Letter: Council Governance? – Better the Devil We Know

Published on: 29 Sep, 2016
Updated on: 29 Sep, 2016

From Ben Paton

The essential choice we face in the forthcoming “elected mayor referendum” is between direct democracy and representative democracy.

Today we elect councillors who in turn select someone from among their number to lead them. With a directly elected mayor we would choose the leader directly from a short list of self selected candidates.

Of course, the candidates are self selecting in either case. And, of course, both systems are lousy – it’s just that no one has come up with anything better.

So of the two alternatives, which is better?

I go for what we have because:

1. We are not locked into one leader for four years. There remains the possibility, admittedly small, that councillors grow disillusioned with their choice of leader and change him or her.

2. There is a potentially wider choice of leader. Any councillor from within the majority (which happens to be “Conservative” – although what that really means in Guildford local politics is not clear) can come forward. With an elected mayor system we might have a choice between Mr Mansbridge and some unknown quantities.

3. With the existing system there is at least the possibility of effective scrutiny. The fact that councillors do not use the current system effectively to hold their leadership to account is deeply disappointing.

The irony is that it is a former leader of the council who is proposing change. But what is proposed has a greater chance of being a step into the fire from out of the frying pan.

The way the council works at present is that the ruling majority seek to manipulate public opinion rather than inform and guide it. Policy is not guided by loyalty to local quality of life or by intellectual honesty.

It seems to be driven by personal ambition to climb the greasy pole within the Conservative party by jumping as high as it takes to impress some anonymous figures in central office.

Much as we would like to get rid of such “representatives”, an elected mayor is likely to be an ineffective solution. And it could make things much worse – especially if the Conservative “Corbynistas”, led by Mr Mansbridge, come back.

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