Author Archives: Chris White

The Conservative Chair of the London Fire and Rescue Authority announced this week that fortnightly waste collections are a fire risk. The reason, he tells us, is that they attract arson attacks.

Meanwhile I have received a number of hostile letters because I suggested in a council meeting that there was no retail crisis at the north end of St Peter’s Street in St Albans. That, far from there being a blight of empty shops, somehow caused by parking charges which rose only modestly last April, footfall is in fact increasing and void tenancies are decreasing. And anyway St Albans is …

‘Good News’ people cry, like the tricoteuses of revolutionary France, when another quango head rolls into the basket. Such was the whoop (at least from aficionados) when the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council was given its P45. It seemed an obvious move and one that I had advocated myself.

I still support it: but, as I have pointed out before, there are potentially unintended consequences.

The libraries improvement regime can be taken over easily by the LGA. But what about museums? It seems that ‘responsibility’, whatever that may mean, for museums will pass to the Arts Council. So in fact we …

There were two articles in The Sun the other day on public sector pay. One was headed ‘£240k boss search axed’ and was a reference to the fact that the Government has vetoed the proposed salary package for a new Chief Executive of the Audit Commission.

The other much more substantial article was over the LGA’s search for a Director of Communications on £124,000 a year.
(As someone who receives a shilling or two from both organisations I must declare an interest.)

Meanwhile Nick Clegg has been applauded by the Daily Mail for his comments on public sector pensions, calling them ‘gold-plated’ and …

So. Like everyone (except I think Tory MPs) I read the Coalition agreement and quite liked it: some really important unexpected wins on the environment and constitutionally. Remarkably little that was truly offensive.

Of course, the knack is to use coalition negotiations as an opportunity to lose those bits of your own manifesto you don’t like by offering them up as sacrifices on the altar of co-operation.

There is of course nothing in the agreement about culture, media or sport. So I thought I would have a go: look at both manifestos, ditch the whacky bits and insert some bits that were …

Did you see it coming?

No-one likes someone who says ‘I told you so’.

But I did see it coming.

I remember the bubble bursting in 1992. I recall the way so many people who had wished me luck the previous weekend went into the polling booth and said ‘Nah. It’s cheaper to vote Tory’.

I was also acutely aware this year that the vast majority of activists believed that the surge would be sustained and that the targeting strategy was now irrelevant. The ‘five people smiled at me this morning so I think I can win’ phone call was too frequent.

Had parliamentary candidates …

On 31st March regional assemblies will be abolished. There will probably be neither bang nor whimper.

I will be sad. This was one of the projects of New Labour that nearly took wings. And it leaves a void in both regional governance and in our own party’s thinking on what we do about devolution.

In the longer term there are also questions about the viability of the Union – if Scotland, Wales and to a much lesser extent London are allowed (if that is the right verb) to run themselves, why can’t the rest of England? More to the point, why must …

The mountain laboured and brought forth a mouse. But not a very nice or useful mouse.

The Department of Culture, Media and Sport has at last produced a ‘policy statement’ entitled ‘The Modernisation review of public libraries’. There is little radical and little of benefit to the public, indeed precious little modernisation. The library establishment and quangoland by contrast have much to be pleased about.

The paper contains a long list of instructions for local authorities and even specifically for local authority chief executives: no role for councillors here. Local authorities must set flexible opening hours to suit the needs of local …

First Capital Connect has been in the news. Commuters have finally lost patience with poor service, high costs, questionable pricing policies and overcrowding. An overtime ban coupled with a feeble reaction to recent snowfalls has compounded the situation into one of genuine public anger.

Railways in many parts of the country are monopolies. You buy a house away from where you work, relying upon public transport to get you to and from your place of employment. The car is often not a realistic alternative. Other railway lines may well not be available.

What does the public do when faced with a monopoly? …

MPs were debating what are sometimes called ‘council newspapers’ last week. None was supportive.

At first sight it is easy to see why. Administrations exploit the legislation which forbids party political propaganda on the rates. So long as the rag doesn’t actually say ‘Vote Conservative’ it is usually quite within the letter of the law. So a publication featuring mainly the leader of the council and only positive stories may irritate the opposition (and the voter) but will not cause the monitoring officer to stir.

But this isn’t why it is open season on these publications. Trinity Mirror and other regional publishers …

I have made myself unpopular in some quarters this week by refusing to back a motion to Federal Conference which would create two new statutory duties: on local authorities to stockpile a certain quantity of salt and on householders to clear snow from the pavements in front of their homes. This, I am assured (and believe) is common in other parts of Europe.
 
There are two problems here: one is liberalism and the other is localism.
 
The potential legal obligation to clear snow from the pavements actually falls to pieces in practical terms long before it becomes an issue of principle: is …