There are 63 seats to be contested in Rotherham’s 2016 Council elections….3 councillors for each of the 21 Wards.
Sadly, well maybe not so sadly, none of the political parties can at present find sufficient candidates to contest every seat.
UKIP are so far off the pace that they must be considering entering their pets into the race.
Conservatives and Lib Dems are closer to extinction than finding a full field of candidates.
Which brings us to Labour..
Rumours as to their shortfall in candidates varies between 8 and 13.
So short are they, and here’s irony, several candidates have been approved by the NEC who’ve only been members for a couple of months…whereas to have a vote in selection one must have been a member for at least six months. You can imagine the dinosaurs grumbling at that one.
These virgin members standing for the first time, are noticeable for an aura of optimistic cheerfulness. Brought about by the idealistic belief that they are making a personal contribution to open and democratic government, for the people by the people. In their presentations they mistakenly try to make political points, while staring into the dead eyes of the nodding donkeys we call the Mosque claque.
We’ll see how long it takes for them to be ground down by the remaining old lags of the gulag we call Labour Group and its weapon of torture; the Whip.
Emails, exhorting members to put their name forward were still going out on the 19th January…yet several Wards had already held their selection meetings by that date. It’s a tough day in Rotherham when £12 grand can’t pull out sufficient geriatrics needing a pension top up.
Other points of interest?
Bets are being placed on how many Kashmiri candidates can get nominations for the three central Wards..East, West and Boston Castle.
There is a rumour that the Mosques have been undone by their own misogyny.
They didn’t understand the Labour Policy for all women candidates in some seats and another that no ward can submit fewer women candidates in 2016 than were already in place in 2015.
Meaning, that in Boston Castle for example, having two sitting woman Councillors already, means that for 2016 two out of their three nominees must be women. This caused fun during the selection process as most of the Mosques hadn’t twigged that no matter how much they packed the selection meeting with nodding donkeys they still couldn’t break the rules. Had Jeremy been there they would no doubt have got a gang of the lads to give him what’s for, as is their style.
IN BC it meant they couldn’t select the Mosques chosen new candidate, Mahroof Rashid…a man who looked extremely unhappy on the night he lost out. You don’t want a lift in his taxi over the next couple of weeks .
Sadly, what seemed like a small success for democracy and openness soon tuned to ashes when the Mosques failure let in the woeful Rose MacNeely. A women so desperate for election that come Election Day many expect her to don the burka. Her new name for the election slip is McNeeley Begum.
Famous for her failure to introduce the Rented property registration scheme and general self interest the only hope for Boston Castle residents is that the Mosque forgets to instruct their flock to support her and one UKIP’s pet budgies gets the vote.
So there it is, the only excitement of Labour selection to date; the failure of the Mosques to understand the need for women candidates…otherwise in Rotherham we would have had a full suite of Kashmiri candidates for the three inner town Wards..
As stated,the Mosque elders undone by their own misogyny
If you know who has been selected for Rotherham East and West please add to the comments below…
Wil Ewart
Ps Apparently Shabana Ahmed, despite being at risk in her current Ward, and a desperate need for Kashmiri women candidates, isn’t tipped for one of the safer bet Kashmiri run inner town nominations…apparently she is morally a bit too ummmmmmmm European. Again a bit of misogyny, after all they were more than prepared to keep putting Asbo forward, despite his morality being a mirror image of hers:)
Rotherham Politics 
A shambles all round – nothing new there then ! At least the cockups by the mosque elders and thugees may begin to fracture the biraderi system of crooked vote rigging within the Borough. It has been the elephant in the room throughout the “Stone” led PC years and should be investigated more closely now that era is crumbling ! Here’s hoping !
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Beautifully written and perceptive, Will !
Many thanks.
Gender Equality is still so far away in some sections of our community.
If (and only if) UKIP put up a pet cockroach, I’d vote UKIP
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Well at least you would vote UKIP, I could never vote Labour
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not even if they came up with fresh new competent candidates that you could trust?
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RR I see you are at it again you do not class Labour councillors as cockroaches what are they then as they still deny anything happened and some of those are still on the COUNCIL. Chris Read has asked for opinions as to how to save money why does he not ask opposition councillors if they have some ideas but then of course you are so biased to Labour that you could not do and no matter what any of the people in the borough said this council will already have decided on what they are going to do
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The last time the “opposition” were asked for ideas they suggested giving 2m quid to the failing trust at Magna! Probably why Chris read doesn’t bother asking them anymore. That and the fact that Craven Caven has said he wants no non-partisan working.
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A town gets the council it deserves, which was demonstrated by the “I’m Labour until I die” section of the electorate that ensured we had Stone, Smith, Wright and Akhtar for years and also the people who no matter what will not vote. It’s time for some Independent candidates to come forward.
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so long as UKIP build on their past success and hopefully add another chunk of councillors to the ones they have, things will be moving forward, and if Jeremy Corbyn doesnt alert Rotherham people to the fact that the situation here will never improve under under Labour, or the widescale sexual attacks and violence from muslim immigrants accross europe prompt them to vote UKIP then there really is little hope.
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How many and who of the cse grooming years coverup and the cse deniers got selected by parties?
Some say they and mps are entwined to keep things under wraps.
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Must be careful anon how you answer things on here mp’s especially take umbrage if you dare suggest anything
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If I read the excellent article correctly the New and Improved Peoples Party cannot muster enough worthy candidates to volunteer as cannon fodder for the Labour group? This is surprising given the vocal outbursts on this and other blogs which berate us ordinary mortals for failing to understand the tidal wave of enthusiasm for Comrade Corbyn’s ‘Progressive’ Labour party and his policies.
Perhaps the same enthusiasm has not yet reached the Pack The Postal Votes In Your Taxi For Delivery sector of Rotherham?
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Colin lol
Pity not socialist and radical. Corbyn dunt peee in same pot to labour group thank god.
Rmbc is closer to Call me Dave type of politics and still persists in bulllying culture to members. Hence carrying out cuts and recall they did not oppose bedroom tax initially.
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Perhaps the time has come for a little pragmatism when voting. Most comments on this site indicate a desire to see change in Rotherham but the problem remains that the opposition to Labour is fragmented. One solution might be for voters in each area to vote for the candidates most likely to beat Labour even though they might not themselves favour the particular party concerned. However, if enough people do this then each of the constructive opposition parties could well pick up seats in one area if not in another by benefiting from tactical voting across Rotherham. Think about it.
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I did not want Akhtar as my Councillor for Rotherham West. The two main opposing parties were Respect and UKIP. I looked at the candidates, looked at the map of Rotherham West and decided that more people would vote UKIP than Respect so I voted UKIP and Akhtar was gone by just 40 votes.
It would be best if all parties worked together and between them only put up one opposition to Labour in each Ward – almost like a referendum – Labour or coalition for 4 years
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On the issue of voting, In Anston, the UKIP candidate has missed by just 30 votes in one Election, and missed by 50 votes in the last election. The reason, Tory voters. The Tories in Anston have around a core vote of 500 people who at every Election vote Tory ( which is their perfect right to do so) but by voting blindly, they allow the Labour Party in every time. Without having a go at those voters, the Tories are a spent force in Anston ( they field candidates from elsewhere, and do no Electioneering) If they were to take a deep breath, hold their nose, and vote UKIP, then the Labour Party would be wiped out.
So if your one of those voters, who is the most hated, UKIP or Labour, the future of Anston is in your hands.
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Common sense as usual look at Hellerby ward wickersley Torres voting UKIP 2 labour Councillors gone should be 3 ukip Councillors this time
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Vote Labour in Rotherham get hypocrites, at Wednesday’s borough council meeting we had the spectical of a councillor standing to move a motion against the anti trade union laws of the Tories. The rest were falling over themselves to support it and tell us which union they were in, mostly good old Unison. They told us workers rights should be defended, and how as trade unionists they would do this. They were somewhat nonplussed when I berated them from the public gallery as liars and hypocrites and that they were crying crocodile tears. I could not believe that even this set of morons could have the cheek to spout this rubbish whilst preparing to sack 300 more trade unionists.
Dave Smith
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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3417686/Whistleblower-sues-union-Unite-zero-hours-contract.html
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Any decent newspaper would have updated their article to say that settlement had been reached, – as the Times did, but not the nasty Daily Fail:
Unite settle with activist who claimed union hired him on zero hours contract
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/unite-settle-activist-who-claimed-7250250
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http://order-order.com/2016/01/27/mirror-spikes-unites-zero-hours-contracts-story/ Oh the daily mirror who pulled the story on union orders
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it’s the bonfire of the council’s deadwood. Some of these people have only got their jobs through nepotism, which is rife in the council. Should being a member of a trade union give them immunity from redundancy? And why does trying to cut the deficit make them morons?
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Deadwood is strange terminology to use. Have a look at the Council’s budget papers and you’ll see that the jobs that will go include library workers, toilet attendants, school crossing patrols, caretakers, street lighting engineers and care workers. I doubt many of these workers have got their jobs through nepotism.
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They sat on their hands when labour was in power and bliar boasted of the weakest worker laws in europe. Kept all the thatcher and tebbit anti union laws.
What did they and the MPS do then?
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