Just a quick one to round the week off. I missed this post yesterday on Paul Waugh’s site. I won’t accuse George Osborne of cowardice for saying this because he’s hardly unique in this respect: But he left the best til last. When asked if there was any chance of following up this localist agenda [...]
Posts under ‘Conservatives’
Detoxifying big decisions
Last week, David Cameron offered a fairly populist ‘bonfire of the quangos’ proposal, with the implication that politicians would take back many of the toxic decisions that they had farmed out to overpaid bureaucrats. In the FT the other day, Philip Stephens questions the emphasis: “…broadcasting policy accounts for only about 5 per cent of Ofcom’s workload. [...]
As opposed to taxidermists?
“Councils triumph at MJ awards” blares the headline in this weeks Municipal Journal, which is hardly surprising since only councils are allowed to enter. Hammersmith & Fulham’s Conservative administration came out top as political team of the year (Waltham Forest were runners-up) and Ealing won best achieving council. It’s notable that there aren’t any awards [...]
Caroline Spelman fails a localism test
Given all the talk of localism in recent months, it is pretty disappointing to see Caroline Spelman, the Conservative shadow Local Government minister, making the following statement (via the BBC) on Council Tax rises: At a time when millions of workers are facing pay freezes or unemployment this year, it adds insult to injury to [...]
Escape End
Time for one last look at the Conservative party’s local government green paper Shift Control. A quick canter through chapters four and five, and then some conclusions. Chapter Four is about spending. It says a Conservative Government will: give local people greater control over how central government funds are spent in their area; phase out [...]
Home PgDn
Time for a look at Chapter three of the Conservative local government green paper, Shift Control. This chapter is the section of the green paper that focuses on democracy, so there’s a lot to talk about. The chapter says that a Conservative Government would: provide citizens in all our large cities with the opportunity to [...]
SysRq F12
Part three of a series of articles looking at the Conservative local government green paper, Shift Control. This time, chapter two. This chapter is about localism, and promises that a Conservative Government would: give local residents the power to determine the balance between the level of council tax and the level of services delivered; drastically [...]
Beecham on the Conservative local government proposals
I’d very much like to find someone who’ll write a guest post here defending the Conservative proposals for local government – particularly the large-scale reliance upon referendums. Here’s Labour local government big-beast Sir Jeremy Beecham on the proposals. Warning: It’s not kind.
