Sage stooge stuffed

Yet another repost, as it got lost between this computer and the blogsite! Where it is no-one knows.

That master of political intrigue, the Uriah Heep of the Uplands, the sage of Brynmill, the Scourge of Students, er...where was I , oh yes, Peter May, got a quick lesson on the wisdom of the old political adage that 'you never ask a question unless you already know the answer'.

At the start of each Council meeting there is a session where members of the public can turn up and ask questions. Generally, (in fact almost invariably) the questions are put to the Cabinet Members, that's really the point of the exercise. However, the Tory Group Leader, Cllr Kinzett, had established that questions could be asked of any elected member.

So at the start of the meeting a young man stands up and asks me about the allegations of children being kept overnight in motorway services or something along those lines. It turns out that he was the campaign organiser (sic) for Cllr May. (Clearly Cllr May didn't want to be overshadowed by his colleagues Cllr Speight, who has his own researcher (singular or plural) and who caused a deal of upset a few months ago). I had been away for the special meeting the previous week – an unbreakable engagement booked long before the Council date was set. I guess that Cllr May thought this a jolly clever wheeze – and that he'd catch me out and embarrass me! Er...embarrass me! What a silly boy!

I had anticipated that I'd be asked something somewhere in the meeting – although I didn't expect it to come from the public gallery. But 6 of one etc. I read out the statement that is posted in the next blog.

The allegation that children were or were not kept overnight in motorway services is clearly an embarrassing one for the Administration. We have had robust (and aggressively over-the-top) denials from the Cabinet Member, which contrast greatly with the equivocal responses from the Service Director. However, whilst a powerful illustration of the effect of the closing of the homes, in my view - it's not the main issue, as without it serious doubts remain about the implementation timetable and the efficacy of the proposals – which are untested in Swansea and cannot be guaranteed to work, as the Service Director freely and openly admitted. That is why the failure to seek consensus on the proposals is so serious.

What is in many ways worse, is the Administration's failure to distinguish between 'consulting' and 'consensus'. There clearly had been some sort of agreement between the Chair & vicChair of Scrutiny and the Cabinet Member that was cavalierly over-ruled by Chris Holley. He made plain where he stood on the issue, as when asked for an assurance that the proposal to close the homes would come to Council, was "The only assurance I will give you is that it will be dark outside when we finish here" or words to that effect. Nice!