The Petition for Democracy is Launched

It is the 23rd of July and the much talked about petition is launched today. If you want to discuss the need for the petition, or the way the campaign is going then please do so by commenting on this post. You can see the full details of the petition here.

University Challenge

I’ve had my curiosity awakened by reading some of the responses to the last posting – especially the fascinating stuff about just how many memberships and committee places our elected councillors can boast of holding, even though it clearly means they wouldn’t have time to sleep or eat if they gave each one the attention it deserves. And being easily distracted by fun, I got kinda carried away - so I logged onto the TCBC website and began flipping through the councillor profiles where all this information is listed...here’s a handy print-out-and-keep table of the number of memberships of various committees and outside bodies our councillors currently hold (all information taken from TCBC website at time of posting).

I’m actually interested to know how many memberships you guys think is ‘too many’ for one councillor to handle – let’s get a dialogue going, ‘cos some of this lot must have access to time machines to be able to represent all of their commitments effectively...

NAME	AFFIL.	COMM.	OUT. BOD.	TOTAL	CV/BIO
A. Cunnington	Independent	6	3	9	No
A. James	Labour	5	5	10	No
J. Cunningham	Labour	2	11	13	No
B. Mawby	Labour	1	7	8	No
B. Whitcombe	Independent	4	6	10	No
B. Matthews	Peoples Voice	3	1	4	No
C. Lewis	Independent	3	3	6	No
C. Thomas	Labour	7	6	13	No
C. Beynon	Labour	0	1	1	No
D. James	Conservative	3	0	3	No
D. Jones	Peoples Voice	4	1	5	No
E. Haynes	Independent	4	3	7	No
F. Cross	Plaid Cymru	3	1	4	No
F. Wildgust	Independent	4	3	7	No
G. Smith	Conservative	1	2	3	No
G. Clark	Labour	0	6	6	No
J. Rees	Plaid Cymru	5	3	8	No
J. Marshall	Labour	5	12	17	No
J. Biggs	Labour	1	3	4	No
K. Williams	Lib Dem	2	0	2	No
L. Jones	Labour	2	20	22	No
M. Pead	Conservative	4	5	9	No
M. Graham	Plaid Cymru	4	1	5	No
M. Thomas	Labour	2	12	14	No
M. Barnett	Labour	1	15	16	No
M. Jeremiah	Independent	4	1	5	No
N. Mason	Labour	6	7	13	No
N. Parrish	Labour	6	1	7	No
P. Williams	Conservative	4	8	12	No
P. Cathcart	Independent	5	4	9	No
P. Seabourne	Labour	6	1	7	No
R. Mills	Conservative	5	3	8	No
R. Williams	Independent	1	0	1	No
R. Clark	Labour	1	11	12	No
R. Jones	Labour	7	5	12	No
R. Wellington	Labour	2	17	19	No
R. Jones	Independent	3	0	3	No
R. Burnett	Independent	3	0	3	No
S. Richards	Labour	7	13	20	No
S. Evans	Independent	5	7	12	No
T. Huish	Independent	4	1	5	No
T. Gould	Peoples Voice	3	2	5	No
V. German	Lib Dem	5	1	5	No
W. Tomlinson	Independent	3	1	4	No

So - top of the league table of overachievers is Deputy Leader Lewis Jones (Lab) with a magnificent 22 memberships of different groups and committees - followed closely by Sarah Richards (Lab) with 20 – then it’s the Leeeeda himself, Bob Wellington (Lab) with 19 (well, the leader’s job IS quite demanding so...you know) then our friend John Marshall (Lab) with an impressive 17, and Mary Barnett (Lab) hot on his heels with 16 memberships. I have it on good authority that all the above members have cloned themselves at least twice, in order to make good on their commitments to each of these groups. 

Now - you may have noticed there’s a column on the right of the table that relates to whether or not a councillor has submitted a biography or CV... And it’s there because on the official page for each councillor there’s a space at the bottom for them to proudly display their qualifications and achievements...except not one of them has done so. Not one. And I know there are a lot of very intelligent councillors amongst them. People with degrees, perhaps - or at least diplomas and good old fashioned ‘O’ levels here and there. But I’m also positive there are councillors that would break out in a cold sweat at the thought of their electorate finding out they’re as academically accomplished as a bucket of wet sand. And at least wet sand holds together when you try and make something out of it...

Look at it like this. Being a councillor is one of the only jobs in existence where qualifications don’t matter. The chances of you getting an average, regular job that carries little or no responsibility and doesn’t afford you any power over the lives of other people is dependent on your ability to produce evidence of intelligence and expertise – quantified and legitimised by examination results, right? But that isn’t the case with our elected representatives. It seems we’ve entrusted certain people to work for us that appear to have trouble signing their own names, let alone understanding the implications of the decisions they make...you can spot them fairly easily wandering about the Civic Centre just waiting for the next ‘overview and scrutiny’ committee to form, so they can leap on board and secure another foothold in the political arena.

What I’d like to see is for that ‘Bio/CV’ column to start to get filled – but the only way to do it is by asking your councillor to provide the information. We all have a right to know how capable our councillors are, don’t we? Then let’s find out. Should be good for a laugh in more than a few cases, I reckon.... 

Predictible or What?

Today the Argus reports that a new executive member has been appointed, with responsibilities for equalities. It is being given to Councillor Cynthia Beynon! It is obvious this post has been created for her because she was the only labour councillor to not have a position of extra responsibility, as there were not enough to go around after handing out 5 posts to the 3 plaid and two independent councillors who sided with labour. Executive members get £13,508 pa in addition to the standard allowance of £12,718. She now gets £26,226 pa and every labour councillor is getting a minimum of £18,120 pa.

Councillor Beynon may be an excellent councillor but is this the time to go creating new cabinet positions? Also I cannot believe that each and every one of the Labour Councillors deserves the extra money or is capable of the posts to which they have been appointed.

What do you think?

See this earlier post

Don't blame Gordon Browne!

You cannot blame the abolition of the 10p tax band or Gordon Browne for the demise of the labour vote in Torfaen. If you take away the inherent inbred bias towards voting labour then the labour party have done very badly indeed. People wanted a change. The labour members were gutted, but showing the superb skills that have kept Bob Wellington in charge over the years a defeat was turned into a victory.

Yes good men were lost, but battles are like that; however out of defeat the labour leadership have negotiated a victory. Now with the loss of some top men even the lowest member of the labour ranks has been promoted to the officers mess. It's an ill wind as they say. They can all hold their heads up high, as they know in their hearts they are the only ones talented and experienced enough to govern, the rest are just a disorganised rabble.
Any comments?