Giving local politics a bad name....

Some weeks ago, the 4 Independents on Breckland Council clubbed together and formed their own political 'group' and seeing as there are now only 3 Labour members on the Council they assumed the position as 'official opposition' and therefore their Leader, Terry Lamb, became the Leader of the Opposition, and eligible for the extra £2,600 that I was receiving as Leader of the Opp. For those of you that know me, you will realise that this would have come as somewhat a blow. Having given up my full-time job to focus on my local political responsibilities I relied on that money. I was already struggling financially as the £400 a month I got for being a Councillor and the extra £200 that I received for being Leader was hardly a kings ransom, but it did mean that my mortgage got paid and I had a basic level of income that I topped up through other work. Now these things happen, and legally (certainly not morally) the group of 4 had the right to do this. If they had a burning desire to serve the Breckland electorate and radically fulfill the role of Breckland opposition then you could perhaps understand their motivations, or if I, and the Labour Group had been fulfilling the role ineffectively, failing to attend meetings, failing to contribute then again, you could have understood and respected the motivations. Now, I cannot critique my own performance, but, I have put in the effort and I have made contributions. If you look at the Attleborough by-election you will see that the public there at least put their faith in Labour and voted for the Labour candidate and other than the Conservatives it is only the Breckland Labour Group that is contesting all 3 of these by-elections. The new Leader of the Opp has already stated that he won't attend the meetings like I did, e.g. attending every Cabinet meeting, Chairing Overview & Scrutiny when required etc. I doubt that he will undertake the research that I did and make the speech's at Full Council like I did. So what is the motivation? According to his EDP comments, the motivation is also not financial, as he intends to give away the extra money that he receives. Therefore I have two conclusions, he partly wanted to give me a bit of a kicking while he could - Mr Lamb and I are from entirely different generations and have opposing views and do clash at Thetford Town Council meetings, although we are both fiercely passionate about Thetford and I've never understood why we could not find common ground, hey ho! I suspect he also wanted to give Labour a knock, as he is basically a Tory that sits as an Independent, although, he's probably too right wing even for Tories to cope with. This is exactly the sort of political games that gives local politics a bad name and why the public switch off from it all. Self interest, rather than public interest. Short term personal / political game rather than wider appreciation of what is best for local residents collectively. What's been achieved? Removing what opposition there was on Breckland Council, something that will not serve anyone, including the ruling group, well at all.