Guest blog: Liam Fogarty on his campaign for an elected mayor for Liverpool
The Mayor for Liverpool campaign has been spearheaded by former BBC journalist Liam Fogarty, who has so far failed to gather enough support to force a referendum.
Here he guest blogs for Dale Street Blues:
David Cameron wants Liverpool and 11 other cities to have London-style elected Mayors.
He wants accountable, high-profile people with real power leading our cities.
The Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg likes the idea, too ( Go on Nick, make that 'phone call to Liverpool Direct, and ask for the Leader's office...)
Meanwhile the current Government is making it easier for campaigns like ours - amayorforliverpool.org - get trigger a local referendum on the issue.
We should soon be able to gather petition names online. So far our efforts to get the required number of Liverpudlians to sign up have, I admit, stalled of late.
That's what happens when you try to energise bored, confused or alienated citizens. And no-one wants to hear a civics lesson when there's a giant spider on the streets and a Beatle on the roof.
But the fireworks and the smoke-machines didn't resolve fundamental issues of how we turn round the country's worst-rated Council, and raise the nation's lowest election turnouts. Liverpool's dysfunctional political culture of finger-pointing, blame-dodging and in-fighting remains depressingly intact.
David Cameron's plans for local government bear the fingerprints of the last prominent Tory to take a direct interest in Liverpool's fate. Michael Heseltine told his party leader it's time cities like Liverpool had creative, accountable and dynamic civic leadership with someone in charge, not just in office. Maybe he should run himself. It wouldn't be the first time a blonde from Henley-on-Thames ran for Mayor. Visit amayorforliverpool.org to find out more about our campaign.
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David Bartlett
City editor of the Post and Echo covering politics, regeneration, and urban affairs.
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Is this a new campaign for a "Mayor for Liverpool 2020" because at the pace its been going Liam it will be that date before it gathers any momentum
When will Liam Fogarty stop flogging a dead horse?
It is now 7 years since the first Mayoral elections and the evidence is there that they do not work. Of the 12 places to have a mayor 2 of them appear on the list of the worst 5 councils in England (no Liverpool is NOT one of the other three). In Stoke they have abolished the mayoralty after a referendum and the post disappears next month. In Doncaster moves are in hand to do the same after the mayor lost a vote of no confidence by 47-6 but decided to cling to office. If the rate of failing councils were the same for all councils as mayoral ones there would be 38 councils suffering from government intervention.
Of the other 10 there have been improvements in all of them but only at the same rate of improvement as measured by the independent Audit Commission as in other similar councils. The evidence is there that Mayors are more likely to make things worse than improve things.
Lastly neither Nick Clegg nor the Lib Dems as a whole are in favour of elected mayors. A policy review last year carried out at NickâÂÂs request does not include them and they will not be in the next general election manifesto. Nowhere have the Lib Dems campaigned "yes" in a referendum. Even in Watford where we took the subsequent mayoral election we campaigned against the creation of the position.
The facts in Liverpool are simple. Liam has been campaigning on this issue for so long that it would only have needed 10 signatures a day to force a referendum. Either Liam and his supporters are too idle to get the numbers or there is a massive lack of public interest.
Putting so much power into one pair of hands is a recipe for malpractice as is borne out by experience worldwide wherever elected mayors are the norm. Enter the words âÂÂcorruption elected mayorâ in Google. 1,450,000 results come up within 1 second. IâÂÂll concede some references are about incoming elected mayors pledging to root out the corruption of their preceding elected mayor. You will find a lot of evidence that corruption amongst elected mayors is not a recent phenomenon but almost a venerable historical tradition in some countries. This esopecially includes the USA, supposedly the shining exemplar which inspired our GovernmentâÂÂs push for elected mayors. The difference between here and the USA is that they have a system with deeper rooted democratic accountability and a Freedom of Information Act which usually provides meaningful information - unlike our much weaker version. No wonder elected mayors appeal so much to those arch centralisers in New Labour and the Tories. Hands up all those who actually believe any meaningful additional powers will be devolved to these "new" elected mayors from Whitehall...
Good to see Foghorn Leggarty back and in fighting spirit again. What better chance to promote the campaign for an Elected Mayor than being about to get Storey donning the chain of office and a Popcorn Hat. Just ignore Councillor Crump and his "flooging a dead horse" comments, he hasn't given up wearing a dead gerbil on his lip. So you carry on Fog. But if you let Redmond in, I'll have you back on the BBC in a Mr Blobby costume with Edmonds.
I blogged about this yesterday. I think the bottom line for me is that if David Cameron and the Tories think it is a good idea for Liverpool, then we should be very wary indeed. He just wants to find a way to run more northern cities, to make up for the gaps in his power base. It has been a very long time since Tories ran Liverpool and I cannot help but think that Mrs T ensured it will never happen again. But perhaps he thinks he could sneak a major victory in a good year. Personally, I am not in favour of putting so much power into the hands of one person.
Whilst the Conservatives are entitled to produce policy discussion papers, I feel it a little premature to comment on hypothetical circumstances. The Liberal Democrats in Liverpool have always been opposed to Elected Mayors as it further removes the ability of all communities in the city to have representation through the democratic process. It also imposes another tier of bureaucracy on the people of the city, a tier which could well be without recourse.
The Mayor of London cannot be compared to Mayors in the Core Cities, as the areas of responsibility differ remarkably and legislation would have to be changed to accomodate such a governance model.
For example, the Mayor of London is responsible for transport, the Mayor of Liverpool cannot be solely responsible for transport as it covers the City Region, and its responsibiltiy lies there. This is a small example but highlights the logistical problems with a hypothetical policy paper.
I would be interested in taking part in a full and frank debate with the Conservatives on this issue.
At long last, a tiny bit of grown up political debate on Dale Street Blues! All you have to do now is transfer this to the council chamber, and perhaps we might actually restore faith in politics in Liverpool. I won't hold my breath though...
Thank you Murray,it is nice to be appreciated. We have to keep the debate to a grown up level and I hope Mr Barclay and the Post will continue to delete the frivolous comments that often appear in these bogs sites
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