Well, I hear that the PLC Coalition's principled cash-grab went off almost without a hitch last Thursday.My spies tell me that procedural chaos was only narrowly averted by Rene 'Dear Leader' Kinzett rushing about telling various of his Coalition members what to do. It seems that the most amusing sight was watching Labour politicians voting Tory, Tory politicians voting Labour, and Plaid voting for both of them. Still, it is heartening to see the different members of the Coalition learning to cooperate - when will we get their first joint policy statements, I wonder?
Now they'll be able to show us that all their yada yada about 'the importance they attach to scrutiny' was genuine by actually turning up for the meetings. The Labour element of the coalition never bothered much before. Perhaps the 'Dear Leader' and 'Baby Face' should have a word with their friend David Phillips?
Still no answer from Coalition leaders to the big questions , like why they are suddenly so convinced of the necessity of their running scrutiny when they either turned it down, (Plaid) or didn't bother to answer the offer letter (Labour) back in 2004. Neither did either party ever ask officially if the offer could be repeated. Almost makes you think that the whole rigmarole that we have gone through in the last weeks was a charade...
Another thing, why do Labour now feel it is so vital for the opposition to run scrutiny? They certainly didn't feel the same way when they were in charge prior to 2004. Then, the Masters of the Universe did not allow the opposition to have any Scrutiny Chairs...though to be fair, they did offer Vice -Chair positions, which some opposition councillors took up at the time.
Funny though, when the Assembly said that Scrutiny Vice-Chairs could get an allowance, Labour snatched them all back, and re-distributed them to their own councillors. A coincidence, I'm sure.
It all goes to reinforce the growing impression that Labour are in it for the cash, Kinzett's New Model Tories for revenge, and Plaid - well, who knows? By the way, is it true that the 'Dear Leader' now has two Chairs? If so, will he give up one of his two allowances?
