Are Independent Councillors Really Conservatives in Disguise?

Abstract

Abstract A feature of English local political folklore is the belief among national political parties, that Independent councillors are Conservatives in disguise. Yet, little evidence is given to support this idea because little is known about these councillors’ beliefs and assumptions or how they distinguish themselves from the party politics they eschew. In this article we address the question: Are all Independent councillors really Conservatives? The article answers the question by reporting the findings of research conducted among Independent and Conservative councillors in England to explore the complex, multidimensional and fluid world that is Independent politics.

Key Words:

• Independent councillors
• local politics
• local government
• political parties

Notes

1. http://iaindale.blogspot.com/2006/04/report-predicts-local-election-results.html.

2. North = North, North West, Yorkshire and Humberside; Central = East and West Midlands; South = East Anglia, South East, South West and Greater London. Main Party = Conservative, Labour, Liberal Democrat; Secondary Party = BNP, UKIP, Social Democrat, Liberal; Geographic Party = Mansfield Independent Forum, Tendering First, Mebyon Kernow; Single Issue = Anti War in Afghanistan, Independent Health Forum; Independent = Independent.

3. In the tables, the overall value of the mean does not correlate with a stronger belief in localism in all instances. Questions were phrased positively and negatively; therefore, on some occasions a low value for the mean is indicative of a greater propensity towards localism. The lower the value of the standard deviation, the less the variance in the responses towards the question, which is indicative of the degree of unanimity amongst respondents. The claims made so far have to be tested by the reliability of the subset; does the subset measure in a reliable manner what it purports to measure? To answer that question, Cronbach’s alpha (α) was used to test the scale reliability (see Table A4 in the Appendix). As questions had been phrased in a positive and negative manner, some questions were reverse coded to enable a reliability analysis to be conducted. The localism and freedom subscales of the questionnaire displayed reliabilities that were at the margins of the values widely accepted as indicative of a high degree of internal consistency. Localism returned Cronbach’s α = .68. The freedom subscale also displayed similar reliabilities, Cronbach’s α = .63. Table A2 in the Appendix is a correlation matrix of the subset freedom. The degree of correlation varies but the relative strength of the value has to be read in conjunction with the questions. Although the strong correlation between the first pair of questions is to be expected, the low values between the first and fourth question is consistent with a respondent’s desire for greater freedom from central control. The tables along with the values for Cronbach’s α (see Note 3 and Tables A1 and A3 in the Appendix) are consistent with the respondents’ propensity to claim that they favour the local over the centre and that they want reduced central interference.