The Annual Meeting of Brent Council allocated committee places. Those who follow the machinations of Brent Labour may be interested in the fate of those councillors who have challenged or fallen out with the leadership as well as the allocation of places to the two Conservative groups:
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The way in which the Council Leader is using his power, to prevent himself from being held properly to account, is a danger to democracy in Brent.
ReplyDeleteBarry Gardiner, then Labour MP for Brent North (and standing for re-election on 8 June), warned of this danger soon after the local elections in May 2014, when Labour won 56 of the 63 seats on Brent Council. Martin reported this at the time:
http://wembleymatters.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/barry-gardiner-issues-warning-over.html
What Barry Gardiner wrote, as advice to his Labour colleagues on the Council, was:
'I’m thrilled, of course I’m thrilled but we need to be very careful.
It is a huge responsibility because a majority this big for any party means that we have to look within ourselves for the sort of scrutiny that we need of the policies that we ourselves are proposing.
All of these people got elected because they managed to persuade voters they wanted to represent them in the civic centre on the council. They must remember their job is to represent the people to the bureaucratic (sic) of the council and not to represent the council bureaucrats to the people.
We are here to be a critical voice to say where things are wrong and to set policy to change Brent for the better.'
Where is that critical voice from Brent's Labour councillors? It is needed more than ever!
Philip.
Well said Philip.
DeleteIn the present set up there is little of this representation of the electors against the bureaucracy at the top and critical voices being heard. The voters have been disregarded for too long.
Dear Anonymous (19 May at 19:51),
DeleteI was just reminding readers of the warning Barry Gardiner had given.
I am sure that a number of Labour councillors in Brent North are out there, campaigning to get him re-elected to Parliament.
Why are they not following his advice, and supporting / representing the people of Brent, by scrutinising the policies which Cllr. Butt is proposing (or imposing)?
Philip.
Barry Gardiner is a huge cheerleader for Butt. On this, as on so many issues, Gardiner is a hypocrite.
DeleteLooks like very successful entryism by the Invertebrate Tendency to me.
ReplyDeleteMike Hine