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?

Fun Things to do While You're Waiting for Democracy to Kick in.

So…I’ve been clicking around the TDF site – giving due consideration to all sides of the argument concerning certain elected public servants and their ‘strategic’ decisions – and then I find this link to ‘Clause 4.16.9’ of the TCBC Constitution. And suddenly I go from mildly amused, to terribly intrigued. That same part of me that quite likes ‘The Da Vinci Code’ and gets all excited by cryptic puzzles and unsolved mysteries suddenly took over, and I found myself gazing in amazement at the list of conditions that now qualifies a public question as inappropriate, and therefore able to be rejected outright.

Wow. Talk about ‘Gordian Knot’ – you might as well replace the current list of criteria with one that reads:

‘Any question composed of words and/or syllables – constructed as a sentence or phrase, being either written or spoken, and relating to anything at all, ever. Clicksies, no comebacks.’

Seems to me that Clause 4.16.9 (apart from sounding ever so Biblical) was lovingly crafted to be a foolproof ‘get out of answering anything even remotely sticky free’ caveat – and I’m using the term ‘caveat’ in its root definition as a warning and as a mechanism to halt proceedings. It’s there quite simply to prevent people like us from opening our big gobs and exercising our right to question. It’s a censorship tool – nothing more, nothing less.

But it’s also a fun way to while away a few hours while you’re waiting for the Labour Party to implode. You see, I’ve come up with an idea for the whole family. It’s called…

BEAT THE CLAUSE!

And it’s really easy to play. All you have to do is come up with a direct, meaningful question to put to the Cabinet that can’t be shut down using Clause 4.16.9. Now I’m not saying for one minute that you should actually go and submit any of these questions to the Cabinet – ‘cause, let’s face it – that’d be pointless. They’d only go away and create Clause 4.16.10 and it’d probably look just like the one I came up with above. All you have to do is post them as a response to this blog, and we’ll see if we can prove beyond all doubt that there isn’t one single meaningful and direct question any of us can come up with that TCBC wouldn’t be able to reject using Clause 4.16.9…

And if anyone DOES manage it – could you then turn your attention to solving the problem of free energy and world hunger? Cos you’re obviously some kind of genius…

Join The Campaign For Democracy in Torfaen!

This blog post is specifically for anyone who wishes to express their support for the petition campaign to make the Labour-run council of Torfaen aware of how and why we will not accept them as our DEMOCRATICALLY elected representatives, and for anyone who wants to fight for democracy in our wonderful county! Although Cllr Wildgust is spearheading the campaign we can assure you that we the people (of many diverse backgrounds and political persuasions) are the driving force behind the desire to establish a better system of governance in our local area. Please support this issue with any comments or more if you want to get involved!

Democracy Petition is Coming (Argus 19th June)

"Councillor Wildgust is organising a Torfaen-wide petition calling for proportional representation, and is planning a major protest march from county hall in Cwmbran to the civic centre in Pontypool at the beginning of July.He said: "I have had dozens of letters and e-mails calling on me to act. I want to motivate the population and get people marching for democracy.
"My message to the Labour leadership is democracy is coming." "
South Wales Argus 19th June 2008

See full report here.

Well Done Labour

On the Free Press website yesterday a John Turner has made the following comment,

"Well done Labour for retaining control of the Council. Clearly the opposition could not agree to power sharing so labour showed them how it should be done. Hopefully this will give the Council some stability to get on with the job of governing and by those with experience and ability rather than by an unfocused rabble of an opposition."

I am guessing that this is former New Inn Councillor John Turner who was a respected member of the cabinet before the May election. Is he implying that labour would have been willing to share power? I am copying his words here to allow comment from others, and to ask a few questions of the current labour group/leadership and Mr Turner.

• Would they have been willing to share power with the opposition, ie in a coalition of all parties, with political balance on the cabinet?
• How small a majority would they have to have had before they might think that they should share power.?
• Due to reduced numbers all but one labour member has a position of extra responsibility. Does each and every one of those have the necessary dedication, experience and ability to perform those duties?
• Does Mr Turner consider all the opposition to be lacking the ability and experience to take a meaningful part in the government of Torfaen?

What you see (vote for) is not what you get!!!

Every election (local/regional/national) there seems to be the same chorus " Empathy is everybody's enemy" "People should vote for what they think!". Well certain (Famous Five/Labour) Torfaen councillors should be proud in their ability of killing any pride or respect that people had in them and confirming the worst beliefs that people have in all politicians. 

How can they hold their heads high knowing they have SOLD OUT themselves and everybody who voted for them. 

Vote Plaid or independent?? Why bother....? If you are sick and tired of Labour in the valleys, but I can already hear " its always been that way!!" I respond 'well look where it has got us', vote for a party that stands for something. Conservative or liberal at least you know they stand for something. 

I have seen what councillors get and the cushy chairs and committees - what I haven't see is the return on that investment. How about being accountable, being selected and keeping roles based on competence and results? No lets base it on party and.......lottery, personal preference, direction of the wind?? 

I must opologise to all those councillors that work long and hard on the behalf of those who voted for for you - I just don't know who you are, as you have all been tarred by colleagues actions or lack of them.

Councillor Cunnington answers his critics

Let me elay any fears that I am a Labour supporter, far from it, baring in mind that I still have the scars from when they stabbed me in the back!
On the face of it and the mis-reporting by the Argus (which they agreed was as a result of incorrect information given to them initially), I quite appreciate that the electorate will feel betrayed, I would feel the same, however my decision when explained will I hope, prove to get the best deal for our ward, which is what I promised to do - and to achieve this I had to seize an opportunity to gain what is probably the most important casting voting position in the County, which I intend to use as a lever to get facilities in Two Locks and Henllys in particular, not forgetting the rest of the county. continues....

Press Release from Councillor Fred Wildgust

As an independent councillor, I am free of any party whip and cannot be controlled by the restrictions of party policy. When I stood for the council my mandate was that I would work to secure better financial accountability, improved environmental management and where dubious or immoral decisions had been made I would root it out. more....

Only Labour Can EVER Lead Torfaen!

Well that is what senior members of the labour party think, by definition. No-one else has the experience to form a leading group. So in spite of a poor show at the polls, for the labour party and himself, leader Bob Wellington has justified his "arrangement" of eventually finding 5 former sworn enemies to support his next year in a very well paid office to bring "stability to local governance in Torfaen" See Argus report here dated Tuesday 27th May 2008

"But council leader Bob Wellington said the "arrangement" would bring stability to local governance in Torfaen.

Senior Labour councillor John Cunningham, cabinet member for operational services, called the independent coalition members "hypocritical" for joining with the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.

He said the five Cwmbran councillors would not necessarily support Labour, who he said were the most experienced party and the best placed to run Torfaen council."

So no-one but the labour party is experienced enough to run Torfaen, AND no-one but the labour party members will get any position that would allow them to gain any experience (yet every labour member, clever or dim, old, young or inexperienced gets some position of responsibility.) very clever, a bit of a catch 22 situation if ever there was one.

Add to that the opinion that Independents were hypocritical to even think of a coalition with Conservatives and Liberals (they don't mention that that would have been under the leadership of independents) yet it was in the public interest for the labour party to tout round with a chequebook for literally anyone to support their continuation in office and you can see what sort of mugabe-istic thinking is behind stable governance in Torfaen. How badly would labour have had to have done in the polls for them to begin to even think that they should at least share power?

Councillor Cynthia Bynon

Councillor Cynthia Bynon was first elected in May, and is a labour member for Panteg. She is in fact the only labour councillor not to get an additional position with an additional allowance. Every other labour councillor has, plus the Torfaen 5 (what would Bob have done if they hadn't accepted the jobs?).

Why was this lady left out? Is the as yet unfilled position, Chair of the Co-ordinating Committee, earmarked for her or is Bob going to use that position to buy over another member from the other side and consolidate his position. His reasons given for delaying the appointment (ensuring a political balance?) seemed a bit strange. We shall see in due course. Update here.

Time will Tell

Only time will tell if the two independent and three Plaid councillors who supported the labour group in their hour of need have done the right thing. On the face of it it looks like a betrayal. However what does the average non-labour voter want in Torfaen? Change, yes, but what we need is a long term radical change in the way the council is run, making it more accountable to the people.

To do that we need to ensure that in future no group or party has a position so secure that they can ignore public opinion. If the Famous Five have this at the back of their minds, and they are determined to work for change with the rest of the non-labour group (if that is now possible) and with the more open-minded of the labour group, then maybe, just maybe, they will eventually redeem themselves.

Time will tell.

There were alternatives

Even if the three "plaid" (now labour) councillors and the two "independents" had not liked the opposition "package" they could have stayed in the middle and balanced the two sides, voting for best from the experienced labour group and adding talented new blood.

But no, from the moment the five took Judas's purse the meeting was a waste of time, we are back to the old regime except they have secured their cosy, well remunerated, totally undeserved positions instead of five others. We will not even notice the difference! What a waste of time!

A vote for Plaid was a vote for Labour

I must amend my last post, maybe the lady concerned has just learnt the way life really is, very quickly. She has just agreed to accept the labour whip, and at the same time accepted an additional £5,402 per year. The more cynical might see this as a bribe.

Below I show you the allowances members get, all sum are in pounds, per year, and the rates are accumulative. Therefore if you are leader you get £27,017 plus your basic allowance of £12,718 a year, ie £39,735 per year

5 councillors, that is 3 (inexperienced) Plaid councillors and two (inexperienced) independents "sided" with the labour group and voted in the former regime. For their compliance each of these 5 (inexperienced) councillors have been nominated, by the labour leader, and by a consistant vote of 23 to 20, given chairmanship of a committee, at an extra £5,402 per year. (That means that these 5, inexperienced people will be getting £18,120 before expenses.

It stinks! (unless of course they have a hidden agenda)

The allowances for councillors are as follows (remember that any actual expenses occurred, like travel and accommodation, are generous additions to the following basic allowances.)

Leader of the Council £27,017 per annum
Deputy Leader £14,859
Executive Member £13,508
Chairs of Planning and Licensing Committee £8,105
Chairs of Overview and Scrutiny Committees £8,105
Chairs of Committees (other) £5,402
Mayor’s Allowance £8,105
Deputy Mayor’s Allowance £5,402
ALL ABOVE PLUS THE Basic Allowance of £12,718
PLUS Care Allowance* £375 per month (if you have young kids).

Why become a councillor?

A lady who had just snatched a seat from labour in Torfaen was surprised to hear that there was any allowance, let alone £12,000 for being just an ordinary councillor. I am not saying that hard working councillors don't deserve some renumeration but this does show that this particular lady put up for all the right reasons.

Will anything change?

I hear rumours that the Labour party may stay in power in Torfaen with the support of another political group or a number of independents. The independents apparently cannot get their act together and they are the second major "group". See here (Peoples Voice are 3 of the "others") and here.

If this means that the previous labour administration stays virtually unchanged, with a few (very well paid) jobs for the "new boys" then one must question the motives of those "new boys".

If those "new boys" are the Peoples Voice members and they are accepting the Labour whip or even a joint whip then they are certainly not what they said they were. The people of Torfaen voted for a change. (Later note: I am informed that the Peoples Voice are not forming an alliance with Labour, so who could be?)

It was interesting to see that the Peoples Voice candidates only got in where they were the only alternative to the Labour Party. For detailed results see here.

We must wait and see.
The first meeting of council, when all will be revealed, is the Annual meeting of TORFAEN COUNTY BOROUGH COUNCIL, which will be held in the Council Chamber at the Civic Centre, Pontypool on Thursday, 22 May 2008 at 5.00pm. See you there!

Overheard in the House of Commons

This was overheard in the House of Commons (see here)


"Ah yes, Torfaen - that famous Labour marginal."
"What happens when you've got a load of mad buggers (independents) in charge? It'll be officers' play-time!"

This is unfair. Either our dedicated officers would guide an inexperienced cabinet and not take advantage of the situation OR they will carry on running rings around the administration like they have done for years, maybe a less experienced cabinet would stand up to them!

Either way we would be kidding ourselves to think that the elected members influence the day to day running of the council, it is simple offering Direction and Correction to the officers .

Wales Says "No place for Party Politics in Local Government"

Betsan Powys' Blog on BBC Wales Website gives the (near) final figures on the Welsh Local Government elections, see it here; indeed it does show that The Labour Party have had a "good kicking"

Independents gained 348 seats, 5 more in total than Labour in Wales. Add on small parties, an extra 26, and say 50% of the other parties, for those that vote for other parties as a way of getting or keeping labour out. That makes an extra 53, total 427, as opposed to labours 343 votes. That is a majority of at least 24% of the seats in this election were chosen by people who don't want either a Labour administrations or the long term one party system to continue.

Ousted labour councillors may well blame Gordon Browne and the demise of the 10p tax band but that can only partly compensate for the "vote for anything Labour" mentality of many Welsh people. No, and as long as the electorate remember the arrogance of any long term labour administration I sincerely hope that, until they put up as independents, representing the people, not the party, those councillors are out and they will stay out. Let's hope they see sense, because some of them would make good councillors.

Keep an eye on Betsan Powys' Blog here