Cosseting Councillors

The BBC reports on an independent Councillors Commission report that will be presented to the government. There are some striking proposals in there. Strikingly bad, unfortunately.

"People voting in local elections could be offered entry to a free lottery under plans to increase turnout"

Right, so now we have to pay people through entrance in a lottery to actually exercise their right to vote. What a depressing state of affairs. How about educating the electorate about the fact that people fought (and, yes, died) for their right to stick an "x" in a box on a ballot paper. People shouldn’t vote because they are going to get rewarded for it. They should vote because they think it is the right thing to do, and they want their voices to be heard. And if they can’t be bothered on those grounds, then f*ck ‘em. They don’t get a vote.

"It also wants "parachute payments" for council leaders who lose their seats - plans apparently opposed by ministers."

And who is proposing these payments for council leaders? Ah, that would be the Councillors Commission. Part of their focus is on getting good pay deals for Councillors. That would make me question their independence, and therefore the relevance of their findings, somewhat.

"Currently, leaders of Britain's biggest town halls, who earn up to £60,000 a year as elected politicians, lose their salaries the day they are voted out of office."

Good. They’ve been voted out. Democracy in action. Let them get on with their lives. Fuck ‘em.

"But the Councillors Commission argues that there should be "parachute payments for elected mayors, leaders and executive portfolio-holders who lose office through the action of the electorate". It recommends the cash payouts should be equivalent to redundancy money and linked to the amount of time in office."

Bollocks. "The action of the electorate" is called democracy. It is what the report is trying to do - get more people to vote! If councillors are losing elections, then they aren’t representing the people well enough. They deserve to lose their payments, not get more money from the electorate who have just told them where to go. Losing an election isn’t equivalent to redundancy. It is the equivalent of being fired.

"It also suggests that some councillors could be able to claim unemployment benefit"

Well, that will *really* help reduce benefit fraud. Sends out *just* the right example if politicians are claiming benefit whilst working!

"But politicians would be prevented from serving more than five terms in office, meaning that hundreds of experienced councillors could be swept out."

Right, so part of the Councillors Commission’s role is to try to get councillors into place. But at the same time they are trying to boot experienced councillors out after five terms. For some reason I am suddenly thinking of the phrase "cutting off your nose to spite your face". And as I’ve said before, we have term limits in this country. They are called elections.

"Department for Communities and Local Government spokesman said: "This is a report from an independent commission and therefore does not represent government policy or government proposals. We will respond to the independent report when it is published.""

If the government has an iota of sense it will ignore this crappy report when it is published. However anything relying on Nu Labour having an iota of sense does not fill me with confidence.