Leader's Monthly Report (Norfolk County Council Liberal Democrats)

Norfolk County Council Liberal Democrats <info@norfolkcclibdems.org.uk>

Leader's Monthly Report

May 5, 2010 12:00 AM

This has been written on the eve of polling day. If the polls are to be believed we Liberal Democrats are heading for a share of the vote we could only have dreamed of at the start of the campaign. It is clear though that due to the vagaries of our unfair voting system the number of seats we get will nowhere near match our popularity. You can see the same phenomenon at play on the County Council- last year the Tories got 45% of the vote yet 71% (60 of 84 seats) whilst we received 25% of the vote and 15% (13) of the seats.

This has been the most interesting General Election I can remember and Nick Clegg must take much of the credit for that. It's been particularly good to see young people suddenly become engaged with politics. Locally there was a debate at Paston College involving all the candidates and I'm told around 200 were there - in 2005 we had 30 odd!

One thing that has been clear to me on the doorstep is that many voters just do not understand the voting system, and many are horrified when you explain it. Hopefully there will be sufficient pressure for change to a fair system.

At the County Council the major news in April was Daniel Cox reshuffling his Cabinet for the second time in 10 months. Dismissing 5 of your 9 Cabinet Members in that time must be some sort of record and doesn't say much for his judgement. Both the newcomer Alison Thomas and Ann Steward, whose portfolio has been extended, are also District Councillors. How they can find the time to do justice to their dual Councillor roles and be a County Council Cabinet Member is beyond me.

The "Implementation Executive" which is overseeing the implementation of the Norwich Unitary has begun its work; Mervyn Scutter is our representative on it. The more I look at the detail of what all this will mean the more horrified I am. The General Election result could have a bearing; the Tories have said they would revoke the Order but why they didn't do the simple thing and support the Lib Dems in the Lords by voting against it, goodness knows. The outcome of the County Council's legal challenge won't be known for 3 or 4 weeks. Whatever this whole unitary exercise has been an expensive charade which has only benefited lawyers and consultants.