OPINION: The party’s over?

“Nobody knows where my Johnny has gone
Judy left the same time
Why was he holding her hand
When he's supposed to be mine

It's my party, and I'll cry if I want to
Cry if I want to, cry if I want to
You would cry too if it happened to you”
Leslie Gore

It’s been a strange couple of weeks for me. I’ve started to write my opinion piece three or four times but scarcely have I raised quill to parchment than the subject that I was going to write about undergoes a sudden and unexpected sea-change. Needless to say my wastepaper-basket is full of my scrunched up efforts.

Like most of the people of Rochdale I am wondering what on earth is going on? I know that one thing is certain, nothing that has happened or is happening in the Liberal Democratic (?) party over the last few weeks has been in the interest of anyone apart from the egos of the few.

It has been like a Whitehall farce. Doors have been opening and closing as various comic characters have made their unexpected exits and entrances as the audience has howled. By the way, listen carefully, the noise coming from the auditorium are hoots of derision, not approval at the performance!

There has been much talk of loyalty, though opinion varies as to where the focus of the loyalty should lie. Should it have been to the former leader, Irene Davidson, to the party itself or to the individual political aspirations of individuals?

One thing is VERY certain; nothing that has happened within the party recently has been in the interest of, or shown any loyalty towards, grass-roots party workers, the electorate as a whole or the town of Rochdale. We are again held up and ridiculed in the national press as being something of a political joke... and this at a time when we can least afford it.

To be fair to them, Labour has stepped up to the plate and is trying to see what can be salvaged from the wreckage. The coming months will see how successful they will be. 

At the end of it all, I predict that either the Liberal Democrats or Labour, or perhaps even both, could be spent as political forces in the town for years to come. Certainly the Liberal Democrats both locally and nationally seem to be less of a political force and more of a political farce.

One piece on Rochdale Online that amused me particularly was the 9 December article:

www.rochdaleonline.co.uk/news-features/2/news-headlines/50379/shaping-the-boroughs-future

Dale Mulgrew urges us all to get involved and have our say in the long-term development of the borough. This urging came about only days after he flounced out of a meeting that offered all parties the opportunity to work together for this very objective. What hypocrisy.

Still, one group of people are said not to be saddened at the implosion of the local party and that is the council officers. Why should this be? Well one of them told me that all the in-party fighting over recent months has meant that our local councillors have been far too busy squabbling with each other to do the job they were elected to do and hold council officials to account. Clearly whilst the cat’s away the mice will play.

And what of the ‘new kid on the block’; Greg Couzens’ new Independent Alliance Party? Will they just sit there like reeds in the breeze wafting hither and thither as the fancy takes them? In fact, can they truly claim to be a party at all or are they merely a handful of disaffected individuals huddling together for warmth? Again, the coming months will tell, but unless they are really willing to be part of the political process, what was the point of it all?

Another group of whingers is the last thing this town needs.