Nothing personal, just politics

If it was Chris Holley’s intention of solicit sympathy with his moans about personalised politics then he is well out of luck. If anything, the nature of his protest invites a paraphrasing of Samuel Johnson to the effect that a claim to want to put the city first is usually the last refuge of the bullshitter – mostly because no politician wants to put anything first other than their own sweaty grasp on power.

As opposition leader, Holley showed no hesitation in attempting to wrench away the reins by putting the blame for every shortcoming experienced by the preceding regime firmly in the lap of cabinet members on a personal basis. We hear that he was damned good at it, too.

Now, the dilemma facing the Lib Dem leader (and us plebs) is that, like it or not, cabinet-run local government puts all the real decision-making responsibilities into the hands of a handful of councillors. There is no meaningful debate, no public discussion and any technical expertise comes from departmental directors. This is not unusual. Councils up and down the land are notionally run by numpties who would otherwise struggle to get a sniff of an interview for a half-way decent job but who become responsible – through whatever labyrinthine means - for portfolios that control multi-million pound budgets and employ thousands of staff. Swansea is no different now or in the past.

It’s not too bad if you’re in power except for the annoying side-effect that the system creates an incentive for oppositions groups to loudly and regularly equate performance – or the lack of it - with the character & capabilities of the cabinet members. If they or their departments turn out to be patently crap, or simply accident-prone, then this doesn’t just reflect badly on the post-holder but also on the person who put them there – especially if the leader then allows them to remain in office either through weakness or ... err, weakness. In fairness to Holley, he does have incredibly limited scope for his cabinet selections; which are further restricted by the in-built cronyism of coalition politics. The shenanigans behind the scenes to keep Wendy Fitzgerald somewhere in the SRA bracket to which she had become accustomed before she could be shunted out of social services is just one case in point.

Despite being caught in the classic 'pig and lipstick' syndrome, he will soon however need to accept that running off to the Ombudsman every time someone in the opposition ranks says something vaguely ageist or challenges officer advice is no real answer. More importantly, he cannot afford to make the basic mistake of attempting to spike the opposition’s guns when he should first be taking steps to deny them their currently ample supply of ammunition. Unfortunately for him, this requires blindfolding and gagging 30% of the executive while placing an equal number of committee chairs under house arrest. It’s a tough call but at least the upside is that it will probably be months before anyone notices.