Leicester Mercury political correspondent
Archive for March, 2010
What does the East Midlands Regional Assembly do?
Mar 30th
According to their website:
“It provides the strategic focus for integrating the development and delivery of regional strategy and partnership working under the overarching framework of the Integrated Regional Strategy.”
An early entrant for my inaugural public sector gobbledygook award…
Blog stats update
Mar 30th
Thousands of readers, more new visitors every week. They’re staying longer and reading more posts.
That’s the stats trend for this blog and I hope it continues.
My only concern is that some of you are going through the rigmarole of searching for this blog in Google every time you need to log on.
You don’t need to waste your time like this. The address is www.davidmaclean.eu – add it to your bookmarks today.
Parmjit – snap unhappy?
Mar 29th
One of Parmjit Singh Gill’s slick newspapers landed on my doormat at the weekend.
The Lib Dem PPC for Leicester South ticks the various political boxes in the political playbook; labelling the Labour candidate as “Gordon Brown’s Labour MP” and hammering the fact that’s he’s won the seat before.
But surely Parmjit can fix himself up with a better photographer? Some of the photographs are bizarre.
Highlights include him gazing at the camera next to a confused-looking Vince Cable, standing aside while a taxi driver points at Simon Hughes, and slinking between two cars to highlight potholes. Sack the snapper, Parmjit!
The city council fail whale
Mar 29th
I wrote a story in Saturday’s Mercury that Leicester City Council is considering banning Twitter in the council chamber.
It was sparked by a complaint from Labour chief whip Barbara Potter.
Councillor Potter, to her credit, didn’t shy away from defending her position when I called her late last week.
But my issue isn’t with Barbara; she’s the whip and it’s her job to keep members in line.
I want to know why Veejay Patel won’t rule it out and kill the issue stone dead as part of his era of openness.
At the very least it’s naive politics, because his vague response means the issue will run and run. Instead of playing down the influence of Twitter in city politics it elevates it.
What’s the betting that a record number of people – many of them Leicester Twitter users – tune into the next full council meeting?
I wonder if the council will release the web stats?
+A surprise entrant to the General Election race+
Mar 29th
A press release has just arrived in my inbox:
“I’m looking for 10 people who would be willing to sign my nomination form to stand in the general election in the Bosworth-Hinckley constituency…”
Ex-cabinet corner…
Mar 26th
Ross Willmott’s farewell note
Mar 26th
It’s likely to have been the last official letter sent by Ross Willmott bearing the title Leader of the Council.
Dated March 24, a ‘thank you’ letter was sent out to various figures across the city listing his achievements, including High Cross, Curve and Phoenix Square.
He says his time as leader has been an “amazing” and his only wish is that his work carries on.
It also offered some choice words of warning to his successor Veejay Patel:
“I hope that my successors continue in the same spirit of excellence and ambition and remember the words of Marcus Aurelius: ‘It is the fate of princes to be ill thought of for well doing.”
Willmott, Kitterick and Connelly return to the backbenches
Mar 25th
When you’re ousted from one of the biggest jobs in city politics, where do you choose to sit on your return the back-benches?
Right in front of the press seats, of course!
Cllrs Ross Willmott, Patrick Kitterick and Andy Connelly have settled in to the three seats at the back – the furthest they can physically be from the new cabinet, and the closest seats to the media.
To the online observer, the meeting would have looked run of the mill, but the atmosphere was charged.
Andy and Ross took up the role of Statler and Waldorf, bouncing barbs about other councillors off each other throughout the meeting. Patrick, meanwhile, filled in a Guardian crossword puzzle and a Sudoku.
The boisterous behaviour at the back eventually led Labour chief whip Barbara Potter to stride over, telling them to be quiet.
“Go away,” replied Ross dismissively, as he scrolled through his Blackberry emails, making Potter even more annoyed.
The next 12 months at city council will be intriguing.
The sound of silence
Mar 23rd
Colin Hall is rarely lost for words – particularly on Twitter.
He raised a few eyebrows when he used his account to broadcast last week’s Labour AGM. But for the second round of selections he’s been carefully toeing the party line.
So what’s prompted him to turn over a new leaf? Could it be the recent installment of no-nonsense Barbara Potter as Labour chief whip, in place of laid-back Piara Singh Clair?
She’s a tough-talker, alright, and gave me the hairdryer treatment at Monday’s scrutiny meeting about a story in that day’s Mercury.
The fact that the story was entirely correct didn’t stop her trying to give me a stern dressing-down across the committee room.
Councillor Hall is right to be cautious…
City council cabinet nomination papers leaked
Mar 22nd
3PM UPDATE: Article now online.
Leader-elect Veejay Patel: Leak is “unfortunate”
Culture and Leisure
Piara Singh Clair, Paul Newcombe, Robert Wann and Andy Connelly
Renegeneration
Abdul Osman and Patrick Kitterick
Finance, community cohesion and human resources
Mohammed Dawood and Stephen Corrall
Community safety and health
Wayne Naylor, Culdipp Singh Bhatti and Mohammed Dawood
Adults and older people
Rory Palmer
Environment
Sarah Russell
Housing
Paul Westley
Frontline services
No applications
The grocer
Mar 22nd
Whenever there’s a regime change at a local authority, you expect to see a few people jump ship.
The old routine is shaken-up, and the change is often the motivation some people need to move on and find a new job or career.
But it still came as a surprise to find this sign-off from an online grocer when I did my shopping at the weekend.
Thank you for shopping with Ocado.
On behalf of Ocado,
Mark Bentley
Head of Service Delivery Division
It turns out it’s not really Leicester City Council’s communications chief. He hasn’t gone anywhere.
Although his LinkedIn web profile does say he’s interested in career opportunities, consulting offers, new ventures, job inquiries and business deals…
Power shift
Mar 19th
The significance of a Labour councillor sticking the boot into a senior member of his own party was lost on some of our website commenters.
But John Blackmore’s Twitter digs at cabinet member Andy Connelly over the closure of some council-run bars and creches were about more than just an online spat.
What they show is how power may be shifting under Veejay Patel’s party leadership.
Connelly, who along with Rory Palmer, Sarah Russell and Patrick Kitterick, is seen as part of Team Willmott in the cabinet, could be shuffled out of his top job come Tuesday.
Had his position been completely secure, it’s doubtful that a fellow Labour councillor would thumb his nose at one of the ten most powerful councillors in the city. At least not in public...
11am UPDATE: John hasn’t Tweeted a thing for more than 24 hours. Hope he hasn’t been silenced by party big cheeses.
2.30PM UPDATE: He’s Tweeting again.
