THE Liberal Democrats in Penrith have just added another member to the town’s burgeoning Tim Farron Fan Club (President: T. Farron).
The wild and curazy LD’s have just wangled a seat from Labour on Penrith Town Council.
Incoming Lib Dem egg head (ex-banker and IT whizz) won easily with 319 votes equating to 58% of the turnout.
The Lib Dems now sit on NINE of the Council’s 14 chairs.
Apple cart upsetters, Reform UK, came from a standing start in Penrith to finish second although by some margin (142 votes/25.9%).
But that was more than DOUBLE the vote of the Labour candidate who was pushed cruelly down into THIRD (59/10.7%).
Labour had previously held this ward and their latest candidate may have copped it for, er, national events.
Before anyone gets too carried away reading the runes, turnout here was a miserably disengaged 21%
That means a paltry 79% of voters stayed at home.
Call the police Missus Blennerhasset!
Shocky horror – not a single Penrith Tory chucked their Kemi cap into the ring.
Hard to believe, fact fans!
Previously, Penrith had held a Conservative MP since the old P&B seat was first created in 1950.
Former Penrith Tory MPs Rory Stewart and Neil ‘Dudson’ (the comedy duo Wet & Wetter), may possibly be linked to general disenchantment among the dwindling ground troops of the former P&TB Conservative Association, perhaps more so than any fart-arsing about with the boundaries.
They were seen off last summer by the arrival of do-no-wrong Labour MP, Markus Campbell-Savours, who swooped in Harry Potter-like to swizzle his magic election stick and exclaim: “Expelliarmus!”
Q: What does the third-place Labour result in Penrith tell us about the standing of its Labour MP?
A: Not a lot. Town Councils are no barometer, and 79% stayed at home, remember?)
With such a meagre turnout, not everyone is running through the streets of Penrith a’cheering and a’whooping.
“Shameful. No mandate!” shot back Jeff Thomson, of the campaign group, Fresh Air for Penrith.
JT has never been wholly convinced about Penrith Town Council or how it goes about some aspects of its biz.
Fresh Air for Penrith has long been involved in a hot air battle with shilly-shallying public sector agencies and local authorities, like Wokemoreland & Farcical Council.
This relates to the unexplained origins of the strange and recurring ‘pongs’ that have blighted some nostrils in some parts of Penrith for some time. (1,367 odour reports in 2024 alone!).
The alleged mystery niffs, that allegedly may or may not exist, are absolutely not at all related or connected in any conceivable way to the entirely flawless, completely law-abiding and fully-compliant nearby factory complex and its hugely attractive and architecturally stunning ‘chimlie’ stacks, which are only a credit to the town and the UK manufacturing industry as a whole.
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thecumbriachronic.co.uk 
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