A NUDGE TO THE TORIES

This week saw the 'assassination' of the Council Leader outside County Hall. All part of a fun event for young people, but the pictures taken of his 'demise' ( I would post them, but Blogger is playing up) might just send a visual nudge to the rest of the Tory group on the Council - "Who will rid us of this liability ?" I can think of a couple of credible contenders from their group.

The headlines under his leadership are just going to get worse and worse. For the last two days we have had the bullying at County Hall stories; something that has only appeared under his leadership. His response ? "Sack all the bullies" - showing a singular failure to understand what manifests itself as bullying.

Next story will be the manner in which Members Allowances were recommended for increase last autumn. We had Scrutiny Committee this evening where we agreed a Report by our lay member, which is an indictment of the way things work in this Council. Thankfully the Chief Exec has given an apology to the Independent Remuneration Panel, who were treated with total contempt by the Leader last November. Needless to say there has been no apology from that quarter. Will be interesting to see if this Report gets presented to Full Council, as is its intention.

Of course next Wednesday will see the triumphalism of the next Tory budget, which will require buckets all round if last year is an example of how his group will respond to the Leader's speech - though I genuinely hope they are beginning to see through the bluff. He will then no doubt go on IW Radio to have his ego massaged by the station that today called people with learning disabilities "thick" until I complained.

On a positive note, a real pleasure to have a Cabinet member along to talk about car parking who knew this part of his portfolio very well, who was happy to engage in debate about policies, and who did not need to be chaperoned by his Director. Most Cabinet members are learning well and Scrutiny will hopefully be increasingly seen as an opportunity rather than a threat.