A Come Back for Tony Jones?

Tony Jones, former Battle Ward Councillor, Mayor, and Chairman of Reading Buses, stood down from the Council at the last local elections. He was elected as a Labour Councillor but resigned the Whip and sat as an Independent for the last couple of years of his term. All the indications were that he was to be joined by fellow Battle Ward Councillor Chris Maskell. However, if rumours are to be believed Chris was “got at” rather heavily by the then Reading West MP Martin Salter and after announcing his resignation from Labour to the Reading Post, Chris got cold feet and stuck with Labour. Tony was therefore left rather isolated.

Tony floated the possibility of standing for the Reading West Parliamentary seat before deciding better of it. After the local elections his website was closed down and some of us thought Tony had retired from the Reading political scene. However, he appears to have had second thoughts.

Rather unexpectedly a new website appeared last month but it has only now come to my attention. Tony appears to be relaunching himself as an independent voice in Redlands ward where he lives and he has the Lib Dems very clearly in his sights. Will this lead to him standing as an Independent in Redlands ward next May?

I welcome Tony back to active commentary but I do think he has the wrong target in his sights. He should be attacking his former Labour colleagues who left the nation in such a mess and didn’t exactly do a good job in Reading either. Remember the one-way IDR, the failures in Childrens’ services, the bio-ethanol buses and the waste of money on the Civic Office plans Tony!

You can find Tony’s blog here.

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