onionbagblog

And so on the very same day that David Cameron announced the national leg of #lambethcoop up in Liverpool, back in South London and the fine standing citizen’s that have been invited to sit on the #lambethcoop Citizen’s Commission have finally been announced.

Cripes.

It’s only taken two months (and two meetings) of the Citizen’s Commission before @cllrstevereed, Councillor Meldrum and Councillor McGlone finally realised that three @LambethLabour politicians doesn’t exactly paint a picture of active citizen participation.

Better late than never.

But wait - what’s this?

“Independent experts and residents who will join Lambeth’s Co-op Commission.”

Lambeth’s Co-op Commission? What is this claptrap of a quango that you speak of? Tell me more about the citizens that are going to be sitting on the Citizen’s Commission please.

Ah, I see. Much like the whole PR farce that is #lambethcoop, the Citizen’s Commission has been re-branded. Two months in existence, and two meetings featuring the three highest-ranking members of the @LambethLabour cabinet - I’m surprised that it lasted this long to be honest.

Farewell #lambethcoop Citizen’s Commission, say hello to the Lambeth Co-op Commission. Welcome to the new boss, same as the old boss, etc.

Sort of.

As first announced around these parts last week, the fragrant Polly of Toynbee, Stephen Bubb and Mathew Taylor have all accepted the cosy little number to represent the citizens of Lambeth:

“Local residents and leading experts from the fields of social policy, health, the arts, business, and the voluntary and charitable sector have been recruited to help Lambeth Council develop its pioneering ‘Co-operative Council’ approach.

They include journalist and commentator Polly Toynbee, Lord Victor Adebowale, Chief Executive of the charity Turning Point, Matthew Taylor, Chief Executive of the Royal Society of Arts, Srabani Sen, Chief Executive of Contact a Family, Martin Green, Chief Executive of the English Community Care Association, Stephen Bubb, Chief Executive of the Association of Chief Executives of Voluntary Organisations, Allison Ogden-Newton, Chief Executive of Social Enterprise London, and Richard Bridge.”

It’s an impressive array of Third Way [urgh] free marketers that have been assembled to divvy up local authority services to the private sector. Great timing as well, what with the doors of the Citizen’s Commission Co-op Commission finally being open to the Little People for a Q and A session next week.

But what’s with the non-residents? What’s with the non-citizens? What’s with the fancy titles that look like they have been put together on the back of a fag packet? The roll call of the great and good of the civic society reads pretty much like a Cif commissioning editor’s literary wet dream.

The Citizen’s prefix may have been lost from the whole farce, but the role of the Co-op Commission remains the same - how best to lose all accountability and responsibility on behalf of local politicians, and yet still try and sell the idea to the Little People.

It’s like local government policy being carried by a late night themed debate put together by the Culture Show. Who the chuffers is accountable? What do these grand names actually know of life in Lambeth? And why have we still got zero citizen representation sitting at the top table?

All of these are questions that I really need to put to, Julian Ellerby, the Lambeth Head of Communications, next time I see him. I will now be perhaps more weary of the civil servant’s apolitical position in trying to hoodwink #lambethcoop on to local people, given that Julian’s previous job was that of Deputy Director of the Labour Party.

But anyway - enough of the great big holes still surrounding #lambethcoop: what of the real substance and how the policy will actually help to improve matters on the ground around my #hyperlocal patch of South London?

“It is where people, in their everyday lives, in their homes, in their neighbourhoods, in their workplace, don’t always turn to officials, local authorities or central government for answers to the problems they face. But instead feel both free and powerful enough to help themselves and their own communities.

It’s about people setting up great new schools. Businesses helping people getting trained for work. Charities working to rehabilitate offenders. New powers for local communities to take over the running of parks, libraries and post offices. More powers to plan the look, size, shape and feel of housing developments. Powers to generate their own energy and have beat meetings to hold police to account.

Blimey.

Bring it on, I say.

Whoops.

Clowns to the Left of me, jokers to the Right. Ah, but which is which? There’s some good one-liners coming out of the #lambethcoop crap in recent days. It is worrying times indeed when your Labour run local authority is trying to steal the Tory plans to pass the buck for financial management.