You can never trust a Tory ! A simple statement, but true when you look at the utter hypocrisy of the Conservatives in Norfolk.
Having argued for the right to chair the scrutiny committee in South Norfolk as the "opposition" party, upon taking power the Conservatives re-write the council's constitution in order to prevent the lib Dems, now in opposition, from having similar privileges. Breckland Tories too are removing the right of the opposition to chair scrutiny.
In Broadland, the Tories claim to be much fairer by allowing an independent to chair the scrutiny committee instead of the opposition Liberal Democrats. However, this is far from fair as the independent gets elected because the Tories do not oppose him and he is a member of the Conservative Party, so it is actually a ruse to prevent the Lib Dems getting the scrutiny role.
Can any Conservative actually justify why it is okay for the Tories to demand that they should have scrutiny chairmanships when they are in opposition but then oppose it when in power ?
Put simply, you can't trust the Tories.
13 comments:
This isn't newsworthy: it simply not news - we've known Tories can't be trusted for centuries.
Seriously though folks; you ought to make a point to have this nice and prominent in all future election material. The rule of any opposition, but particularly a liberal opposition, ought to be to shame the buggers in power to be honest.
"Tories cant be trusted"
How is that a "fair and open minded" statement?
Pure poison from a very sad and twisted mind.
Jim, I provied the evidence to show how you cannot trus tthem. you resort to insults. Perhaps I should ahve added that aswell as not trusting them, you cannot engage them in to even justifying their duplicitous actions, instead they resort to insults.
Sorry - you are right about the substantive point (regarding oppo cllrs chairing scrutiny) but I do agree with Jim ... not fair or open minded Nich.
Have you mentioned Tory councils where they do allow oppo's to chair or LibDem ones where they don't?
I love the fact you are out-and-out anti-Tory and pro-LD (as I am, in reverse) but don't pretend to be fair and open minded when you are clearly bias and close minded!
On a lighter note, like you I survived OFSTED this week - phew!
Antony, unlike you, I do praise other parties, just look this week when I praised David Cameron. I have also praised individual Tory MP's and Tory council in the past, it is just that you choose to ignore it when I do this.
Why didn't I praise Tory councils who do give opposition parties chairmanship of scrutiny ? I was focusing on Norfolk council who are changing the rules. Its just that only Tory council are doing this.
North Norfolk (Lib Dem run and with two more seats than in 2003) gives opposition scrutiny chair. Can you name any Tory councils in Norfolk that do this ?
Nich, that comment is totally OTT. You are friends with Tories - RS, for example. Are you saying that he cannot be trusted?
It's a shame, if what you say is true, that the Conservatives in Norfolk are behaving in this fashion. We have more than 350,000 members - please do not write us all off on the basis of a few people in one particular area - i.e. Norfolk.
We do not have any members on Haringey Council but we have always called on the Labour leadership to give the chair of scrutiny to a Lib Dem. We have also called for a Lib Dem mayor!
Justin, I could point out that according to your blog all Liberal Democrats are "Dim" ?
I was writing in general terms. It is like the fact that I don't like the French, but I know some French people I like.
Dim Lebs? Tongue-in-cheek (mostly!)
The LDs in South Norfolk no longer have sufficient numbers to fill a phone box, let alone have a majority in scrutiny.
The electorate have utterly rejected them in large parts of the county so why should they be supported in council? As a resident I'd want to see a kind of scrutiny that ensures Tory policies are effectively implemented.
You quite clearly have no concept or understanding of what scrutiny is or what the old system (now scrapped) was. the idea never was to allow the opposition to have a najrotiy on scrutiny, afdter all, the rules of proportionality have to be met. the principle is that as Chairman, items can be brought on to the agenda that might otherwise be blocked.
You are obviously the sort of hypocritical Tory who would be up in arms if this policy was introduced against the Tories. if it was so wrong for the opposition to chair scrutiny, why is it wrong now and not before May ? After all, the Tories enver thought it was wrong when they were in opposition.
Nich, you obviously have no understanding either - proportionality does not have to be met if there's agreement from all the parties. And there's nothing to stop opposition parties from bringing items to the agenda still.
But this was never the case in South Norfolk. It was a simple matter of just giving "chair" to the opposition.
Apart from some abuse and silliness, still no proper justification from any tory as to why this is good for democracy ?
It isn't. In Norwich today full council supported a Green nomination for Chair of Scrutiny ... with LibDems voting in favour and Tories abstaining.
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