UPDATE (20/7/22): The Leveller Attacks Independents for Frome AND Wells Independents - In Just One Article - Why?

Independents For Frome Emblem
Registered with Electoral Commission

UPDATE (22/7/22)

Here is a link to our article showing the responses from Scott Ward of Independents for Frome and Denise Denis of Wells Independents.

And to confirm the number of councillors on Somerset County Council who will also be elected to the New Somerset Council, here they are:

Independent Councillors Won Just 3 of 110 Seats
(shown by the grey pie slice)

 

Total councillors 110, of which:

• Independent 3
• Labour 5
• Green Party 5
• Conservative 36
  
• Liberal Democrat 61
  

After the local elections, the Leveller's Editor Andrew Lee chose to attack Independents for Frome and Wells Independents. We still do not have a reply from him, when we asked him why. And we have chased.

To say again, it was the editorial policy of The Leveller that Somerset's residents should have one unitary authority to replace all four districts and the county council. This editorial policy to support the unitary was clearly stated and done so repeatedly over time. 

And The Leveller's editorial policy to support the unitary was despite the fact that in 2007, 82% of residents who voted in the Referendum, voted AGAINST a unitary authority.

While the influence of The Leveller across the population of Somerset may be limited to certain types of Somerset resident, this was their editorial policy.

And it is clear that when the districts and county are scrapped in 2023, there will now be far fewer independent councillors in Somerset on the New Somerset Council (unitary authority).

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UPDATE (6/7/22)

Somerset Independents has contacted The Leveller by email to offer a Right of Reply. No response has been received, so far. We have chased.

We have also contacted Scott Ward, who is a Registered Officer of the Independents for Frome political party. Mr Ward is also a Frome Town Councillor. There has so far been no response to our email and chasing email from Mr Ward, or from Steve Tanner, also a Frome Town Councillor and officer of the IFF political party. We have chased.

We have also contacted Denise Denis, Wells City Councillor for Wells Independents, using the email advertised on the Wells Independents website. So far, we have not received any response.

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(26/6/22):

Somerset Independents puts residents first. We were formed to stand up for residents because the Westminster parties have let Somerset down, whether Lib Dems, Greens, Conservatives or Labour. As residents tell us, they are all the same.

We want to see better elected representatives on our councils and at Parliament - representatives who stand up for Somerset's towns and villages - instead of themselves or their political party.

Independent councillors and independent MPs are not perfect, but we think that is the way to go. They must be independent of big parties and listening to local people and acting for local people, with local people. 

We think that the First Past the Post election system also needs to go, in favour of the Single Transferable Vote (STV) as used by independents in the recent Australian Federal Election to the House of Representatives, equivalent to our House of Commons. STV is also used in elections in Scotland. But not in England and not for our councils or MPs here in Somerset.

So we were disappointed to read the latest issue of "The Leveller" where the newspaper attacks both Independents for Frome and Wells Independents. 

As we have made clear on this website and elsewhere, we are not formally connected to Independents for Frome (IFF) or Wells Independents. However, whenever we have dealt with one of their Frome Town councillors, Scott Ward, he has always responded and seems to have been straight with his answers. That is not always the case with other Frome councillors, especially those from the Westminster parties.

We include a photo of the Leveller article titled "Frome's journey from Democracy to Oligarchy".

 

The Leveller page 16 of the 15 June 2022 issue

In the article, The Leveller says: "Since 2015 all the councillors on Frome Town Council have signed up to IFF"...and then concluding..."having driven the politics out of local government, IFF will have driven the democracy out too". 

The Leveller also claims that Wells Independents "move closer to their goal of eliminating the politics from the council chamber". This is despite writing that Wells Council will have "nine Wells Independents, five LibDems and two Conservatives".

If there are deals being done by independents with the Westminster parties in either Frome or Wells, Somerset Independents has not been able to unearth much, if any evidence.

We have already published our evidence of the agreement between the Lib Dems and Greens in Mendip - the Leader of the Greens Shane Collins admitted it on the BBC shortly after the district elections when interviewed by David Garmston. Collins also praised Extinction Rebellion in the same programme. And the pattern of candidates in Mendip also suggests a deal was done between the Lib Dems and Greens. Following the elections, the official record shows that Green and Lib Dem councillors worked hand-in-glove on Mendip District Council.

There is no evidence that we have seen that there was any formal deal between IFF and the Westminster parties. If there is, we would like to see it.

Whilst we are disappointed in the attacks by The Leveller, we are not entirely surprised, based on our own dealings with the Editor of The Leveller, Andrew Lee. 

Years ago, in the days before Somerset Independents was registered as a political party, our now Leader Andrew Pope asked Mr Lee to add a section for independent councillors after the regular Labour, Tory (David Warburton, no less) and Lib Dem opinion sections in the paper. This seemed only fair as there were independent representatives at the time. It did not happen. Andrew had also asked for fairer coverage of independent candidates and councillors at the 2019 local elections. The reasons Mr Lee gave were less than convincing.

We still think that this slot should be offered in The Leveller, while there are independent councillors remaining. The number of independents will soon be decreasing.

As he says in the article, Mr Lee stood as an Independent candidate, and lost. This is what happens very often to independent candidates, because it is much harder to be elected without the big money and Westminster party machines.

There will be fewer independent councillors when the districts and county councils are scrapped next year. This was done against the wishes of the residents of Somerset, who voted in 2007 82% against such a change. Mr Lee questioned whether that Referendum was representative of current opinion. Somerset Independents campaigned unsuccessfully for a Yes/No Referendum - only a two or one unitary Referendum occurred - two buckets of manure, we said.

The Leveller's editorial policy, stated on multiple occasions, was to support a unitary authority and the scrapping of the districts and county.

It is a fact of political science under First Past The Post in the UK that the larger the electoral division, the more difficult it is for independents to win. Perhaps the Somerset Conservatives, Somerset Labour, Somerset Lib Dems and Somerset Greens - and their friends in high places at Westminster - already knew this and this meant their resistance to the enforced changes to our councils, was less than vigorous?

County Council elections and the election for the new council too, have more voters than district council elections, because they cover a wider geographical area. In turn, district council elections have more voters and a wider area than the smaller parish and town council elections.

Well, the recent 2022 County Council elections, which are also for the New Somerset Council when it is created in 2023, returned just three independent councillors out of 110 seats. 

The success of IFF and Wells Independents is at a smaller scale. But is still a success of independent councillors in elections.

Perhaps The Leveller would prefer that Independents for Frome and Wells Independents would also lose, as has been proven with just 3 in 110 being elected at the County, and then there would be even fewer independent representatives in Somerset?

We wonder what Independents for Frome and Wells Independents think of The Leveller's attack on them? We will be asking them.

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