Sandwell Council's Enterprise Culture (Not....)

Council's exist in a world of increasing complexity hemmed in by charlatans on all sides peddling rip-off PFI deals and the like which are so byzantine even many qualified accountants can't understand them. The public needs to be confident that council officers and elected members are up to the task of getting best value for the taxpayer and protecting the public purse generally.

I have already raised the spectre that in the Pyongyang-style regime operating in Sandwell the current mass redundancies overseen by Labour will exclude the "favoured ones" ie those with impeccable Labour/Trade Union connections or the feeble functionaries who will simply bend to the will of the Politburo - thus leaving a rump of docile apparatchiks on deck whilst HMS Cooper crashes onto the rocks.

As for the elected members, I have previously described how what passes for policy in Sandwell is all agreed by "the flock" in secret sessions of the "Labour Group" and simply "rubber-stamped" in the official Council meetings. So let us have a look at these characters in a little more detail and what they actually do for a living.

What follows has been gleaned for the Register of Members' Interests. There are 70 Labour Councillors out of a Council of 72 but the website has not yet put up the declarations for 9 of the new members so that I can only refer to 61 individuals (though it will come as a surprise if one of the nine, that sweet-talking guy Bill Gavan, turns out to be "The Branson of The Black Country"). I should add that I have formally written to SMBC asking that these nine declarations be disclosed asap.

The frightening thing that becomes immediately apparent is that some of these people - responsible for multi-million pound budgets - can't even fill in the most simple and straightforward of forms. Many cannot differentiate between, for example, paid work and sitting on various public bodies. Take a look yourselves. It certainly fills one with confidence........

There is one Councillor whose form is so confusing whether she is in paid employment or voluntary work that I have counted her as working.

I will digress slightly here, if you will permit me, to note the number of husband and wife and other family teams within the Labour Group. There are, of course, the genuinely excellent Linda and Roger Horton whose daughter, Lucy Cashmore, is also on the Council. They are keeping up with the Joneses - another family trio - Ian, Olwen and Stephen. Then come the pairs - Crumpton x 2; Davies x 2; Hosell x 2; Hughes x 2; Price x 2; and Underhill x 2. Further, the Register shows declarations of 6 (six) family members working for SMBC or associated bodies (and it is of course, to be sincerely hoped that those individuals have been spared redundancy in the current cull......)

And so what of this group who take every opportunity to mouth-off to Sandwell folk about entrepreneurship, enterprise and "jobs". Well of this enterprising 61 -  a stonking 37 say they are NOT working in any form of paid employment (60%)!

There are two self-employed persons.

This leaves 22 who appear to work but 5 - yes FIVE (!) of those are working for Labour MP's. A further 4 work for other councils. I do not mean to demean any sort of employment but it is fair to say that some of the remainder are "at the lower end of the scale" - supermarket/shop work etc and one of the self-employed is a taxi driver. There is one doctor and a tiny group of people with business connections.

Happily, down at the Kremlin, none of this matters. The simple ability to toe the party-line and to place the tongue between the quivering "royal" buttocks will suffice.

THE SANDWELL SKIDDER - A COMMUNITY BLOG

e   thesandwellskidder@gmail.com               t   @bcrover  (Vernon Grant)

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