Oh Dear ...

I shouldn't need to of course, but it looks as though I am going to have to make it crystal clear for the benefit of anybody who starts getting any silly ideas about the content of my blog and any local activities I take part in.

The opinions and thoughts expressed in and published on this blog site are my own, personal opinions and thoughts and have nothing whatsoever to do with any organisation or body with which I may be involved or associated, neither do they seek to represent the opinion of any such organisation or body or its members.

There we go. Clear enough?

Bedford Needs a New Mayor

My somewhat scathing comments about the 2009 Mayoral By-Election and how it was torpedoed and then scuttled by a disgruntled "Conservative" Mayoral hopeful have been noted on both ConHome and this blog.

Whilst in certain circumstances I have to be nice to the person concerned for professional and non-partisan reasons, the truth of the matter is that I still blame her for Parvez losing the election, Bedford Conservatives ending up with egg all over their faces, the feeling of "why am I bothering" when I looked at the Times & Citizen that fateful morning and us ending up with the eejit who is now in control of Borough Hall. I'm reminded in many ways of Geoffrey Howe's resignation speech.

However, I am a firm believer in the old adage that everything happens for a reason. In that case, the reason being that everybody can now see what a complete waste of space the current Mayor is, and how lucky we are to have a professional businessman - not a professional politician and snake oil salesman - as our Conservative Candidate. I refer of course to none other than John Guthrie.

Since I first met John to talk about the Save Our Civic Campaign last year, I could not but be struck by his no nonsense, business-like attitude. At the end of the day, being in charge of a Unitary Authority is no different to being in charge of a multi-million pound business.

I say no different. There is one big difference. Those in charge of a Unitary Authority too often seem to be in it to get themselves re-elected. Performance and delivery don't matter so long as the spin doctors can get it sorted come election time.

Those in charge of a multi-million pound business are in it to generate value for their shareholders, a profitable return to ensure the future growth of the business but above all they realise that they are accountable and can be removed and replaced either by the Directors or the Shareholders having no confidence in them.

Sorry, can I make that two big differences. In the case of the Unitary Authority, the Shareholders are also the Customers. In business, the shareholders probably aren't the customers, but might be. And you can't always be guaranteed of a majority or three-line whip on the board of directors.

In business, you never take your customers, or your board of directors for granted. You don't treat them like fools. You don't feed them spin because somewhere down the line, it'll come back to bite you.

Like going on the radio and saying that you've got to make £24 million of savings in your time of office but then committing yourself to spending

• £50,000 on choosing a "preferred developer" for the Riverside North Development without consulting the Full Council
• An undisclosed sum on demolishing the Town Hall building, without consulting the Full Council
• Another undisclosed sum on destroying the Civic Theatre and converting it into a "one-stop-shop" without consulting the Full Council
• £563,000 on a hair-brained scheme for installing Archimedes' Screws in the River Ouse to generate power - again without consulting the Full Council
  

What sensible businessman does that?