Can it really be true that the services councils provide - from education to refuse
collection - are three times more important to men than to women and more than ten times
less important to ethnic minorities than to Anglo-Saxons? Difficult to credit, isn't
it? But that's the message from a recent survey which showed that almost three times
as many men as women are councillors and that 97 per cent of all councillors are white. However,
while I dislike positive discrimination as an insult to the abilities of those it seeks to
promote, I don't think we can ignore this imbalance. Indeed, it should be seen
as part of a wider debate about public involvement in the political process.
Conservatives try to take a common sense view of this problem: it would be arrogant for
us as politicians to think that people have the time or the inclination to follow every
issue raised by every service delivered by their local council. In fact, one of the
reasons people elect us (or not!) is to take decisions on their behalf. But if
we're wary of forcing politics down the public's throat, we are also concerned that the
popular feeling of isolation from decision-makers has gone too far.
So there are two questions I would like to pose. First, how much can people be
expected to follow what their council does on their behalf (and for that matter, how far
can they expect us to take decisions on their behalf?)
Second, and of more immediate relevance to KREC, how can we ensure that the communities
we represent are adequately reflected by the make-up of the council? Here is
not the place to tackle the first question, but from over twenty years experience on
Kingston Council, I think I can contribute to the second.
In all that time, there has rarely been a flood of people coming forward to stand for
election to the council - be they men, women, Anglo-Saxon or from the ethnic communities.
For some it may not be "cool", and for others the time demands are just
too great. And I don't believe for one moment that white men are so much more likely
to dismiss these obstacles, rather, we are historically used to associating and
identifying with the functions that our council performs. The challenge now - and
this is why KREC is so important - is to ensure that other sections of the community also
come to see that the way in which our schools are run and the efficiency of the
unglamorous but necessary refuse collection service (to name but two council services)
belong and respond to everyone just as much as they do to white Anglo-Saxon men.
In short the council exists for all. But whether it is a mirror image of society
as a whole, or monopolised by just one section of it, depends on you the public.
David Edwards, Leader of the Conservative Group.
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