Politics
| West Berkshire District Council | |
|---|---|
| Type | |
| Founded | 1998 |
| Type | Unicameral |
| Leadership | |
| Chairman | Peter Argyle, Conservative |
| Leader of the Council | Graham Jones, Conservative |
| Opposition Group Leader | Jeff Brooks, Liberal Democrats |
| Structure | |
| Seats | 52 |
| Political groups |
Executive
|
| Committees |
10
|
| Elections | |
| Voting system | Single member plurality & Plurality at large |
| Last election | 5 May 2011 |
| Meeting place | |
| Council Offices, Market Street, Newbury | |
| Website | |
| West Berkshire Council | |
Since 5 May 2005 the council is Conservative-controlled because of a by-election in Thatcham North. Before that, the Liberal Democrats and Conservative Party had an equal number of seats but the Liberal Democrats had control due to the casting vote of the council chairman. The Liberal Democrats had first taken power in 1991.
The district is approximately coterminous with the parliamentary constituency of Newbury, except for areas to the east where parts of West Berkshire are incorporated into the constituencies of Wokingham and Reading West.
Read more about this topic: West Berkshire
Famous quotes containing the word politics:
“There is a place where we are always alone with our own mortality, where we must simply have something greater than ourselves to hold onto—God or history or politics or literature or a belief in the healing power of love, or even righteous anger.... A reason to believe, a way to take the world by the throat and insist that there is more to this life than we have ever imagined.”
—Dorothy Allison (b. 1949)
“The average educated man in America has about as much knowledge of what a political idea is as he has of the principles of counterpoint. Each is a thing used in politics or music which those fellows who practise politics or music manipulate somehow. Show him one and he will deny that it is politics at all. It must be corrupt or he will not recognize it. He has only seen dried figs. He has only thought dried thoughts. A live thought or a real idea is against the rules of his mind.”
—John Jay Chapman (1862–1933)
“I think the Senate ought to realize that I have to have about me those in whom I have confidence; and unless they find a real blemish on a man, I do not think they ought to make partisan politics out of appointments to the Cabinet.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)