WITH her typical arrogance Mrs Winship condemns the principled defectors from the Conservative section of the council as 'showing disloyalty and letting down the electorate.' Knowing several of these defectors personally, and having been visited by Jon Kay and Maria Edey regarding local matters, soon after their election I fully appreciate the factors that have caused their departure to the Independents.
The Conservatives were elected on account of the Foresters being fed up with the inefficiency and party allegiance being placed before local interests of and by the former regime. They were not elected to fly in the face of Foresters' opinions, nor to ignore arguments and better local knowledge from residents affected by their decisions without explaining and justifying those decisions. Those 'defectors' realised these unspoken rules and have become increasingly disillusioned by the Winship system of government – hence their defection.
In spite of Mrs Winship's declaration that she believes in 'honest and open government,' she ensures that she gets her own way by sidelining a majority of her own party and forming not a cabinet, but a clique of 'outsiders' some of whom were returned unopposed. When tackled on this very point, with her usual sophistry, she proclaimed that she represented the Turks, the Poles – in fact anybody but the Foresters who form the most populous and popular section of her constituency. It is she and her clique that has kept in place that blatantly useless hierarchy in the council offices.
Mrs Winship's unfortunate attitude stems from her days as a schoolteacher, in which none of her charges were supposed to answer back. School teachers do not make the best councillors, as in some form they are required to run a commercial enterprise and their past experience and qualities, such as they may be, are not relevant except in an advisory capacity. Hence the mess in which this council finds itself, and which will not be rectified by the haughty, didactic, and specious stance of its leader and her clique.
Would it not be more beneficial to the Forest if all the defectors rejoined the fold and Mrs Winship and her clique defected? After all, who does she think she is, Margaret Thatcher? With any luck, her reign will soon be over! – Cy Roberts, Coalway.