Nuremburg - and the Queen of Hearts

Tweet Returning to the secondary education re-organisation in Carmarthenshire, the Plaid group produced a fairly comprehensive response, setting out why they believed that the council's approach was flawed, and suggesting a series of principles on which a more acceptable approach could be based.

Plaid's leader, Peter Hughes Griffiths, circulated the paper to all the other councillors, and specifically invited the leaders of the two other groups to state what their groups believed was the right approach.

The response of the 'Independents' was pretty predictable. They went for the Nuremburg defence – they were 'only following orders'. Since they claim that the entire policy is the brainchild of the Assembly Government, they have no choice but to agree with it. The problem is, they've been given no such orders. Basically, it amounts to saying that they have no ideas of their own, they'll simply support anything the officers put in front of them – and then blame someone else.

The response of the Labour leader was exceptional, even for Cllr Madge. He advised Peter that the Labour group would make its views known once the decision was taken. It's the Queen of Hearts approach - sentence first, verdict afterwards. For the Labour Party in Carmarthenshire it seems to be a case of 'decide first, think about it afterwards'.

In both cases, it neatly avoids any necessity for the councillors to apply any thinking of their own to what they are doing.