What happens when a politician owns up?

Gone but not forgotten.  But maybe it’s just a temporary little arrangement?  Anyone who reads this weeks Wexford People would be forgiven for thinking that I’ve been swallowed up and disappeared.  At least Cllr Davy Hynes seems to think that and it seems he’s feeling sorry for me.  Speaking to a local paper he complains that Brendan Howlin says that he got it wrong on the abolition of Town councils and he says Brendan’s position sticks in his craw and that it’s no comfort for those who ran (like myself) and lost their seats.

Davy considers himself lucky to survive the treachery of town council abolition and that town councillors were thrown to the wolves! I got over my election defeat within hours of the count.  Having come out the wrong side of the final count in the wee small hours, I was back in class at 9 AM.  I’m well over it however it seems Davy isn’t coping too well with my absence from the council chamber.

When you win you’ve got to understand why, when you lose you must do the same thing.  Clearly I lost because the electorate had made their mind up about the Labour Party. That’s their right and I have to accept it.  That’s democracy.  The idea that I’d put my political career above the membership of Labour was anathema to me.  You can never be taken seriously if you run with the political hare and hunt with the hounds.  Leaving and running under any other banner? I would have been seen as an opportunist and failing to account,  Politics is not about popularity although a councillor loves to be loved.  Politics is about what you can do for the community you serve.  That’s what it’s always been for me. It’s never been about ego and press coverage.  In essence it’s about ideas and people.

All that has changed for me is the reality that I don’t attend council meetings and don’t get a representational allowance.  I still make representations to the council on behalf of constituents and the officials are happy to work with me. I still am a member of a number of boards for which I’ve never have received expenses, I’ve been part of a group to set up a Neighbourhood Watch and my representations still carry clout with the Garda as a recent raid on a premises at Wexford’s South End proves.  Within days of losing I was offered a weekly column in a local free paper, Co Wexford Reporter.  I enjoy filing that each week, it provides another outlet to express my views, often on subjects that are outside the remit of a council. Politics is not all the time having a mandate, it’s about wanting to contribute.  No election result can change that.

Facing the electorate is not being thrown to the wolves.  As one council wag once noted, “If there was a public demonstration to retain the Borough Council, you’d only expect 12 to turn up to protest, and even then you wouldn’t rely on them all being councillors!”

There is an issue about why people in parts of Wexford town looked at the ballot paper and voted in large numbers for candidates who lived in rural areas.  If the electorate wanted urban councillors there were 7 outgoing on the ballot paper. Just 4 got re-elected in a town of 20,000. That speaks volumes more eloquently than any personalised tirade aimed at Brendan Howlin.

In the meantime I  go on!