For many Medway residents, the general election will not be the only time they head for the polls this year.

Residents in Gillingham North, Gillingham South, Rainham Central, River, Rochester East, Rochester South and Horsted and Rochester West wards all face the prospects of a second visit to the polling station weeks after the general election.

Of course, not all of the wards will face a by-election, but at least one of them will almost-definitely be heading to the polls a second time, and anywhere up to four wards may see the familiar signs up more than once.

Which wards will, it’s hard to say. But all (bar one) of them are represented by councillors hoping to bag a 60,000 pounds plus per year job representing the likes of you and I in Parliament (and trying to not to be tempted by the lure of expenses!).

The exception, of course, is Rochester South and Horsted, where former Conservative Councillor Nick Brice has yet to decide on his future after being caught kerb-crawling. However, I am not going to be drawn into a discussion about whether or not he should go, as that is not what this article is about. Smart money says, though, that we are unlikely to see a by-election there any time soon.

So to the crux of my thinking. In Rochester and Strood, Geoff Juby (LD, Gillingham South), Teresa Murray (Lab, Rochester East) and Mark Reckless (Con, Rochester West) are all hoping to replace Bob Marshall-Andrews as the constituency MP. In short, unless something major should happen between now and then, one of the above will be vacating their seat on the council.

In Gillingham and Rainham, Paul Clark MP has announced that he will be trying to cling onto his seat, facing a challenge from Rehman Chishti (Con, Rainham Central) and Andy Stamp (LD, Gillingham North). That gives a two-in-three chance that there will be a second by-election.

The more observant will realise that that still leaves River ward. Well Bill Esterson (Lab) is leaving us to fight his own battle up in Sefton Central, although he’s not actually leaving the council just yet – but that’s another story.

So I’m going to throw my neck on the line and make a prediction – that by the end of the year, by-elections will have been held in Rainham Central, River and Rochester West wards, as Conservatives Rehman Chishti and Mark Reckless see the fruits of their hard work pull off and win huge majorities in the election, whilst Labour’s Bill Esterson secures a wafer-thin majority.

In the subsequent by-elections, Rainham Central (one of the Conservatives’ newest safest seats) would remain blue (although I cannot thus far see any possible contenders for the candidacy), River would turn blue (as it already turned half-blue in 2007, but again I cannot see any possible candidates) and Rochester West would also remain blue (and I have in mind a possible candidate, or two, but shall remain tight-lipped for the time being).

But don’t hold me to that!

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3. Are Medway Council trying to avoid a by-election in River?

In the week that also saw Liberal Democrat Cllr Geoff Juby bitten in quite an awkward place by a dog whilst on the campaign trail, the Gouldens broke their silence for the Medway newspaper.

‘Derogatory and disgusting’

‘We were going to stay until after the by-election,’ Val Goulden was quoted as saying. ‘Until we were shown something she had posted on her Facebook page.

‘What she said was derogatory and quite disgusting.’

The interview explains how they have been increasingly fed up at being ignored – even though Tony Goulden was the Labour Group Whip.

And despite being councillors since Medway Council’s inception over a decade ago, the Cllrs Goulden were allowed no input into the selection of the Labour candidate.

‘Democratic and Fair’

The News feature also highlighted the reaction of two Medway bloggers – AlanWCollins and Labour activist Tristan Osborne – and another commenter on this very website.

In a recent Opinion article (‘Like rats fleeing a shrinking ship…‘, 12 August 2009), AlanWCollins said that ‘rising a three-week-strong member to the office of candidate by the local party simply just does not sit right in local politics – even if you do have the backing of the local under-fire MP’.

One-time commenter Angie Hill was also quoted, responding that ‘it is not the fault of Ms Whittington that due to her hard work and faultless campaigning, that she was brought to the attention of the senior members of the Labour party’.

Meanwhile, Mr Osborne had stated that the selection was democratic in its nature. ‘Sam was democratically selected. She contested with a number of other very strong candidates. The candidate selected reflected the will of those in the audience and the membership. The process even took some time to make it fair to all those involved’.

There is now less than one week until voters go to the polls – and if Labour’s controversial candidate selection proves to be fatal, then, as one local commentator noted, it will be ironic, tragically for Labour, that the date of the by-election falls on the seventieth anniversary of the British declaration of war against Germany.

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The Medway Council Liberal Democrat group has been shaken-up after Cllr Geoff Juby resigned as leader.

Cllr Juby, who is also Parliamentary Candidate for Rochester & Strood, wishes to give more time to his family and his Parliamentary campaign.

He has been succeeded as leader, it was announced, by Cllr Maureen Ruparel, a familiar face in local politics having previously been group leader.

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1. Former Lib Dem parliamentary candidate resigns from the Lib Dem group
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The Lib Dems had re-registered their domain name (or, more specifically, Alan Jefferies had) the day after I made my warning post. Their website now contains little more than a holding page – but it is, at least, better than some anonymous webster* to register it for them and create for them a potentially damaging spoof website. I was, myself, considering buying the domain name and selling it back to them at the same amount as I’d paid for it to protect them from such underhand tactics, before I came to my senses. After all, if I’d have done so, I’d have been open to the accusations that I was going to be said anonymous webster*.

Their holding page indicates that their website is being completely changed. There’s nothing wrong with this – I too am currently in the process of re-designing and re-programming the Gillingham Conservatives’ website – I just hope that they learn from their previous website and don’t make it off-putting to potential supporters.

They also link through to the not-been-update-since-Noah-built-the-ark websites of their two parliamentary candidates, Andy Stamp (Gillingham and Rainham) and Geoff Juby (Rochester and Strood). Tactical use of the Internet is important to all parliamentary candidates – so it’d be interesting to know what these candidates think when they search Andy Stamp or Geoff Juby on Google and see the list of results. Number one is the official Lib Dems’ national site, then for Andy I am number two and for Geoff I am number three and John Ward’s backup site is number two. Their own websites don’t even feature!

Contrarily, Rehman Chishti has been making good tactical use of the Gillingham and Rainham Conservatives’ website to send his message out to voters. He too is now branching out – both rehmanchishti.co.uk and rehmanchishti.com have been registered. The former heads to a holding page and the latter heads to a page reading “This site is currently unavailable” – with the Conservatives’ tree logo as the favicon.

The importance of the Internet can be over-stated by many, but is also often underestimated by a large breed of politicos. The best advice this humble blogger can give to all interwebically silent politicos is thus: at the very least, register for a Blogger account and blog away. Alternatively, you can find someone like myself to help build you a website contianing many features to best make the use of the Internet for political activism.

*Please note: my references to websters are not references to cloth weavers, but my second made-up term, referring to Internet-savvy people with a web presence, such as myself.

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The freedom of the borough is the highest honour a Council can give and all but two of the 55 Medway Councillors were present and voted for the motion, which read:

In pursuance of the power vested in it by virtue of section 249 of the Local Government Act 1972, the Council confers the honorary freedom of the borough on the Corps of Royal Engineers in perpetuity, in the interests of cementing and fostering the close and longstanding bonds of friendship and mutual respect existing between the Corps of Royal Engineers, Medway Council and its predecessor authorities.

In a rare act during the discussion, the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Medway also spoke on the topic, which was dear to the hearts of many of the Councillors assembled.

I for one welcome the move, as a great recognition of the tremendous work that the Royal Engineers do and marking the first ten years of the Medway Unitary Authority.

Discussion

All “quotations” are not verbatim as my tired little hands were not able to write fast enough to catch every word, although I have tried to quote what I can, and where I believe it to be verbatim and of particular interest, I have written it in ‘inverse commas’.

Cllr Rodney Chambers (Con, Hempstead and Wigmore). Without the Royal Engineers, no professional mechanised army can move forward. Long association withe Medway. Reminded all of the RE’s FA Cup record*. Activities in Northern Ireland – particularly bomb disposal. Medway is predominantly a Naval & Military area – more Military since the Dockyard shut in 1984. Noted recent disquiet in media over lack of appreciation. “It is right and fitting that we recgonise the public appreciation”. We should use this to recognise 10 years of the Unitary Authority.

* The Royal Engineers played in the first ever FA Cup final and lost to Wanderers. In 1985, they beat Old Etonians in the fourth FA Cup final. Source: Wikipedia.

Cllr Paul Godwin (Lab, Chatham Central) was happy to support the motion put forward by the Leader of the Council, but decided to be brief because the Labour Group had decided that Cllr Harriott would be their main speaker on this subject, given his ties with the Royal Engineers.

Cllr Geoffrey Juby (LD, Gillingham South) wasn’t at the last meeting, where this idea was first proposed, but is happy it was brought forward. “We may not like the wars they serve in, but we are happy to have them”. Hoped motion could be supported unanimously.

Cllr Nicholas Brice (Con, Rochester South and Horsted). On behalf of the people of Medway we are asked to give a voice for people to confer the freedom of the borough

Cllr Paul Harriott (Lab, Twydall) sported his Royal Engineers tie as he said that the Royal Engineers are “known worldwide by people and politicians alike for their fighting skills. They are soldiers first and tradesmen second”.

Cllr Stephen Kearney (LD, Gillingham South). Our Country does not always recognise and appreciate our armed forces. This is only a small thank you, but it means so much to them and the people of Medway.

Cllr Alan Jarrett (Con, Lordswood and Capstone). Our Armed Forces go about their duties in a very professional way – they leave people at home to squabble about the rights and wrongs of the campaigns they are fighting. And it is not just the men in uniform we need to praise, but also those who support them.

Cllr Diana Smith (LD, Watling). Delighted to support this – can’t wait to see the priviledge of seeing Royal Engineers marching through the centre of Medway.

Cllr Roy Hunter (Con, Rainham South). Apologised – had to close down parts of London whilst working duing the Northern Ireland troubles. Saw the Royal Engineers’ bomb disposal work first-hand.

Cllr Nicholas Bowler (Lab, Rochester East, Deputy Mayor). Joked “I’ve been quiet for long enough”*. Passionate about the Military. Fully support this. Very good thing we are doing.

* As Deputy Mayor, Cllr Bowler was not usually given the right to speak at Council meetings, however the Mayor, Cllr Val Goulden, extended that right to both of them for this special meeting. Thus Cllr Bowler joked “I’ve been quiet for long enough”. Having seen his performances at Development Control meetings, I beg to differ!

Cllr Herbert Crack (LD, Watling). Definitely support this – and certainly won’t be looking too closely at the costs involved.

Cllr John Ward (Con, Rochester South and Horsted). Moved to Medway 11 years ago and quickly discovered the Military connection. “This is one of the best things Medway has done”.

Cllr Richard Andrews (Con, Strood South). “This is the best thing we can do as a Council”.

Cllr Val Goulden (Lab, Luton and Wayfield, Mayor). Thanked the Leader of the Council for this motion. It will make a lot of people happy – including her late Dad, who is a former RE member.

The motion was carried by 53 votes to 0.

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Medway Councillor Mike O’Brien has paid tribute to the hard work students put into their GCSE and post-16 studies.

Cllr O’Brien, who was elected to Rainham Central Ward in May 2007, told the full meeting of the Council last night that “a lot has been said about the ‘dumbing down’ of exams” that simply is not true.

“The fact is that exams are getting harder and harder, and students work really, really hard. Let us congratulate them for getting these fantastic results.”

Cllr O’Brien, who teaches Key Skills to 16-19 year-old students at Canterbury College, made his remarks following a statement in the debate by Cllr Juby, who also praised the results.

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