Cllr Stamp, who is currently the youngest serving member of Medway Council, had already resigned as Deputy Leader of the group, which paved the way for Cllr Sheila Kearney to take the Gillingham North councillor’s place.

Labour blogger Tristan Osborne posted on his Twitter feed last night that a well-placed source was suggesting that something bigger may be happening, with Alan W Collins hearing conflicting rumours that the twice Parliamentary Candidate for Gillingham (and Rainham) may have resigned as a councillor, or defected to another group.

But confirmation came from Medway Council today that Cllr Stamp has indeed joined the?Independent?group, becoming the fourth member after former Labour Councillors Tony and Val Goulden, who joined last year, and long-term Independent Cllr Ian Burt, who was also previously a Lib Dem councillor.

The movement comes weeks after Cllr Geoff Juby retook the reigns as group leader, having left Cllr Maureen Ruparel in charge for a year whilst he focused on his parliamentary campaign.

According to the (linked) Atticus column, penned by Roland White, Medway Council is advertising for the author’s chosen “non-job” of the week – a Community Development Officer.

“Medway Council is looking for a community development officer (up to ?36,313 a year),” White writes. The role, apparently, is to “ensure compliance with all aspects of the national agenda for resident and community engagement”.

The advert is on the Medway Council website, and after a quick glance at the description (you don’t need to read it all – this author certainly couldn’t manage it!) White’s sarcastic conclusion becomes agreeable:

“Yet another local authority bracing itself for austerity”.

Amongst the selections for the two wards are the three sitting councillors in Chatham Central and Medway blogger Tristan Osborne for what was once Labour’s safest seat, Luton and Wayfield.

Chatham Central councillors Vince Maple (pictured), Julie Shaw and group leader Paul Godwin were all re-selected to stand in their ward in May 2011, whilst joining Osborne in Luton and Wayfield will be Christine Godwin and, perhaps controversially, Sam Whittington, who lost the seat for Labour in last September’s dramatic by-election.

Whilst Chatham Central is likely to remain red, with two independent councillors and one conservative councillor, Luton and Wayfield is likely to become a key battleground seat in 2011.

Results pages will be updated with candidates in due course.

Someone (clearly not a fan) has taken it upon themselves to create a primitive, perhaps, one might say, neolithic attack blog against councillors who have been democratically elected, and Tristan himself, as probably the most vocal Medway Labour activist online.

Earlier this week, the anonymous author of the blogger accused Medway Labour of stealing yet another British National Party slogan. Osborne hit back, saying (correctly, as it happens) that the term did not originate from Medway, but has, in fact, been used by Labour throughout its conference, and accepted and widely used by the mainstream media.

Mystery blogger was not happy. Osborne had, in the same article, accused him of being close to the BNP on the political scale, and (s)he was having none of it. ‘Not content with stealing the BNP’s slogans’, they continued, ‘it seems the Labour party are also stealing their policies’, before listing the example of supervised homes for single mums.

Osborne promptly updated his previous post, to include the “fact” that supervised homes are not as unpopular as mystery blogger would seem to make out.

Well this blogger is not impressed by either petty-minded mystery blogger or seemingly-obsessed Osborne, and suggests both parties should meet together, and proceed to bang each others’ heads together until it hurts (and please, God, let it hurt a lot!).

Mystery blogger’s below-the-belt, potentially offensive comments portray just about everything that is wrong with local politics, and should, in this author’s humble opinion, have their computer subjected to one of the DVLA’s fearless car crushers to stop the continuous churning out of small-minded, and often misinformed, trash that destroys the image of local politics in Medway.

(Note to mystery blogger: if you do overstep the mark, and someone wants to take action, the High Court on Thursday ordered the issuing of a writ to an anonymous user via twitter, so just because you are hiding behind your anonymity, does not mean that you are beyond reproach!)

Similarly, Osborne (and I know you’re reading, so do, please take note!) has every right to reply to negative comments made by opposition bloggers and commentators, much as I myself would in the same situation. But please, surely you cannot lower yourself to reply to such a low-life who clearly has no time to spare but for launching pathetic attack after pathetic attack on (in most cases) people who have no real power anyway (no offence)?

Osborne, please stick to your higher-quality posts attacking my side of the political spectrum – at least they had some grounding and some merit within them. Perhaps if we ignore mystery blogger for long enough and not give him/her the time of day, (s)he will return to rummaging around the bins behind his/her local?McDonald’s and leave?the world of local politics alone.

P.s. I accept that this post is slightly hypocritical, but it is all I have to say on the matter. Mystery blogger just infuriated me too much this time, and I had to say something!

Update 15/10/09 @ 21:56

Since the above post was written, the Not The Medway Labour Blog has gone offline.

According to AlanWCollins‘ sources, a recount was called after a first result in which the Labour Party believed they had won by more than thirty votes.

Early indications suggested that turnout in the election was quite low, however, compared to the full council elections of 2007, the figure was much the same.

Former Ghurka Bhutia will take up the council seat alongside former Labour-turned Independent Councillors Tony and Val Goulden, although he is unlikely to find much support from the husband and wife pair.

Labour’s candidate, schools campaigner Sam Whittington, who was catapulted to the candidacy within weeks of becoming a party member, achieved 1038 votes, compared to Bhutia’s 1042.

Her selection, rather than her as a person, was behind the Gouldens’ departure from the Labour Group, according to their daughter, who spoke out on AlanWCollins on Wednesday.

Following the election, the Conservative Group now has 34 councillors, leaving the Labour Group as an unpaid opposition – with just 10 councillors. The Liberal Democrats have eight and the newly-formed Independent Group has three.

Ironically, given the majority, there were four spoilt ballot papers.

Turnout: 29.78%

AlanWCollins was all prepared to Tweet the result – with a template Tweet prepared for each potential victor. However, due to personal reasons, this author does not wish his personal Facebook status to change for at least 24 hours. His Facebook status has been tweaked to update with his Twitter, and there seems to be little point in turning this tweak off for just 24 hours. Therefore, all Tweets are off until further notice.

Admittedly, that may seem to be unfair on the Labour label. Former Councillor Dennis MacFarlane was, officially, suspended from the Labour Party weeks before his resignation, for irregular benefit claims, apparently, although publicly little more is evident.

However, the Councillors Goulden, MacFarlane’s former colleagues in the ward-of-the-day Luton and Wayfield, left the Labour Group for reasons that are equally as mysterious. Indeed, it seems at present as though the husband and wife pairing are reluctant to share their reasons for going Independent.

Rumours, though not generally treated as reliable grounds for news by AlanWCollins, seemed to be accurate in the prophesy of the shrinking Labour Group, so maybe further rumours – that the Gouldens, Tony and Val, resigned in protest at the fast-tracking of a schools-campaigner-turned-Labour-member into the Labour candidacy in the by-election – are true.

They have every right to be angry. Despite recent comments on this website, greatly respected by myself and no doubt true, 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.

The fact is – and it is a fact, as much as it pains a staunch Conservative to say it – there are many good Labour activists in Medway, and several in Luton and Wayfield who could have been selected and retained the ward with a strong majority. As it stands, the kick in the nuts of the Labour faithful, as well as the cynical ploy to turn an important by-election into a single-issue referendum by virtue of its candidate, could well backfire on Labour in a number of ways.

On the Statement as to Persons Nominated, Sam Whittington was the only candidate of seven to be proposed, or even seconded, by a sitting councillor. However, it wasn’t one of her prospective future colleagues in Luton and Wayfield, but a political veteran from Chatham Central. That alone should have aroused suspicion as to the internal thoughts and feelings of two former Mayors.

Their decision to leave the Labour Group, and effectively complete the shrinking of the ship to just over three-quarters of its size one month ago, is the first casualty of party-politicising that which should remain politically-neutral.

I’m not suggesting for a minute that Ms Whittington won’t make a good councillor. Obviously I’d rather it was former Ghurka Tashi Bhutia as the Conservative candidate – and indications from the ward, my sources inform me, are that the chances of a wafer-thin majority, if not a defeat, for Ms Whittington, are quite high indeed – but as a non-resident I don’t get a say in the election in that way.

What is evident, though, is that the internal party democracy of the local Labour Party must be extremely flawed to allow a member of three weeks to even stand as a potential candidate, let alone beat off challengers including a former councillor.

It is sad to read the comments presented about the good character Ms Whittington once represented, and to realise how quickly she has allowed herself to become a pawn in Labour’s ever-seedier game of party-political chess, how quickly she has allowed herself to be drawn in and corrupted by Labour’s cynical ways.

The Councillors Goulden departure represents a severe backfire on the Labour Group. A shot in the foot. A rebellion. An implosion of their number. A weaking of their respect for the core Labour values. A shrinking of the once-great ship that steered the Medway Towns with a minority administration.

And just like rats fleeing a shrinking ship, I fear the councillors’ departure won’t be the last serious reprisal of Labour’s cynicism in Luton and Wayfield.

Although the reasons for the former Labour member for Luton & Wayfield‘s departure are at present not clear to AlanWCollins, it has forced the second by-election in Medway since the local elections in May 2007.

Last year, the former Conservative member for Rochester South and Horsted, John Ward, resigned after making “offensive” comments on his old blog – despite a subsequent Standards Board ruling that what he had written ‘could be considered the expression of a political view’ and would thus be protected under Freedom of Speech provisions in the Human Rights Act.

Neil Davies, the Returning Officer, posted the following notice on 15 July:

Notice of vacancy in the office of councillor

Luton and Wayfield Ward

Notice if hereby given

That due to the resignation of one of the sitting councillors, a casual vacancy has arisen in the office of councillor for the above ward.

After the required notice by two electors in Medway to fill the vacancy has been given to me in accordance with Section 89(1)(b) of the Local Government Act, 1972, an election to fill the vacancy will be held within 35 days calculated in accordance with Section 243 of the said Act.

Speculation as to who will run from the three main parties is yet to start, although it will be quite interesting to see how the by-election will go. Despite a 500-strong majority,the Labour Party is seen to be so unpopular nationally at the moment there is all to play for.

John Ward has an interesting analysis on his blog.

Referring to Cllr Rehman Chishti, who was elected as the Parliamentary Candidate to a standing ovation almost two years ago, Bob Oakley said ‘the Conservatives’ candidate is not that popular within his own party’.

Mr Oakley was speaking after the Eruopean Election results, in which UKIP came in second. Although most commentators agree that votes will shift from UKIP to the Conservatives at a general election, Mr Oakley stated ‘I think we shall do well in the general election’.

His claims as to Cllr Chishti’s internal popularity appear to be just as misguided. This author has heard no such disquiet amongst the local Conservative ranks, although there were admittedly some people who preferred other candidates during the selection stage in June & July 2007.

Indeed all the noises being heard from the Gillingham & Rainham membership at present appear to be resoundingly supportive of Cllr Chishti’s campaign, and many members are doing all they can to ensure that he is the successful candidate at the next general election.

Labour MPs Paul Clark (Gillingham & Rainham) and Jonathan Shaw (Chatham & Aylesford) both voted against the Lib Dem-introduced motion supporting the Gurkhas, backed also by the Conservative Party.

In the same week he launched a damaging attack on the Prime Minister, Labour MP Bob Marshall-Andrews (Medway) voted in favour of the motion, which was passed after a rebellion from backbench Labour MPs.

Rehman Chishti, the Conservative Parliamentary Candidate for Gillingham & Rainham, said on his website ‘I am disappointed that the local MP has turned his back on the Gurkhas by refusing to support this motion, especially when they have done so much for this country and have strong links with Gillingham’.

Tracey Crouch, Reh’s counterpart in Chatham & Aylesford, said on her website that the ‘Conservatives joined the Liberal Democrats and some Labour MPs to vote against the Government’s policy on restricting the right of former Gurkhas to stay in the UK. Our own local MP ignored the feelings of many people in Chatham & Aylesford and voted in favour of the restrictions, which according to the Gurkha Justice Campaign would help only a limited number of veterans’.

The full voting record for the motion can be found over at The Public Whip.

Stephen Jarrett, who lives with his councillor father Alan, the Deputy Leader of Medway Council, and his mother Denise, was arrested when the family home in Ballens Road, Chatham, was raided on Thursday morning.

Despite the controversy this will likely be made into by opposition parties on the council, this is, and should be treated as, a strictly private family matter.

Cllr Jarrett said:

Anything that may or may not have happened is a private family matter and will be dealt with as such.

It is nothing to do with my job or my role as a councillor, nor is it anything to do with me or with Denise.

It does not impact on the council or the work I do for the council.

It is distressing enough for a family to witness a raid and arrest, without the media and opposition parties shining a spotlight on them through what should be a time for privacy.

For my part, this will be my only comment on this matter and I hope, though suspect otherwise, that others will follow suit.