So, Labour have thrown the toys out of the pram in West Dunbartonshire. They claim they
did so as, and I quote Cllr Martin Rooney here, “It [was] clear that [they] do not have enough votes to get a budget through.”
A few things are wrong with that claim.
- The budget was not being discussed this evening, and they have not discussed any budget proposals with other Councillors, so they cannot possibly know that.
- They didn’t even lose all the votes tonight. Of the 11 non-procedural items on the agenda, 8 were agreed unanimously, 2 were won by the SNP and 1 was won by Labour. Out of 11 items, they got their way on 9 of them, but have still had a meltdown.
- Their resignation does not come on the back of losing every vote at Council, rather on the back of a woman being elected to the post of Provost for the first time. I suspect most of them are more upset that it was an SNP Councillor who was elected to the role rather than it being a woman, but it merits mention given some of the misogynistic language I’ve heard from some over my 27 years as a Councillor.
The role of Provost should be non-political, and while Labour have always used the role to aid their political administrations, SNP nominated Provosts of the past have not; the new Provost made a clear commitment to be fair and impartial as you would expect, and her chairing of the meeting suggests she will be just that; for example, the outgoing Labour Provost frequently refused calls from opposition Councillors for recesses, however Provost Murray Conaghan, starting as she means to continue, agreed to a Labour request for a recess to go over their political motions before coming back to move them.
The truth is, Labour in West Dunbartonshire have decided they are not up for running a minority administration, as that would mean having to compromise and make agreements with other Councillors to get things through.
My first term as a Councillor was in a minority administration, and we only had 9 of the 22 Councillors (Labour currently have 10, there are 7 SNP, 4 Independents and 1 WD Community Party).
How embarrassing. I feel for their newer, first term Councillors, who have clearly been dragged into this pathetic display of toddler temper tantrums.
Minority administrations are perfectly normal for Councils. Majority rule is unhealthy and leads to bad decisions, which we’ve already seen this term from Labour when they had 12 seats.
They are the largest party and have the political mandate and responsibility to govern.
They need to grow up and do their jobs, or resign from the Council and let the public elect adults to replace them.