Barnet - The council which doesn't employ anyone who understands local government law

So yesterday the council discussed the report by Clair Lloyd-Jones into governance. The jist of the report is that the Council doesn't actually employ anyone who understands the local government law. On Saturday I met with several Councillors in priavte to discuss the issue. Basically the Conservative administration has dug a huge hole and jumped down it. It has been done in the name of looney right wing ideology which deems employing anyone a sin.

There is nothing wrong with outsourcing, when done sensibly. This isn't. Sure by all means use external legal services if it can be shown to be more cost effective, but you need to keep a few senior staff on the payroll who are qualified as overseers. This is not rocket science. If you don't you have a failure in governance. The trouble now is that the council have created a mess and they seem to be unable to admit it to themselves.The leadership of Richard Cornelius and Dan Thomas, who championed this should resign. It would be sensible to appoint a safe pair of hands such as Brian Salinger to clean the mess up. He was around when the council was sensibly run and was leader. If the Tories are to have any chance of saving their reputation, it is clear what needs to be done and they need someone unsullied by this lunacy.