need the support of other parties or independents every time it wants to get a proposal through the council.<\/span><\/p>\n

Independents such as Cllr Oscar Thynne, who Labour members have done a sterling job of keeping on side thus far.<\/span><\/p>\n

Oh.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CAT AMONG THE PIGEONS In a blow to the Labour Group on Lancaster City Council, Cllr Oscar Thynne, John O’Gaunt ward councillor and current Lancaster student, has relinquished the Labour whip and gone independent. As you might expect, the announcement … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":568,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[310,329,330],"class_list":["post-564","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-issue-177","tag-lancaster-city-council","tag-local-elections"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p99sHo-96","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1526,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2021\/11\/11\/its-by-election-fever\/","url_meta":{"origin":564,"position":0},"title":"It’s By-Election Fever","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"November 11 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Warm congratulations to Jack O'Dwyer-Henry, sometime Labour and then Eco-Socialist councillor for the University and Scotforth Rural Ward of Lancaster City Council, on being appointed Strategy and Communications Officer for the Green Party of Northern Ireland. His departure means that, on Thursday 11 November 2021 (Week 5), literally as subtext\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1519,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2021\/11\/11\/bailrigg-garden-city\/","url_meta":{"origin":564,"position":1},"title":"Bailrigg Garden City","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"November 11 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Back in subtext 179, on 7 June 2018, in an article introducing the then-new idea of a Bailrigg Garden Village on land between Galgate and Scotforth, your correspondents speculated on how many dwellings, exactly, we would be talking about here. We reported that, 'according to a table on housing supply\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "special feature"","block_context":{"text":"special feature","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/special-feature\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1240,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2020\/03\/27\/the-unofficial-court-report\/","url_meta":{"origin":564,"position":2},"title":"THE (UNOFFICIAL) COURT REPORT","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"March 27 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Twenty seven people, including students, staff, former staff and city councillors, gathered in the impressive surroundings of the Council Chamber at Lancaster Town Hall on Thursday 12 March for the unofficial 2020 session of the Lancaster University Court. Jack O'Dwyer-Henry, city councillor for the University & Scotforth Rural ward, took\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1264,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2020\/06\/19\/letters-29\/","url_meta":{"origin":564,"position":3},"title":"Letters","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"June 19 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Dear subtext, subtext 193 published a piece of widely-believed, but inaccurate, Lancastrian electoral trivia \u2013 that the 8 December 2016 University and Scotforth Rural by-election had the lowest turnout of any British election, at 7.12%. I understand the current record-holder to actually be the former Melrose ward, Liverpool City Council,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "letters"","block_context":{"text":"letters","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/letters\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":522,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/04\/26\/bad-governance-update\/","url_meta":{"origin":564,"position":4},"title":"BAD GOVERNANCE UPDATE","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"April 26 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Next Wednesday's Senate meeting will be, if the Chief Administrative Officer has her way, its final one as one of our two senior governing bodies, alongside the Council. Major proposals to amend our Charter, Statutes and Ordinances, originally proposed in February but deferred to May, following a refreshing lack of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "news"","block_context":{"text":"news","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":664,"url":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/2018\/06\/21\/shart-attack-10\/","url_meta":{"origin":564,"position":5},"title":"SHART ATTACK","author":"Johnny Unger","date":"June 21 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"FROM: Chas Phockwoddes, Lead Male Member: Child Services, Lune Valley County Council TO: Hewlett Venklinne, Provost of Press CC: Mike M. Shart, VC, Lune Valley Enterprise University (LuVE-U) SUBJECT: Cathy Smithen-Wesson Comments on Floods Cathy Smithen-Wesson's utterly ubiquitous response to the floods Councillor Chas Phockwoddes is today TRIGGERING the absent\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "shart attack"","block_context":{"text":"shart attack","link":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/category\/shart-attack\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/568"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=564"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":565,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/564\/revisions\/565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=564"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=564"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/subtext\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=564"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}