Stop the personal attacks or mayoral election will be a flop
IT WAS SUPPOSED TO USHER IN A NEW KIND OF POLITICS – WHERE IS IT?
THERE is now less than a month to go until Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire’s voters decide who the firstever East Midlands Mayor will be.
Despite the polling day now being in sight, a large proportion of voters still seem unclear about what the East Midlands Mayor role actually is – and those who do understand have some issues.
Chief among them, based on comments from Post readers, is why we need yet another politician making decisions on our behalf.
Years of Westminster psychodrama have left many feeling tired of politics and so the idea of even more of it is not one that they are greeting with relish.
For those wanting to be the first East Midlands Mayor, one of the primary arguments against this point is that the May 2 election will usher in a new kind of politics in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.
Whoever is elected mayor will be heading up the brand new East Midlands Combined County Authority.
This authority is being handed powers currently held by the national government in Westminster under a process known as devolution.
This means the authority will be able to take local decisions on major issues ranging from housing to transport.
The argument around this being a new kind of politics would therefore have been a good counter-argument to apathy on the doorsteps, were it not for some of the language we have seen in the campaign so far.
After being selected as the Conservative Party’s candidate, Ben Bradley expressed his hope that the East Midlands Mayor campaign would be “less political” and that he did not want to spend his time “slagging everybody off”.
Looking back over how that pledge has turned out, we see that Councillor Bradley himself has dismissed his Labour opponent simply as a former MP for Watford with “no background in our area”, despite Claire Ward currently chairing one of Nottinghamshire’s hospital trusts and having lived in the East Midlands for a decade.
Councillor Bradley also came under fire for comments in a national party political broadcast recently, in which he spent time lambasting the “terrible” record of Labour councils and claiming that, under them, you are more likely to be waiting behind “non-british nationals” for social housing.
Mansfield District Council, in Councillor Bradley’s own constituency, quickly rubbished the picture being painted of the way in which social housing is allocated.
Some of Councillor Bradley’s claims have understandably drawn responses setting the record straight from his opponents, but they themselves have often strayed into party politics too.
Claire Ward has spoken about the Conservative Party offering “empty promises and sleight-of-hand trickery” and of her desire for an immediate general election to “get rid of this failed Tory Government”.
Independent candidate Matt Relf has described Claire Ward as being an “out-of-touch candidate” who is “well and truly part of the Westminster establishment”.
Politics is, of course, a brutal business and the passion with which many candidates come to it means that fierce debate is inevitable and indeed, it should be welcomed.
But this debate, particularly when trying to persuade voters that the new East Midlands Mayor role is worth voting for, should be centred on policies and ideas.
There has been plenty of that too but, depressingly, it has sometimes been overshadowed by personal attacks, claim and counter-claim and party political theatre. Voters could be forgiven for thinking that this East Midlands Mayor campaign has often felt like the style of politics they accustomed to. The nature of the campaign needs to change quickly for that perception to change and for the East Midlands Mayor election to have any chance of achieving a decent turnout.
Those standing to be the first ever East Midlands Mayor, in alphabetical order, are:
■Frank Adlington-stringer – Green Party. Councillor Adlington-stringer is currently a councillor on North East Derbyshire District Council, where he also serves as the vice-chair of the environment scrutiny committee.
■Ben Bradley – Conservative Party. Councillor Bradley is currently Nottinghamshire County Council leader and MP for Mansfield.
■Alan Graves – Reform UK. Councillor Graves is a councillor on Derby City Council, where he also serves as the city’s mayor.
■Matt Relf – Independent. Councillor Relf is a councillor on Ashfield District Council, where he also serves as the executive lead member for growth, regeneration and local planning.
■Helen Tamblyn-saville – Liberal Democrat. Mrs Tamblyn-saville owns the Wonderland Bookshop in Retford, and previously served as a member of Bassetlaw District Council and stoof as the Liberal Democrat candidate for Bassetlaw MP at the 2019 general election. Claire Ward –Labour. Mrs Ward is currently chair of Sherwood Forest Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and was Labour MP for Watford from 1997 until 2010.
This debate, particularly when trying to persuade voters that the new role is worth voting for, should be centred on policies and ideas