To wonder if the majority of new councillors realise what they have signed up for?

[Bobbingtons]

After the local elections and the huge shift to reform I do wonder if the majority of newly elected counselors actually realise what they have signed up for.
Bring a counsellor is not an easy task and on average the commitment is around 22 hours a week. The job involves reading reports, helping constituents, sitting on committees and running a large complex organisation with hundreds of departments, it's not just a case of having a title, but having a whole extra job.
We saw in Kent when reform took over it fell into chaos and bickering. I know a number of reform candidates were experienced political operators, but with so many newly elected I do worry they haven't as actually considered what happens next and how much work is actually involved.
I'm highly politically motivated and have thought about standing in the past, but realised that the commitment is far too much for me to handle!

Why is it so hard for you to believe people are in the UK illegally. I'm a LL and people have applied to rent a house from me but had no share code so here illegally.

But if you are going to support hatred and threats to the UK political system from overseas donors you must expect adverse remarks.

Of course there are people here illegally! That is not my point, not all.

The point is that claiming asylum is not illegal.

And the only way to claim asylum in the UK is being on UK soil

What percentage of Nigerians living in the UK are here illegally?

It's not, it was meant to highlight the lack of diversity now amongst our council members and how their demographic does not reflect the community they will be serving.

I have no idea.

I have nothing against Nigerian people. I have an issue with all illegal immigrants who have no business being here.

And you include people going through the asylum process?

You said

"many of them are here illegally, obviously".

Now you say you don't know how many Nigerian people are here illegally. So you don't actually know whether it is many or few.

A lot of white, British born men are violent and rapey, too. It's a man thing. There are too many men who are too free with their fists and dicks and it's pointless pretending that it's a problem particular to immigrants.

I can open my local rag app on any day and be guaranteed to find one. I scrolled past stories about drunken louts and more general male violence before getting to this one, just now. All white faces.

And I wonder what David Barker had in mind for protecting women and children.

Reform councillor David Barker beat girlfriend https://share.google/q8E7Sf1cAHJFBYXAN

What about a possible AI councillor?

https://bsky.app/profile/andy-luke.bsky.social/post/3mll3ko6las24
Monday election update: 1 Reform councillor fired, 1 Reform councillor ran away, and 1 Reform councillor might not exist.

Waveney Valley's George Alexander Jonathan Boyd is an AI generated image. No A-V, no sightings, no trace except for agent's address.

Why aren't the news media all over this?

He's in this rather grainy pic, apparently
Cllr George Boyd leading the... - South Norfolk Reform UK | Facebook https://share.google/kyRfMOtcxVsO9UEFU

Ah, thanks, I guess he didn't like his photo

I worked in local govt for 10 years and spent about half of that working with councillors including managing an election. The big problem here is going to be where reform have gained control of a council. Normally, councils switch between one or two of the main parties who already have existing councillors, sit on committees and have an party structure to support new intakes. Because these don't exist for reform, there will be little to no experience of being part of the role either individually or as the administration in charge. Having run an election where we swapped our about a third of our existing councillors, I feel sorry for council officers who will be trying to keep the authority running, whilst getting a group of people with likely zero experience up to speed with a week before their first full council meeting. Add in the fact that some countries are being restructured and will have to hold elections again in 2027, this is very messy and stressful for staff.

Was it? Then how come a racist, an anti-Semite, a bigot, a woman beater and a phantom all managed to get through the process?

I think that any who rely heavily on soundbite talk will be in for a shock.
Public administration work will not respond to soundbite talk.
You have to actually do the doing of it. All of it.
They put themselves forward. People will expect results. And will not want to hear about there being no money. They will have to resolve any issues that prevail. People heard all that with Labour.

Very good post. It will be chaotic. And the council staff will bear the brunt.

@caringcarer how do you feel about people who have publically declared themselves as antisemites, Islamophobes, racists and supporters of bloody Hitler being allowed to stand for the party your husband is now representing? Some of them were elected.

Serious question.

ETA also illiterate in some cases, but that's minor.

This is what I’ve heard anecdotally about Lancashire - it’s just been a mess.

He is a Green Party councillor, joined the party when he was 14, got adopted by the Greens on the transport committee because he is a bus & train nerd, that's his first choice of his 3 for committees, his others are Planning because that is what he is studying at university & Social Care because he was a young carer.

I’ve met some excellent councillors from all parties and some shit ones from all parties. I wouldn’t assume that they will be awful or stupid just because you don’t share their politics. I worked in local government for a while and we had councillors who struggled to speak english and definitely couldn’t read it. All Labour councillors, I’m an ethnic minority and I found it ridiculous that people put themselves forward for roles they couldn’t possibly fulfil and the local party actually put them on the list, I wouldn’t be so quick to assume established councillors are any better than new ones or are particularly competent.

On the racism not, obviously all councillors who engage in that kind of thing should be withdrawn and be ejected from their parties. Believe the greens are having some of their councillors questioned by the police over anti-semitism, reform should face the same scrutiny as should the rest.

I’m not in principle against new people entering local politics - I am a default Labour voter but I lived in a long time Labour borough for long enough to recognise that having the same people in power for ages is not always good. It wasn’t a surprise to me that lots of London went Green because of this. I just hope the new people are good but not convinced they will be if reform really were cold calling people to stand 🤦🏻‍♀️

I don’t like Reform but I’ve rationalised to myself that a lot of the new councillors will essentially be Tories and that the scrutiny on them will hopefully put enough pressure on the party for them to actively take a stand against outright racism that is being unearthed (and same for antisemitism in the Greens, I won’t ignore that although not convinced it’s on the same scale) and then they might alienate the really unpleasant ones who can all go and follow restore and split the vote. Anyway that’s my wishful thinking.