Thursday 27 October 2016

The people vs Barnet Council

Democracy, you know, that process where you elect people to govern and make decisions.
None other than Winston Churchill, the greatest ever Tory PM said of it "the worst type of government, apart from all of the others". I wonder what he'd make of the Barnet Tory administration.

We have a system where the council have outsourced planning, council housing and cemetery management.  Councillors no longer have a direct route to the people who manage the services.

As a result we see terrible decisions, which are sometimes unlawful, being taken with no regard for democracy. Contracts are so long that administration change has no realistic impact on service delivery. Recently we've even seen councillors tweeting that council officers, who are simply paid employees of the council, are telling them what to do. Sadly, these tweets aren't highlighting the scandalous nature of this phenomenon. They are thanking officers for being generous with their time!

In short, is the electors and taxpayers, are being treated with contempt. Does no Barnet politician understand the concept of local democracy any more?

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