On 24 Mar 2014 at 9:42am Another Voter wrote:
Check out the Lewes Lib Dem website
On 24 Mar 2014 at 10:33am Amazed wrote:
The word desperation springs to mind.
From the press release :
"While the Lib Dems have been open-minded and inclusive, the Tories have been tribal and dismissive of alternative ideas to a destructive degree. This behaviour has predictably just escalated to recent event in the blocking of the Business Rates Scheme and even worse in their total disregard of the sovereignty of Full Council by dismissing some focused activity on flood prevention."
Sorry disregard of Full Council Sovereignty? Am I missing something here? I thought Mr Page was good at doing that - Newhaven Water Park and Special expenses.
Please Correct me if I am being unfair here.
Meanwhile I suspect this will backfire on the Libdems
On 24 Mar 2014 at 12:08pm Zebedee wrote:
There must be more to this than meets the eye. And it can't can be *just* that James page has the hump with the local Tories can it?
On 24 Mar 2014 at 1:58pm Border Control wrote:
Can they just jump ship when they like ?
On 24 Mar 2014 at 2:44pm Zebedee wrote:
Donna Edmunds did. It seems to me that Councillors must have to put themselves forward for reelection if they change party. All of the Tories in Barcombe who voted for Donna did so because she was a Tory (as in reality no-one really knew who she was). Most were not best pleased to find out that in the end they had voted in UKIP.
On 24 Mar 2014 at 3:22pm Ex Lib-Dem Voter wrote:
And just when we thought the Lib Dems had reached rock bottom.... I had already given up on Lib Dems but for them to endorse and even promote the man that brought us undemocratic secret LDC decision making, that even the Lib Dems criticised, really does take the biscuit. And we wonder why there is voter apathy, and a complete lack of trust in politicians. What a complete shower. It is hardly surprising that the dreadful UKIP are getting undeserved support. I despair.
On 24 Mar 2014 at 5:58pm All Heart wrote:
People can have a change of heart you know! Or are you saying ex lib dem voter that no one can ever change or ever learn from their mistakes and how on earth does one man changing his party explain support for UKIP! Maybe Mr Page listened to Lib Dem criticism and decided they were right
On 24 Mar 2014 at 6:15pm Jump or Pushed? wrote:
My understanding is that Jimmy Page wouldn't listen to anybody .
or perhaps we can look forward to him spilling the beans about all his appalling mistakes as a Tory?
On 24 Mar 2014 at 6:51pm The quiet one wrote:
Looked back at 2011 election result Tories had 22 councillors -losing one is unfortunate,2 careless 3 is downright reckless !
On 24 Mar 2014 at 7:22pm Ed Can Do wrote:
That the local Libdems have welcomed with open arms the man who managed to get LDC into the Rotten Boroughs section of Private Eye on what, three occasions, says a lot about the local Libdems.
That Jimmy in the press release describes his former party buddies as "small minds, small ideas and a blind obedience to doctrine and party message" after he merrily ran the council on his own behind closed doors, relying on the blind obedience of his party chums to secure his powerbase suggests that he's actually delusional.
Either he was running the council for his own benefit all this time, in which case he's a crook and the Libdems should have nothing to do with him, or he genuinely thought everything he did was for the wider benefit of the people of the district in which case he's an idiot, he shouldn't ever be allowed to be in a position where his opinion can influence public policy again and the Libdems should have nothing to do with him.
I'm amazed they let him in their party and I'm amazed that Norm thought crowing about it was a good idea. The Greens are looking like a better and better option here by the day!
On 24 Mar 2014 at 9:12pm OLD ALE wrote:
Good on him for admitting that he got his political choice wrong in the past. Looks like this move by the Lib Dems will help destabilise the local Tories and hopefully stop them winning control of the District Council for another 4 years.
On 24 Mar 2014 at 10:56pm Zzz.. wrote:
The Greens are a good choice now. Let's try and get a few in this year. The rest are sh1t
On 25 Mar 2014 at 12:40am Andrew James wrote:
How will it destabilise the local Tories OLD ALE? He's the secretive, self serving, scandal fodder creep that needs to be kept the hell away from council chambers.
Much as it pains me to say so, the Tories without him are a much better prospect than the Libdems with him.
On 25 Mar 2014 at 2:27am Lord Gnome wrote:
Re: Rotten Boroughs - Private Eye. The editor of that section lives in Lewes, hence the high number of mentions.
On 25 Mar 2014 at 8:04am Roger Dodger wrote:
Blimey what a bunch of professional middle class Lewes malcontents have turned up on this thread. Sitting at their computers venting bile at someone they've probably never met. I haven't either but to become leader, give it uo and cross the floor suggests a man of great conviction and desire to do something for our little town who didn't like the way his colleagues were acting.
I used to vote Tory but now he's made me reconsider.
You lot can shoot me down and carry on your conspiracy theories and general unpleasantness all you like but Mr Page has had the balls to stand up and be counted - in the real world.
On 25 Mar 2014 at 8:35am The original Bob wrote:
I wasn't going to vote in the Town Council election but now I will. Either Green or Labour just to annoy the Lib Dems.
On 25 Mar 2014 at 9:13am DFL wrote:
Just what's the point of a Town Council, let's rid ourselves of it ? Busy Bodies ?
On 25 Mar 2014 at 9:17am Voter wrote:
RD. If Cllr page is so great, the Tories would have kept him , and the Lib Dems wouldn't have endlessly criticised him. As a voter I cannot engage with this latest shameless nonsense.
(PS. am glad to hear that you are definitely not a malcontent sitting at a computer venting bile at people you haven't met)
On 25 Mar 2014 at 3:11pm Badger wrote:
I used to vote LibDem but definitely won't be now.
I even thought that it was unfair the amount of stick the national LibDems were getting for 'getting into bed with' the Tories (personally I think the coalition was the only reasonable option open to the LibDems at the time).
But now that the local LibDems are taking this catastrophe of a local politician into their fold I really can't see a way back for them. They may gain votes in Page's constituency but they'll lose them here in Lewes town.
I'll be voting Green, which is the only viable option for me now...
On 25 Mar 2014 at 5:21pm Another Voter wrote:
Surely with all this political choas its time for more Independents? That said, the Green candidate for the Lewes Town Council by-Election is an ex Lib Dem, and the Independent is an ex Lib Dem. It's happening at all levels!
On 26 Mar 2014 at 10:59pm Local wrote:
Didn't some Green wallah change to an independent shortly after getting elected? Probably because he wouldn't have stood a chance of winning as a lone saddo.
On 27 Mar 2014 at 1:57pm bare assed cheek wrote:
Unbelievable the Lib Dems took James Page on. It can only be assumed they must have no idea why the he was forced to step down as leader of the Council. I'm sure they'll find out in not too many moons. 
On 27 Mar 2014 at 2:44pm Voter wrote:
Lewes does seem to be the embarrassing leader in the field of going Independent, and Party hopping, but at least going Independent doesn't conflict with what you may have been saying previously about other parties, or indeed, what they were saying about you.
On 27 Mar 2014 at 8:13pm Moonman wrote:
Bare assed cheek - is the clue in the title!
On 28 Mar 2014 at 5:36pm Couldn't make it up. wrote:
So now James is a Lib Dem, and the Lib Dems were very vocal critics of what he introduced as a Tory,which of his own awful actions is he now going to join the Lib Dems in being against? Would someone ask him please?
On 4 Apr 2014 at 12:48pm PLUMPTON LAD wrote:
Local - you are correct, Green Party had (I think) two defections to Indies on a town council level.