Half Time

We have just passed Leeds City Council's £506 million budget by 6 votes. I have got bored and slipped away to catch up on some email upstairs in a Civic Hall office. Despite being over 2.5 hours long only a handful of the 99 City Councillors are allowed to speak in the budget debate and all of them front benchers. While this makes it one of the premier events in the political calendar in debating terms it does make you feel like lobby fodder. The chamber began to empty after the vote and a wave of backbenchers began making "in all but name" budget speeches on the finance minutes. I suppose if I were being consistant I'd have staid and made my undelivered speech but I guesstimate that it will be guilotined before they'd reach me on the order paper.

I will do a more considered and detailed post about this tommorrow but at half time I have just one thought. The whole debate today has been on the Labour opposition amendment which would have reallocated £3.1m but left our Council tax change at 4.&% increase. That's just 0.6% of the total budget. I first heard Brian Walker the then Labour Leader of the Council make this point 8 years ago at my first budget debate in answer to Conservative and Lib Dem baying. I couldn't help but smile when I heard the Conservative Leader of Council make the same point today to Labour opposition baying. I never thought I'd say it but Brian walker was right.