On the 24th of March,i had the qualified privilege of attending a Basingstoke Cabinet meeting and was very surprised with the reception,i got from the patrons.I might have been the only minority and only journo representing Winchester.The leader(chairman) of the cabinet asked me to sit where the press people are allocated and for that reason,i enjoyed the sovereignty of Britain.
The Agenda was purely based on the proposed facelifting of The Basingstoke Mall.On both sides of the committee suite i was flanked by cabinet members and two solicitors from legal and democratic services.I even got more excited when the leader told everyone that the deliberations would be going live on webcast,and could be accessed by members of the public on the internet.
The chairman,started by asking cabinet members whether there were any objections in regard with the budget of the facelifting of the Mall.However the 72page agenda was just too daunting to read through and because there were 'pink' areas(not accessable to press or the public),the meeting was adjoined.Hence,i was only there for 15minutes and never really got what i wanted.
Interesting though, were the reservations i made about the functions of a typical English Mayor.It was shocking to note that these so called Mayors are not on anyone's payroll.The only benefit is a brand new car to chauffeur himself around,petrol paid for and a credit card for his spouse to shop around for dear clothes.It's more of a ceremonial role than what those of us from Africa are accustomed to.One aspect i also found to be petrifying is the fact that a county mayor's office term only runs for 12 months.Apparently he/she is voted in by the councilors of that particular county.
So why bother to work for free anyway?
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That's right - the Mayor really replicates the Monarch in c onstitutional terms - it is an ancient role, with theoreticazl executive power, but there's a constitutional settlement that the Mayor is 'non-political' - they take it in turns - usually it is oldest or somehow mopst distinguished member of teh ruling political group, usually somebody who has no political ambitions.
Are you in South Africa right now. Can you write us an update on the election, so we can all read it over here.
Also please post the following links somewhere on your blog. It will help create greater visibility for the group as a whole.
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