Sally Allen: I ask councillors, what have you done to make you feel proud?

Firstly, I would like to congratulate Steve Darling on becoming our new MP and wish him well in his endeavours. Equally, commiserations to Kevin Foster. However, I do feel that we all need change on a regular basis. This is why the government took such a pasting as people in power for too long get too comfortable and history shows that two-term government is the best limit to put on an administration. In short, one term to get to grips with the problems and one term to try to sort them out. After that everyone seems to get too complacent and somewhat power crazed. It was noticeable with both Thatcher and Blair who both had two good terms and then the wheels came off. Having said that, the last 14 years of the Conservatives have seen so many prime ministers that nobody ever seemed to get to grips with anything! 

The overall share of the vote that Labour achieved reflects the terrible demise in the public caring about the direction the country takes. A shocking 80 per cent of the country didn’t even bother to vote, no doubt because so many have lost faith in the system. This equates to the smallest majority of the electorate ever to vote for a government in the UK. Starmer is in Number 10 with fewer votes than Jeremy Corbin received in 2017 and 2019. Surely, we should seriously consider proportional representation voting in our wonderful quirky country, the current outcome just skews the wishes of the public. No government should be able to win a big majority on a minority of the vote. Westminster’s voting system is warping our politics and we’re all paying the price. Under a proportional voting system, seats more closely match votes, so we can all have more impact on what happens in Westminster.

Back home, to add to my state of cynicism about the way Torbay is ‘governed’, I heard last night that the palm trees, planned to shelter the rough sleepers on the extended pavement on the Strand! now cannot be planted due to finding sewage pipes running exactly underneath the site selected for the planting. If this is true, you certainly couldn’t make it up. Of course, this discovery will be in addition to finding the old tramlines running along the Strand. I do wonder if anyone ever does their homework. Surely there is historical data held at the Town Hall mapping out the drainage system of the Bay. Apart from the bonkers timing of doing this, in my opinion worthless and misguided work, what is going to happen now? Bearing all this in mind and the shocking disruption to our town, is the Council now realising what an own goal this ‘development’ is? The whole episode is even worse if you consider the disruption, and no doubt damage to the eventually finished new pavements, when Debenhams is demolished. Are we in for another Palm Tree fiasco as suffered by Gordon Oliver? If so, no doubt we taxpayers will end up footing the bill for another Palmgate.

None of it makes any sense but then neither does the way the Council runs itself. At this point, the Council has 18 Conservative Councillors and 18 LibDem and Independent Councillors and everything rests on the casting vote of the unelected mayor, who is appointed by the leader of the Council. In the current administration this means this appointment is merely giving the Tories a casting vote from the appointed puppet. Frankly, why bother? Maybe everyone should just stay home because however good the debate might be about issues that affect all of us, this one casting vote seals our fate. I believe the constitution of the Council should be changed so that the mayor is a Solomonic role with no political agenda. I think it was mad to do away with a democratically elected mayor in favour of the ‘pass the parcel’ system the councillors currently use to elect a mayor in their own private fiefdom. The current process doesn’t seem remotely democratic to me.

To quote Sir Ranulph Fiennes “a committee is a group of people who individually can do nothing, but as a group decide nothing can be done”. Just replace the word committee with Council and you will get my point. Recently there has been a report by the Local Government Association, which Jim Parker referred to in his column last week. Rightly he mentions the “unprecedented quantities of government money to spend on local projects” our Council has received. As a town we are extremely fortunate to have received this funding and it clearly must be spent wisely and quickly. Having now read the LGA Feedback Report, sadly it doesn’t flag-up fundamental problems with the structure of the Council which allows for the endless in-fighting and proven bullying which benefits nobody, and especially not the town or its community. Another few words to keep in mind are from the Heather Small song ‘Proud’; “what have you done today to make you feel proud?”. Not a bad way to end each day as long as you listen to the honest answer in your head.

Back over the pond it was incredibly shocking to see Donald Trump hit by a bullet which could clearly have taken his head off if he hadn’t moved his head slightly just before the bullet hit him. The upside for him, apart from surviving, are the incredibly emotive images of blood dripping down his face whilst clenching his fist and repeating the word ‘Fight’ which could win him the election. Very sadly an innocent spectator was killed at the scene and two more are critical in hospital. For Trump however, it could be a game changer as far as swing voters go, we will have to wait and see. My one hope is that it will take the heat out of the appallingly vitriolic election. I am not sure when the pendulum swung and the human race became so feral, but these are scary times. I am not a Trump fan, but neither do I believe that an octogenarian whose memory is on the blink is the best person to lead the world against the increasing very real threats around the world. This image of Trump blooded but unbowed can do nothing but increase his chances of winning against the odds.