Something happened while I was reporting live from last month’ budget meeting at Full Council that I felt uneasy about. I’d be interested to hear how you feel about it too.
During the period of public questions (a strictly-timed fifteen minutes for the public to ask questions), Dona Ratcliff, only declaring herself as a resident from East Cowes, asked …
“Buck this trend”
“As a Governor of local primary schools, especially one responsible for several children in local authority care, I have noted the concerns expressed Nationally about the increasing number of looked after children in council care. This places, of course, considerable pressure on Social Services, the courts, paediatric care and, of course, on schools – not to mention the impact on the children themselves.
“It would appear that the Isle of Wight council is managing to buck this trend and I’d be interested, Councillor Cousins, to know how this is being achieved.”
Sounds reasonable, what’s the problem?
This, at face value, might sound like a reasonable question – so why the concern?
Dona Ratcliff, or to use her full name, Donaleen Ratcliff is Chair of the Isle of Wight Conservative Association, so clearly someone with an interest in providing an opportunity for the Conservative Cabinet member Cllr Dawn Cousins to talk for a few minutes, detailing quite how well it’s all been going under her party’s watch.
Well known, but apparently no recognition
Surprised at hearing her highly-recognisable name, I looked around the Conservative side of the council chamber and didn’t see a single flicker of recognition from any of the elected members on that side. Strange I thought, given Dona’s evident high profile in Conservative world on the Island.
It struck me that if the Chair of the Island’s Conservative Association had asked a question in your chamber, it would be likely that there’d be some recognition that someone that must be well-known to every person closely involved with the Conservative Party on the Island was in the chamber asking a question.
A coincidence of phraseology?
It’s only with a little research after the event that we found that Dona’s closing words are close to the exact wording used in a council press release put out a month ago on this exact subject.
It starts, “The Isle of Wight Council is bucking national trends by reducing the number of looked after children on the Island and the number of children on child protection plans.”
What a coincidence.
Head of Legal says …
We contacted the Head of Legal at the council, Davina Fiore, to ask if she felt there was any problem with Dona’s intimate connection to the majority party not being disclosed while asking a question that, in short, delivered a positive political message. I added that I felt the chamber/public were being manipulated.
The reply pointed me to procedure Rule 8 and in summary said some people give their group affiliations, but there is no obligation on a questioner to declare interests and as long as the information given in the question/answer was correct or misleading, it was OK.
The local election campaign starts here
It might be not strictly be against the rules, but to me it does feel manipulative and frankly underhand.
You would hope a level of openness would be dictate that if you are seeking to give a platform to glorify the party you’re actively-promoting, you’d also make the public aware that you have a vested interest.
With the run-up to the 2013 local election apparently underway, we wonder if we’ll see a rash of planted questions being put in the council chamber, giving the ruling group an opportunity to tell us all how well they’ve been doing.
The Full council meeting tomorrow night will reveal all.
Image: lisa_h under a CC BY-SA 2.0 license
