Scrutiny stumbles again at Swansea

The political action, or to be more precise, the distinct lack of it arising from Thursday’s emergency Swansea Council meeting has left a sour taste in the mouth of many observers. Previous claims of outrage by councillors of all parties at revelations in the Western Mail that social services chiefs had been caught spinning the details of events leading to the death of a teenager were belied by the attendance and the outcome.

Perhaps expectations of anything significant happening were too optimistic given the series of prior restrictions handed down by chief executive Paul Smith who told the councillors just what they could and could not discuss. The meek compliance by everyone with this arbitrary ‘advice’ was remarkable. Perhaps they had also been told that Chris Holley would report defaulters to the Ombudsman.

But this preface was no real excuse for the overly rehearsed and ponderously delivered position statements by the authority’s so-called leading members. What was supposed to be a pivotal meeting descended into a mishmash of court-room theatrics at which clearly contemptuous council officials all but stuck out their tongues out at the councillors; most of whom appeared to have difficulty putting together a coherent sentence let alone a meaningful question. It was a poor show, even by Swansea standards. No wonder the council leader pissed off early.

The extent of indecisiveness on how next to proceed among those politicians notionally in charge - and those supposedly scrutinising them - is typified by the press release from the Labour group leader issued after the meeting which bears a headline calling for an independent review which then is contradicted by the text stating he is “not convinced of the need for such action as yet” (?)

He is probably right. After all, you can’t run the risk of yet another report coming up with a key finding about “poor corporate management” and the inevitable conclusion that neither the administration or the opposition have much of a clue on how to effectively hold their paid officials to account.
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