Yawn.

I go away for a few days, return to Blighty, only to discover it’s the same old, same old…

1. Tony Blair is still Prime Minister, despite having announced his resignation three times (and counting… ooh, I can’t wait for the tear-wrenching speech he’s got lined up for us on the 27th June), while Gordon Brown broods testily in the wings having clocked up 13 years as a bitter understudy.
2. Two of my former Lib Dem city council colleagues in Oxford have, finally - as predicted here, here, here, here and here - decided to place their talents at the disposal of the Tory Party, following their brief sojourns as Independents. Defections are sometimes hailed as signifying political watersheds, even at the parochial level of local government. More usually, they are about clashing personalities and over-hyped egos. As a party member whose time and money has helped give them the platform to become yesterday’s proverbial fish ‘n’ chip wrappers (though I assume H&S legislation nowadays disqualifies the Oxford Mail’s pages from actually being bespoiled in this way), I have scant time for their to-be-short-lived grand-standing. Still, I’m sure they’ll have fun defending the views of the party they have joined to the Oxford residents who rejected those views at the ballot box when last they had the chance.
   
3. An unholy alliance of 96 Labour and Tory MPs has ganged up - again - to force anti-Freedom of Information Act legislation through the House of Commons, exempting Parliamentarians from its reach. The words ‘self-serving’ and ‘hypocrites’ spring to mind.

Still - good to be back…

Oxford: Tory-free for much longer?

Rumours persist, as relayed by my ward colleague, David Rundle - here, then here - that the city of Oxford may shortly find itself with a Tory group, after a gap of 11 years.

The Tories in both Oxford West (MP: Evan Harris, Lib Dem) and East (MP: Andrew Smith, Labour - pro tem) are no more, they have ceased to be, expired, gone to meet their maker, etc. Any hopes they might have had of a Cameron-inspired resurrection have been killed off by the overbearing behaviour of the reactionary County Tories, led by Keith Mitchell, who glories in being the very antithesis of everything Mr Cameron would have us believe his fluffy Tory Party really, truly, honestly now is.

So the Tories have given up on actually winning a council seat in Oxford. Instead they are preparing to make do with two or three ‘hand-me-down’ councillors, and are eagerly wooing those pliant enough to listen to their blandishments.

It’s hard to believe any councillor in Oxford would be willing to accept the suicide mission of representing the Tories in this city, becoming a ‘poor, bloody sacrifice’ to Cllr Mitchell’s rampant grand-standing. But, then, unbelievable just about sums it all up.