Another resignation has rocked Somerset Lib Dems just weeks after Somerton & Frome parliamentary candidate Sarah Yong unexpectedly stood down. Now Sam Phripp, County Councillor for Frome North has decided to go. Citing personal hostility Sam says he can’t take it any more.
We have news for Sam – it is not personal. Voters are hostile to the Lib Dems because of their broken promises and their shoddy deals in coalition to support the Tories. It is not you Sam it is your party they don’t like.
Who will be the next to go?
Labour parliamentary candidate David Oakensen says he remembers when Sam was first elected. ‘I was there at the count and he was so excited, young and enthusiastic. We were all pleased for him. That was when they had promised to abolish student tuition fees and young people flocked to vote Lib Dem. Now faced with a lifetime of debt those same young people won’t get fooled again. Sam too is voting with his feet.’
The question now on the lips of every Liberal Democrat in Somerset is – who will be the next to go?
I’m not sure I buy that Mariner, he says on his blog his reason for resigning is that he was facing ‘hostility, intimidation and bullying’ – surely what his voters expect would be him standing up to that not running away from it.
Except he wasn’t complaining of voter hostility, it was other parties.