Arrogance, pig-headedness, sheer stupidity - Labour at its best

Well I’ve had more than 24 hours now to calm down after the Council meeting and try and suspend my incredulity at the actions of the Labour group in relation to the paddling pool.

I have been at this business for quite a while now and little surprises me with regard to their arrogance and pig headedness in RCT but even I was staggered by the sheer overwhelming stupidity and ignorance theydisplayed.

The 2077 people who voted to save the paddling pool are to be completely ignored.  They are not going to think about it, or reconsider their options, or hold a meeting to explain why they feel keeping it is not an option.  They are not even going to pretend to do so.  No, this bunch of self-satisfied, egotistic idiots are not even going to pretend to listen, or that they care. 

Just how stupid are they?  Or is this just another example of the over confidence that comes from being in an area where traditionally the public vote for a donkey with a red rosette on?  As they keep saying over and over at every meeting, they were returned in May with an overwhelming majority with 60 out of 75 Councillors in RCT.  They can do what they like, and they will.

 Of course the votes for these 60 members are spread out across the whole of RCT, so having done the calculations they probably feel that 2077 across 9 wards is not a huge number of people for them to worry about.  Also of course the next elections are still four and a half years away, they hope people will have forgotten by then.

On the other hand, Owen Smith MP should, you would think, be looking at that number and wondering what on earth his Council colleagues are playing at.  Those 2077 people are almost all in his constituency (not quite all of course as Cilfynydd and Glyncoch are in the Cynon constituency) and they don’t have quite as long to forget before the Westminster elections.

The paddling pool fight is not over by any means, if anything the people who have been in touch with me by phone, email and facebook are now even more determined.    The Labour party keep saying this is all down to us, the ‘Lib Dems’ stirring.  As I have said before we are more than happy to take our fair share of the credit / blame whichever way you want to look at it.  But those 2077 people weren’t all politically motivated not by a long way.  In fact many of them I spoke to were Labour supporters – or used to be.

Democracy may appear to be well and truly dead in Rhondda Cynon Taff at the moment, but have no fear, we will be doing our utmost to restore it.  They don’t get rid of us that easily as they should have learned by now, and they won’t get rid of the members of the public who think they are wrong to remove the paddling pool.

Democracy - fine in thoery they just don't want to practice it

The Labour party in RCT have proven over and over that they have no understanding of the concept of democracy, and there seems to be little chance of them changing.

At the Council meeting on 28^th September Plaid put a motion forward calling for more complete answers to questions put to Cabinet Members which are currently allowed under the terms of the constitution.  During what could loosely be termed a debate on the matter there were complaints from Labour Cabinet Members that questions were being ‘hijacked’ for ‘political purposes.’  In other words opposition Councillors are asking question they don’t like.

One can only wonder then how long it will be before they change the system and take away the right of members to question them at all.  After all when they didn’t like the motions that were being put forward they simply took away the ability of opposition Councillors to put in so many motions.

RIP democracy in RCT

Just what is it that Labour Councillors in RCT are afraid of?  They clearly have no concept of the word democracy and it would be hard to imagine an organisation that supposedly works for the public which is less open to public scrutiny. The Council meeting tonight was a classic example. 

They passed some changes in the constitution including a resolution that says nobody – whether Councillor or observer – can photograph, video, record or otherwise transmit any details of proceedings outside of a Council meeting or they will be asked to leave.  Better beware of putting up comments on Facebook whilst sitting in the public gallery bored witless then or Russell may be calling the Police out again as he is so fond of doing at any hint of dissent.

As for the ban on video or audio recordings then they are obviously afraid such a thing may show up the appalling behaviour of some members of the ruling group.

They also decided to push through a change which means that in future if there is a tied vote at a planning meeting then the application will be decided upon by a Planning Officer rather than elected representatives.

They decided that if a Councillor wants to put a question to the Leader at a meeting then they must give at least eight clear days’ notice in future rather than the three days required now.  Obviously it takes the Leader a long time to come up with answers!  Maybe we need a few more people in the strategy department to come up with answers a bit more quickly.

To cap it all off they appointed one of their own to Chair the Council’s main scrutiny committee . Roger Turner was an Independent Councillor (well in name anyway certainly not in actions) and has been Chair of the committee for some years.  He recently joined the Labour party but it now seems that they have forgotten their earlier wish to be democratic and offer committee chairs to other parties.  Now Cllr Turner is the only man for the job!  They blamed the Local Government Measure claiming it says that they can’t give away chairs!  Now I may just be being daft but nowhere can I see where it says that.

Nobody does politics like RCT does politics. Honestly – you couldn’t make it up!