June 2011

Who will pick a mayoral pay fight with Pickles?

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Published June 27, 2011, in Elected mayors, Politics


Image by Getty Images via @daylife

The Telegraph’s Andrew Gilligan had some fun yesterday pointing out that Tory councils appear to be as guilty as Labour-run authorities in paying more to chief executives than communities secretary Eric Pickles would like.

All knockabout stuff, and while there was fundamentally little new in the report, it did contain one fact that got me thinking about the financial dimension of the mayoral debate here in Birmingham and the other ‘referendum’ cities.

Gilligan says:

The best paid man in local government is , head of Boris Johnson’s Transport for London, on around £450,000 a year.

Ah, yes, Boris. Mr Hendy may have taken a small pay cut recently, but during the worst public spending crisis in post-war history,

Continues…

The Leicester test case: what does an elected city mayor do?

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Published June 27, 2011, in Elected mayors


Image via Wikipedia

SO WHAT would an elected mayor in a major English city actually do?

Fortunately for mayoral advocates (if he’s a success), Leicester’s new elected mayor is helping to answer that question and has just unveiled his 100-day policy plan for the city.

The Leicester Mercury’s report of the 100 pledges it contains, made at an open meeting of the city’s cabinet, is , and you can download Soulsby’s complete 100-day programme .

It’s an interesting mix of mainly populist measures to grab the local paper’s future headlines, with an emphasis on environmental concerns. Critics will probably highlight the relative paucity

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Presentation Chinese to Chinese Propagandists

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Published June 17, 2011, in Politics


The Chamberlain News doesn’t aim to exactly mimic Guido Fawkes or even rival its reach, but the man underneath the hat Paul Staines gives a useful insight to his blog’s success and future trends.

Presentation Chinese to Chinese Propagandists

via .

Are Metro mayors a distraction too far?

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Published June 15, 2011, in Elected mayors, LEPs


Image via Wikipedia

Of course, this week’s announcement of for Birmingham was a major step forward for the ‘yes’ campaign, but another event on the same day was just as significant.

Mayoral cheerleader, think tank head and former Labour minister Lord Adonis was in town to help launch the joint and report into the potential economic impact of elected mayors in the 11 core English cities that are yet to opt for the system.

Leave aside for a moment the significance of the choice of Birmingham for the launch (and in our view that is VERY significant). Leave aside the choice of KPMG as the host venue  (see above). And leave aside the fact that Adonis’s major intervention in the mayoral debate is yet to come – when he submits his ‘letter’ to Eric Pickles within the next few weeks. (The latter will reveal to what extent Adonis will translate his frustration with the shadow mayor concept into a firm policy proposal).

The report, articulates many familiar as well as new arguments for elected mayors, and its proposals focus on the reach and powers of the elected mayor’s office.

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Labour has two Brum mayor hopefuls, but where are the Tories?

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Published June 15, 2011, in Elected mayors, Politics


Sir Albert Bore launches his Birmingham mayoral bid

Sir Albert Bore’s formal entry into Birmingham’s elected mayor debate will have surprised few, but it does represent a significant moment in the process that could see the city’s governance undergo its most significant overhaul in a century.

and former city council leader means former MP Sion Simon now has a rival for the Labour nomination, and they say they are united in pressing for a yes vote in next May’s referendum.

That won’t mean, however, that they’ll be avoiding setting out their different visions for the city.

Sir Albert’s launch speech went into some detail about what he thinks is wrong in Birmingham and what he would do about it if elected. He focused on transport and social exclusion, announcing the launch of a number of policy commissions to get under the skin of these and other issues.

This is to be welcomed, as the debate around elected mayors in Birmingham so far has concentrated too much on chatter about WHO should or shouldn’t occupy the post – and very little about the WHAT and the HOW of the role.

To be fair, Sion Simon appears to have been putting in some

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