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DEFECTING COUNCILLOR DENIS KNOWLES: THE FULL SPEECH (From Wirral Globe)
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DEFECTING COUNCILLOR DENIS KNOWLES: THE FULL SPEECH
10:50pm Monday 18th May 2009
THE Globe can tonight present the full speech that former Labour Cllr Denis Knowles made at Wallasey Town Hall shortly before he sensationally quit the party to join the Conservatives.
Here it is:
"With permission Mr Mayor, I would like to make a personal statement...I have decided to resign from the Labour Group. I think it is right that I should explain my reasons to the council and my constituents.
"However, the problem now is that that the mistakes that were made in the period leading up to this issue have not been addressed, which I believe is damaging the party's prospects and will continue to undermine the authority of the leader and directly affects our work and responsibilities.
"I believe it is duty of all responsible political leaders right across the borough, whatever view they took on the SAR, to focus on reuniting local communities in order to support the people and their desire to keep open much loved facilities and to re-establish the authority of the Council and to heal the bitter divisions that preceded the SAR decision.
"I am sorry to say that the Labour Group is not doing this.
"This resolution was passed but it does not create the best arrangements for the reconstruction of the borough's leisure facilities.
"The unchallenged resolution would have risked continuing local divisions and resentment against the Lab Lib/Dem coalition.
"I believe that coalition should and could have respected the general public and told the officers that this was a red line for us, and worked for a local agreement to a proper process to establish an interim way forward.
"This would have been an honourable and wise role for the coalition and one that the local community would have united around.
"Undermining local democracy and the authority of the council creates a risk of instability, bitterness and growing anger that will threaten the future of us all, as representatives of the people.
"I am ashamed that the Labour Group agreed the resolution that was tabled at the cabinet and shocked by the secrecy and lack of consultation with departments with direct responsibility for the issues referred to in the resolution.
"I am afraid that this resolution undermines all the commitments I have made to my constituents about how the asset review would be organised.
"Clearly this makes my position impossible and I have no alternative than to resign the Group whip.
"All of this makes me very sad. I believe that the group whom I served since 1996 has a record of which all who share the values of the Labour party can be proud of.
"We have achieved a lot, and taken the lead on many issues which is a fine role for us to have been responsible for.
"There is much left to do and I am very sorry to have been put in a position where I am unable to continue this work with the Labour Group.
"I do think, however, that the errors we are making with recent initiatives flow not from Labour's values, but from the style and organisation of our leadership, which is undermining trust and straining party loyalty in a way that is completely unnecessary.
"This undermines people's respect for the council and the trust in what we say and do.
"In our first term the problem was spin - endless announcements, exaggeration and manipulation of the media that undermined people's respect for the government and trust in what we said.
"It is accompanied by a control freak style of governance, which has created many of the problems of excessive bureaucracy and centralised targets that is undermining the success of our public sector reforms.
"There is no real collective responsibility because there is no collective, just diktats in favour of increasingly badly thought through policy initiatives that comes from on high.
"The consequences of this are serious.
"Expertise in our system lies in departments. Those who dictate from the centre have full access to this expertise and they do not consult. This leads to bad policy.
"In addition, under our constitutional arrangements - legal, political and financial responsibility flows through the leadership.
"Increasingly those who are wielding power are not accountable and not scrutinised.
"Thus we have the powers of a presidential type system with the automatic majority of a parliamentary system.
"My conclusion is that these arrangements are leading to increasingly poor policy initiatives being rammed through council - straining and abusing party loyalty, and undermining the people's respect for our political system.
"These attitudes are also causing increasing problems with reform of the public services.
"I believe that after long years of financial cuts and decline, that public services need reform to improve the quality of services and the morale of public sector workers - the two being inextricably linked.
"We do not, however, need endless new initiatives, layers of bureaucratic accountability and diktats from the centre.
"We need clarity of purpose, decentralisation of authority and improved management of people.
"We need to treasure and honour the people who work in public service.
"If public servants are given that framework to work with they work with dedication and pride and provide a service that is second to none.
"I have two final points. The first is for the Labour Group, and in particular the cabinet members as I have said, there is much that our group has achieved which reflects Labour's values and of which we can be very proud.
"But we are entering rockier times and we must work together to prevent our government departing from the best values of the party.
"To the leader [Steve Foulkes] I would say that he has achieved great things since taking over from Dave Jackson but, paradoxically, he is in danger of destroying his legacy as he becomes increasingly obsessed by his place in history.
"Finally, I am desperately sad to leave the party.
"I apologise to those in the group who have told me I had a duty to stay. I will continue to do all I can to support my constituents I have been working with.
"It has been an enormous honour to represent the party. It is a very fine organisation of which can be proud. We have achieved a lot but there is much left to do. I am sure others will take it forward.
"I hope the party will see sense before it is too late."
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Your Say Your Globe
Jeff Green, says...
10:43am Tue 19 May 09
How ironic that Glen & Cllr Foulkes should talk about a by-election when Cllrs Foulkes & Holbrook refused our request for a referendum on the SAR - a policy that the ruling Labour/Lib Dem coallition did not announce before the local elections in May 2008 and implemented with so much haste to avoid the local election in 2010.
Instead of criticising Denis we should look to the administrations's behaviour - what Labour and the lib dems have done to Wirral libraries, leisure and community centres will not be forgiven or forgotten
glenn, moreton, says...
12:30pm Tue 19 May 09
you may not be aware that i agree with you about the call to have a referendum on the SAR - which was rejected out of hand by Cllr Foulkes.
Does that then mean that you yourself now operate on the same principles as Foulkes and also reject pefectly reasonable calls for a "referendum" on the resignation of Cllr Knowles just because "if they didn't do it then we won't", instead of just doing the right thing and having a by-election?
It is the honourable thing to do, whether he has little chance of success or not. Many people voted Labour (with all that goes with it), NOT Cllr Knowles himself, and therefore if Cllr Knowles got in on Labour principles by Labour voters then surely he must become a Tory councillor on Tory votes. Surely if you respect the people of Seacombe (including Labour voters) then you must advise a by-election to preserve the integrity of what you've been saying about the conservatives all this time. Don't go down the road of Foulkes and his mob and ignore honesty and decency.
You yourself mentioned Ben Chapman MP last night and called for him to resign if the allegations about him were found to be true, does that not apply to Cllr Knowles' switch of sides?
I listened to Cllr Knowles' speech last night and was very pleased at some of the things he said - and very displeased with others, particularly his claim about lack of scrutiny on the SAR.Really? I was there at the scrutiny committee call-in too where, after chair john hale questioned Bob Moon about the consultation, it became obvious to everyone in the room, including Cllr Moon that there had been NO proper consultation, so why then did Cllr Knowles, who was on the committee,STILL vote FOR the SAR, when it had been made clear that big mistakes had been made? This was his chance to effectively bring a stop to the SAR but didn't. So lack of scrutiny - No, lack of scruples,Yes.
Put the integrity of your party and your principles first and don't let this one Cllr blemish that, however much of a coop it seems to get him on your side. I sincerely hope you maintain what you've been saying about being an honest party - in this climate that should be the over-riding priority to recapture trust from the public, and not dismissing their right to decide who their representative should be.
(btw, i don't belong to any political party)
Mercury1, Wallasey says...
4:24pm Tue 19 May 09
For the Tories to take him on and make a big song and dance about it just proves that all party politicians are the same and what goes on in our town halls is just the same as what is happening at Westminster but on a smaller scale.
Virtually all politicians are now tarred with the sleaze brush and when someone is "paid" 23 grand on top of normal expenses for being on a committee, then no wonder most of us won't vote any longer.
At least we can see why tunnel fees are continually rising!
Jamie Rowland, Saughall Massie says...
11:16am Thu 21 May 09
1. Did they vote for Cllr Knowles because he was pro-active in improving their community or
2. Did they vote for Cllr Knowles because he was a labour member and the constituents believed in labour values.
If 2, then a by-election has to be backed. If 1, then it matters little which political party he represents. The simple fact is, after reading Cllr Knowles 'speech' to the council leaders, he is still a firm believer in representing his community. He mentions on several occassions that the reason he 'defected' was because he had no choice as the current regime where not looking after the interests of the people and more importantly, the people he was elected to represent.
The SAR, he said, deeply undermined everything that Labour had stood for. The lack of consultation also deeply undermined what he, as a labour member, stood for.
Therefore, if anybody out there is thinking that there should be a by-election - ask yourself one question first. Has Cllr Knowles produced the goods for your community? if the answer to that is YES, then there is no need to waste money, resource and effort on a by-election, is there?
glenn, moreton, says...
1:38pm Thu 21 May 09
The SAR deeply undermined everything he stood for? You mustn't have read my post so I'll restate what this hypocrite has done. Doing good for his community? Don't make me laugh,please.
He was on the committee that was called in to scrutinize the SAR, AFTER all the area forums of which he attended, AFTER all the public protests, AFTER his own constituents called him a traitor for willing to close down his community's guinea gap baths and AFTER the hundreds of people at that very same scrutiny meeting witnessed Cllr Bob Moon crumble under the questions of the Chair John Hale, about the non-existent consultations that had supposedly taken place between the SAR committee and the service user groups. So please, don't make this man sound like anything other than what he is - a mercenary, who, instead of fighting for change within his party decides to jump ship and overnight changes from a socialist to a capitalist. This man has no decency, and the people of Seacombe are well aware of how he sold them down the river even AFTER he was made aware of their protests against the SAR. He is another career politician looking after himself first, and to say any different would be disingenuous at best.
And now the tories are making the same mistake as Foulkes - they have been warned.
glenn, moreton, says...
2:12pm Thu 21 May 09
http://democracy.wir
ral.gov.uk/ieListDoc
uments.aspx?CId=145&
MId=645&Ver=4
Cllr Denis Knowles, centre, welcomed after defecting from the Wirral Labour group by Tory leader Jeff Green and Leah Fraser, prospective Conservative MP for Wallasey
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glenn, moreton, says...
7:39am Tue 19 May 09
It is just the right and proper thing to do. I hope he has the b**ls to do it.