The Delusional Mrs Hudson

So another interesting week at the coal face comes to an end. So what shall I talk about this time, the budget at Mendip District Council, the budget at Somerset County Council, the planned increase of EU contributions or the delusional Mrs Hudson, mmmmmmmmm how about all four? Well OK then!

Wednesday evening saw the annual meeting to set the MDC budget for the coming year. Several members arrived late due to the overrun of the County Council budget meeting during the day, however we got underway eventually, and for a while all seemed fine.

We were told that the Lib Dem group would support our budget, their leader, the delusional Mrs Hudson, said before the meeting that they did not intend to oppose the detailed, comprehensive and finely balanced budget that had taken over twelve months and hundreds of hours to fine tune. A budget that had to take into account the 14.19% cut in government grant, zero rise in council tax and 4% inflation. A budget despite all this, that fits the corporate priorities going forward, does not involve plunging the organisation into chaos or debt, and fully meets all the challenges it faces.

This show of unity did not last long. As is the norm, the financially illiterate Lib Dem spokesman for finance then tried to play politics with the proposal, using his own unique style of rambling and mumbling, without ever once getting to grips with reality.

His delusional leader couldn't keep a straight face; she spent the entire time trying to keep herself from collapsing into hysterics at the sheer futility of it. Then like a stage illusionist he produced the Lib Dem "alternative budget" like a rabbit out of a hat, we held or breath, could this be after eight years, a viable alternative for once, after eight years where the Lib Dems have produced nothing worth noting, they have they finally got to grips with the issues and come up with a choice for the electorate. But sadly dear reader the answer is no, all we got was an amateurish revenue and cost statement on one side of A4, supposedly the blueprint for a business with a budget of over £13 million, what a shambles!

So the Conservative budget was passed, sound financial management during the past year means that we even found a little extra for the voluntary sector bodies like CAB who provide such valuable services within the district. Tough choices had to be made, and we were not able to support everything that we have supported in the past, but in the end I think we have made a very good job of a very difficult position.

The budget at the County Council has also been approved, the county if anything had a more difficult task in front of them than we did, having to cope with huge cuts in government grant, frozen council tax, inflation and a huge debt mountain. I am so relieved that Mendip does not have to face debt repayments on top of everything else. Again tough choices had to be made, any loss of service will be sorely missed by those affected, but we have to learn to live within our means, and nobody ever said that these cuts would not be noticed. Just as an aside, did you know that the £1.1 million saved by the changes made to the library service, will only pay for one week of the county's Lib Dem debt repayment. Scary isn't it?

At the end of Wednesday's council meeting, I proposed a motion that the council should demand that both of our MP's should fight against any increase in this year’s contribution to the EU. The motion that was seconded by Jim Baron of Glastonbury highlighted the fact that the government is planning to increase our EU contribution by 2.9% this year at the same time as cutting the grant to local authorities. We are seeking to redress the balance in this situation and believe that the EU contribution should be frozen at least, and cut ideally, in line with all other government department spending commitments. We expect our MP's to act on this motion and fight to ensure the views of their local elected representatives are represented at the highest level.

The motion was carried, with all Conservative members voting in favour, what was noticeable and entirely predictable was the fact that all of the Lib Dems voted in favour of INCREASING our contributions to Europe in a time of austerity, talk of being out of touch!

Finally more good news on the blog front. After finding out that our local rabble rouser is a regular reader last week, it appears his leader has also joined our ranks. True to form the delusional Mrs Hudson has written her tale of woe to the local press, slagging me off as usual and trying to pretend that all is well within her ranks.

Well rather like the wife of a man who is having an affair behind her back is always the last to know, the leader of a group that is falling apart around her ears is similarly ill informed.

If she were to talk to her back benchers, she will find a very unhappy crew, two have jumped ship already citing irrevocable differences, the body language on Wednesday night spoke volumes. Much shaking of heads from the once loyal troops when the front bench were speaking, once again reduced to the bare bones in numbers when the Street contingent left without even saying good night, the front bench look more isolated by the day. On top of that it looked for a while that we were going to get a full scale domestic in the council chamber when the acting chairman (her husband) told her to stop interrupting on a couple of occasions. If only looks could kill!!! I bet he wishes he had that amount of control all the time, oh to be a fly on the wall when they got home!

Her letter praises the efforts of her mudslinging Shepton Mallet councillor during the Library debate. I suggest she asks the decision makers how much impact his photo calls and film creation efforts made in forming their opinions. I have asked, and I know the answer. He has a great ability to jump on other peoples bandwagons,  he hi-jacked the library public meeting in Shepton that was organised by the Town Council for his own political ends, he had nothing to do with the organisation of it, he had nothing to do with any formal representations to the County Council, and his film came out after the decision had been taken. My comment that he sits on the sidelines and throws rocks is entirely accurate. I see now he has to pass on idle tittle tattle about the market to the local paper as hot off the press news, things must be really desperate.

Kennedy had an ample opportunity to make a contribution to the budget process on Wednesday night, either in support or with a thoughtful alternative. Yet again he had absolutely nothing to offer, not one word was uttered on the subject. He is like the playground bully, very brave when hiding behind his mates, or in his case behind his American website, but frightened to death when it comes to the crunch. Perhaps he agrees with Abraham Lincoln who once said, "It is better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt".

In fact the only thing he said all evening was that we should look at increasing member allowances in the future. True to Lib Dem philosophy, spending more of tax payers’ money is the only thought process.