A premature announcement!

I must admit to considerable surprise at reading the Echo this morning which apparently followed a press conference at which the leaders of the Independent, Labour and Lib Dem parties announced their coalition agreement to include the new council leader and cabinet. Now call me old fashioned but this announcement should be made after full council has voted on the new leader and not before! The council is finely balanced and to deliver this result the coalition will need to ensure that all their members, to include those independents who we are constantly being told do not follow a party line, turn up and vote as instructed. In any event for parties who are always banging on about upholding the democratic process they seem quite happy to take it for granted on this occasion. I will comment on the members of their proposed cabinet and their groundbreaking “manifesto” shortly.