Tory council leaders reply to Rod Liddle's Non-Jobs charge

Further to the recent post about Rod Liddle's criticism of "non-jobs" at Conservative councils some of the Council leaders have now responded.

This was the list produced by Liddle:

Havant District Council (Conservative-controlled)  Workplace travel co-ordinator (£22,000+)

Herefordshire County Council (Conservative-controlled) Gypsy Romany liaison officer (£26,700+)

Rugby District Council (Conservative-controlled) — Family Lifestyles officer (what that? –Ed) (£21,500)

West Sussex Council (Conservative-controlled) — Woodfuel development officer (£35,430!!!!)

Forest of Dean District Council (Conservative-controlled) — Healthy Walks co-ordinator (£15,400)

Ryedale District Council (Conservative-controlled, no Labour councillors at all) — Life Skills and Positive Activities officer (£21,000+)

Teignbridge District Council (Conservative-Lib Dem coalition) — Active Village co-ordinator (£10,000)

Rod Liddle's challenge to Conservative councils with non-jobs

In current issue of  The Spectator (£) Rod Liddle challenges Conservative councils for embracing political correctness and paying staff to do "non-jobs." That even notionally Conservative drift along with Socialist ideology.

He offers the following examples:

Havant District Council (Conservative-controlled)  Workplace travel co-ordinator (£22,000+)

Herefordshire County Council (Conservative-controlled) Gypsy Romany liaison officer (£26,700+)

Rugby District Council (Conservative-controlled) — Family Lifestyles officer (what that? –Ed) (£21,500)

West Sussex Council (Conservative-controlled) — Woodfuel development officer (£35,430!!!!)

Forest of Dean District Council (Conservative-controlled) — Healthy Walks co-ordinator (£15,400)

Ryedale District Council (Conservative-controlled, no Labour councillors at all) — Life Skills and Positive Activities officer (£21,000+)

Teignbridge District Council (Conservative-Lib Dem coalition) — Active Village co-ordinator (£10,000)

Tory council leader suggests unemployed take jobs picking fruit

Cllr David Shakespeare, the Conservative leader of Buckingham County Council, is in trouble after suggesting that the unemployed should look for work picking fruit. The problem seems to be that he was making the proposal in the context of a discussion about regional unemployment in the north of England. He said that perhaps they should "replace the Romanians in the cherry orchards." So the implication was taken to be that unemployed southerners were too grand to pick fruit but the work was good enough for unemployed northerners.

Tom Blenkinsop, the Labour MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, said:

“To see northerners in this second class, undermining and disrespectful way is typical for a very southern orientated political party like the Conservatives."

But I would be surprised if Cllr Shakespeare would not also commend fruit pickers to young southerners languishing on benefits. With that caveat the row seems rather artificial. Does Blenkinsop feel that sitting at home on benefits is better than taking a job picking fruit? Does he think picking fruit is an activity to be despised? Or does he think it is good enough for the Romanians but not for his constituents?

Audit Commission paid £15,025 for drama workshops

The Audit Commission paid £15,025 last year for drama workshops.

The firm Steps Drama explain their work for the Quango as follows:

"Called Managing Change for Diversity & Equality, the workshop combines presentations from senior managers at the Audit Commission with drama scenarios, delivered and facilitated by Steps, that bring the issues to life. It has been delivered 32 times, in off-site locations throughout England, with around 30 Audit Commission staff attending each session... Three actor-facilitators from Steps run an initial drama scenario, portraying employees in a parallel workplace who have narrow views and negative attitudes to issues such as work-life-balance, sexual orientation and disability. The delegates, as a group, question each character and give advice on how they might change their behaviour in the future. After facilitating a discussion exercise exploring the scope of diversity, Steps deliver three additional drama scenarios, depicting issues around racial insensitivity, sexual orientation and bullying. "

Local Government Minister Grant Shapps says:

“It now appears that the body charged with monitoring how public cash was spent were living in their own little fantasy world blowing taxpayers’ cash on drama workshops and role playing games.

"From dining out in fine restaurants to spending thousands of pounds on pot plants and the like, this is yet more evidence of just how the Audit Commission lost its way under the last government and why we’ve stepped in to take immediate action."

The Daily Mail has more here - including spending of £4.8 million on hotels over three years and sponsorship of £100,000 for Gordon Brown's Smith Institute.

Buckinghamshire heterosexuality quiz? "Never again," says Council leader

Some good news for Mark Wallace.

Last month he wrote on this site about Buckinghamshire County Council sending their staff off on training courses to have their heterosexuality challenged.

Mark said that he hoped the Council leader:

..will go public on this issue - not to defend such a waste of time and money, but to announce it is being scrapped.

He has. The council leader Cllr David Shakespeare emailed me to say:

Heterosexuality quiz: Bucks Council responds

Further to yesterday's post from Mark  Wallace about Buckinghamshire County Council's Heterosexuality Quiz, the Bucks Free Press has a response from the Councils.

It says:

 In a statement, BCC said it has a legal obligation 'not to discriminate' under equality legislation incorporated into the Equality Act 2010 which becomes law on October 1.

It said: “Training courses such as this one will help our employees understand individuals needs, so that they may design and deliver excellent services to our residents.

“The course, which includes a film, has been praised as 'best practice' by the lobbying group Stonewall and it will be available on its website in November.

“The course also includes questions to provoke attenders' thought processes and to enable the them to put themselves in someone else's shoes.

“Questions are not used in quiz format directed to individuals but as a learning tool during the course.”

Why is Buckinghamshire County Council giving staff a heterosexuality quiz?

Mark Wallace, Senior Account Manager at Portland Communications and author of the Crash Bang Wallace blog, on how even some Conservative councils have adopted "Diversity" extremism

Thirteen years of Labour Government will take a long time to get over. Just look at the public finances - with a deficit of £150+ billion, costly PFI commitments, and malfunctioning public bodies the books alone will take a Herculean effort to balance.

The cultural harm that Blair and Brown did, though, will take even longer. I'm talking about the presumption towards snooping, the invasion of privacy, the boom in victim culture, the corrosive effects of political correctness and the general busybodyness that they nurtured. All of these factors served to extend the state, to oppress the individual and, of course, to waste money.

Ample evidence of this problem was unearthed by the Mail on Sunday last week. Through Freedom of Information requests (undoubtedly Blair's most positive policy initiative) they have uncovered a rash of hectoring, politically correct questionnaires and training courses that councils are using on their staff.

Sample questionnaires are designed to make people experience the kind of questions they might be asked if they were a minority group, such as "What do you think caused your heterosexuality?" Other councils ask things that are simply irrelevant such as "Can you sing a few lines of a Supremes song?"

Boris arts adviser denounces multiculturalism

I have written previously lamenting how Boris Johnson's administration at City Hall has not done more to ditch Ken Livingstone's pernicious "equalities policy" with its basis in racial separatism. But, in the interests of balance, I am pleased to accept that some things in City Hall have changed. It should be acknowledged that Boris's adviser for Arts and Culture, Munira Mirza, would be most unlikely to keep her job at City Hall should Livingstone return in 2012.

In the latest issue of Prospect(£) she (together with others whose contributions she has assembled) mounts a strong assault on multiculturalism.

She says:

The writers point out that while the old prejudices have faded, new paternalistic stereotypes are growing. To engage minority students, particularly if they are disruptive and struggling with the mainstream curriculum, teachers are encouraged to focus on "their culture" or "their history". Black artists are encouraged to explore their identity but are then pigeon holed according to their ethnicity. We may have seen the decline of old racism but we are witnessing a new kind of racialising.

Council registrar swapped shifts to avoid civil partnerships

Naturally local councils need to maintain good manners, common sense, respectfulness and a sense of balance when it comes to managing their workforces with diverse backgrounds. Sometimes there will be conflicting pressures - for instance those wishing to be open in expressing their religious faith and those wishing to be open about their sexual orientation.

In coping with this sensitively it seems to me the last thing managers need are Diversity Officers and Diversity Training Managers.

But at a Lambeth Council Diversity Training seminar came an outbreak of reason, a practical tip on exercising a bit give and take. A registrar mentioned as an example of good practice how a Christian colleague didn't want to undertake civil partnerships. So discreetly the shifts were swapped with a colleague who was positive about them. I should have thought such an arrangements was better all round. Not just for the registrar who was no obliged to undertake a task they had an objection to. But also for the gay couples who would have someone officiating who not merely carried out their professional duty but would do so with a smile, with joy and enthusiasm.

The Mayor of Doncaster's battle against Political Correctness must succeed

Laura Midgley, Co-Founder of the Campaign Against Political Correctness, on the resistance the Mayor of Doncaster Peter Davies faces in carrying out his election promises.

It would be an understatement to simply say that the Mayor of Doncaster, Peter Davies, is a colourful character.  He has seen more than his share of controversy in his short time as a democratically elected Mayor and he has handled it in his own unique way.  He has been called the ‘Marmite Mayor’ but, in typical Peter Davies’ fashion, he is not actually a fan of this title as he does not like Marmite.

It is apparent that what he had to say during the Mayoral election resonated with many people in Doncaster and he was quite clear in his election literature what it was he stood for - nobody can say that they were duped.

He has had some great successes, working alongside his chosen cabinet (which includes Conservative Councillors), and has certainly made a fantastic start ticking off the pledges he made. People may have heard about some of the things he has done – cutting his own salary by more than half to £30,000 (a fraction of the salary of his Chief Executive), de-twinning, stopping future Council funding for gay pride in Doncaster etc. but there is plenty more going on behind the scenes. For example, it is also the Mayor's view that no taxpayer funds should be used in Doncaster for other previously supported events including International Women’s Day, Gypsy and Roma Traveller Month, Black History Month, United Nations Day and Human Rights Day (and yes there is such a thing!).