The Inside Outers may well be right in saying that Councillor John Miles' comments on school closures is a fresh approach. However whether it heralds a new era in effective scrutiny is another question.It is worth noting of course that Councillor Miles was commenting on the outcome of a review started under the previous regime, that up until his assumption of the Committee chairmanship his attendance was patchy to say the least and that overall the opposition had in any case largely abdicated the role of scrutiny.
What is interesting is the new Labour approach to school closures. As is clear from the article there are still some Labour stalwarts who do not believe that shutting down schools is a good idea at all. There is also no indication as to whether Councillor Miles speaks on behalf of the Labour group or not. Our betting is that if any proposals come along the Labour opportunists will jump on the anti bandwagon as they always have done.
The irony is that it is the administration who are less keen on school closures. Still if they find that such a course of action becomes necessary for sound educational reasons they can always ask John Miles to marshall his colleagues behind the proposal. Will they follow him, we wonder?
Update: How would the Labour spin doctors know how Administration Councillors behaved on scrutiny committees? They were never there. For the record the Administration have never operated a whip on scrutiny either.
