I only wonder but … the job of being a local council Chief Executive involves being responsible for far more staff, far bigger budgets and (much though I think my colleagues in our media team are important) far more important issues than heading up a media team.
The awful fallout if a council bungles its Children’s Services is perhaps the starkest indication of how much more important running a council is than running a media team.
Yesterday Eric Pickles was in the news attacking councils, some of whom paying their chief executives six figures salaries. Leaving aside the embarrassing for him point that six out of the eight top council payers are in fact Conservative controlled, I wonder where this leaves his view of Andy Coulson’s £270,000 salary as the Conservative Party’s Head of Communications?
Surely on his own logic, that must be a very inflated salary and rather a waste of Conservative Party members’ funds? Just thought I’d ask.
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Were any taxpayers harmed?
Are you suggesting that Conservative members don’t pay taxes??
As Guido points out, if the Tories were using taxpayers money to pay Coulson you would have a point, but they’re not so you don’t.
Guido/Dizzy – surely the point is that the Tories accept, when making their own appointments, that you have to pay a market wage to attract good quality staff? Yet the Tories seem to think that council tax-payers’ interests are best served by appointing folk who might not be up to the job simply ‘cos they’ll accept a lower salary.
And I thought you guys were supposed to believe in the workings of the market being applied to the public sector…?
Since you people are so keen at sneering at the Tories, perhaps you might want to remind yourselves of 3 reasons to be contrite:
Check out Mr Isaby’s nomination for the worst gaffe of 2008 at Con Home. Who needs Andy Coulson more, the Tories or you lot?
Doesn’t Vince want all six-figure earning local council bureaucrats to re-apply for their job?
Guido – true, Vince said just that. And I had a go at him for saying it on LDV here. Consistency is generally a good thing, whether in the Lib Dems or Tories.
Dizzy/Guido: Surely a politician who avows fiscal prudence should practice what he preaches?
The main reason why Chief Executives of local authorities can command six figure salaries is that local authorities are competing with the private sector for wages. You can’t have it both ways, saying the one is fine while the other should be condemned. They are interconnected.
Guido: we don’t pay our head of media £270,000. The issue is Tory hypocrisy – they are happy with rates of pay for themselves that they criticise for others.