Councillor
Francis (Labour, Belvedere) recently recommended on Twitter that anyone
wondering what a call-in was in terms of Council
governance should Google it so out of curiosity I did. ‘Bexley Council call in’ I typed into the box
and Google’s auto-complete helpfully added the word ‘sick’; which is exactly right.
It is in fact a procedure whereby affected individuals or groups of people are
able to challenge the decision of a Cabinet Member because without it Cabinet rule in Councils is a very dangerous weapon.
In the panel to the left you can see a typical set of rules laid down by a
democratic Council as a precaution against rogue, mistaken or ill-advised Cabinet Members. In this
example, the first that Google led me to, is Thurrock’s, our neighbour across the water.
If we lived there you and nine neighbours would be able make your case. In Bexley
even our elected representatives are not able to do so.
Bexley is a borough run by rogues who are not at all keen on democracy as their history of banning
certain individuals from asking questions, publicly revealing the address of any resident who dared
to question them and filibustering the remainder to oblivion has amply demonstrated.
Despite all that, Labour Leader Stefano Borello (© June Slaughter)
still holds on to the quaint idea that She Who Must Be Obeyed can be reformed. Last
Wednesday he thought “it is very important that the opposition is there
to scrutinise the decisions of the executive”. What sort of sacrilege is that Stef?
Have you forgotten where you are?
He
went on to say that the call-in procedure had not been used in the past ten
years which I assume the Leader would interpret as proof that her Cabinet is
comprised only of the infallible. In fact the reason is that the opposition
party is excluded from the process because their Committee numbers fall short of
the threshold required. This in turn is because the First Past the Post
electoral system translates 41% of votes into one third of the seats and 47%
into two thirds and Committee Membership adopts the same ratio.
Clever innit? The Tories love it because it means that Labour voices have little say in any matter.
My three votes count for nothing.
Stef said that both Bromley and Greenwich operate differently. In the Royal
Borough there are now only three Conservatives out of 55 Councillors but their
rights to call-in are not restricted. The Conservatives could
call-in Labour
decisions when they were in control of Bexley 20 years ago but the Conservatives refuse to reciprocate.
Needless to say Councillor Borella’s plea for more democracy in Bexley fell on
deaf ears. The new Mayor dismissed it in eight words and could not have
sounded more bored if he had tried. Councillor Slaughter’s assurances that Nick O’Hare is
some sort of good bloke look wildly optimistic to me.
Councillor Nicola Taylor thought that Bexley’s Cabinet is scared of scrutiny in
a way that Bromley Council is not which succinctly summarises the issue. It has been
obvious enough throughout the twelve years I have been watching their antics.
Naturally enough Cabinet Member David Leaf was keen to tell us why Labour voters
should be deprived of their share of democracy and as predicted here many times
he immediately referenced the recent election result which he implied gave him
and his boss the right to do whatever they thought fit. In Bexley the
call-in rules provided “political balance”. (Stop laughing at the back please.)
“The request [for call-ins] is Labour’s excuse not to do
any scrutiny” he said in what must rank as one of the most illogical statements
ever to sully Bexley’s Council Chamber.
“It is typical of Labour not wanting to do any work and they do not wish to represent their residents.ְ”
And this loon is in charge of Council finances. No wonder the borough almost went broke.