Author Archives: Chris White

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 …

Some Christmas Quiz questions for you. Who said:

1.‘Around a quarter of public spending is controlled at local level; the rest is directed from the centre’

2.‘There are 102 different local authority spending streams, including 49 in education and children’s services, 11 in adult social care and six in policing’

3.‘We will also cut consultancy spend by 50% and marketing and communications spend by 25%’.

Is it a first glimpse at the Liberal Democrat manifesto?

Or (dare I say it) the Tory manifesto?

I will give a clue. The same document also includes the following pledge:

We will introduce best practice tariffs in the NHS by

…

John Humphrys was sounding pleased with himself on the Today Programme the other day. Nothing unusual there, you might say. He was attempting to skewer a minister because civil service managers at the UK Border Agency were being paid a bonus.

At first hearing it seemed as though they were each getting in excess of £300,000 for doing their own job. It was only on careful hearing that it became apparent that the figure was the total bonus pool and that the bonuses amounted to little more than £10,000 a piece.

The justification for the payments was that they were clearing …