Return of the Windbag

[steveL]

Interesting to see the return of Jonathan (with an 'A') at tonight's council meeting. He and his ex-cabinet colleagues have been virtually silent since being ordered to stand in the corner by Mad Dog in January but he was back with a vengance tonight with his verbosity fully intact - why use one word when 10 will do.

His main topic was the study into alcohol misuse in the town which he was heading up while he was still in the Cabinet and he was clearly miffed that the final report of the study seems to have been kicked into the long grass since his departure. There were a couple of disparaging side-swipes at Lauderdale and even one targetted at the poor sod's current hearing problem. "I realise that the Cabinet is thin on the ground these days," he said. Well it would be, wouldn't it after Mad Dog decided that both the Labour Group and Tories would no longer put themselves forward as candidates - all part of the long-running plan to undermine Drummond.

Of course, the best way for Brash to have ensured that the alcohol abuse study was brought to a useful conclusion would have been to remain as part of the Cabinet; and the best way to have remained as part of the Cabinet would have been to have had the balls to continue to support the budget that he and his Labour cabinet colleagues had worked on for months.

So I'm afraid, Jonathan (with an 'a'), you're not really in a position to criticise anyone, are you, given your own very public display of cowardice?

And why the sudden resurgence? Could it be that the young Scot senses blood in the Labour ranks? Even Mad Dog herself stepped forward to second Brash's motion calling for the final report to be published by the next council meeting. Strange times indeed - anyone would think that the reputation of HBC was currently in the gutter. 

On another topic, CAB looked decidedly ill tonight - all those late nights monitoring the up-time of HTH. perhaps?

[SRMoore]

I can confirm that the Conservative group did not put anybody forward for the cabinet for two reasons.
1. With 3 councillors now looking after an enlarged ward (the largest in the town) we believed it would be better for the residents of Rural West for our councillors to take a year to evaluate how much extra workload they would have and ensure those residents are well represented.
2. As a party which campaigned for a referendum on the basis of allowing people their democratic right to choose again. We have not officially started we are for or against the DEM system. For us to take up a position this year would have given the impression we were taking sides.

I have however also noted JB becoming a lot more vocal recently. He's even stepped up his spats on Twitter with me, something he and Wrighty usually try desperately not to do.

[steveL]

I don't buy that, Shane. With 3 Councillors all representing the same ward, that's more than enough to have one in a Cabinet post - should you have been offered one that is . . . and as for fannying about over the referendum.....the public voted 10 years ago to have an elected Mayor and until they have actually voted otherwise all parties should be working with that system and not to undermine it because they themselves have failed three times to get their own man elected.

[SRMoore]

Whether you buy it or not Steve it's the truth.
Two of our councillors were offered positions but it was an internal executive decision to reject the positions this year for the reasons I mentioned.

[steveL]

Well it is Labour Group policy, after all. 

[SRMoore]

Haha bite me :p

[steveL]

Well when you say that it was 'an executive decision', I do think you need to make it clear which executive we are talking about given Wells' voting record. 

[fred c]

There seemed to be a rather a lot of Councilors AWOL last night, including the Mayor, Deputy Mayor & several of "The Mob", but as mentioned cometh the hour, cometh the man, & JB stepped into the breach manfully, although how much of a man you need to be to take the P*** out of an elderly man with a hearing problem is open to debate.

But as we all know, Jonathan just loves to show off his quick wit & repartee in a debate, he obviously likes the sound of his own voice, & it does have a certain flow to it, if he should ever decide on a change of career he could always record his best windbag speeches & market them as a cure for insomnia, he would make a fortune.

Scottish Independence could turn out to be a good thing.

[steveL]

oh you mean like one of those Whale song CDs - interesting idea - wonder if he's thought of it.

I hear that he's now training to be a teacher - let's hope his pupils can stay awake.