I’ve only been in the job 3 days and already I'm ankle deep in corruption.
There are 16 Councillors, any of whom can be nominated for Mayor (but I only forced them to tell me that this morning). The old guard think their mate Labour’s Eddie Clark should get it. Since 9 of us are new, they have rushed through the ‘MayorMaking’ for this Saturday, hoping to bamboozle us. So far, so rotten.
But I think they’ve now strayed into the illegal. See this letter from the Town Clerk which arrived this afternoon:
Note, eg, #9: “The Mayor Hunt will announce that Eddie Clark has been duly elected as Mayor” or #19: “The Mayor Eddie Clark will then announce” etc etc.
Not only is this letter trying to con new Cllrs into thinking the election for Mayor has already been decided when it hasn't, worse - it constitutes naked propaganda on Mr Clark’s behalf. If Clark is elected he receives £5,000 out of council taxpayers’ money. And a £30k+ public employee has sent out misleading propaganda – paid for out of public funds – to help him get that £5,000.
