Green, Liberal Democrat and Conservative leaders at Uttlesford today demanded in a public statement that the Residents for Uttlesford ruling group should come clean and explain why the Council’s auditors are refusing to sign-off the annual accounts for 2019/20. Liberal Democrat Councillor for Stansted South and Birchanger, Ayub Khan, was stone-walled at the Council’s Governance […]

Donald Trump’s loss of the US presidency – despite his reluctance to concede – might be seen as a first step away from populist political leadership on the international stage. There is a long way to go to achieve a more normal politics. It will be well into 2021, or beyond, before the end of […]

My To Everest or to spitefulness post last Monday has stirred up some reaction from the Residents for Uttlesford (R4U) party and its allies. They think I am acting bitterly and unfairly by challenging and criticising their handling of Uttlesford’s Local Plan since R4U were elected into office with an overwhelming majority in May 2019. But […]

The Residents for Uttlesford (R4U) election manifesto in 2019 promised: “We will review and improve or replace the current Cabinet system to make the District Council fairer and to ensure all that all voices are heard.” This matters. It goes to the heart of local democracy; that people vote for what they’re promised and can […]

That’s the sign one weekend commentator suggested Boris Johnson should have on his desk at No. 10. “Not me, I’m not responsible for what goes wrong.” That contrasts with US president Harry Truman’s actual desk-top sign “The buck stops here”. Even Conservative MPs are now speaking out against a Johnson cabinet of incompetent people whose […]

I read this letter in yesterday’s Guardian and was most impressed. “The chancellor has announced that senior doctors’ pay will rise about 3% due to their “vital contribution”. I am a consultant neurologist. My salary already borders £95,000 a year. My duty, my goal in life is to look after the sick, and I would […]

The Green and Liberal Democrat Members of Uttlesford District Council have proposed the following commitment for adoption by the Council – its Members of all political parties and its officers.   Uttlesford District Council’s Members and Officers are seriously concerned and distressed at the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, USA two weeks ago. They […]

Discussions about race and discrimination amongst politicians at Uttlesford District Council at the end of last week were disappointing. Attempts were made to harness support from all political groups for a joint statement about the death in the USA of George Floyd. Sadly, only one Member of the Residents for Uttlesford majority group embraced the […]

As I wrote in my previous post, that’s a recent newspaper article headline about the Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings. I compared Johnsonian populism with Residents for Uttlesford’s local populism here in North-West Essex. For R4U, having a Council Corporate Deliver Plan of what they intend to achieve in the next three years […]

That’s a recent newspaper article headline about the Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his (apparently) indispensable advisor in-chief (or should I write “advisor-in-charge”?). A populist government like the current one appeals for votes by saying what people would like to hear, even when the benefits they promise are not deliverable or will even harm people. […]