Thursday, May 17, 2007

Shock, Horror ...

Well shock, horror ... as predicted, at today's Full Council meeting the Tories did indeed shore up a Liberal/Nationalist coalition by sitting on their hands when it came to the vote for the Lord Provost - who will now have a casting vote on most matters before the Council.

I've absolutely nothing against the new Lord Provost, George Grubb - he undoubtedly is an honourable man - but the way he's been installed is all to do with the leader of the Tory Group being 'promised' Chair of the Police Board ... basically giving control of the Council to a Liberal/Nationalist coalition for the sake of around £30K as Police Board Chair. Now, deals like this are not uncommon - under any system - but to accept such a deal and automatically throw away control of the Council seems pretty breathtaking to me ... especially from the Tories.

And the meeting got worse ... the paragons of proportionality - the Liberals - ignored proportionality completely when setting up the 'quasi-judicial' Planning Committee, denying the Labour Group a fourth seat on the Committee and 'stacking it' to themselves just so they have an in-built majority along with the Nationalists.

"Say one thing ... do another" - why I should be surprised at today's odious display I'm not entirely sure, but a lack of principle does simply offend me ;-((

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