YourMedway piece highlighting Tory failure over tax
Having attended the budget meeting last night it was a parody of party positioning and would have been a turn-off to all those with an open mind.
I suspect that is why we are getting fewer and fewer people attending Council meetings; the ability to influence or get an answer from the ruling elite is well known. People have become openly cynical of our political discourse and the corrosive nature of our democratic structures
At one point last night I almost filmed the proceedings on my iPhone but it does raise a question; there is a reason why other Councils film their meetings and why we dont. The Tory front-bench is utterly closed minded.
And that is where the deep problem lied in the budget. The simple fact is this budget did not have the consent of the public when compared with the open and transparent processes at other Labour, Conservative and Green Councils up and down the Country. Many of these organised open forums where community priorities could be set and where the public could be allowed to take part in the difficult decisions that need to be taken place. Despite the assertions of the far left; if your budget is cut by £14.3m we all need to make tough calls.
Yesterday was about the centrally imposed will of the sunset Cabinet on the rest of the Council. The opposition of course challenged with the resources we had available; but when you are fighting an administration with paid accountants and staff, it is simply unrealistic to expect an opposition to come up with a multiple-hundred page document. The public know this.
The speech from Cllr Jarrett started off sensibly; he made a critique on the Cameron Conservative Government claiming that the direct grant settlement was outrageous, that DCLG was spinning the truth on cut percentiles, and that floor damping remains despite the pledges of the Conservatives in opposition. He therefore fully supported the opposition view that the context of this budget was a failure of a Conservative government to not only represent Medway residents but in also communicating with them in a straight fashion. I could almost have been forgiven for thinking he was making an opposition speech at one point...
But then however came the blame part.
Despite months of documented incompetence on programmes and projects, with copious overspends, and a litany of errors, there was absolutely no acceptance that this is actually the fault of perhaps a poor model of financial governance and control. The blame was put on officers (now retired) and organisations (now defunct) who quite conveniently are not around to defend themselves.
Of course the fact that blame was put on officers and defunct organisations perhaps suggests systemic weakness. The fact I believe systemic weakness is endemic is just highlighted by the constant news stories to this effect. There was no acceptance that systemic weakness is currently an inherent problem at all.
There were copious allegations of incompetence, a bit of xenophobia (the anti-Scottish jibe on Brown) and the usual taunts and yah-booh which comes with these events. Accusation of lies and contortions are usually the preserve of those caught in the spotlight with nowhere to hide; the simple fact is we were getting a fog of blame from the administration which only serves to highlight an understanding that failure had occurred but an unwillingness to accept it was the fault of political leadership. Now we can debate the level of blame; but to absolve yourselves of all blame is unbelievable.
So once blame and incompetence had been spread onto everyone else we came to the pledges. A claim that front-line services would not be impacted despite a £23.5m cut last year and a £14.3m cut to this years budget; when we did see and are currently observing cuts to front line services. Again, a truly honest politician would have stated that because of the centrally imposed Conservative cuts some uncomfortable judgements had to be made to square the circle.
As it was there was abject denial about this. The pledges on Free Swimming, Sure Start, Concessionary travel and the Freedom Pass were all well made; but the public need only look to which party suggested these things in the first place; Labour motion after Labour manifesto committment.
I am very happy to argue on these points; but Tories take the credit for actions which they themselves opposed, then introduce and then under-fund. As a public we then see cynicism erode our political discourse; as promises are broken time and time again.
And this was a broken promise budget. A bad deal for Medway. Its background was Tory cuts, its foundations based on documented concern over financial transparancy, consultation and management and its conclusions were Conservative; cuts to services for the most vulnerable, be that Sure Starts, Care homes and supporting people budgets.
Medway Messenger telling the truth to Tory myths; they are targeting vulnerable for cuts
I believe a different approach could have secured our support. A truly open and transparent budget process with the public on priorities, an awareness that whilst blame can be spread to the government for not being fair that some of the reasons are systemic weaknesses in the political management of the Council that need to be overcome.
Many of the positions in the budget my colleagues supported and like many members of the public there is good and bad in everything. We did support the Council Tax freeze, the investment in an anti-airport campaign, free swimming and the token move towards travel for our young people.
Whilst delivering my speech last night I was challenged for pitching my speech to the public through the Medway Messenger [and its readers]; too right I was - thousands open to reason as opposed to the tired and trite dogma of the ruling elite in a room with an audience of a dozen political hacks... Why do you think I blog?
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