The Journeyman Mayor of Doncaster

Much ado about lots of things these last few weeks but we can't really run around the country (or indeed the world) solving all of its problems and, as they may say, clarity begins at home so we really need to consider the political situation in or home towns currently, and start to think about how decisions being made right now will affect us for the coming years.

It's best to start at the top, namely (around here anyway) with the Mayor of Doncaster, a Mr. Peter Davies and at the beginning so we can strive to understand the mindset of a man in power.

Our mayor only seems to make the news for his gaffes these days - it seems difficult for him to articulate the good he does or the difficult decisions he has to make - but it is unfair to judge a man based on detractions made by his detractors so let's have a look at his political career, see if that makes sense...

Peter Davies began his political career as a member of the Labour party until 1973 when he switched his allegiance to the Conservatives. His father was too a Conservative MP so I suppose this made sense. He seemed at home here, neither making waves or shuffling his feet until 20 years later when John Major signed the Maastricht Treaty. Peter's eurosceptic mindset prevented him working with the Tories further so he threw in his lot with the United Kingdom Independence Party with one eye on contesting the South Yorkshire seat in the European Parliament at the 1994 election.

This first foray into electoral battle brought modest returns, Peter Davies achieved 2.6% of the vote only, although it seemed to have whet his appetite for the election game. Contesting seats in Hemsworth ('96) and Doncaster Central ('97) he achieved similar results each time under the UKIP banner. By 1998 and after much flogging of the proverbial dead horse Mr. Davies contested his last election for UKIP - a by-election for the South Yorkshire seat in the European Parliament - without the backing of Micheal Holmes, the party leader. Finishing dead last and clearly disappointed he left UKIP behind to join the English Democratic Party, becoming chairman of the South Yorkshire branch.

Peter Davies wasn't to contest an election again until 2006 where he stood in a local election for the Finningley ward seat on Doncaster council, achieving relative success with just over 20% of the vote. Similar results followed in 2007 and 2008 but 2009 was to be his year. June was a bittersweet month, he took the usual kicking for the South Yorkshire seat in Europe but made astonishing headway in Doncaster, winning the Mayoral seat on second preference votes.

Mayor Davies was elected on the back of a campaign for withdrawal from the E.U, (not just Doncaster but the whole of England) for local schools to opt out of local authority control, a reduction in size for the local council and the removal of translation services within the council (community cohesion officers as these translators are apparently known, I wouldn't know, Doncaster never had any). Despite queries surrounding the legality of some manifesto pledges the English Democrats carried on regardless, opposing political correctness wherever possible, threatening the funding for the annual gay pride festival, proposing to end town twinning and dismissing climate change as "a scam".

In spite of a vote of no confidence levelled at Mayor Davies over a perceived lack of leadership less than a year into his tenure, heavy criticism regarding "irresponsible" budget planning, "dysfunctional politics" and breaches of the code of conduct resulting in disciplinary action against him Mayor Davies stays strong in the face of adversity. He has expressed admiration for the moral code of the Taliban, recognised "unacceptably poor" child care services in his town and pledged to close down libraries even though he never uses them or knows where they are. Our political journeyman and Mayor Peter Davies is getting his head down and hoping for the best. He's hoping that no-one notices what is happening behind the scenes at English Democrat HQ. He's hoping because he knows (he must know) that if all that leaks out, he's screwed.