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Showing posts with label Local Government Reorganisation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Local Government Reorganisation. Show all posts

Sunday, 31 May 2026

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." 

 

 



Thursday, 2 April 2026

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