I WAS pleased to see that in her letter of thanks, to all those who supported her election as Councillor for Devizes North Ward, Christine Gay included her party, The Devizes Guardians, from whom she had “immense help”.
This is of course as it should be since any candidate that signs up under a particular party emblem, whether it be Devizes Guardians, Labour or Conservative, should show a certain amount of respect and loyalty to that party, and in return that party has a responsibility to the candidate, including vetting any candidate before they stand for election under the party emblem. This does not seem to have been the case in the election held last May, so I am not surprised that in the article by Jo Moore in last week’s Gazette and Herald, Guardian leader, Nigel Carter was keen to put the controversy behind the party”.
I found one paragraph in the Guardians election address for Christine insulting to all other Devizes town councillors. In the paragraph headed Public Service not Political Ambition, they seem to imply that the Guardians alone work solely for the good of the local community, and yet surely all councillors on Devizes Town Council do that, in that they all give up their time for free in the interests of the local community.
This phrase in particular “have no political ambition beyond serving their community”, I think embodies their main argument, which seems to be that a councillor allied to a particular party cannot possibly be independent. It seemed to work in the past before the Guardians became a political party. In fact in the same Guardian election address Christine’s late father is described as an independent Devizes Town Councillor. I am sure that he was independent, but he was also a Conservative Town Councillor, a fact that the Guardians omit. It is as if the Guardians feel that councillors are unable to do their job, or act independently, if they are allied to a mainstream political party, which is clearly NOT the case.
It is true that most of the issues that the town council have to deal with are outside of the realms of national party politics. However in general I think we all know “where a Conservative, or Labour Councillor is coming from”. However, what about the Guardians? We do know that their leader, Nigel Carter, declared publicly last year that he was for BREXIT and more recently, Gazette and Herald, July 20, expressed views which showed that he was happy to continue with austerity.
SUE BUXTON
Devizes Constituency Labour Party
Lansdowne Terrace
Morris Lane
Devizes