‘What is the matter with these people?’ is probably the reaction of many in Great Britain when observing the escalating violence in Northern Ireland in relation to – well – just a flag.
Although it is true that it is currently unlikely that there would be mass demonstrations on English streets over what flag was flown over the town hall and when, it is remarkable how few councillors really pause to think about the symbols used in their own councils and the potential effects on the people they aim to represent.
I did a quick audit of the two councils which put up with me as a member: one (a district) hangs the local St Albans flag in its council chamber alongside the union flag (it used to be the EU flag under the Lib Dems). There are pictures of the royal family on the walls, even though none has a particular local connection.
The other (a county) flies the county flag most days and the union flag every day: the latter is a recent innovation stemming from the moment when the then Tory leader discovered to his irritation that the council had been instructed to add to its designated days (days, as we learn from Belfast, when you are required to fly the union flag) the birthday of the Countess of Wessex. Daily flag-flying was a neat Tory rebellion – obey the rules but utterly undermine them.
There is also a rather nice picture of the Queen Mother, who does have a particular connection with part of the county.
This is normal England: so what? Start from the other end. If you were designing from scratch a new elected body tasked with making decisions about supplying local services and raising the appropriate revenues, what would it look like?
Would it have any of its members in fancy dress (eg fur-lined robes)? Would its members avoid using first names even when meeting in private? Would someone be employed to carry around an ornate metal object in front of the new organisation’s chairman?
And, dare I say it, would there be compulsory Christian prayers at the beginning of key meetings?
The answer is obviously no. Nor would issues like where to locate the flagpole and what to fly on it be high on your “to do” list.
But surely this doesn’t matter in England, Scotland or Wales? The danger, of course, is that we don’t notice how it matters. It matters if there is no reaching out to an area’s ethnic minorities because it tells them that the council is not really very interested in their existence, culture or ultimately opinions.
It also matters if a council does not reach out to the rest of its population: meetings conducted with ritual aggression, flamboyant language and fancy dress just say to the public: ‘We are not like you. We are grand and you are not.’
A dose of twenty-first century modernity is needed throughout this United Kingdom.
* Chris White is a former Leader of the Liberal Democrats on St Albans Council, Councillor for Hertfordshire County Council and Regional Chair: East of England
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4 Comments
The English are so much more civilized. When they riot its so they can raid Poundland!
Would it have any of its members in fancy dress (eg fur-lined robes)? Would its members avoid using first names even when meeting in private? Would someone be employed to carry around an ornate metal object in front of the new organisation’s chairman?
Actually, yes, I would. The fact that we put a little bother into these things, dress up, put a little ceremony into it is an indication that we take it seriously. I do regard democracy as a serious thing, something worth treating as a little bit special.
On the avoiding first names stuff, I regard that as important. It is a way of indicating that we are playing a role, of distinguishing that formal role from personalities. If I am in the council chamber criticising “Cllr So-and-So”, it is a way of making clear I am performing my political duty, that my criticisms are part of that and nothing personal against Bob or whatever his first name is.
A dose of twenty-first century modernity is needed throughout this United Kingdom.
Sorry, I enjoy a bit of colour and ritual, and a sense of history. The world you want to create seems to me to be very humdrum and boring.
They do not have all this fancy dress and ritual in executive meetings of bankers, do they? So does that mean bankers are oh-so-much-more in touch with the needs of ordinary human beings and oh-so-much-more doing what they are doing out of concern for the welfare of ordinary human beings than councillors?
All what you say reminds me a bit of the USA where they think because they abolished aristocratic titles they created a more equal society than anywhere else. In fact the USA has less equality of opportunity and more inequality of wealth than almost any other developed nation. But many Americans are genuinely fooled by the culture of superficial equality into supposing theirs really is a more equal country than almost any other.
I agreee. The fancy dress and ceremony and much of the etiquette does not have much purpose other than to exclude. Long past the time we need to get rid of it.
Is this why male MP’s in parliament wear suits and ties and look so boring and drab, while females look colorful and interesting and individual? Or am I just entering puberty again in my old age?
“If you were designing from scratch a new elected body tasked with making decisions about supplying local services and raising the appropriate revenues, what would it look like?”
I can think of many things it should do, how it should look and how it should be organised. The problem is that if we get distracted by the question of the civic functions of local government, we miss the more important changes that are needed across the rest of its functions. There’s an important debate to be had about local government and how it works, but this isn’t it – how a local authority works, including its civic functions, should be up to the people of that area.
Generally, I agree with Matthew’s points, though I think councils should look at ways to modernise their procedures where appropriate and necessary – perhaps they should consider the possibility of, at least occasionally, appointing a Mayor who’s not a councillor, for instance – but the more important way to bring councils back in touch with the people they represent is to examine their powers and roles.