I have spent most of today at the Conservative Local Government conference in London. The mood was reasonably upbeat although I thought that David Cameron’s voice was a bit hoarse. He probably needs a rest from constant speaking engagements.
David Cameron’s message was that an incoming Conservative Government would increase the transparency of local councils by obliging them to publish every item of expenditure over £500 on the web. He acknowledged however that, unlike MP’s, councillors allowances etc. have been publicly available for some years. He also promised to increase the power of elected representatives by doing away with non elected decision making bodies such as the East of England assembly and other quangos and moving decision making closer to the local community.
I hope we will get the chance to see these commitments become reality.
The star of the conference was inevitably Boris Johnson, who, while expressing complete confidence in a Conservative victory at the General Election, likened the party’s current position to Odysseus’s arrival home to Ithaca after 13 years of travel, Hilary’s ascent of Everest in 1950, or the last few minutes of the 1966 World Cup. Of course everything could have gone horribly wrong. The Greek hero might have found Penelope in bed with one of the suitors, Sherpa Tensing might have dropped a crampon at the crucial moment, or England might have scored an own goal...but they didn’t!
This optimism, together with his description of Liberal Democrat policies as ‘cake...they are pro having it and pro eating it’, enlivened the assembled councillors no end and they really looked quite animated as they made their way to their break-out sessions.
