Friday, April 25, 2008

'Scrap the GLA' says Labour think tank

Isn't it really annoying when Lefty think tanks get something right? The New Local Government Network, led by Chris Leslie, who was behind Gordon's leadership campaign and involved in the dodgy donations scandal with Harman has said that the Greater London Authority should be scrapped because "[i]t is hard to justify employing 25 full-time politicians when local council leaders could scrutinise the mayor as effectively".

Hear hear! It ought to be the leaders of Council's the approve and amend the Mayor's budget rather than Assembly members who get paid very well for effectively doing very little. GLA members have larger constituencies than MPs. If you scrapped the GLA then Londoners would not have to pay for the ludicrous cost of renting the giant testicle that is City Hall.

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

It seems ridiculous that GLA members can ask the Mayor lots of questions but cannot influence his behaviour in any way.

Either give the GLA the final say on every proposal from the Mayor or scrap it - it is a token organisation at present.

Old BE said...

I have thought since the beginning that the leaders of the Councils would provide much better scrutiny. Good to see Labour catching up.

I also think that they should be able to vote down other polices than the budget.

Croydonian said...

And *absolutely* nothing to do with what might happen on 1/5/8.

No, nothing to see here, keep moving.

Vindico said...

Lol. Labour THink Tank adopt UKIP policy. Is the world turning upside down?!

Anonymous said...

But wasn't London the first UK EU Regional installation?

Anonymous said...

Oh, what a coincidence. Just when they are about to lose any control there at all. Funny that.

dizzy said...

Hmm that;s not really true though. The Tories hold the majority in the London Councils, and Labour do not control the Assembly. The only thing they currently control is the Mayor's Office and no one is saying that should be scrapped.

David Boothroyd said...

Mr Hendren seems to be unaware that the Mayor is part of the Greater London Authority. The letters 'GLA' stand for Greater London Authority. There is no such thing as the 'Greater London Assembly'; there is the London Assembly which is one part of the Greater London Authority.

dizzy said...

Mr Boothroyd seems to be unaware that he is a pedantic tosspot, and that his pedantry does not actually dispute the point but instead tries to suggest that because of an acronym error the point is refuted as a result.

What worries me most is that I read somewhere he is a civil servant working in Government. If such logically fallacious reasoning is in place in the workings of the state, no wonder the place is such a mess.

For those wondering, the above two paragraphs translate as "Fuck off David you pedantic twat", but I know he has problems with swearing so I avoided using anything stronger than 'tosspot'. Still on the bright side I was able to expose his argument for the complete and total bollocks that it is. Move along, nothing to see here.

JuliaM said...

"If such logically fallacious reasoning is in place in the workings of the state..."

If..? You mean, there's still some doubt?