New KCC chairman praised for having urbane and sardonic wit

The new chairman of Kent County Council is David Brazier, whose languorous tones always reminds Off The Record of a man who should always have a dry martini at his side.

There’s no doubt he is popular with his constituents – as Cllr Roger Gough, who acted as his formal proposer, pointed out.

Cllr Gough said he had been “quite chuffed” at the share of the vote he had secured in his own division.

That was until he had seen his colleague’s.

“I felt utterly crushed and inadequate in the face of some North Korean score of 78%,” he said.

He also praised his sense of humour, saying that in an age of robotic soundbites, he has an urbane and sardonic wit. “It is at the Uber-end of Saharan dry,” he said.

Meanwhile, with 67 councillors, there has been some difficulty in arranging a new seating plan in the council chamber to accommodate the Conservative group at KCC.

It is not to everyone’s liking. The Green councillor Martin Whybrow intimated that he felt rather uncomfortable.

“I am a bit disconcerted to have them behind me… I usually prefer to have them where I can see them.”

The new leader of the Labour group is Dara Farrell, from Ashford, who acquitted himself well in his maiden speech and whose youthfulness is in stark contrast to those around him.

Although he has been steeped in politics most of his life and is already a borough councillor, he compared the experience to that of moving from primary to secondary school.

The analogy allowed him to quip: “Looking around, some of us have had their first day at school rather more recently than others.”

With just a week to go before polling day and Kent has yet to see any political big hitters head towards the county.

It perhaps says something about how the parties view the electoral landscape in the county.

But in our experience, this is the first time in any election since the Labour landslide in 1997 that Kent has not been on the radar of the VIPS.

Read what you will into that but it is pretty astonishing that outside a visit by the new Ukip leader Paul Nuttall – not actually within the campaign period – there has been nothing at all.

Pity the poor ice cream vendors who are normally roped into a standard picture opportunity.

Still, with all those party placards being brandished by candidates and activists, cardboard manufacturers must be doing well. Let’s hope they are all recyclable.

Who knows – we might have another election in the not-toodistant future.

Follow Paul on Twitter @ Paulonpolitics for all the election news and gossip.