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Cllr John Bryant |
Has election night recount trauma cast a long shadow?
JOHN Bryant, the man at the centre of the council’s leaked memo row, knows more than anyone how every single vote can count.
He once lost an election in Humberside after at least three recounts saw him repeatedly tie with a Conservative opponent, according to local newspaper reports from the time.
Until that defeat in early 1983, he had been able to boast that he was the one of the few members of the Liberal Alliance to have made a breakthrough on Hull City Council and it must have been a stomach-churning way to be defeated. Maybe he was hardened by the episode.
While he is being cautious enough not specifically to comment on the leaked memo issue, supporters say he is not overly worried that his supposedly private briefing is now not only the source of gossip but also part of “evidence” being used to hit the council with a possible judicial review.
Rivals in Camden suggest that he is notoriously stubborn and rarely admits mistakes but supporters say that, for all his technical and often long-winded council chamber speeches, he has a genuine concern for raising standards in Camden’s schools.
His day job is rooted in education, training school governors in neighbouring Brent.
One ally joked this week that he is probably more likely to be losing sleep over the financial situation at Coventry City, his favourite football team which is close to bankruptcy, than the threat of Camden’s education plan unravelling in the High Court.
Cllr Bryant was an obvious choice for an executive position when the Lib Dem and Conservative coalition formed in the aftermath of Labour’s resounding defeat in May last year.
Nobody could argue that he hadn’t put in the hours. Every other Tuesday night in long, often arduous, scrutiny meetings, he had the job of holding the then Labour rulers to account.
He was never short of a comment, nit-picking through the detail with a fine toothcomb, even if his committee was, more often than not, ignored by the Labour cabinet.
He has, however, had more senior positions on other councils than his present one and insiders have suggested in the past that, while Lib Dem leader Councillor Keith Moffitt is not looking over his shoulder, Cllr Bryant would welcome the chance to take on as much responsibility as possible. |
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