Tag Archives: councillors

Opinion: Pickles pensions off councillors

The winning Kendal Town CouncillorsSome of you may have heard this brief anecdote before.

Some years ago a civil servant appeared in St Albans attempting to sell some ‘new’ ideas from the Government of the day about local government. He stood up before various district and county councillors in Hertfordshire and announced that ‘in future the Government wanted councillors to represent the people to the town hall rather than the other way round.’

He said it without malice or irony and as a result was not lynched – turning up some years later to dismantle the Audit Commission.

Posted in Op-eds | Also tagged and | 25 Comments



Recent Comments

  • User AvatarDavid Wright 22nd May - 12:52am
    So 4 Liberal Democrat MPs voted against the whole bill: Sir Alan Beith (Berwick-upon-Tweed), Gordon Birtwistle (Burnley), John Pugh (Southport), Sarah Teather (Brent Central). I'm...
  • User AvatarHelen Tedcastle 22nd May - 12:48am
    Caron Lindasy: "...where is the anger and intolerance in my post?" In the sense that you do quite frequently 'name and shame' (I take it...
  • User AvatarRob 22nd May - 12:13am
    Can anyone tell me who the 4 were and which of outs abstained.
  • User AvatarMartin Lowe 21st May - 11:55pm
    When the law is changed to make something illegal, we don't give opt-outs or exemptions for serving police officers to turn a blind eye to...
  • User AvatarRichard S 21st May - 11:26pm
    @jenny barnes - So form a community and live in it then. Or is what you really want the ability to compel others to be...