The Conservative "Opposition"

Councillor Spencer Drury has recently been in touch with me about the state of my street and my struggles with the Council to get them to sort it out.

I am wary of becoming a mouthpiece for the Conservatives, which could happen quite easily given my refusal to accept the disdain and contempt with which the ruling Labour party treats us locals. I've said similar things before and one of Spencer's comments to me was "I know that you are somewhat suspicious of Conservatives".

Well I'm not sure if suspicious is quite the right way to put it, what I said back to him was:

"Yes I am indeed somewhat suspicious of the local Conservatives. Too many of your Councillors, or would be Councillors, seem far more interested in what is happening in Westminster than what is happening in their own borough. To be ignored by the local Labour party is bad, to then feel that the local opposition seem interested in using the area as little more than a stepping stone onto bigger things is depressing."

So I thought that that statement needs some qualifying, so I looked into the three local Conservative bloggers of which I am most aware.

Simon Emmett, Conservative Candidate for Shooters Hill Ward
Nigel Fletcher, Conservative Councillor for Eltham North
Conservative Council Group Leader

So what do those people blog about?

Is my statement that they're seemingly more interested in national rather than local politics based in truth?

At this point I'm quite literally going to find out, I've not checked out the results before starting this entry so I could very easily be proved wrong, let's see.....

Simon Emmett
1	Labour Suporting Media Show How Much They Are Out Of Touch		National
2	Representing The Constituents?		National
3	Having Your Pension Screwed		National
4	Obsolete I.T.	Local
5	London Marathon	Local
6	Promise on the Common	Local
7	Fly the Flag Today			Other
8	George Osborne’s Response To The Budget		National
9	Economic Competence?		National
10	Brown's Expenses Review		National
Totals		30%	60%	10%
Councillor Nigel Fletcher
1	Bin and Gone	Local
2	Celebrating St. George's Day		National
3	Day 3 of the Henry trail	Local
4	Henry VIII and modern Greenwich		National
5	Newsflash: The King is Dead, Long Live the King!			Other
6	A Labour man with an internet plan		National
7	Oysters in the Thames	Local
8	Boris pledges to protect Greenwich Park	Local
9	Normal service is resumed			Other
10	Mandelson's Custardy Battle		National
Totals		50%	30%	20%
Councillor Spencer Drury
1	LABOUR CLOSE CHILDREN'S PLAYGROUND FOR EASTER	Local
2	Conservatives write to residents about roadworks on A2	Local
3	More help needed for Greenwich and Woolwich’s small firms during the recession	Local
4	Labour reject Conservative proposalsfor increased police numbers and reduced council tax	Local
5	School closure is short-term panicked decision	Local
Totals		100%

Well all told they did better than I expected.

Simon Emmet managed a depressing 30% of his posts with a local focus. On the one hand I enjoy reading his national commentary, on the other shouldn't a prospective candidate be generating more posts about his area? Isn't there something going on of importance like the bins around me?

I've commented on Councillor Fletcher's focus before and since then he's improved, he was on about a 25% local post rate and he's now doubled that to 50%.

Councillor Drury did impress me, a 100% local focus. On the downside though he's managed 5 posts since the end of February. As I've said about Simon Emmet isn't there something local to post about?

So in conclusion think my initial impressions have been pretty much justified. It's not as bad as I felt it was but the local opposition doesn't seem that interested in local issues, or at least in blogging about local issues. National issues also take up a higher proportion of their posts than I would hope or expect when in opposition against a Council as rubbish as Greenwich.

Please note though that I'm not saying that the local Labour Party is any better, but then you only have to look at the state of our streets to know that they don't care.

However all the links and posts are up there, so take a look and make you're own mind up as to how interested the opposition is in Greenwich and your lives.