Last Thursday saw the result of the Frampton and Holme election for a seat on Boston Borough Council – and a victory for Independent Stuart Ashton, a local farmer and businessman.

Boston Eye was the first to publish the result on Friday, and today we’re taking a more analytical look at the way things went.
Unlike by-elections nationally, there are no reasons not to vote, nor to cast a protest vote, but it was interesting to note that the votes for the big parties in Frampton bucked the national trend of party standings, which currently shows the  Conservatives with 30%, Labour 43%, UKIP 12%, and the Lib-Dems on 8% - with other parties standing at 7%.
At last year’s elections, Frampton had the biggest turnout of all the borough’s 32 seats. A total of 654 voters placed their cross on the ballot paper – representing 48.83%  of the electorate.
But last week, only 35.6% turned out – 520 voters.
Frampton is traditionally an independent voting ward, and the results appeared almost in alphabetical order:
Stuart Ashton (Independent)  204 = 39.2%
Maggie Peberdy (Independent) 139 = 26.7%
Claire Rylott (Cons) 126 = 24.2%
Sue Ransome UKIP 32 = 6.1%
Mike Sheridan-Shinn (Lab) 19 = 3.6%
Last time round there were just three candidates – Independent, UKIP and the Boston Bypass Independents.
So, what impact did the inclusion of the Conservatives and Labour into the recipe contribute?
The answer is – not a lot.
The Conservatives fell back on the same leaflet template that they used last year – which unfortunately made it easier to compare promises between May 2011 and October 2012
Last year’s “Shared working with other councils” and the pledge “to save taxpayers money by being innovative and sharing resources with other authorities,” this year became: “Working with other councillors,” with the promise “to save taxpayers money by sharing ideas, being resourceful and innovative. Bring our local issues to the forefront.”
Students of irony will have been amused by the slightly odd phrase “working with other councillors” – which is precisely what the Tories on Boston Borough Council do not do – unless the other councillors involved happen to fellow Conservatives.
Equally, promises to keep council tax rates among the lowest in the country can be easily made –  as for the past couple of years the charges have been out of the control of local authorities and dictated by central government - which we know intends to freeze them again next year.
And as we have already pointed out – most notably absent from this year’s pledges was the one on accountability and transparency – ending “behind closed doors policies” and becoming open and accountable to the taxpayers.
Even a leadership that regards the people who elected it  as so stupid that they will believe almost anything, drew the line at  repeating that most broken of all promises.
As we say, the Tories bucked the trend in terms of party standings, but that probably says more about the political make-up of the ward than anything else.
Perhaps that is why we are told that the candidate's name did not even appear on local posters in the early stages of the campaign - merely the exhortation to "Vote Conservative."
However, we suspect that the fall in turnout had a lot to do with the Conservatives overall, and the fact that voters have become heartily sick and tired of being ruled by an arrogant and out of touch clique who see themselves as the masters and the voters as the servants.
Doubtless, they are all subscribers to the Andrew Mitchell Political Charm School.
Finally –  the Labour contribution.
Again –   as we have previously pointed out –  it seemed to miss a basic point.
The election flyer declared opposition to selling the Assembly Rooms in “the Market Place,” wasting £2 million on “our Market Place,” calling for zero tolerance on drinking “in our town,” and the unfairness of charging disabled blue badge holders to park.
Whilst issues such as these would certainly resonate with voters in Frampton and Holme, not one of them was local or relevant.
It was a manifesto for a town ward, not a country one.
We congratulate Stuart Ashton on his election, and are cheered to hear him say that he believes there is no place for party politics at local level, and that he sees himself – not as a politician – but as someone who wants to do the best for the area.
Perhaps once he’s settled in, he could offer lessons to Boston’s Conservative group.

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