So much damage, done by so a few, for so little

Politics is a dirty business, never more so than when elections are looming and spaces at the trough are up for grabs. So it is worth bearing this in mind when you read about the ongoing omnishambles that is the council tax freeze.

The decison to freeze council tax may have seemed to some of the Lib Dems and part of the Tory group to be a good idea. It surely must help with doorstep persuasions come voting time, you can hear them say. But it looks like the ‘cunning’ plan has backfired.

First up we have the Lib Dems, who I suspect never thought their back of a fag packet figures would be approved, but would give them their default opposing position. Evidenced by the fact that no-one really seemed to know, or care, how the numbers would add up.

The Tory plan was so poor it never even saw the light of day, and both were roundly rejected by the expert officer at the council.

So what to do, well in a clever bit of manouvering the Tories jumped on the Lib Dem bandwagon, giving them the chance to say, look everyone, we secured a freeze. While also giving them the chance to back away and say, look it’s all their fault, when it goes wrong.

The only problem with these school playground tactics is that jobs, businesses, libraries, childrens services and more now seem to be very much at risk. All just to satisfy the self-interest of a shoddy shallow few.

So what do we, the public, do. Is it to much to demand that decisions are made for the common good, not for political gain? Maybe we should treat them as their own staff at Cornwall Council do, with barely veiled contempt and supressed fury, I am reliably informed.