The plan isn’t
without its flaws and omissions of course; 25 years is a very long time, and
there’s no obvious logic in applying the rule to councillors but not to AMs and
MPs. Above all, it doesn’t really get to
grips with the reasons why there are so many long-serving old men on our
councils in Wales.
In the bad old
days when I was a member of the old Vale of Glamorgan Borough Council, most
councils met in the evenings, and councillors were simply paid around £14 a time
for turning up at meetings. For a
committed individual it was, just about, possible to combine being an effective
councillor with holding a full time job.
But most councils now meet during the day time, and councillors are paid
a basic salary of a little over £13,000 a year, which changes the picture in
several ways. It makes it
harder for people who work full time to commit to doing the job properly,
whilst on the other hand, the salary is too low for many people to give up the
day job. Small wonder that the job ends
up looking particularly attractive to retired people.
I’ve expended
time and effort over the years trying to twist arms of people to stand in local
elections, and like anyone else who’s ever tried that, I’m aware that it isn’t
an easy task. Whilst it’s certainly true
(as seems to be the premise behind the new proposal) that there are some
old-stagers who are determined to carry on to the end and are thus keeping out
other people, it’s equally true that some are still there because they and
their party have failed to find a successor candidate.
And that brings
me back to the impact on the Labour Party.
In parts of South Wales, as anyone who’s ever campaigned there will
know, the only thing that keeps the Labour Party alive and kicking is the
elderly councillors who exist in a state of mutual dependency with the
party. They are the people who come out
and knock doors and deliver leaflets, in parliamentary and Assembly elections
as well as council elections. Take them
away, and what’s left?
Could Leighton
Andrews be working to a secret agenda to destroy his own party’s hegemony from
within?
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1 comment:
I doubt that Andrews is attempting to undermine Labour's hegemony specifically, but he certainly doesn't hold the average Labour councillor in particularly high regard and his background and experience suggests that he is unlikely to be immersed in the tribalism that infects a significant part of the Labour Party. Like him or loathe him, Andrews is very much his own man.
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