Sense at last from Biker Blears

DIMINUTIVE motorbike enthusiast Hazel Blears, who's day job is to be in charge of the Department for Communities and Local Government, harmly squashed the barmy notion of giving a "parachute payment" worth thousands of pounds for councillors who are voted out of office.

The handout would have been an integral part of a package of improved pay and perks recommended by an independent Councillors Commission, established to look for ways to encourage more people to participate in local democracy.

The Councillors Commission said the redundancy-style payments, linked to length of service, could soften the blow for town hall chiefs ejected from posts which are worth up to £60,000 a year for some of the leaders of the country's biggest councils.

But knowing the mechanics of local government as I do, a councillor defeated in one ward pops up in another one set aside for him/her by the party machine, and jumps on the gravy train once.

Why should that person get a handout for being defeated when he/she is able to start all over again.

I'm all for allowing councillors to pay into a pension which they can claim when they give up public life. But there should be no reason at all for council taxpayers to pay redundancy money.

Biker Blears, having seen the unfavourable headlines in yesterday's Sunday papers when the idea was leaked or floated to gauge public opinion, today poured cold water on the whole idea.

"Many of the best councillors tell me that serving the public is a privilege rather than a profession. For that reason, we are not convinced by the recommendations which cover the use of parachute payments or extended benefits and pension schemes."

Good for Biker. And for her support for a type of ethnic cleansing which would replace white middle class men with more diverse representatives. "There still far too few councillors that are women, young, disabled or from an ethnic minority," she said. "I will look carefully at the recommendations for all political parties to do better, and the role that the Equality and Human Rights Commission can play."