Leicester Mercury political correspondent
Posts tagged Mary Draycott
More power to the mayor? Good.
Mar 29th
A few different sources have told me recently that Peter Soulsby plans to have a “small” cabinet if he becomes mayor in May.
By small, we’re talking about five people – including himself and a deputy mayor – instead of the current ten. This would, in effect, mean even less councillors would have direct influence over city politics.
It’s also then very likely that the compliant remuneration panel will bump their salaries up due to the increased workload.
Now, let me shock you – I think it’s a great idea.
Both Mary Draycott and Roger Blackmore have recently bemoaned the fact that backbench councillors have less clout than ever before. I admire them both, but they hark back to an era of endless committee meetings where every councillor had some sort of influence but decision making was hamstrung by delay and drift.
Cabinet governance reduced that influence and effectively meant that ten people ran the city. Councillors whose treasured influence was sapped by the change disagreed with the move.
There are some genuine talents on the council, but as with many other authorities there are also placemen, cronies and chums.
Some cabinet members, for example, have roles of genuine importance – environment, education – and a workload to match, but some are all but anonymous between cabinet meetings.
By moving from the committee system to the cabinet system, and now the mayoral system, I believe that we are acknowledging that supplementing a team of scores of well educated and experienced officers with 54 laymen is a relic from the past.
I believe the number of councillors should be halved – which would give back bench councillors more clout individually – but that’s for another day.
The new mayor will get even more powers when the localism bill goes through. Great. It’ll help end the paralysis caused by squaring every decision with a political group and a a large council cabinet.
Power should be decentralised from government to local government, but more centralised within local government if it’s to be of any use.
A mayor with a guaranteed term and a cabinet of five, working full time, will speed up decision making, and it means we know exactly who to blame or praise when things go right or wrong respectively.
I have different reservations and concerns about each of the candidates in the race, and do worry about whether unprecedented power in one person’s hands could be abused.
And I still disagree with a six-figure salary for an elected mayor no matter how many powers they’re handed. It is, after all, senior officers who do the sums and the detail, while politicians choose which direction the council heads in.
But under the new system it’s up to the mayor to decide how to weild power, committees and the press will still scrutinise their actions, and at the end of it all the public will judge them. It’s democracy in action.
What has she got to hide?
Jun 18th
After the more juicy items at Wednesday’s finance committee were discussed I took the opportunity to nip off a few minutes early to catch up with a council contact.
I’m told that after I left, Mary Draycott – until then quiet as a mouse – decided to open up.
“Now that someone has left,” she began, gesturing at my empty seat, before discussing some issues surrounding De Montfort Hall.
This is the same person who stood for leader. We can safely assume that an “era of openness” would not have been very high on her agenda had she succeeded…
Colin Hall scoops them all…
Mar 15th
Labour leadership night in Leicester, and what a serene affair it was too.
With a clever system of self-nomination, and a closing date well in advance of the meeting, you avoid nasty surprise challenges come party polling day.
Done and dusted in 60 minutes. I barely had time to finish a late night scotch egg and cup of coffee in the office before the Labour councillors were filing out.
I spoke to some councillors for their reaction, but we already had the results, of course, courtesy of Colin Hall‘s Twitter account. Keep on going like that and we’ll be out of a job…
Three contenders. Veejay Patel – front runner, Mary Draycott – the challenger, and Manish Sood – throwing his hat into the ring. In the end he got one vote. What on earth was he up to? I still can’t figure it out. Veejay won the day, and Mary put in a fairly respectable showing. There were two spoilt ballot papers. Wonder who.
Other party positions were dished out which have little relevance to those outside the party, but are interesting nonetheless.
Barbara Potter was nominated as chief whip. One councillor gave me a call after the meeting and growled: “One of the most outspoken critics of the council on issues like market policy and road conditions is suddenly in charge of maintaining order in the party and a united front. I can’t decide whether it’s genius or madness.”
Piara Singh Clair had dropped out of the chief whip race at the last minute. “Must have been offered a cabinet position,” winked one wag on leaving the meeting. We’ll wait and see. The cabinet will be selected on March 23.
One other point, it was confidently predicted by those closest to Coun Patel last month that he had 27 cast-iron votes in the bag. He ended up with 24.
So who are the trio that deserted him at the final hurdle, and why?
Leadership observations
Feb 25th
For a leadership contender, Manish Sood is awfully quiet. He didn’t say a word at full council on Wednesday. Another contender, Mary Draycott, didn’t say anything on the budget and instead got into a fair old flap with the opposition over the Walkers Stadium Market. I don’t know who came off worse, to be honest.
Veejay Patel, as expected, spoke quite a lot. He’s the finance lead, after all, so he had to deliver the budget. Plenty of little jibes at the opposition, gearing up for the possibility of becoming leader. Give the troops what they want.
But did anyone step forward to rally the troops? Perhaps with a little bit of opposition-bashing to throw some meat to party faithful? Yes indeed. Step forward, Stephen Corrall. “It’s getting like a leadership beauty contest, this,” announced Lib Dem leader Pete Coley with a smile after Stephen had a right old pop at the Tory and Lib Dem benches.
But a partisan tubthumper until the last, Ross Willmott delivered some of the most withering put-downs of the night.
He scolded Hussein Suleman for an “empty-headed rant”, said he never expected to see the day the Conservative group put forward a council tax rise which was higher than Labour, and even corrected a claim that he had “four minutes left” in his post as the meeting drew to a close.
Wagging a finger he said: “I’m council Labour leader until the 15th, actually.” He’s a stickler for the details, that Ross.
11am UPDATE: The comment by Ross in the comments section is, of course, correct. The positions of leader of the Labour group and leader of the council are two separate things. Happy to clarify that he will be leader of the group until March 15, but leader of the council until March 25. Complicated this, isn’t it readers?
City council sub-plots
Feb 23rd
Typical. You wait days for a half-decent council meeting then two come along at once.
Both the City and County councils hold their budget-setting council meetings today. I’ll be up at County Hall for 2pm, then zooming back to the town hall for the City’s meet-up at 5pm.
Both budgets are likely to be approved as a formality so it’s worth keeping an eye on some sub-plots instead.
It’s Ross Willmott’s last full-council meeting as leader and it’ll be his likely replacement, finance lead Veejay Patel, who’ll deliver the budget.
Will opposition criticism be directed at the outgoing leader, or will the focus turn to the man many think will replace him?
Two rivals have already emerged as leadership contenders – Mary Draycott and Manish Sood. If they speak to the proposals, their comments will be scrutinised for hints on how they plan to sell their candidacy to fellow Labour members. Could they even try to put some clear blue water between themselves and the front runner by giving some gentle “constructive criticism” on his budget proposals? Unlikely but worth keeping an eye on.
Elsewhere Patrick Kitterick, seen as part of Team Willmott, has been remarkably coy over his leadership ambitions. He was “considering his options” last time the Mercury spoke to him. If he speaks to the proposals, will it include full-throated praise of Willmott’s leadership of the council, or will he attempt to distance himself as he looks to his political future?
With the meeting being effectively a rubber-stamping exercise, the most interesting tidbits will be discovered in the corridors of power before and after the meeting. As ever, if I hear anything, I’ll let you know.
