Labour candidates prepare for fresh election battle
Plus the perils of social media, and Cllr Anang is here to help.
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Labour faces selection battles
As the dust settles on Labour’s local election victory, the party might like to think it has a little time to breathe. While the Conservatives will likely be doing their own soul-searching on what happened in Medway, Medway Council cabinet member Cllr Naushabah Khan has written for LabourList on how they managed to win. tl;dr: Organisation and a shedload of data.
Any chances of relaxing locally have been dashed by the national party though, who are moving forward on selecting parliamentary candidates. For several election cycles, Medway’s seats have not been seen as winnable options, leaving the selection process fairly local with old standbys like Cllr Teresa Murray and former councillor Andy Stamp regularly filling the role.
As the national political winds shift though, things are different this time around. While not the easiest of wins, the Medway seats are suddenly in contention, particularly in Gillingham & Rainham and Rochester & Strood. These are the kinds of seats Labour needs to win if they are to form a government again.
As a result, a number of runners and riders are bracing themselves to try and become Medway’s parliamentary candidates, both local and those trying their luck from the outside.
Rochester & Strood already has a longlist of candidates, with the first going public being Kevin McKenna. McKenna is an NHS nurse from Bethnal Green, who has seemingly played a long game here, campaigning with Medway Labour throughout the local election campaign. His website lists endorsements from three Strood councillors.
New cabinet member Cllr Lauren Edwards has confirmed she is also throwing her hat into the ring. Cllr Edwards’ rise within Medway Labour has been fairly meteoric. After being elected as councillor for Rochester East in December 2021, she has quickly become a prominent face of the party, becoming portfolio holder for economic and social regeneration following Labour taking control of Medway Council.
Cllr Alex Paterson is also said to be running for the seat, so there is clearly no lack of interest in the seat that has switched only between the Conservatives and UKIP since Labour lost it in 2010.
Nominations are now open for candidates in Gillingham & Rainham, where Rehman Chishti’s reign is looking increasingly perilous. The aforementioned Cllr Khan is certain to be a frontrunner in the constituency. Cllr Khan stood previously in Rochester & Strood and has made no secret of her parliamentary ambitions. It is unclear if there are other local contenders for the seat, but there are at least two Labour Party activists from other parts of the country having a go.
Chatham & Aylesford will be the final seat to select candidates. Cabinet member Cllr Tristan Osborne appears to be the local option for the seat. Cllr Osborne has fought an election as the Labour candidate there before, but it remains to be seen if any others want to put themselves forward.
With a General Election on the horizon next year, this process will move fairly quickly now, with all three seats set to have completed their selection process by the end of the summer. With Labour in control of Medway Council, the party have a renewed spring in their step, and it will be interesting to see if they can convert that enthusiasm to the parliamentary stage.
Twydall teacher loses job over Facebook posts
A slightly strange story this week from Twydall, where some Facebook posts quickly escalated to a teacher losing his job.
Michael Flynn, a teacher at Twydall Primary School, found himself dismissed from the school for breaching the school’s social media policy after he posted on Facebook about children attempting to steal his bicycle and threatening him and his wife. As a result of his posts, the school believed he presented a safeguarding concern.
As a result, his story has been picked up across the national press, with every major paper from the Mirror to the Daily Mail running a version of the story.
As always, the reality is likely more nuanced. While the national news stories focus on the original incident and Facebook posts, they leave out follow-up posts by Flynn that identified the children as being ones he taught at the school and comments that could be interpreted as implied threats towards them.
At the same time, his wife set up a Facebook page after the initial posts were removed from the original Facebook group they were posted on. The new page is a typical ‘making people aware’ crime group, posting photos of the children involved in the incident while rallying against Twydall Primary School for their actions, as well as arguing with any users who point out that maybe the school has a point that teachers posted implied threats toward children on social media. Which maybe isn’t ideal.
Whether or not Flynn should have lost his job is a bigger issue. Clearly, he shouldn’t have posted the content, but equally, such an error in judgement is understandable when faced with this kind of stressful situation. Unfortunately, no one comes out of this scenario, and it is a stark reminder to be careful that anything you post on the internet can always come back to haunt you.
Covid in numbers
Hospitalisations: Currently, 4 patients are being treated for covid in Medway Hospital, with none of them on a ventilator. This is in line with the past few weeks.
Deaths: No new deaths were recorded this week, keeping Medway at 1,035 covid deaths in total.
Cllr Anang is here to help
It’s always good to see new councillors enthusiastically throw themselves into their responsibilities and do their bit to help out their local community.
In that spirit, it is commendable to see new Rainham North Conservative councillor Kwashie Anang take to his Facebook page to share exciting job opportunities with local residents.
The only problem? The jobs are in Rainham in Essex, not Kent.
Now, it would be churlish to knock the new councillor for trying to help, but it’s maybe not the most reassuring sign when they can’t even recognise that jobs aren’t in their ward, but in another county altogether.
In brief
🏳️🌈 Medway Council raised the pride flag outside of Gun Wharf this week. This is the first time the authority has done it in its history, a small but meaningful step.
🏳️🌈 Tickets for Medway Pride were made available this week. The first batches sold out within hours, but more will be made available as the August event gets closer.
⚽ Gillingham FC owner Brad Galinson has spoken about future plans for a new stadium. While pointing out it won’t be anytime soon, a move is still the longtime plan, with Mill Hill in Lower Twydall still the preferred location.
🚘 A driver who parked across two parking spaces has been fined for parking across two parking spaces. The driver is so angered by this that he’s complained about it to the papers. Handy tip to avoid such incidents: Don’t park across two parking spaces.
📚 Medway River Lit kicks off tonight. The new literary festival for Medway features a strong lineup of international and local authors and a range of workshops, panels, and performances over the next 10 days.
Can you help us?
We’re currently looking to speak to current staff or students at the Universities at Medway campus. If you’d be willing to speak to us for a story we’re currently putting together on the state of the campus, we’d love to hear from you.
We’re also seeking to talk to anyone who has experience buying newbuild properties in Medway that has then faced issues with the quality of building work that has led to unexpected costs or surprises.
Email hello@localauthority.news if you’re able to help out with the above either on or off the record, or if you have any stories that might be of interest to our readers.
More Authority
Paid supporters of Local Authority receive extra editions of the newsletter every week. This week, a bumper crop as we sat down to interview Simon Cook, Chair of the Medway Place Board. He discussed what makes a Medway Champion, the best food spots in Medway (he's a former chef, he should know), and his aspirations for Medway as a place.
We also sent out our monthly events guide, highlighting lots of interesting things happening in Medway this month.
Finally, Steven Keevil sat down with Medway’s latest Monitoring Report and pulled out all of the facts and figures that indicate the current state of Medway.
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Footnotes
If you hear about any Medway news that might be of interest, let me know! Hit reply to message me directly, DM me on Twitter, or leave a comment below.
Music that soundtracked the creation of this newsletter: It Is The Rehearsal That Will Make This by The Middle Ones and I Know What Love Isn’t by Jens Lekman.