Ho, ho, ho, the Jolly Richard

flies over Bournemouth

Tomorrow sees the start of the Local Government Association annual conference - a three day knees up at Bournemouth International Centre where the great and the good from town halls across the country have a high old time under the guise of doing business.
The event concludes on Thursday with an exhausting gala awards dinner hosted by BBC hack Jeremy Vine, at which everyone will slap everyone else on the back for being such good eggs.
Certainly it’s an event where places are highly prized and hard to come by, which leads us to an e-mail which arrived at Boston Eye the other day.

“Did you hear about the council leader who offered the main opposition party leader a freebie, viz: an expenses paid attendance at the Local Government Association annual conference at Bournemouth - along with all the attendant corporate hospitality.
“Oh, and in the same conversation the council leader raised the possibility of the future avoidance by the opposition of call-ins of cabinet decisions.
“I am not suggesting any connection, although the more cynical amongst us could possibly fall into that trap.
“Upon a considered refusal of his offer, in all parts, the council leader offered this freebie to the next biggest political group on the council, which he had worked out to be his own party members who were not in the cabinet!
“And guess what? The winner of a ballot amongst this 'group' for this freebie to accompany the leader to Bournemouth, so I am informed, was the leader's wife.
Ain't life wonderful/incredible.”

We’ve heard this tale from several sources, and would be interested to know how the mathematics work.
The present political composition of the council is:- 18 Boston Bypass Independents, 7 Conservatives, 4 Better Boston and 3 Independent members ... but using the Austin Algorithm* which divides the BBI into two groups, then the pecking order by size is apparently:
The Cabinet (8)
The BBI backbenchers (10)
The Conservatives (7)
The BBG (4)
The Independents (3)
Using the same argument that Councillor Austin contrived which lets his wife accompany him to Bournemouth ought to mean that the decision to offer places at the LGA should not to have been taken by him, but by the BBI rump.
And how convenient that of all the choices open to the BBI backbenchers, they should - knowing that Councillor Austin was attending as leader - go on to nominate his wife to accompany him.
Not for the first time, they are collaborating in abuse of the system and should hang their heads in shame.
Although Thursday night is the LGA gala awards dinner night, we feel sure that knowing winks will be directed at Councillor and Mrs Austin if they are attending Wednesday’s event at the LG Group Stand in the Bourne Lounge. The event is billed as a “Smoothie Reception !”

You can write to us at boston.eye@googlemail.com  Your e-mails will be treated in confidence and published anonymously if requested.

* Austin Algorithm - a personal formula in which the answer always turns out to be what the person asking the question wants it to be. Also known as the Mequation.