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 …