Junk Food v Gobbledegook
COSLA - the umbrella body for local councils in Scotland - entered the election campaign yesterday.
COSLA President - Councillor Pat Watters - accused all of the mainstream political parties of serving up a diet of 'junk food' to the voters - as far a local government is concerned at least.
The key message was that policies being promoted by politicians at Holyrood are bad for local democracy - and bad for the delivery of local council services.
Yet when you look at COSLA's alternative - set out on their Manifesto for Public Sector Reform: 'Positively Local' - you find that they want to substitute 'junk food' for 'gobbledegook'.
Here's a 'taste' of what the brightest and best minds at COSLA have come up with:
But taken together the COSLA's manifesto is just full of empty slogans and meaningless goodledegook - without a single practical idea in sight.
I suppose we should all be thankful that COSLA avoid using the word 'holistic' - which is a favourite of the policy wonks who draft these documents.
The COSLA solution is to call for more debate and discussion - but it doesn't need more meetings to conclude that three separate councils covering Ayrshire, for example - is a completely crazy way to run a railroad - or a local council for that matter.
Why do we need three highly paid chief executives - with all the attendant bureaucracy and cost involved - when only one would do fine, thank you very much?
COSLA President - Councillor Pat Watters - accused all of the mainstream political parties of serving up a diet of 'junk food' to the voters - as far a local government is concerned at least.
The key message was that policies being promoted by politicians at Holyrood are bad for local democracy - and bad for the delivery of local council services.
Yet when you look at COSLA's alternative - set out on their Manifesto for Public Sector Reform: 'Positively Local' - you find that they want to substitute 'junk food' for 'gobbledegook'.
Here's a 'taste' of what the brightest and best minds at COSLA have come up with:
- Reform should be framed around the improvement of outcomes
- Reform should look at the whole of the public sector not just one element
- Reform should be based on robust evidence and deliver community benefit - that implies local service integration not centralisation
- Reform should focus on finance, policy, systems and governance before looking at structure and boundaries
- Local democracy and accountability should be at the heart of the reform process and should be enhanced by reform rather than diminished.
But taken together the COSLA's manifesto is just full of empty slogans and meaningless goodledegook - without a single practical idea in sight.
I suppose we should all be thankful that COSLA avoid using the word 'holistic' - which is a favourite of the policy wonks who draft these documents.
The COSLA solution is to call for more debate and discussion - but it doesn't need more meetings to conclude that three separate councils covering Ayrshire, for example - is a completely crazy way to run a railroad - or a local council for that matter.
Why do we need three highly paid chief executives - with all the attendant bureaucracy and cost involved - when only one would do fine, thank you very much?
