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Voice of the Leader: December

Once a month we will be offering the Leaders of both Medway Council and the official opposition the opportunity to talk unedited about.. well, Medway politics. Today we hear from Alan Jarrett, Leader of Medway Council and the Conservative Group.

Alan Jarrett

This is the first of my monthly contributions to the Political Medway, and I read last week’s contribution by the leader of the opposition with a sense of déjà vu! For this is what I have been listening to ever since we took control of the council 18 years ago; but this time carefully setting out the ‘achievements’ of his Labour colleagues.

One by one the members of the Labour Group were named, and one by one we can now see just what they have achieved over all these years. NOTHING!

Whilst we read a list of what Labour had been trying to stop from happening in Medway, my contribution is going to set out all the things that the Conservative administration has actually done.

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The Week in Medway Politics, 16th Dec

Time again for our round-up of the week. What we said, what others said and most importantly, a bumper edition of what Rehman did in ‘Rehman about Town.’

Our Stories

iFAQs: Big Responses in Little Parties
Whose Portfolio is ‘Watching the Watchmen?’
Voice of the Opposition: December
Much To Do About Nothing
Virtual Doorstep: 20 Weeks..
The Week in Westminster, 15 Dec

Top Tweets

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Voice of the Opposition: December

Once a month we will be offering the Leaders of both Medway Council and the official opposition the opportunity to talk unedited about.. well, Medway politics. Starting today with Vince Maple, leader of the Medway Labour Group.

I want to start by thanking Ed and Steve from the Political Medway for giving pieces of this nature a new home. Historically, the local KM paper had a weekly political column which residents would often talk about when speaking to them on the doorstep. Although I’m sure I’ll disagree with the vast majority of what Alan Jarrett will say when his pieces are published, it’s healthy for local democracy for the Leader of the Council and the Leader of the Opposition to have an accessible platform of this nature.

We are in the middle of December, a great opportunity to reflect on the positive actions Medway Labour Councillors have taken over the past year in the community we call home. It goes without saying that Labour Councillors deal with hundreds of pieces of casework to support residents in their ward on a wide variety of issues. Alongside that the Labour Group have shown true community leadership in a number of ways, working hard to deliver for the residents of Medway.

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Whose Portfolio is ‘Watching the Watchmen?’

Who in their lifetime has got a new job, not read the job description, and only found out what one  significant part of it was several years later? And then had absolutely no consequences as a result.

Nobody, right?

Well, you’d be wrong. Step forward hapless Councillor Adrian Gulvin, who has taken years of being ‘portfolio holder for resources’ to discover that overseeing Medway’s CCTV cameras is part of his remit.

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iFAQs: Big Responses in Little Parties

One of our popular features on The Political Medway is inFrequently Answered Questions, where we’d send off questions to relevant political figures and hope that we might occasionally get a reply. This week, we decided to contact the smaller parties who stood in Medway in 2015, but didn’t gain any representation on the council. As usual, we print all of their responses below entirely unedited.

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The Week in Medway Politics, 9 Dec

Just time for a quick roundup of the week, where we take a look at the big stories in local politics, what each political party has been up to, and a special Brexit debate special of Rehman About Town.

Our Stories

Medway Fun With Flags
Anarchy in the Medway
Sale of the Conservancy
iFAQs: Brexit omnishambles
No More #BlockedByMedwayPaul
The Week in Westminster, 8 Dec “Brexit Debate Special”
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The Week in Westminster, 8 Dec “Brexit Debate Special”

This week the government lost three votes in the House of Commons;
MPs backed calls to have a direct say in the final deal, called for the government to publish the full legal advice regarding the Brexit Deal, and historically the Government was found in contempt of parliament. 

With 2 of Medway’s 3 MPs having recently quit the Government and declared they could not support the PM’s deal, how did they vote?

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