Chief Executive or politician - make your choice

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An understandable fury has come about as a result of remarks made by Bradford Council’s Chief Executive at the Bradford Professionals Network. The reported remarks include these:

“The Government is determined to dismantle the state.  That’s the basic approach. In the interests of political balance I would also say that the previous Government took a top down approach which increased bureaucracy.  Changes to funding for local authorities has seen resources diverted from urban council areas to the shires.  While Dorset has received a bigger share of funding, Bradford has seen a 14 per cent reduction and that’s not fair."

From the point of view of being a politician this concerns me – not because our Chief Executive holds views but because he can only speak on behalf of the Council. Thus when these words were spoken they became the viewpoint of the Council. And that viewpoint is set by elected members not by appointed officials. Indeed, those same elected members choose a Lord Mayor and a Leader to represent the views.

This statement represents a further erosion of the boundary between political debate and public service – characterised by the high profile roles of council Chief Executives such as Sir Bob Kerslake and the ill-judged comments of Barnsley’s Chief Executive about Eric Pickles.

However, my concern is not with these men and their public utterances. It is that senior councillors have allowed them to become the voice of the Council – have stood back so long as it suited for the smart, articulate Chief Executive to make the speeches. While it is true that many senior council officers are as politicised as officials of quangos, the fault lies with politicians for allowing this not with the officials for adopting a political position.

The problem – in the Bradford example – is that the Chief Executive made these overtly political comments while sat alongside the Council Leader. I like to think that Cllr Greenwood – on returning to the City Hall – gave our Chief Executive a bollocking for stepping beyond his remit. But somehow I doubt it. Somehow I suspect our dear leader was smiling quietly at was a great political win – made more so by the perception that Chief Executives are somehow wiser, more independent and more informed than us politicians.

At some point the Chief Executive may have to work with Conservative councillors to manage the council. Can we be confident given his publicly expressed views? Such men should remain silent and leave the politics to politicians.

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Why do we do this?

There has been much debate - and a modicum of understandable schadenfreude - at the departure of well-known "right-wing" bloggers from the scene. Most recently has been the departure of Iain Dale mostly it seems to me in preference for other more interesting and more lucrative activities.

I was struck by this little comment from Paul Evans, where I think he comes close to understanding why bloggers find it hard to sustain their activity especially when it is subject to constant attack by those - from all sides and with a range of motivations. With the compulsory (for left-wing bloggers) snide sideswipe at Nadine Dorries, Paul says:

Tom H, Nadine and Iain have distinguished themselves by being more-active-than-average online. None of them have been able to do the useful things that social media allows them to do - at least in part -because the personal engagement crowds out the political / policy conversation (though I suspect Nadine would just be a little puzzled by the concept in the first place). If you place yourself in full view online, you leave yourself open to disruption. Keep quiet and you don't.

The question for those in the 'public eye' is whether to take the risk of conversation - the whole point of social media - or remain aloof. Most politicians and political celebrities do not engage with the process - they give their opinion (very carefully) and refuse to engage beyond that point. Blogging allows the conversation to take place but, as I often point out about this blog, politicians cannot take the risk of allowing a conversational free-for-all since your comment on my blog is as likely to offend, upset or be exploited as my own thoughts.

To be quite honest we do this for selfish - rather preening - reasons. As a politician I am opinionated - indeed an unopinionated politician would be decidedly oxymoronic. Blogging and social media provide a platform for me to get my opinion across - whether that opinion's about the national debt, the clearing of snow or the winner of X-Factor. More importantly, having an opinion is what I'm good at - it is my special talent and the world is better for everyone to have the chance to hear my opinion. Or maybe I'm just an arrogant git with a big mouth!

What I do know is that something may come along that grabs my attention, engages my interests, even excites...and then, like all those others who have quit blogging, I'll be off. Until then I afraid you'll have to put up with me!

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