Remember:
next leader
will have much
greater powers

Today’s noon deadline to hand in nomination papers for next month’s local elections means that there is now little time to wait before we learn who thinks they can solve Boston’s problems – the people who would like to represent us on Boston Borough Council for the coming four years.
How many will have another go?
Will there be many newcomers?
Thirty-two seats are up for grabs, and it is almost impossible to believe that the Boston Bypass Independents will repeat the freak result which saw them grab power in 2007.
But will the council revert to its historical status of no overall control - which it maintained from local government reorganisation in 1973 to the BBI’s freak win four years ago?
One thing that we do know, though, is that the new-look Boston Borough Council will have a changed power structure.
After the introduction of new laws on how local government should be run, councillors rejected the idea of an elected Mayor for the borough which – although we supported it – would have caused quite a few problems with finding a suitable candidate … although no shortage of people who felt they could do the job, we are sure.
Instead, they opted for a leader and cabinet arrangement – similar to the one already in operation, but with the leader appointed for four years rather than one.
The leader will set the size of the cabinet (at least two and up to nine councillors); appoint, remove and replace members; allocate portfolios or areas of responsibility to cabinet members, and allocate decision-making powers to the cabinet and to individual cabinet members or officers.
All executive functions will rest with the leader, who will have complete discretion to allocate decision-making powers to the cabinet as a body or delegate decision-making to individual cabinet members or to officers.
Whilst it’s been described as “similar” to the present arrangement, in fact it gives the leader considerably greater powers which cease only if the leader dies in office or is disqualified, or removed by a resolution of council.
Baltasar Gracian, in The Art of Worldly Wisdom, proclaimed in 1647 that “The sole advantage of power is that you can do more good.”
Lord Acton, in his Letter to Bishop Mandell Creighton, exactly 440 years later, wrote “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”
Take your pick – they can’t both have been right.
Certainly we are sure that the current incumbent, Councillor Richard Austin, has high hopes of a second stint at the helm with even greater powers to wield.
Only last week he asked if it was possible to cut back on the scrutiny meetings which call to account the unilateral decisions imposed on the council by the cabinet.
Fortunately, Chief Executive Richard Harbord was there to disabuse him of such nonsense, with the news that scrutiny functions are not limited by councils as they are seen as a “democratic right.”
As a young council worker, Mr Harbord went armed with a pick axe handle when he accompanied the staff payroll delivery vehicle on a Friday.
A visit to B&Q in the not too distant future might be a good idea - as he may require a replacement in the not too distant future.
Wasn’t it Theodore Roosevelt who coined the slogan “speak softly and carry a big stick?”

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