Are BBI leopards

trying to change

their spots?

In recent days, we've received several e-mails suggesting that a number of BBI politicians are considering defecting from their party – most likely in the direction of the Conservative group.
In one sense this would appear to be a sound move - given that in three months' time the BBI might all but vanish from the political map, but it also raises a number of questions.
First and foremost is the issue of loyalty.
Throughout its shaky reign, the BBI has always clung to the nonsense that its members are true, free thinking independents – unfettered by old style political loyalties.
Why, then, are they making a beeline for the safety of the Tory wagons instead of announcing themselves as Independents, or joining the Better Boston Group?
The answer, or course, is that they think they have a better chance of re-election with the Tories than if they go it alone or with a small group.
So why are they considering a move now?
If it is because of dissatisfaction with the Bypass Independents Party, then has it taken far too long, and a sudden Damascene conversion also seems unlikely - as the BBI has been the same bad kettle of fish almost since it was formed.
In many ways what's happening now mirrors events from a few months after the 2007 elections.
Once a handful of then BBI members got a glimpse of what the party was really like, they quit in disgust.
Now, the reverse may well be true. As hitherto loyal members who enjoy the power and the glory sense a rout of the BBI on 5th May they – like generals in a ruling junta on the brink of overthrow – decide to reclothe themselves in a garb of electoral respectability ahead of a peasants' revolt that could see them lose their seat if they stay put.
This smacks of self-service rather than public service.
Already, at least a couple of party members are not standing for re-election, and we suspect that more will follow.
Meanwhile, given the latest suggestion that others are trying to desert the sinking ship, the BBI may well implode before the voters have their say.
In some ways it reminds us of the county elections in June 2009, when a lifelong Labour supporter suddenly announced his candidacy as an Independent ... because of “the writing in the press of the excesses in Westminster which finally confirmed my disillusionment with the party political system.”
Unfortunately, as we pointed out at the time, the press items began the day after nominations closed – but at a time when any sane candidate would have known that standing on a Labour ticket would buy a one way trip to the political graveyard.
Whatever the reason , the voters sent him packing as they doubtless sensed that his argument was specious.
We would hope the same would happen to any BBI member who changes political colours to save their own skin. And we also hope that the Tories would have the good sense to see through such a ploy and deny them a safe haven.
In the pursuit of openness and transparency, we e-mailed a BBI member or two to ask them about their political intentions.
In the pursuit of rudeness and arrogance, they did not bother to reply. Clinging to their tainted old values to the end.

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