LABOUR'S FORCED COUNCIL CHANGES: SIGN OUR PETITION AGAINST THE BIG POLITICAL PARTIES LETTING YOU DOWN AGAIN!

Labour Robbing Democracy From Southampton People

We think there should be a Referendum before any councils are changed. Do you? If you do, please sign Andrew Pope's petition.  Andrew, who is a member of the Southampton Independent Network says:

 

 

 

"Do you want the forced Council Changes to be imposed on you from Westminster bureaucrats?

Did you know that starting next year, Keir Starmer's failing Labour Government will be forcing Southampton to join with the Waterside, Eastleigh, and Chilworth, Nursling and Rownhams to form a new "South West Hampshire" council.

All of the district and borough councils will be scrapped. In May 2027, it is planned to have elections to a council that does not even exist yet.

Your voice will be diluted. Your vote will be diluted. You will be forced to pay more taxes. The savings that are claimed will not eventuate, just like happened with a Tory Government in Somerset.

Some people on the Waterside object to this, under the "New Forest Together" banner. Some people in Eastleigh object to this. Some people in Chilworth, Nursling and Rownhams object to it too, under the "Test Valley Together" banner.

We at Southampton Independents want to hear what Southampton people think about it.

Did you know that you were apparently "consulted" about it? Most people did not.

Representatives of all the big political parties - councillors and MPs - have been contacted by us, repeatedly, going back for TEN YEARS, to ask them to support a Referendum before any councils are changed or elected mayors brought in.

Ten years ago, some of them supported a Referendum. Some of them helped our campaign then.

But more recently, they have let you down again. NONE OF THEM SUPPORT A REFERENDUM NOW. I've asked them time and again.  

They have let the Labour Government bully them into submission.
You are being ruled by civil servants in London, and the Labour MPs and Ministers in the Labour Government have let them do it to you - Angela Rayner, Jim McMahon, Steve Reed and more - all weak, and two of them were failed Labour councillors. 

Plus the local councillors from all of these big political parties have also failed to resist in any organised or effective way. 

I tried to educate them. I tried to get them to stand up for you.
But they haven't. 

So I ask you to sign my petition to show them that we, the people, should be asked and that we should not be let down by the big political parties not standing up to faceless bureaucrats in Westminster and Whitehall.

Independents stand up for what is right. We are not told what to do by political parties. Local people respect independents because of this. Join with us to show the political parties that they are wrong to ignore the people of Southampton." 

 

 

Pope Launches Petition on How Southampton, the New Forest and South Hampshire Is Governed

Andrew Pope at Mansel Park, Southampton
Photo: Southampton Independents

Andrew Pope has launched a petition on how Southampton, the New Forest and South Hampshire is governed, amid forced reorganisations to councils and a forced Elected Mayor by Whitehall mandarins and the Labour Minister Steve Reed MP.

Both have been encouraged by successive Labour and Conservative governments to affect Hampshire, Somerset and other parts of England. Andrew says: 

"Join me to demand a referendum and encourage other residents to do the same to save themselves from democracy being watered down. 
The people, not political parties and not a bankrupt political system, should decide if we:
(a) want to change our councils and 
(b) if we want to have an Elected Mayor.

When I was in the Labour and Co-operative parties, I met Steve Reed MP before he was a Minister, and we spoke about whether he was on the light side or the dark side. I might be mentioning this to him."

The petition is on Change.org at the link here. 

Is our democracy safe from the political parties and Whitehall civil servants? 

No, so we have to stand up against it.

Please sign the petition. 

Democracy at risk, We need a democracy smoke detector
Photo: Southampton Independents

REFERENDUM CAMPAIGN: Andrew Pope Writes To Leaders of Councils and Groups Again About A Referendum... and Complains About the BBC

 

Andrew Pope on BBC South Today about "Devolution"
Photo: Southampton Independents

UPDATE: A new petition has been created by Andrew Pope. You can sign it here. It has been offered to all MPs in the region and many councillors - will these party politicians sign it? We'll see...

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Andrew Pope says: "A sham consultation of Southampton and Hampshire people is not enough to change how we are governed. The big political parties should be made to persuade us, not force us, in a vote, just like the EU Referendum but conducted in a more informed and balanced way by a citizens jury first". 

After yesterday's dreadful announcement that Southampton City Council is to be merged with others in the Region, Andrew Pope has given another chance to leaders of Hampshire councils, and leaders of political groups of councillors, to support a Referendum on (a) council reorganisation and (b) an Elected Mayor.

He has written to the leaders of the following councils:

• Hampshire County - Conservative Councillor Nick Adams-King
• New Forest District - Conservative Councillor Jill Cleary
• Test Valley Borough - Conservative Councillor Phil North
• Portsmouth City - Liberal Democrats Councillor Steve Pitt
• Southampton City - Labour Councillor Alex Winning

and previously had been in touch with the Leader of the Isle of Wight Council, Independent Phil Jordan.

Some of these leaders had responded to previous correspondence on the issues at hand. Others did not.

None had supported a Referendum. 

Andrew has also written to the leaders of all political groups in Southampton City Council again. Some had engaged with a debate, but again...

• Conservative Group Leader Councillor Peter Baillie
• Liberal Democrats Group Leader Councillor Richard Blackman
• Labour Group Leader Councillor Alex Winning
• Both Green Councillors Matt Renyard and Katharine Barbour
• The sole Reform Councillor Sarah Powell-Vaughan 

None have supported a Referendum, although the Southampton Liberal Democrats did, and then changed their mind.

The author of the article Jason Lewis, the Local Democracy Reporter funded by the BBC, that only includes the views of Labour elected representatives in Southampton, and nobody else in Southampton, was cc'd. The BBC is required to be impartial. Andrew has written to Jason Lewis and the Editor of the Echo, Ben Fishwick, to complain.

 

 

REFERENDUM DEMAND on "Devolution" and Council Reorganisations: Andrew Pope's Letter To Daily Echo

Southampton Independents Councillor Andrew Pope
on BBC South Today About "Devolution" in 2017
Photo: Southampton Independents

Member of the Independent Network Andrew Pope has had a letter published in the Daily Echo. The wording is below.

Do you agree with him? 

Then get in touch and help the campaign for a Referendum. Andrew forced one in Somerset and helped to defeat previous proposals here in Southampton by working cross-party before. He was the ONLY councillor of forty-eight on Southampton City Council to fight the previous proposals and defeat them.

Andrew says in the letter:

 

Andrew Pope

 

"Dear Editor, as I have said since 2016, there should be a referendum before any changes are made to how we are governed.

Neither Labour nor Tory governments have stood up to Whitehall mandarins who want to take local democracy away.

I have, both here with Southampton Independents and when I was there for three years, in Somerset Independents. I forced a referendum in Somerset.

We defeated the "Solent Devolution Deal" here in Southampton and in the region before, by my working together across the region with political parties and independents, but it came back from the dead like the vampire that it is.

I disagreed with the former Hampshire County Council leader Roy Perry on almost everything, but he was right when he said that a stake needed to be driven through its heart.

I demand a referendum and ask that residents do the same to save themselves from democracy being watered down.

Regards, Andrew Pope, Independent Network, Southampton Independents"