Knifed In The Back, Or An Oscar Winning Performance?

Later tonight, the annual sick-inducing festival that is the Oscars takes place in Los Angeles.  On display as usual will be the usual display of fake emotion and over the top tear bursts.

Back in here in Birmingham, many observers are wondering whether Cllr. Zoe Hopkins, Labour councillor for Kingstanding, is perhaps a little guilty of such attention seeking behaviour herself.

Hopkins was seen at the first February meeting of the city council sobbing in full view of her fellow councillors and the public.

Naturally, this has generated considerable debate amongst opposition councillors and activists.  What could the matter be?

Well, according to contributors to The Stirrer forum, Zoe has apparently been deselected.  Hopkins herself has done little to dampen down such speculation and in fact is alleged to have confirmed what has happened to opposition councillors.  

This afternoon Adrian Goldberg, the left-wing editor of the Stirrer Website has issued something of a rebuttal to these claims.  However, as PragueTory points out on the discussion thread, no one trusts any denial issued by the Kingstanding Labour Party.

You see these people have "previous".  Last May, Cllr. Catharine Grundy was given the shock of her life after scraping re-election by just 80 votes over the local Tory wunderkind Gary Sambrook.  Grundy's campaign was dogged by accusations that she wanted out and was not committed to the ward.  

It is one of the worst kept secrets in Kingstanding that Kane & Grundy can't stand the sight of Zoe.  They can't work together, which is bad news for the long suffering Kingstanding electorate.  Hopkins is also a Bore/Ward loyalist, which of course Kane and Grundy are not.

All this constitutes a crisis for Labour in a ward they have come to believe is their own.  

With no elections in Birmingham this year, the infighting in the Erdington Constituency Labour Party should generate considerable interest.

Of course principled politicians would do the decent thing, call a by-election, and allow the people of Kingstanding the opportunity to elect people who want to serve them, and not gauge each other's eyes out.

Alas, they are not that way inclined.