Derby Conservatives

So what did I actually do as Derby City Councillor?

I’m sure many people who think that thought probably don’t really know very much about what Councillors actually do away from our more public duties or what they read, see or hear via the local press (if they choose to cover our work, which is a big if sometimes).

The rest of the population probably don’t think about the question at all.

In anycase, it occurred to me that I should use this blog to offer a snap-shot of a recent working week as lived by Matthew Holmes, Derby City Councillor for Chellaston & Shelton Lock ward.

I know that many other Conservative colleagues have similar schedules, although the meetings and their roles in them vary greatly. I can't vouch for the opposition and how active they are... you'd have to ask them!

My week-long Diary is written, basically, as a rough guide of events as they unfolded, so apologies if the grammar is a little ropey. I hope it gives you an insight into what I do regardless of your opinion of me as a Conservative Councillor.

So here we go...

Day 1, Sunday

Over to Spondon for a Derby Conservative away day. We’re working on our 2010 Manifesto. Bacon butties (x2) and strong coffee. A few hours later we are half way through our review and debate on what we will be presenting to the people of Derby at the next local election in May 2010. Meeting is concluded, to be continued next week. Drive back home to go straight out shopping with my family and a night off.

Day 2, Monday

Busy day at work (I have a day job as well as being a Councillor). Cycle straight from work to the Council House for a 5pm ward meeting with fellow Cllr’s Philip Ingall and Harvey Jennings. I like them a lot and we work well together. In between, rang a local resident to talk about resolving the problems they are having with rats and housing benefit.

As soon as the ward meeting ends, just down the corridor, attend a Conservative group meeting to discuss the forthcoming full council meeting and other issues. Get back home around 9pm and log on to my council emails. Spend the next 5 hours replying to emails and also sorting out the two questions I am submitting to Council cabinet members at full council on Wednesday. Should have gone to bed hours ago…

Day 3, Tuesday

Wake up and realise, again, that I should have gone to bed several hours before I did, but happy that I now don’t have to rush to get the cabinet questions sent in by the 12pm deadline…

Fairly busy day at work, get home, have dinner, then work on what I’m going to be saying and responding to at tomorrow’s full Council meeting. Suspect it may be a lively session. Another late night, which is stupid considering I need to be 'on form' tomorrow.

Day 4, Wednesday

I’m a governor at a local school and attend a Finance Committee meeting which starts at 8am. Headmistress kindly makes me a nice cup of coffee which wakes me up a bit. Straight to work afterward, going to be late…

Have a quick lunch time meeting at the Council house so jump on my bike and ride over there, arriving a few minutes late (which I am well known for unfortunately). Theme of the day so far.

Good discussion with Chellaston Ward Neighbourhood manager and local Taxi association chairman, There’s an ongoing issue in the ward that I’m trying to resolve for residents. Anti-social behaviour, noise at all hours concerning a walk through that’s been opened up for new housing. People now use this walk through as a taxi pick up and drop off point to avoid a much longer journey. Meeting gives me food for thought on how to move forward.

Back to work, then boomerang back over to the Council house for the evening full Council meeting. I join my fellow Conservative councillors in the group room to discuss agenda and confirm what was discussed on Monday night. Quickly grab a bite to eat and then into the chamber for 6pm
, just in time.

I ask a couple of questions on press reports that school meals in the City will no longer be freshly prepared on the premises. Receive not the best of answers (in my opinion) and ask a supplemental that seems to annoy the Lib Dem Cabinet member, but puts down a marker as we move forward on this issue. One to watch closely.

I also ask Cllr Lucy Care for an update on the contract to repair Derby’s roads that is in her cabinet brief. Get a predictable reply to both of my questions. There is now a huge backlog and, I understand, a £1.5million budget requirement (tax payers money) on top of the current budget. The answers I get don’t fill me with confidence. Another issue I will not be letting go.

The meeting is lively, both Labour Cllr’s Williamson and Banwait end up ranting and raving, in my opinion a lot of it is playing the gallery and press, although I’m careful to listen to every word however loud.

The meeting concludes without dealing with the full agenda. The Conservative group had asked for the meeting to be extended, but were voted down by the Lib Dems and Labour. We didn’t want to have to call an extra full council meeting due to the cost to the tax payer, so decided to withdraw my motion calling for a considerate builders scheme to be adopted by the Council.

I'm putting forward a proposal that would look to reduce the impact to those living nearby building developments, restricting work to sociable hours etc. Anyway, the withdrawal allows the agenda to be completed before the 10pm cut-off point.

Back home for around 10.30pm, still hungry, so warmed up what was left of the meal the family eat while I was at the Council house.

Day 5, Thursday.

Full day at work as always, straight home for a quick meal with my family then and off to the neighbourhood forum for about 6pm. Arrive to be told I’m chairing the meeting. Spend a little while going through the agenda with the neighbourhood manager and speaking with the local police team and other agencies. Arrange a meeting and a few other things before the meeting kicks off.

A very positive meeting, did well as the Chair I think. Anti-social behaviour and how we continue to work to tackle it dominate the discussions. All three ward councillors and the local police team are very open with the residents attending.

Everyone agrees that this is a team effort that we all need to work to solve. This approach is appreciated by residents and they are offered many examples and actions that are already, or will be in place soon.

Meeting concludes later than planned and have a resident’s association meeting at one of the local pubs to attend – but they are also at the forum, so we’re all held up. For once, I'm not late - everyone is.

We discuss how local people want the ward to develop in the future. They are working very hard and doing some great work. I have a nice pint of shandy which goes down a treat. Get back home around 9.30 determined to have an early night, but fail miserably by dealing with emails and catching up on the weeks news for a few hours.

Day 6, Friday.

I like Fridays and always look forward the evening when, traditionally, there are very few – if any Council meetings. I jump on my bike at lunch time to visit the University Campus on Kedleston Road. They’re holding a Democracy Day for the students. UKIP, Labour, Lib Dems and the Conservatives have stalls. I’ve promised I’ll attend if work permits, and as Deputy Leader of the group it’s important to support the event.

There was some fruity banter between the tables, and I enjoy speaking with students along with handing out some freebies. Some tell me they will vote for David Cameron, some that want to know about out green policies etc. Support seems to be divided between the Lib Dems and the Conservatives. Labour don’t seem all that popular from what I saw.

I successfully involve our Derby North Parliamentary candidate, Stephen Mold when the discussion moves to national policy, he’s much better placed to offer answers in those areas than I am. As Deputy Leader of the local Conservative group, I try to focus on local issues and the Council… although I know I represent the Conservatives on local and national policy so can’t side step everything!

To prove a point, before leaving I have a few lively debates with Cllr Williamson, leader of the Labour group, on local and national policy. We agree to disagree, as is normally the case. It’s all friendly though, no point in making anything personal, it’s not, normally, how it works despite what the public perception might be sometimes. That said, there will always be one or two people that you have a problem with (and they with you), such is life.

Anyway, back to work and then back home for a night off playing guitar hero with my girls, watching TV, washed down with a couple of beers.

Day 7, Saturday.

At work again today, but still need to pop over to Shelton Lock for a Surgery. Arrive late due to work, but Cllr Ingall and Jennings are as reliable as ever to cover for me along with a bit of ribbing about my timekeeping. We have a good chat, I take a phone call from a resident about fly tipping, bus lanes and other issues while they speak to someone who has popped in with an issue… then it’s back to work until the afternoon.

Finally, clock off for the weekend sometime in the afternoon, with the rest of my Saturday evening and Sunday clear to catch up on the jobs at home and spend some time with my family.

So, there you have it. For someone who has a full time day job and is also a councillor and family man, a fairly busy week.

As is traditional and relevant to the modern internet-age, it falls to the Deputy Leader to write a blog for your perusal and, hopefully, occasional amusement / outrage (delete which ever isn't applicable).

I will also attempt to offer an insight into the local political scene; whether for the enjoyment of local activists, councillors, council workers or members of the great Derby public and beyond (such is the nature of the web).

That said, I'm not going to write directly about politics in Derby this time. You'll have to wait a little longer for the scandal and outrage.

My predecessors, Richard Smalley and Harvey Jennings certainly managed to cause a stir from time-to-time. I've been told that several Liberal-leaning Derby City Councillors looked, unsuccessfully I may add, into making formal complaints regarding various comments made by Councillor Smalley.

However, I was an avid follower of this blog and one quote made by American entertainer, Will Rodgers (1879 – 1935) springs to mind:-

"A remark generally hurts in proportion to its truth"

Nothing to my knowledge has ever been written on these pages that were not based on the truth and actual events presented from the author's perspective.

Maybe add strong rumour to that list. Everyone loves a good old gossip after all.

So with that in mind, this blog will be written (and should be read) with a sense of humour and ability to take a slightly lighter hearted look at local politics than you will find elsewhere. And it is local politics and how it is influenced by national events that my first post is about.

I've been taking an interest in the Liberal Democrat Conference this week. In searching for an overview of the event I googled ‘Lib Dem car crash conference' (it seemed to sum things up nicely). I found an interesting article in the Times.

The journalist, Daniel Finkelstein not only has a fantastic surname, but he identifies why there is still one area at least that unites Labour and the Conservatives. And that is; mutual loathing of Lib Dem campaigning methods compared to the general perception of the party by everyone else.

He writes, for example, that "back when the Liberal Party was fighting for control of Liverpool, so the story goes; they purchased a smelly old mattress.

A group of Liberals would drive around, carrying this mouldy bedding in the back of a van. And then they would dump it in the alley behind a row of houses.

A couple of nights later, the group would go canvassing: "Have you any local problems your local Liberals can deal with?" And the residents would reply that, as the matter of fact, there were. Someone had dumped an old mattress in the alley behind their house. Could the Liberals do something about it, please?

At the end of the evening, they would stuff it back in the van, drive off and dump it somewhere else."

Is it true? - I wouldn't know. Embellished in the telling over the years? – probably. Funny? I'm sure those reportedly involved, assuming it's true, still laugh about it over a pint or vegetable smoothie. But it serves as just one example of many such stories.

However, despite the aggressive and ruthless methods that seem to be embedded into the DNA of most Lib Dem agents, they are regularly able to take the moral high-ground by promoting themselves as ‘local campaigners who's fight is not with the other parties' and where policy can change to cater for the way the political wind blows street-by-street.

Which brings me back to this years Lib Dem Conference.

With the General Election less than eight months away, this was the final time the party had at presenting its case to the electorate.

Their conference is one of the few times the Lib Dems can be guaranteed attention outside of an election campaign. It was important.

The press, as always, will duly deliver the narrative, the highlights, the key policies and overall impression of success or failure to the public. It is these messages, however unfairly, that matter most.

The Lib Dem conference started well enough, for the first five minutes. It then rapidly descended into a dis-jointed mess which continued through to the delegates trudging home to their constituencies significantly more demoralised than they arrived.

Finkelstein, in his Times piece, wrote about the issues the Lib Dems should have concentrated on but seemingly decided not to. He wrote, "The issues are obvious - disillusion with politicians, fury over expenses, a burning desire for change. All those Liberal causes - political reform, no more Punch and Judy, even proportional representation - that seemed arcane, irrelevant, risible, their time is now. For heaven's sake, Liberals, the issues are right there under your noses. What's the matter with you?"

Indeed. Because we actually witnessed:-

The Lib Dems credibility on economics taking a battering thanks to the total confusion over Vince Cable's proposed new property tax. This was fuelled by the news that Julia Goldsworthy (Lib Dem local government spokeswoman) didn't know about the new tax policy even though it was notionally in her own remit and Chris Huhne's (home affairs spokesman) admission that colleagues hadn't been consulted about it.

Lib Dems downgrading their pledge on tuition fees, thereby putting a large part of their activist and support base in many areas at risk.

Clegg's ill-advised use of the word savage about public spending cuts.

Frontbencher, Steve Webb slapping his leader down for suggesting that child benefit could be means-tested.

Ming Campbell, knife still firmly planted in his back, publicly telling the party to "grow up" didn't help either.

But what struck me most was the absolute obsession with attacking the Conservatives rather than this failing Labour government and Gordon Brown.

I could go on, but from very start, the whole conference, in terms of what the general public will see, was carried out on the back foot having to justify policy detail making things worse in the process. That will be the press pack conclusion, what journalists will write about and the opposition will use as ammunition.

Nick Clegg says he wants to be Prime Minister. However, on this evidence, the Lib Dems are more than content at staying in third place and they deserve to be there… forever hoping for the chance to be power-broker under an unlikely hung parliament.

But Clegg also said that, "If you don't like what you see, don't vote for us".

It remains to be seen if that was a brave or stupid thing to say.

A week in the life...

A Dirty Mattress & The Lib Dem Conference