Sir Albert Bore

Special Educational Needs Strategy undergoes fourth re-write

A strange combination of 'psycho-twaddle' and 'fortune cookie philosophy'

By:
Published May 3, 2013, in Opinion


pencilsAt last some light can be shed on one of the great mysteries of Sir Albert Bore’s new administration: whatever happened to Birmingham’s Special Educational Needs and Disability Strategy?

This important document setting out Labour’s approach to SEND and the growing demand by parents for children to have their needs assessed and addressed was supposed to have been approved by the cabinet months ago.

The first three drafts were rejected, it is said by Sir Albert himself, because they contained pages of meaningless psycho-twaddle and did not propose how the city council could provide for the 42,000 youngsters already assessed with varying forms of special needs within a £100 million budget.

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Albert Bore defies the Queen in Thatcher half-mast flag row

Birmingham's Labour council leader won't follow Royal Household orders

By:
Published April 15, 2013, in Politics


flagBirmingham City Council leader Sir Albert Bore will defy the Queen by refusing to fly the Union Flag at half-mast on the day of Baroness Thatcher’s funeral.

The College of Arms, acting on orders from the Royal Household, has decreed that the national flag must be flown at half-mast on all central and local government buildings on April 17.

But Sir Albert appears to be sticking resolutely to his claim that Birmingham would be breaking with precedent by lowering the flag for a former prime minister.

Challenged by Conservative councillors to follow the College of Arms’s instructions, Sir Albert said: “My decision not to have the flag on the Council House lowered to half-mast was in line with the previous practice of the city council.

“We have not lowered the flag on the death of previous prime ministers. The flag was lowered on the occasion of the death of Clem Attlee and Winston Churchill, respectively, because they were both Freemen of the City.

“As leader of the council, I have already issued a statement that described Lady Margaret Thatcher as a unique politician and expressed my condolences and sympathy. I also expressed these comments at the city council meeting on Tuesday, 9 April 2013.

“In holding to the traditions of the city council, we are not being disrespectful to the memory of Lady Margaret Thatcher, in the same way as our previous actions were not disrespectful to her predecessors.”

What would Stalin have done about wheelie bins?

Tory leader hits out at 'dictatorial' Birmingham rubbish collection scheme

By:
Published March 20, 2013, in Opinion


stalinOn the subject of words you never thought to hear in the same sentence, how about Stalin and wheelie bins?

Mike Whitby, leader of Birmingham’s Conservative councillors, managed to liken tactics used by the ruthless Soviet leader to those being employed by the city’s Labour administration when consulting about the introduction of wheeled bins.

Whitby’s point was that the consultation exercise contained all sorts of questions about the type of bin residents might like and the size of household, and whether recycling was a good thing, but didn’t actually ask people whether they wanted wheelie bins.

The questionnaire also managed to ask respondents whether they were gay, bisexual, transgender as well as wishing to know about religious beliefs. Just the sort of questions Stalin might have posed.

On a more serious note, the Edgbaston District Committee turned out to be cult viewing for anyone interested in what the Tories would have us believe is one of the great issues of our time.

All of the key bin-saga figures were there.

James McKay, the Labour cabinet member responsible for

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Sir Albert’s green waste charges set for last ditch protest

Hostile Labour councillors claim to have been misled over controversial garden refuse plan

By:
Published February 19, 2013, in Politics


wasteSir Albert Bore is facing an 11th hour challenge over his plan to impose a £35 annual charge on households using Birmingham city council’s garden and green waste refuse collection service.

The council leader will have to deal with hostile elements of the 78-strong Labour group on the eve of next Tuesday’s annual budget-fixing meeting, where £102 million of spending cuts for 2013-14 are expected to be approved.

Angry councillors are ready to accuse Sir Albert of misleading a Labour group meeting over imposition of the charges for disposing of green rubbish, which are set to raise £2.5 million a year.

It’s claimed that a vote on the garden waste issue was avoided at the end of the five-hour meeting on the grounds that the savings would be a year away and feature in the 2014-15 budget.

Some Labour members assumed that the proposed £35 charge would come back for approval in a year’s time when

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From apocalypse to zilch: 2013 the age of austerity

What the new year has in store for Birmingham City Council

By:
Published January 1, 2013, in Politics


Another year over and a new one just begun.

But what does 2013 have in store for Birmingham City Council?

Consult the Chamberlain News A to Z crystal ball to discover what’s over the horizon.

A – Apocalypse. Don’t panic, but it’s the end of local government as we know it according to Albert Bore, the Labour leader of Birmingham City Council since May 2012. To quote Albert, the Chancellor’s austerity drive means that 2013 will be spent deciding how to scrap rather than improve services.

B – Bobby Alden. Deputy leader of the council Conservative group, scion of the Alden clan, young Bobby has been flexing his muscles recently. Don’t rule out the possibility of Alden taking over as Tory group leader in May.

C- Council tax benefit. Birmingham has decided to pass on a 10 per cent cut in Government funding, unlike a number of other Labour local authorities. This means that the city’s poorest families will no longer qualify for full benefit and be about £240 a year worse off.

D – Doom, Jaws of. A graph showing the impact of cuts in Government grant for local councils and ever-increasing demand for services. Before you know it, Birmingham will only be able to afford to pay for social care and refuse collection….as well as councillors’ expenses, of course.

There still time to vote in the Chamber POTY!

E – Eastside. Birmingham’s longest running regeneration site is slowly beginning to look less like a concrete wasteland. This year should see completion of the first city park for more than 100 years.

F – Finance. This gets boring, but it’s important. In the six years from 2010-11, Birmingham City Council’s core budget will have been reduced by 50 per cent as a result of cuts in Government grant and growing demand for new services.

G – Government. Sir Albert Bore led a delegation to the Downing Street pleading for a better financial deal for Birmingham. There is about as much chance of success here as there is of Sir Albert heading the first manned flight to Mars.

H – Heseltine. Michael Heseltine will be in Birmingham early this year for research into how his report into re-energising regional economies might work in practice. Only supreme optimists imagine anything very much will come of this.

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