Another day, another LibDem defection or two

The (first gay) Mayor of Richmond upon Thames, LibDem Cllr Marc Cranfield Adams, announced to the full Council last night that he had (re)joined the Conservatives.

GLA candidate for Richmond, Tony Arbour, who was present said:

"Like many other people in South West London he has become disillusioned with the gesture politics of the LibDems and is leaving a rapidly sinking ship and embracing the policies of Boris Johnson and David Cameron."

This comes as Janet Hedges, a LibDem councillor in Epping Forest, announces she is joining the Conservatives this morning, and the LibDem leader in Sedgemoor defected yesterday.

Comments

[Bob Johnson]

A little background - MCA was a Tory who defected to the Lib Dems in 2004 as he knew the Tories were going to lose control of Richmond in 2006.

He made his announcement at full council last night...

On the Liberal Democrat side - everyone cheered.

On the Tory side - glum faces.

Nobody knows if he is being accepted in to tory group on the council.

A few months ago he started signing off his e-mails as "Your worship".

You are welcome to him.

[Shneur Odze]

Well at least he can spot a winner when he sees one. I say his caricature aside its sure promising for the Tories.

[RT]

Marc Cranfield Adams has no principles whatever and will defect whenever the going gets tough. Although most defections are to be welcomed, this is definately one that the Tory group on Richmond council should not touch with a ten foot barge pole.

[Welsh Tory]

I am almost certain this guy has done this before. Didn't he quit a Welsh Conservative group for the Lib Dems and then came back to the Tories in Richmond.

This is not the type of bloke you want in tough times.

[Giles McNeill]

For anyone interested in why the lib dems are unfit for office click the link below for a webcast of Monday night's West Lindsey District Council Meeting (That's in Lincolnshire - and acording to The Times - Tory target No. 5 on May 1st) about 13 and a half minutes in Cllr. Sue Rawlins asks a question and the responce is abismal, she asks a second question and way it is answered prompts the walk out of the Conservative Group from the meeting. Judge for yourselves.

http://www.west-lindsey.public-i.tv/site/#pp14663

[Sean Fear]

Words fail me.

[London Activist]

This is the fourth time Cranfield Adams has ratted. We should get his CV ready for Labour and set up a fund for his membership. I am sure some LDs will contribute. T

he other piece of bad news is, the Conservatives will no longer get a blow by blow account of LD group meetings as the guy has a mouth the size of the channel tunnel.

[West London Tory]

COMMENT OVERWRITTEN. PERSONAL ABUSE WILL NOT BE TOLERATED.

[Bill Service]

We had Robert Jackson defect to New Labour, you can never forgive someone who has betrayed the trust and belittled the work carried out by local activists who work through thick and thin, the rough and the smooth to get someone they thought they knew. Can you in fact trust them in politics at all, better to go independant and be done with it.

[Newswatcher]

I recall a few years back, one of the nationals describing Cranfield-Adams as "a pinguid, pompous buffoon." How right they were.

[michael.mcgough]

A small pink coup for Camp David but little consolation for yesterday's much more significant loss of the non pink Bob Spink.

That time bomb of Hague is still ticking.

[South West London Tory]

He ain't worth having.
I'm only surprised the LDs allowed him to join them before.
This man, apparently, made a scene resigning from the Tories at a councillor's funeral in 2004, and then caused the expense of a by-election.
There's a catalogue of vitriolic statements he's made about the Tories to the local media over the last few years.

[Holding My Sides Laughing]

Marc Cranfield-Adams defects back to us? My Office thought I was choking to death when I saw this on ConHome this morning. It seems so short a time ago that he was defecting in the other direction, and now he's back. Presuming we regain control of Richmond in 2010, I suppose he'll probably defect back in around 2011.

Don't the Green Party want him? Please?

[Dispatches from Gordon's Bunker]

I seem to recall another fellow who statred out with the Tories, defected to the Liberals and then rejoined the Tories when it was clear the Libs were going nowhere. He even boasted about not only ratting once, but twice.

He too was called unprincipled and was considered unsound and not trustworthy by his Tory colleagues.

His name....................Winston Churchill.

His name..........

[Mark Andrew]

I knew Marc when he was a member of the Tory Greens

It was sad that he left and joined the Lib Dems but I hope he will make sure Richmond become a Tory strongholx again.

[Marc Cranfield-Adams]

Some points of accuracy as obviously the truth is an inconvenience to some people:

(i) I joined the Conservative Party in 1978 and left in 2004; (ii) I did not leave during a Councillor's funeral (a very bizarre suggestion); (iii) My resignation from Richmond Council in 2004 which caused a by-election arose for other reasons; (iv) Three Councillors left the Tory administration of 2002-2006 one to UKIP, one went independent (as I recall) and I went to the Lib Dems; (v) there has been some pretty vitriolic comment about me by Tories in Richmond, including one tastelessly dragging up details about my late wife; (vi) The Lib Dem front bench cheered at my departure, but they campaigned to stop me becoming Mayor in the first place (which is why my office refers to me in my e-mails by my full title 'The Worshipful The Mayor...); (vii) I left the Tories in 2004 because of the Party's right wing drift and the antics of the then Council Leader (who has since been forced to resign) and I am leaving the Lib Dems now because of the antics of the Leader who has briefed the press against his own Mayor; (viii) What, no principles? Whether as Lib Dem or a Tory I have always believed in a small but strong state, personal liberty, free markets, defence of the realm, the Monarchy, an established church...
Oh, just get over it!