Salford City Council meeting 21 Sept 2011

I managed to catch an hour-and-a-half of Salford's full council meeting this morning from the public gallery; I haven't been for a while and it seems little has changed during my absence.

Young Toryboys Cllr. Chris Clarkson and Cllr. Iain Lindley were not sat next to each other holding hands... that's a couple of men who no doubt support the re-definition of marriage.

Whilst I was there in person, there was much OTT eulogising of erstwhile Salford council leader and old-school Labour tough man Cllr. Hough. I think it was Labour's Cllr. Jim King who gave far and away the most stomach-churning and over-long speech in worship of the mighty man.

Quite frankly, if Hough was such a great and visionary leader for Salford, and with the real power he had to effect change, may I ask why [with Labour in power in Salford since 1974] Salford remains a complete 'hole? I can't say that I see Hough has any special legacy worth celebrating. But if there's one thing councillors (of all parties) love to do, it's praising other councillors past and present, so the extended worship session did not surprise me.

The only other thing addressed in the time I was in the gallery was the matter of the proposed boundary changes to parliamentary constituencies. Unsurprisingly there was unanimous opposition from the whole council to any changes. Will there still be the Salford and Eccles constituency and the Worsley and Eccles South constituency next time? Somehow I suspect not, but it won't be for lack of a vociferous defence of the status quo from a united Salford City Council.

I had to go when the meeting broke for a late morning comfort break. The Salford Advertiser photographer was there and when the councillors were told to meet on the steps outside for a photo session during the break, well... it was like firing the starting gun to the Olympic 100 metres final. Quite a scrum.

I've just had a quick glance at MEN reporter Jennifer Williams' later tweets from the meeting and I note that Cllr. Bill Hinds thinks that Salfordians would not be stupid enough to vote for an elected mayor in the forthcoming referendum.

Well, they were stupid enough to vote Hazel Blears back in after Kitkats had been clearly exposed as a major offender in the expenses scandal. So who knows whether Salford will vote for or against an elected mayor?

[Actually I should qualify that last point. One in five of the Salford and Eccles electorate voted for Hazel; the other four either didn't vote or voted for somebody else. But you get my point.]

Speaking of Jennifer Williams, if you're interested in journalistic goings-on, well, she's a young madam to watch for the future. She could go far.

There's a sense in which I do pity the Commander of the British Empire (JM) for having to go through the full council charade. It's basically a waste of a day for him before he and his close Labour colleagues carry on regardless with running the city. I ask you, what possible benefit is there in listening to the likes of the pitiful Lib Dem Norman Owen? The Commander just has to sit there and listen to the nonsense, which - believe me - takes some doing. As a political activist I've had to sit through hours and hours of court cases and committee meetings so I know the feeling. When you want to stand up and yell at Norman, "Sit down and shut up, you silly daft bugger you're completely wasting my time!!!" but instead you just have to listen, listen and listen some more until he's made his utterly inconsequential contribution. Nobody said politics is easy; it can sometimes be a real trial.

I've attended Salford full council on many occasions, and in my experience it's extremely rare that any serious productive business is transacted in full council - it's just an inconvenience for the Commander, and a rubber-stamping exercise for the dominant Labour group. Egos are massaged. Backs are slapped. There are red-on-blue slaggings off and blue-on-red slaggings off - all of no consequence. And then there's Norman, who still, farcically, has to be treated as a party group leader. About the only consolation for subjecting oneself to spectating on full council from the public gallery is Chief Executive Barbara Spicer. Long live the Queen!