Talk about all change.

Hague resigns as leader of the Conservative Party and the Prime Minister has a complete change of government faces - not that I came to grips with most of them anyway.

The good thing is that the general election is no longer making the headlines, although the Conservative Party is still looking for a leader. Foot and Mouth is still with us and farmers really are not doing as well as they should be. Square water melons are all the rage and organic food my not be as organic as you think it should be. The Irish have only just realised what we all know about Europe and voted against the government. Don’t worry though, the question will be re-phrased next year to provide the right answer.

In the local press this week, it reports that our Borough Council has decided to actually start paying ‘the rate for the job’.

Now I know most of you may not agree, but I believe the figures are actually on the low side. When I was on the Council, I used to spend the equal of between 3 or 4 days on Council business each week. This would equate to an average of about 30 hours a week and I was only representing my ward, without any chairmanships or other ‘special responsibilities’ (whatever they are) for most of my term. The wisdom is that half the time is voluntary (i.e.. unpaid) and rest at £12 per hour. In my book that comes to £9360 per annum and the recommendation is just over £4000.

With democracy now gone out of the window, the electorate are entitled to expect a better quality of decision making reflecting the views of local opinion, but I suspect that the ‘party system’ will ensure that life carries on much as before but without fear of ‘back room decisions’ being overturned.

On the other hand, you can’t really blame our local Councillors as they are only doing the bidding of the national government, although they did have an opportunity to influence the Local Government Act, I bet it suited most to just go along with it.