What I wrote at Lib Dem Voice

February 13, 2007

There's seven hours of my life I'll never get back

Last night was Oxford City Council's budget-setting meeting. It's always a long-winded, grandstanding, pettily partisan affair (show me a Council budget debate which isn't); this year's was no exception.

As you may gather, I'm no fan of such occasions. But as I was co-presenting the Lib Dem administration's budget, I had little choice but to endure the whole seven hours from start to finish.

  • You can read my speech proposing the Lib Dem administration's budget here.
  • You can read all about Labour and the Greens' decision to ramp-up park-and-ride charges here.
  • And you can read all about the deal the Lib Dems and Greens eventually struck here - including meeting the Lib Dem pledge to keep Council Tax down.
And now the rest of tonight is devoted to not doing politics.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

You don't seem to enjoy Council meetings; this isn't the first time you've complained.

Have you ever wondered whether you're in the right job?

Anonymous said...

anonymous, if you thik being a cllr is only about full council meetings (usually once every 6 weeks at most) then you have a very narrow definition of what being a cllr is about.

Stephen Tall said...

Anon - being a councillor is probably the most enjoyable job I have ever done. Attending Full Council is probably the least rewarding thing I do. There's no conflict between these two views.

AverageEarthman said...

Maybe if there weren't any councillors who enjoyed full council meetings then the whole thing would be over in a lot less than seven hours.

I'm an academic, and I know the hell of being stuck in a meeting with someone who likes the sound of their own voice.