Wobbly Seats

A London council run, if that is the word I want, by the Not Awfully Bright Party, is facing difficulties over its attempts to outsource its responsibilities to the profitable sector. The charming and law-abiding Brian Coleman turned against the plan when the party withdrew the whip because of some problems with the non-democratic police. The chief executive, who devised the whole devastatingly sane scheme, was so taken with the thought of pushing it through that he resigned and joined a neighbouring council which is controlled by a slightly different wing of the British Neoliberal Party. A man and his disabled daughter are trying for a judicial review, on the grounds that the council has treated disabled people in the borough with the Conservative Party's standard degree of contempt; and now some unscrupulous person has leaked an email exchange in which one councillor complains that the party has no more mandate for its assault than the Government had for putting the boot into the NHS. It may be a belated attack of conscience, or it may be a loosening sphincter; where our political masters are concerned, of course, the distinction is largely a matter for the trained anatomist.