The Committee on Standards in Public Life has bunged out a sore losers report into "Local Government Ethical Standards" in which it tries to rebuild the old Standards Board model for enforcing such standards:
Council standards boards should have the power to ban councillors for up to six months without allowances, the Committee on Standards in Public Life has recommended.The report blathers on about bullying and harassment while at no point recognising the essential flaw in the old standards regime - it was used, again and again, as a means to bully councillors and as a political tool. My experience of this system showed that these boards are essentially kangaroo courts - in my case, while I blithely assumed I'd be dealing with the investigating officer, the Standards Board shipped up, at the cost of thousands in public money, a barrister to cross examine me. I was found guilty of having shouted at a fellow councillor but the board decided it wasn't bad enough to sack me. The whole process was a complete waste of time and money but really suited my political opponents (and not just the ones in the Labour Party).
Let's be clear. If a councillor has broken the law then the matter should be reported to the police who will investigate and, if there's a case, ask the CPS to consider prosecution. Serious stuff like taking backhanders for planning deals or smashing another councillor round the cakehole are covered well by law and don't require a standards committee. Non-criminal infractions - saying something stupid, alleged bullying and harassment all fall into this category - are better dealt with through the political parties since they have far more sanctions. Bear in mind that, as a Conservative Group Leader, I could suspend the Party whip from any member and I could ask the wider Party to take further action should it be merited.
The idea that there should be a sanctions system built into local government standards processes undermines the relationship of the councillor with his or her electorate - these are the people we serve and, ultimately, the people who decide whether or not we get to stay as a councillor. Moreover the sanctions system deals with vague ideas of ethics drawn from a code of conduct that lacks detail, definition or specifics. It is a bullies charter.
I appreciate that the Committee on Standards in Public Life, as a bureaucratic entity, seeks to sustain and extend its role but its proposals return us to the days when councillors and campaigners used reporting people to the Standards Board as a political tactic. This acts to stifle debate, steers councillors away from commenting on sensitive or contentious issues, and reinforces the view that our role as elected representatives holds no privilege, we are no different from paid officials or appointed board members.
If you want a better proposal, just scrap council standards committees altogether. We're not snowflakes, we can cope.
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