Monday, August 20, 2007

Local politics - no thanks!

Now as if I wasn't annoyed enough at the completely unacceptable school closure programme, I've today properly read one of the shorter reports coming up at the same Council meeting this Thursday ... it's here, and may seem fairly innocuous, but let me explain why I think it's frankly one of the most insidious Council reports I've ever read.

It's basically trying to curtail the right of individuals and organisations from coming to any meeting of the Council (of their choice) and requesting 10-minutes to put their case before all elected Members present. It does this under the guise that there are now 5 political groups on the Council, a new Administration, and there is considerable pressure on time and management of meetings ... well that's fine then, perfectly good set of reasons to deny people some basic local, democratic rights.

Stunning, truly stunning.

The report also hints that not only should troublesome members of the public not ask for deputations at awkward times, but also that elected Members should refrain from tabling too many motions at Full Council meetings because it's just not cricket :-(

It's no joke, I'll tell you :-((

You should read this short report, and the appendix (both here!) ... you'll rarely see a better argument for why local political choices actually do matter.

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