THINKING TIME

Spent most of today delivering my quarterly Pan Newsletter - the 7th since I was elected; not had one where I live. I always get good feedback on it - even from those who may disagree with me - so it has to be one of the most important things I can do. Part of an effective communications strategy....

I could get this delivered by party comrades, but I prefer to do most of them myself as I get to chat to residents and have some thinking time. Got over half the ward done in one day, which is pretty good going. Better than being in County Hall especially on a nice day like today. Had a smashing chat with ex-Labour-councillor Tony Tiltman's father-in-law. Told me and anyone passing how, as a pensioner, he has never had it so good !

When not chatting got to thinking if there is a link between the current anti-Russian poisoning news story and the government's wish to renew Britain's nuclear deterrent. Government's always need an enemy when it comes to major defence expenditure....

INDEPENDENT SCRUTINY ?

The following appeared in an IW Council blog last week - one that does not offer a right to reply:

"It’s baffling how some people jump to conclusions without any evidence. Some comments made about senior officers are strange. For example we are putting in place processes for producing high quality papers for members. Frankly this is basic good practice which is the norm in most authorities. But good grief when we tried to implement it here there were some extraordinary comments made about our motivation for doing it!"

I suspect this is something to do with the Scrutiny Committee who have unanimously been defending their right to publish independent reports for some weeks now; reports that are already written by professional officers. The tenacity with which our defence has been opposed does make you question motivations. Hopefully this can be resolved later this week.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PAN

Just realised that the Cabinet changes probably mean a new person as lead councillor for the Pan development as he is responsible for Assets, Planning and Housing.

Went along to the school governors Conference yesterday. I feel obliged to as it was me organising the Conference up to a couple of years ago. However, it was very worthwhile albeit a little hijacked at times by Tory councillors.

WATCH THE FAMILY SILVER

In a lurch even further to the Thatcherite Right, the Council Leader today appointed his group's leading right-winger to the Cabinet - with the portfolio of Assets, Planning and Housing. I now anticipate the bargain sell off of public assets. No doubt this gentleman will be replaced as 'Commissioner' for the Economy, Transport, Tourism and Regeneration by his even more right-wing, right-hand man, the member for V.....

All this begs the question of how they are going to fund another Cabinet special responsibility allowance of £11,250. Suggestions welcome

MORE DANGEROUS THAN OSAMA BIN LADEN ?

Practically choked on my breakfast this morning when reading the Charlotte Hofton feature in the CP about last week's Full Council meeting. Best laugh I have had in ages.

I wonder if they really do................?

STANDING ROOM ONLY

Survived last night's Scrutiny Committee. Such is my unpopularity amongst many people at County Hall these days - see Charlotte Hofton in CP today - the meeting had the potential to kick-off over the Wightcare decision and the refusal to accept Scrutiny's role in that. However, Deborah and I earlier took the view that the decision was ultimately more important than who claims the credit and we just welcomed the decision not to privatise. Thanks to one of my Conservative committee members for easing that process.

The much-delayed 'call in' of the Cabinet's further steps to closer working with Health - you can't really call it 'integration' anymore - proved reasonably successful as the Cabinet member assured us that when she actually implements this delayed decision it will be very different from what it was. Quite clearly their feet are getting chillier by the week.

The school governors we had along were very helpful to the school attainment enquiry, and I very generously allowed the education Cabinet member to respond on the hoof to some of their criticisms. He will have more of an opportunity at next month's meeting when he will be invited as a formal witness to this enquiry.

Finally I suspect this was the first meeting of any committee/commission of the Council for some time to end with the Chief Exec, his deputy CX and the assistant CX all sat in the public area.........we must be doing something right !

SCRUTINY TONIGHT

Our first Scrutiny Committee for 2 months tonight - 6pm, County Hall. On the agenda: school governors along to tell us what they think of the support they get to help improve school attainment; a belated call-in enquiry into further Health & Social Care integration (interestingly last night at a Policy Commission I learnt that a £million here or there in Health Trust budgeting is considered acceptable); and the Wightcare privatisation update - though that was apparently dealt with by press release on Monday!

Scrutiny's independence from the administration remains under attack from a number of sources - so we must be doing something right. Fortunately just about all of the Committee are united in defence of independence.

(My 4th post in the last week - if you are going to blog you have to COMMIT to it !)

WIGHTCARE - "HALLELUJAH !"

Not the sort of terminology I usually use, but that is how I feel today after the Council at last announced they are keeping Wightcare homecare services 'in house'. It took them 7 weeks to confirm what the Cabinet member had already told staff, but better late than never.

Of course they are continuing to undermine the role that Scrutiny had in this, now claiming that the antecedents to this decision originated back in March - surprise, surprise, before I became Scrutiny Chair. If that is the case why we weren't told that outsourcing was under review during numerous meetings between April and June......

Nonetheless, forget the politics, the right decision has been made. I am delighted, my committee knows the role it played, and so do staff, service users and their relatives.

TAKING ON THE HYDRA !

A friend who was in the gallery on Wednesday evening last night compared what I had to deal with from the Tories as being like fighting the Hydra. I thought that was quite apt.....

'OBSESSED WITH ACCOUNTABILITY'

Last night's Council ticked over very calmly before exploding at the point of my own Chair of Scrutiny report.

I started the evening being handed a threatening letter for the second month running, which tells you about orchestration, and which will be dealt with in the same manner as last month's.

In the meeting itself the most notable issues before my report were: almost unanimous support for the CPA & JAR Action Plans (who could oppose them?) and a debate about allowing people to buy £1700 home wind turbines without needing planning permission. This was proposed by the leader of the Independent group who is clearly the member the Conservatives want to build up to take over from me as Chair of Scrutiny, and who is also one of the 13 Development Control members who have been feeling a bit silly after they turned down the Wellow planning application. On the basis that putting the onus for wind energy on individuals, and that they are well out of the reach of most people's earnings and savings, Deborah and I abstained on the motion. All the others supported it.

We then went into Cabinet members' and my reports. The usual lecture from the Leader, and a claim from the Cabinet Member for Health etc. that she has been in the Council longer than most - forgetting that it was as an officer, not a councillor ! Though she has seamlessly slipped from one to the other.......

I then presented my written report on Scrutiny, which was then followed by a barrage of attacks on my publicising of a meeting with Wightcare staff on 5 October where they were told by the Cabinet member their service was to stay in-house after a review initiated as a consequence of a Scrutiny report last June. This meeting has been denied ever since, but you can't tell 50+ people something and then pretend it did not happen. They claim I have caused anxiety - I would suggest that the only anxiety is as a result of some people playing politics with people's lives because they don't want to admit Scrutiny did a good job. There was also an attack on me for not using Council 'communications' for my personal press releases about Scrutiny, but hey I am trying to get a positive image for at least ths part of the Council ! Give me some credit ! One thing that was particularly offensive and only too typical of the current Council Chairman - I had to fight to assert my right to repond to all the questions thrown at me. He seemed to want to let them ask questions without letting me reply.

Later during the Cabinet member for Resources, etc. report I attempted to pin her down on questions I have been asking of her (on behalf of Newport Town Management Committee (TMC)) since earlyAugust - regarding what the IWC is spending the £95K they levy from Newport households upon. The balance of £41K is administered by the TMC. This question was met with a hail of half-truths, excuses and denials, to the extent of suggesting I was a liar. Again I had to fight to repond to some of her allegations. I concluded by telling the Chairman that I was 'fed up' with the way he was running Council meetings and in future I will not be assuming a standing position when he leaves the Council Chamber because respect has to be earned.

Finally after the meeting concluded there was a drinks reception for Councillors with the new Island representative of the monarch and his numerous deputies. As a republican not the sort of thing I go along to, but I observed a well-stocked bar as I passed the Chairman's room..............

SENSE OF FOREBODING

When you are in a group of two against 36, no matter how resilient you are you wake up with a sense of foreboding on Full Council day. That is what this regime is like. But you just get on with it and remember you are elected to do a job for your constituents.

Full report by Friday - hopefully in a comprehensible style.....

CLAMPDOWN !

The last few days have seen the early moves in a clampdown on my reluctance to toe a corporate line as Scrutiny Chair. As if I ever would; how little they know me ! That's not why I stood for election....

I won't go into all the details just yet, but I am now under investigation by the Chief Executive for including a derogatory remark about a consultant - one of those that costs the Council tax paper a fortune each year - in an email to another councillor. Also because I do not rely on official Communications to publicise the work of the Scrutiny Committee. Would any sane person do so who didn't want to be dragged down ?

REMEMBRANCE

I went along to the Remembrance ceremony in Newport this morning. I accompanied staff and young people from Downside Middle School rather than join the official Council party, as I did not want to have to publicly slip away from the subsequent church service. Remembering the fallen is something I totally agree with; I just wish it didn't have to be so tied in with Christian worship.

IMITATION - THE BEST FORM OF FLATTERY

Councillors learnt today that the Chief Exec will be blogging from this weekend. I have sent him a warm welcome to blogging and reminded Members of my own blog - though of course many of them follow it avidly. Especially backbench Tories with a thirst for information, any information ! They don't appear to get it anywhere else....

DEMOCRATIC INACTION

Noticed that the IW Council Web Forum is 'currently unavailable'. I can only suspect that the Communications moderati must be in meltdown trying to stop critical comments. I know of two that mentioned the sacking of our MP which have failed to get through the Grand Censor.

Shame about the Forum. Its normally quite good fun. Hope its back soon.

LOST AT NORTHWOOOD

Went to my first roadshow Cabinet tonight, which was announced by the Council leader as being in Northwood though we all knew we were in Northwood House - possibly the most inaccessible and inhospitable place they could have chosen for a November evening !

As ever, as soon as I was seen entering the room the 'I'm ignoring you' routine clicked into action ! Its now well over a month that I have been ignored by the Council leader - all because I object to being attacked over my lack of religious belief.

Anyway the Cabinet was tedium in the extreme. Papers went though 6:0 - Cllr Abraham presumably preparing for absences after his IW Fire Service martyrdom - with no questions other than the regular contribution from the member for Northwood - who then left presumably because he realised Northwood Village Management Committee don't meet in Northwood House....

The questions I had on their CPA Improvement Plan or JAR Action Plan are better left to a democratic forum like Full Council - where they will go next.

Oh, and there was a list of the 'family silver'.............wonder why ?

ISLAND MP SACKED BY TORY LEADER

The Conservative Opposition Leader today sacked the Island's MP from his front bench role as opposition Charities spokesperson.

This is probably a signal from the Opposition Leader to the Island's Conservative Association that he cannot possibly approve of their unreconstructed Thatcherism, particularly as practised at County Hall, at a time when he is desperate to appear all kind and cuddly.

Indeed I recall that our MP supported the Thatcherite Liam Fox for Leader of the Conservative Party which just about sums up Island Conservatism !

'Shape up or ship out' clearly has no place in the national Conservative Party.......but then again maybe it does......

GCSE 'IMPROVEMENT' LESS THAN SPUN

On 29 August I commented, "Last year the Island was 9% behind the national average for students getting 5 x A*-C GCSE grades. This year we are told that there has been a 2% increase in local performance - from 46% to 48%. We are not yet told what the national average is for 5 x A*-C grades, though we can probably assume at least a small rise of say 0.5% to 55.5%.That would still leave the Island 7.5% behind the national picture. At this rate it will take another 5 years to get overall performance comparable to the mainland.On the right track yes, but hardly at the right speed........"

Well it turned out the increased performance locally was to 47.3%, an annual increase of 1.5%, and that the national average is 57% - a difference of almost 10%. So the Island actually feel behind even further last year. So much for school improvement plans.....

BIASED BROADCASTING

I made the mistake of listening to the local radio station's phone-in on Friday. The Council Leader was on and he was treated by the 'presenter' and his sidekick with absolute sycophancy for the whole hour. There was entirely no balance whatsoever.

For example, the Leader's allegation that the information secured under Freedom of Information by the Island's newspaper regarding the Council's very expensive use of outside consultants is now inaccurate and all down to me !!!!! The Information Commissioner may be interested in that....

TORIES OFF 'TEAM BUILDING'

Yes, County Hall is a safe place for 3 days this week as all seven Cabinet members, both Cabinet Secs, and all four 'Commissionaires' (interestingly adding up to 13) are off 'team building' with all the Directors at the Royal Hotel, Ventnor. Will be intersting to find out who pays the bills or whether largesse is involved.....in the meantime - ENJOY !!!!!!