Norfolk News: County Councillor Phillip Hardy cannot be trusted to represent his electorate.

Philip Hardy, former Green Councillor now Tory Councillor. (Source: Norfolk County Council)

I first saw this case last month and I have finally been asked to sign a petition started by one of his constituents. It only took five weeks.  Better late than never.

I grew up in Thorpe Hamlet. There is no way a Tory would ever be elected here.  I reckon even Tory voters within the seat would attest to that.
In 2009, Phillip Hardy won his seat as a Green county councillor for Thorpe Hamlet with 46% of the vote – taking what was in 2005 a safe Lib Dem seat, who came second with a  measly 21%. The Conservatives were third on 19% ahead of Labour who scraped in with just under 14%. Labour lost 19 seats on the County Council in that ballot, which was the last before the parliamentary elections of 2010 and so the encumbents at Number 10 were punished. The Tories gained  14 seats and the Greens got 7, including of course Thorpe Hamlet. The LDs wobbled and got one gain.

In Thorpe Hamlet in 2005, the Lib Dems had won with nearly 41% of the vote, ahead of Labour’s almost 29%. The Tory candidate got just over 18% and the Greens a little more than 12%. 2009 was a dramatic swing in favour of the Green candidate, but clearly the swing had not come from  the Conservative voters, but from those who were once Labour and Liberal Democrat supporters, disillusioned with the mainstream parties after the MPs’ expenses debacle and seeing positive things from Norwich City Council

As far back as I remember, Thorpe Hamlet had LD councillors. In the 2007 City Council Elections, the LD’s defeated the Greens by one vote and when there was another City Council Election the next year, the Greens took the seat with 46% and have held it since. Hardly surprising then that a Green was elected to the County Council the following year.

But Thorpe Hamlet would NEVER have elected a Conservative candidate.

This man has pissed on those who voted for him, the Green Party and democracy in the UK. If he were confident of the constitiuency’s support, he would call a for a local by-election, but he has not done so.
Someone so dishonest and power-hungry should be prevented from holding public office any further!
To those amongst you who lean towards the right of the political spectrum – you can’t surely desire to have this man standing amongst your ranks?!
Did he not lose all credibility when he changed his party affiliation?
If as it seems, he is capable of reversing his political bias from left to right without regret, hesitation or remorse, what damage might he do if allowed to keep his job?
Who’s to say he won’t do it again, should some new opportunity for self-advancement present itself?
What kind of beast could he become, were such low moral fortitude combined with mercenary Conservativism?

If you are resident in Norfolk (UK), please sign
this petition and any like it. Help end the disdain with which you, the electorate, are held by some of those who seek political office.