Somerset People Robbed Of Democracy By Westminster - But How Many of Them Really Care?

 

Lib Dem, Labour, Green or Tory - Same Old Story

by Andrew D Pope, 1st April 2023

It is no April Fool's joke. The robbery of democracy is deadly serious. And the people of Somerset will suffer, and pay for it with millions if not billions of public money.

Today is the day - yes, it is on 1st April 2023 - that all four of Somerset's district councils die, as does the Somerset County Council.

It sounds dramatic. But how many people in Somerset really care?

Few People Will Mourn the Loss - Until It Is Too Late

Council Officers and Councillors Were Paid Public Money

How many people will mourn the replacement of the district councils with a "new" Somerset council?

It might be fewer people than you think. Those council officers who will be made redundant, might mourn the loss of the council. Some of them will be relieved to have escaped their jobs. Others will have jobs in the new Council, which should worry Somerset people, given some officers' poor performance in the now defunct councils.

So council officers aside, how about the councillors who were supposed to represent you? 

Some of the councillors have been elected to the new Somerset unitary council, including some to the Cabinet. That should worry the people of Somerset, given these councillors' record of failure and profligacy in positions of power and control over public money.

Other councillors have tried to make out that they did a good job of representing you. Maybe around 10% of the councillors did actually represent you well. That is for the people of Somerset to decide.

And other councillors were forced to quit, lost their seats or chose not to stand for election. Some of them felt that they had to go, after being exposed by investigations done by Somerset Independents and our volunteers.

The People of Somerset Will Have To Pay

What about the people who matter most - the people of Somerset?

Will they care about the inevitable failures in services that affect people's lives?

How many even know about the council changes?

And will the lessons be learned from the forced mergers of West Somerset and Taunton Deane  councils?

Is it too late now?

These are open questions. Time will tell. 

What is without doubt is that the poor performance of the district councils, the councillors and officers, will leave a painful legacy for the people of Somerset.

The Experts Spoke - But Westminster Party Councillors and Council Officers Ignored Them

What is beyond doubt - as stated by De Montfort University in their Future of Local Government In Somerset (FoLGIS) report - buried by councillors in the appendices - is that democracy has been robbed. De Montfort did not use these words, but that was the message clear in their expert advice.

De Montfort told councillors that such reorganisations in the UK and the world over, do not deliver for local people.

The University wrote in the FoLGIS report that such moves would mean democracy is more remote from the people of Somerset. And the academics warned that these moves will cost money - public money.

The warnings were there. But councillors and council officers ignored them.

No Yes/No Referendum - But Somerset Independents Tried

Somerset Independents campaigned loudly for a Yes/No Referendum, but the Liberal Democrats, Conservatives, Labour and Greens all failed to make it happen. 

Local media outlets did not help report on our Referendum campaign, or shine a light on the shocking decisions being made by Councillor David Fothergill and his Conservative cronies in Taunton and Westminster. The lack of vigorous reporting on such matters also shows how democracy is not being served by journalists holding those in power to account.

Instead, Somerset people had a Referendum on which of two buckets of manure they wished to have poured over the heads. Two councils or one council in Somerset. But that was also a lie promulgated by the deposed Leader of the County Council David Fothergill. There are already two other unitary authorities in Somerset - North Somerset Council and Bath and North East Somerset Council.

No Yes/No Referendum was given to the people of Somerset. This was despite the last Referendum on the issue - in 2007 - delivering a resounding 82% NO to a unitary authority.

Democracy has been robbed. It is deadly serious. And it is not an irrelevance of reorganisation. These changes will affect people's lives.

Deluded Fothergill's Bruised Ego Can't Let Lib Dems Take Credit

Yet Councillor David Fothergill is claiming it as some sort of victory for him. 

Brass-neck award of the year? Possibly.

My first conversation about a unitary Somerset Council was in Sept 2017. Nearly 6 years later that day has arrived! For their help in making the vision a reality I am very grateful to @RishiSunak @SimonClarkeMP @michaelgove @LukeHall @KemiBadenoch and the late James Brokenshire pic.twitter.com/DTAMNINxsw

— David Fothergill (@DJAFothergill) March 31, 2023

This was despite the people of Somerset removing him as Leader of the County Council. And removing many Conservative councillors in the local elections, some of whom had voted to delay elections and lobbied their Tory mates at Westminster to scrap the councils - against the wishes of the people of Somerset.

Let's not forget - Councillor Fothergill did not want to speak to Local Democracy Reporter Daniel Mumby when the results of the elections were coming in and it was becoming clear that his actions and those of the Conservative Party, led to his demise as Leader of the Council and the loss of control of the Council.

Councillor David Fothergill Refuses Media

The Lib Dems' Profligacy Was Proven At The District Councils

The Liberal Democrats gained a majority. Perhaps that explains their pathetic capitulation and acceptance of this thievery of democracy and public money from the people of Somerset.

Yet the people of Somerset voted the Lib Dems in. Somerset Independents chose not to stand any candidates, for reasons explained elsewhere on this website.

Already the Liberal Democrats are getting their excuses in, blaming the previous Tory administration for financial mismanagement. The Leader of the County Council Lib Dem Councillor Bill Revans was trying to soften the people of Somerset up for the inevitable let down, and has been warning of budget gaps and cuts. Just as David Fothergill blamed the preceding Lib Dem administration for their own failures, the Lib Dems are doing the same. Lib Dem or Tory, same old story.

Yet it was the Liberal Democrats who controlled three of the four district councils, and who have gone on rampant spending sprees with the money of the people of Somerset for electoral gain. But it will be the people of Somerset who will have to bail them out with public money.

The Tories were in control of the County Council until they lost it to the Lib Dems. And also in control of Sedgemoor District Council, whose Leader apparently did not agree with the forced reorganisation, but it happened anyway.

A Pretence of Democracy Ignoring the Failures of Cornwall and Wiltshire

All those district and county councillors and councils have been lost, to be replaced by a pretence of democracy. A unitary council covering most of the large county of Somerset. The mistakes of Cornwall and Wiltshire have been repeated in Somerset.

Instead of councils closer to the people they are supposed to serve, albeit they did it very badly as we pointed out on many occasions, Somerset people will have inept and powerless parish and town councils and councillors. And something called "Local Community Networks" (LCNs).

Nobody asked for it. There was no Yes/No Referendum.

It has been forced on the people of Somerset. And it is them who will pay.

We tried to warn Somerset's people. But there is only so much that we could do as volunteers and campaigners, relying on self-funding and donations.

Perhaps it will only be when the millions of pounds of public money that will inevitably be wasted, and the failure to improve council services, that the people of Somerset who did not care, might wake up and realise that they have been robbed.

The Same Old Story - Westminster Treats Somerset Like A Distant Province

Once again, it is a case of Lib Dems, Labour, Green or Tory, and the same old story.

Westminster does not care about Somerset, or its people.

Is it too late to care? Time will tell. 

I thank those people who contacted Somerset Independents for help, and those who helped us in our campaigns.

But this is no April Fool's joke. The robbery of democracy is deadly serious. And the people of Somerset will suffer, and pay for it with millions, if not billions of public money.