In article ,
Adrian Simpson writes:
In article H%g7o.65365$pW4.42422@hurricane, Corporal Jones
writes
When will local government realise that it is the commercial sector
that pays their wages and if we feel the squeeze they must also make
cuts, cloud cuckoo land,... huh.



When the councils return to being run by the councillors rather than the
officers (assuming that the councillors understand basic economics).

Both my parents were councillors back when I was at school (different
councils). In those days, it wasn't political, indeed neither of my
parents were members of any political party, nor would they have made
their political views known publicly. It wasn't paid either.
They both bailed out as it became increasingly political and
independent thought vanished. My mum was also chairman of governors
at a local school (not the one I went to). She hung on to that a bit
longer, but bailed on that too as the local authority applied
increasing pressure to turn it into a political post.

If you could somehow get the politics out of the local councils, get
some representation from local storekeepers and other businesses,
make the roles unpaid (as they used to be) so you don't end up with
professional politicians, it might be that they would start working
properly again. Perhaps we need a mass movement to vote in
independents?

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]