Three days ago I wrote about the difficulties which the residents of Brighton & Hove face as a result of the chaos within the leading Green group on the Council and the poor judgement shown by the leader of the Labour group. Since then several things have happened which don’t make life any better for any of the residents of the city but are worthy of note.

Firstly and an indication of the good sense within some parts of the Green group, Cllr Alex Phillips has apologised. This information appeared on a news outlet: “Yesterday, Coun Alex Phillips told a website she was “truly sorry” after she sent secret messages to Labour group leader Warren Morgan in a doomed attempt to overthrow the council leader. She wrote: “I apologise unreservedly for approaching Warren Morgan, the leader of Brighton and Hove Labour, in the way that I did. It was a naive and damaging mistake. “I want to be clear that I was speaking for no one but myself. I didn’t discuss contacting Warren Morgan with any of my council colleagues or any other members of the party in advance. “I apologise especially to members who will rightly feel let down by this error of judgement.”

Secondly in what is being explained as unconnected, one of the Green group has resigned as a Councillor which will cause a by-election in Hanover and Elm Grove. This area has been held by the Greens for many years and it will be interesting to see how local residents vote and how large the turnout will be. Interestingly one Green activist writes on his blog “Winning this election will also boost their [Green] moral because their chosen candidate has promised not to support the rogue elements in the City Council administration.” If by this some elements within the party believe their owns group leader is part of a rogue administration, despite being supported by 55% of their Councillors it is clear that we all have a long way to go.

When I last wrote, the Conservative Party (unlike Labour) had said very little and I believed that this was a sign of leadership and wisdom. However inevitably their silence was not permanent and the leader of the group was finally ‘persuaded’ to speak. Conservative group leader Geoffrey Theobald said he had “never known a council like this in all my experience”. He said: “I’m sure those who voted them in would not have expected in two years to see them in disarray. It is fascinating that Cllr Theobald cannot recall the disastrous relationship between himself and Cllr Mears during the 4 years of Tory minority administration, nor some of the problems during the previous Labour administration.

To my knowledge there has been no apology by Cllr Warren Morgan for publishing a series of tweets that were clearly marked as being in confidence. Politics is a dirty business (something I have been told by members of all four political parties and UKIP too) but if Warren is prepared to publish information shared in confidence, how will he treat information from constituents or that are of importance to the city in the future?

As I write there has not been a marked improvement in the living standards of the residents of the city. Many are waiting for their bins to be emptied and despite the Governments own problems, their policies continue to promise challenges for people on low incomes and who are without work. Cllr Phillips has apologised and committed herself to moving forward. Perhaps all of the parties could now make statements that instead of criticising one another actually commit them to working together to ensure that the city benefits from the best of all parties, not their lowest common denominator!