January 27: Dale dispenses election tips to County Hall Tories
County Hall
Tories have been taking advice about using new technology to help
during the forthcoming general election campaign.
According to Cllr Kevin
Lynes, one of – actually the only – regular blogger at
County Hall – the Tory group were provided with advice and tips
from Iain Dale, one of the best-known political
bloggers.
Iain apparently dispensed
various tips about using social networking sites, blogs and
websites for getting the message out to their constituents and
voters. All eminently sensible, I am sure.
I don’t at the moment sense a
breathless rush among Conservatives at County Hall to embrace some
of these ideas but things could change.
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How well do councils cope with
Freedom of Information requests?
There is an interesting article
by Mark Wallace of the Taxpayers Alliance
detailing his views about how some councils have not exactly
embraced the spirit of the legislation.
read the article on Conservativehome
here>>>
He gives a mention to
KCC and how it got itself into a jam when it
refused details of senior officers’ salaries but I was more struck
by the decision of one council – Norfolk County
Council - to "name and shame" persistent FOI
requestors.
Mark writes: "While
many councils have embraced openness, many have obstructed and
delayed FoI requests, often on flimsy grounds and in breach of the
law. Some have even publicly attacked the idea of transparency and
accountability."
Most recently, Norfolk County
Council brazenly published a list of what they called the "worst
offenders" – ie those who dared to ask the most FoI requests.
Conservative Councillor Cliff Jordan who led the attack, criticised
those who made use of the act as being people who "do not have any
accountability" and were diverting the council from providing
public services."
FOI might be regarded as a bane by
some politicians but it has fundamentally changed views about what
public bodies ought to be doing in the name of transparency and
accountability.
And those who complain about having to
deal with requests have a remedy that could solve a lot of their
perceived problems. Publish as much information as they can –
particularly about public expenditure – pro-actively and they can
avoid having to deal with FOI requests.
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After KCC leader Paul Carter
unveiled his blueprint for councils to take over a whole host of
services and functions from quangos and the NHS and police, he will
be busy with another "vision" document to be unveiled tomorrow
"21st Century Kent" - described as a
"blueprint for the county's future".
I'm not necessarily against
visionary blueprints and masterplans but they often come across as
long on rhetoric and well-meaning statements of aspiration and
rather short on substance.
There has certainly been a major
PR push on this latest one, which is to be launched with some
fanfare at St Pancras station in London with KCC's planning guru
Sir Terry Farrell.
I have seen enough vision
documents to know that their aspirations often come across as an
unrealistic wish list. We shall have to see.
Wednesday, January 27 2010