Monday 25 October 2010

Neil's burden

How many Cornwall councillors will it take to defeat the proposed cuts budget? Not as many as you might think, but be prepared for a number of assumptions.

Assuming the Liberal Democrat and Mebyon Kernow groups join together in opposing the budget, they have about 43 seats in the council chamber between them. A motion needs 62 to be sure of success.

So the Lib Dem/MK groups would be 19 votes short - but again, I have to make an assumption that every single member of the 123-strong council attends and votes (which on past form is highly unlikely.) I am also assuming that council chairman Pat Harvey does not normally vote.

Councillor Neil Burden's job, as a senior member of the Cabinet and leader of the Independent political group, is to persuade enough of his 31 members (at least 13) to vote with the Conservatives. Given that nearly all of Neil's group are now getting drafted into local campaigns to save libraries and leisure centres this might not be so easy. Indeed, without the carrots and sticks (career prospects and whips) that go with a conventional political party I'd say Neil has quite a task on his hands.

For the Liberal Democrats and Mebyon Kernow, the mission is to find a clever form of words for some sort of budget amendment which, by 30th November, will command the support of at least 19 dissident Independent councillors.

Incidentally I'm often asked how councillors who are elected as "independent" suddenly find themselves members of a political group called "Independents." The answer is to be found in the financial rewards councillors get in return for sitting on several committees, working parties and other official bodies where appointment is within the gift of a political group leader.

Councillors elected as "independent" who stay outside of a political group risk isolation, with possibly only one full council meeting to attend each month. So it pays, literally, for independent councillors to join a political group and appoint each other to various committees where they can earn attendance allowance for the approved duty.

This is why some members of Cornwall Council's Cabinet describe themselves as "independent" and really believe it when they say they are not politicians. It's a question worth asking next time an "independent" council candidate asks for your vote.

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