Running Total #3 mk2

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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on December 4, 2017 at 13:03

Thanks, Chris.
Nobody should any longer feel smug about how people will continue vote. But if Labour does win in May as I very much hope, then as well as new councillors we need a renewed culture. Which I'd like to see abandon the autocratic everyone-must-defer-to-the-Dear-Leader-and-be-on-message nonsense. Pointless when one party has a 49-8 majority.

But we will also need different ways of working and engagement. A culture which seeks out fresh ideas and where openness replaces the stagnant pond of the current regime.

BTW I can't remember seeing that TV ad before. Thanks for that history trip. Shame about the Wars and the Borg pagers.

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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on December 4, 2017 at 15:55

As for "The Sun" getting product placement . . . . .

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Permalink Reply by Chris Setz on December 4, 2017 at 17:47

Thanks Alan.

I don't see a different way of working happening - too many traditional forces in play. You are of the very few who communicate what it's like inside the Council - the other Cllrs don't, so how are we to tell? Know them by their works?

Issues of culture are almost impossible to chart, let alone legislate for. We still haven't created a satisfactory set of Candidate selection rules after over a century of trying.

The whole 'reps' model seems broken. Cllrs see themselves as 'leaders' in a 'command-and-control' way that puts them between the public and their Council. It's very masculine. The trick that annoys me most is the one they always pull - they make every topic they can into a 'matter of opinion'.  That way, they gain power because who is to decide when there is disagreement among us?  That would be how a Cllr sees their job.

I want representation not 'Leadership'. People have lost their sense of responsibility for the decisions the Council makes - they blame Cllrs, Civil Servants whatever, forgetting that we pay them to act in our name.

The only way forward I can see is transparency. So everyone who wants to can see and hear everything the players can (within reason). Every voter should be faced with a 'what would you do' challenge and given all the info Cllrs have. Cllrs should be able to publish and discuss views and suggestions received openly. We almost have this in a lot more areas than ever, but nobody seems to be doing any 'audit trail' type work so as to help people inform themselves, follow the thread etc. Imagine if there was a Hol-type thread over every decision, with links to the docs etc. Searchable so future people could refer back to it ('We tried that' etc). Instead of that the Council have decided to delete each Video Archive item after 12 months.

More auditable transparency would pave the way for things like participatory budgeting - we can do it technologically (as the Spanish, the Greeks and the Icelanders have demonstrated to their credit). More voting (electronically via the 'secure' LBH website account) more frequently on more issues. Then the culture will matter less and become more collegiate. Oh and use of the word 'vision' permanently banned!

Maybe the role for Cllrs is as Council Website guides?

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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on December 5, 2017 at 16:09

Oddly, Chris, I don't think you and I have ever seemed as close in our respective views as in your comment above.

Your scepticism about different ways of working may be justified. But let's not begin with a self-fulfilling prophecy. And nor perhaps with a jump to the "only way forward". Though plainly, transparency is vital.
For me, the key is openness. Openness to fresh thinking, to a wide range of people. To what's working well in other parts of the country and in other countries too.

If the Labour candidates can work together with one another, with party members, with other Parties, other residents, voluntary organisations, etc etc etc and avoid the closed stifling echo-chamber of the last lot, then we may see some exciting times.
Disappointing times as well because expectations may be high. But the gross underfunding, attacks on local government, and pressures to privatise are fiercer than ever.

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Permalink Reply by Chris Setz on December 6, 2017 at 11:32

We've always been on the same side Alan.  I know exactly what you mean in not wanting to read phrases like "only way forward" but with respect, you took that out of context - naughty of you!. I had added "as far as I can see" because, asking for your comments, I was saying how blinkered I was.

As I'm sure you're aware, our entire 'meetings' culture is rooted in parliament. They even put into law (the companies act) the outline of how meetings are to be conducted. You'll be aware of 'Roberts Rules' that many Boards use. You've been to way more meetings than I so will know of many alternatives (i.e. better) approaches such as those practiced by Quakers and more recently the Transition Towns Movement I've spent so much time involved with.

PMQs is an embarrassing demonstration of the many things wrong with our form of democracy (MPs refuse to keep quiet when it's not their turn to speak etc). People have 'grown past' the old older so much that it seems Parliament can no longer help us model how to meet each other, we'll have to reinvent it all - crazy!  We have a whole hierarchy of important meetings-led decision making there yet are still unable to make them effective, to prevent people (usually men) dominating etc. Local government is based on it too. It's been heavily influenced by universities and public school - only relatively recently has 'debating' arrived in state schools.

Parliament ought to lead the way but failing that I see tech as a way forward. Cllrs seem frightened of tech because they are almost instinctively against anything that directly affects them that they see as some sort of unquantifiable 'threat' to their freedom of operation.

I've suggested to a few that they use an online Cllr diary and link items from it to the relevant web pages etc but they have been point blank opposed with the usual guff about unworkability that hides the real reason - they don't want the public to know in detail how they spend their Cllr time.  Reading this, where are your local Cllrs and what exactly are they doing for you?  How did they spend yesterday?  Most people I meet don't realise, for instance, that a huge number of Cllrs have full-time jobs. It would change their perception of local Cllrs if they knew how they actually spent their time. Cllrs are able (outside of things like surgeries) to be completely free in how they spend their time - who knows what they're up to on our behalf? 

If you think the Cllr diary ought to be adopted (or any other changes), how do you think it could come about now, let alone waiting for May 2018?

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