Another week, another Prime Minister. The Conservative party has been an embarrassing laughing stock for quite some time now, but the Truss saga has taken it to another level.

She wasn’t even in office when I wrote my previous article for the County Press, so she’s come and gone before I’ve even had a chance to have a pop at her…the spoil-sport.

Anyway, I won’t bother wasting column inches (or column centimetres as we are probably forced to call them these days) writing about the circus of Westminster, I will instead keep things local.

When the collective of Independent councillors took control of the Isle of Wight Council in May of 2021, the one solitary pledge they made was to sort out the Isle of Wight Floating Bridge fiasco, and they have…well, at least the first stage. 

Credit must go to Cllr Phil Jordan, who first pushed for mediation and then pushed again for a higher settlement when the initial offer was less than a million pounds. 

The former ruling Tory-run council had failed to even get the builders and designers around a negotiating table, let alone come to a settlement, but that’s hardly surprising as the Tories seem to fail at everything recently; in fact failing is the one thing they are good at.

Rather than congratulate Cllr Jordan on bringing this whole mess to a conclusion, the current leader of the Isle of Wight Tories, Joe Robertson; who bears a remarkable resemblance to the Rik Mayall Tory television character Alan B’Stard, chose instead to call the settlement “grubby” due to the figures being kept confidential. 

Do the Tories have NO shame? We’re all sick and tired of ‘mud-flinging politics’, and I for one would find it refreshing if a politician could, just for once, could have the good grace to admit when somebody on the opposite side of the political fence gets something right.

I have no idea if the floating bridge settlement was kept confidential because the council asked for it or because the builders/designers asked for it, but presumably when the council accounts are published, the figure will be there for all to see anyway.

The settlement figure is obviously a substantial figure, as Phil Jordan is already talking about buying a new floating bridge, but as I have stated a number of times in the past, and I’ll state it again now in capital letters, WE DON’T NEED A NEW FLOATING BRIDGE!

Yes we need a passenger launch across the River Medina, but not a vehicle carrier — this is 2022 and NOT 1932, when a bridge was needed to get horse and carts across the river. 

I only live five minutes away from the bridge, and I travel to the other side of the River Medina on a very regular basis, but I never even consider using the floating bridge, I simply drive around — it really doesn’t take very long, even with the current inconvenience of temporary traffic lights in both Fairlee Road and Horsebridge Hill. 

Not only do we not need a floating bridge, the council don’t need another potential cock-up, so my advice to Cllr Jordan is to take the money, sell FB6, set up a permanent passenger launch and step away from the river.