The media traditionally takes an interest in who is running the country during the peak holiday weeks of late July and early August. They try to come up with the most “provocative” name to attach this responsibility to. Was it Gordon Brown running the United Kingdomfrom a holiday location in Scotland? Could it have been Harriet Harman who it was thought would take on the role from 2nd August? Apparently not as her office said that she was on leave from 5th August.
The big question was once around whether John Prescott would be taking his turn to run our country. Now the focus is on Lord Mandelson. Apparently a Downing Streetspokesman said he would be taking over on 6th August. This was despite Lord Mandelson still being inCorfu on that date. There was always something implausible about the idea of him being in control while on holiday on a Greek island. A furtherDowning Street statement indicated that Gordon Brown did indeed remain in charge.
We are an important country with more than 60 million citizens and even in the last week of July and the first week of August, many important events can occur. It would have been helpful to have had less confusion and greater clarity from the top echelons of our national government. How embarrassing would it have been if two politicians had taken different decisions on the same issue in response to different people? Perhaps this actually happened but would we ever know if it did?
At our more down-to-earth local level, Councillor Duncan Crow last week took over from me, fulfilling his role as Deputy Leader of Crawley Council. That included the writing of this very column. I did not run anything much at all as I was in a tent near Hadrian’s Wall – closer thanCorfubut with some limitations if you try and do too much. In any case, a fundamental facet of leadership is the ability to delegate appropriately.
Our local decision-making operates at four broad levels in ascending order – officer, cabinet member, cabinet and Full Council. It is all very well defined so that responsibilities are clear but as with other organisations, we manage to create from this a voluminous constitution. At one extreme a constitution can confuse its authors and the people who it is intended to serve. If compiled and used correctly, a constitution can aid transparent decision-making and delegation and I believe that the Crawley Council document achieves that.
Councillor Bob Lanzer, Leader of Crawley Borough Council
12th August 2009