Who does what!

Every year the Council goes through a process of allocating councillors to seats on committees etc. for the next year. Different groups do this by different means. The Lib Dems I know select by vote within their group (presume it is propoprtional representation and must take all night with the number of councillors they have). Until Conservative Central Office modernised the group rules we used to do it through an appointments committee that made a recommendation to the group for signing off. That used to work OK but now we have a system where the Leader has to make a recommendation to group. You can imagine that whatever system you use it does lead to some who end up in places they do not like and others who are more than happy with the outcome. Under our system it is of course mainly the Leader who gets it in the neck!!

Still, we managed to acheieve the "reshuffle" with a lot less attraction and concern than Blair managed in his farce. First he renames a department and then they change it back again because no one liked the new name. Then apparently a procession of ministers told him they did not want to move and he apparently caved in. Does make you wonder who is really leading the country. What of Alan Milburn? Is his decision not to be in the Cabinet because he believes he can mount a challenge to Brown better from outside?

For Kingston the whole process ends with the election of a new Mayor and approval of all the new committee places for the next year. Kingston has some good information on the Mayor on their website. As for the people who run the Council well we have a new batch of them as well. So when it all goes wrong you now know who to complain to....click here for their names. Actually just realised they have not up dated the site yet but it is worth a look anyway.