The Joy of Six 1184

Armenia is facing its most precarious moment in three decades. The loss of Karabakh, a region with a centuries-old history of Armenian habitation and heritage, will reverberate for generations, says Thomas de Waal.

The two unitary authorities forged out of the wreckage of the bankrupt Northamptonshire County Council are run by many of the  Conservative politicians who did the wrecking, Now, reports Sarah Ward, those unitaries are in dispute about where the debts should land.

"Anyone working in journalism has received letters from people claiming to have evidence of a vast conspiracy against them, often handwritten in tiny scrawls over many pages. They are terribly sad, and they go straight into the bin. HarperCollins, receiving such a missive, instead decided to write the author a large cheque." Robert Hutton dissects The Plot by Nadine Dorries.

Thomas Pluck says goodbye to Shane MacGowan: "Shane also sang a duet with Sinéad O’Connor, a couple years after her protest of the Catholic church child sex abuse scandal made her persona non grata in the media. ... Shane was low in '95 as well, so it makes me smile that he worked with her when she was hated, and she lifted him up after he’d been kicked out of his band."

The Duke of Wellington reviews Napoleon.

"There are still a lot of strong feelings associated with crop circles. There are some people who believe none of them are hoaxes and all are caused by some supernatural, alien means. Other people are resolute that every single one of them across the world, with the majority popping up in Wiltshire, are human creations. And then, there are some people who have been researching the crop circle phenomena themselves for years, and they believe not all circles can be attributed to high jinks in the countryside." Weird Wiltshire looks at the crop circle action in the county this year.

North Northants Tories whipped to vote themselves a 10 per cent increase in allowances

Members of North Northants Council have voted for a 10 per cent increase in their basic allowance. Each of the authority's 78 councillors will now receive £14,000 per year, and some special allowances will increase by a greater percentage.

This has not gone down well with the staff of this Conservative-run authority. An anonymous employee told the Northamptonshire Telegraph:

"I haven't had what I would call a decent payrise in years. I'm not unique in this of course, many private sector people haven't too. That alone should make it clear that we are in the same boat. So to see our political leaders even having a debate about how much more money they should be getting at a full council meeting was, frankly, a kick in the stomach.

"Since we all joined up on first 1 April 2021 (trust me, many officers wish it was an April Fools joke too!), people have been jumping ship. They've had enough of the lack of support, lack of opportunities and the arrogance of, in particular, the executive, who are choosing vanity projects to get their faces in the press, over ensuring the council is supporting its communities and staff."

North Northamptonshire is one of two unitary authorities set up to replace the old county council, which effectively went bankrupt in 2018.

The same meeting voted to increase North Northamptonshire's number of councillors from 78 to 99.

Two contrasting by-election performances by the Liberal Democrats

Oundle

There were two local by-elections yesterday and they saw contrasting performances by the Liberal Democrat candidate.

In a Northamptonshire County Council contest in Oundle we moved from third to second place in what had previously been a safe Tory ward, increasing our vote from 10 to 35 per cent of the poll.

Oundle (Northamptonshire) result:

CON: 51.3% (-14.1)
LDEM: 35.1% (+24.6)
LAB: 11.1% (-12.9)
UKIP: 2.5% (+2.5)

Conservative HOLD.

— Britain Elects (@britainelects) February 22, 2019

We may have been helped by a story that broke in the Northamptonshire Telegraph in the week of the poll:

A district councillor who missed two thirds of meetings last year is standing for this Thursday’s Northamptonshire County Council by-election for Oundle. 

Conservative Annabel de Capell Brooke wants to be elected to the county to represent the Oundle ward despite only attending nine of the 24 meetings she should have gone to at East Northamptonshire Council in 2018.

The name de Capell Brooke will be familiar to anyone who has studied political history in this part of the world. They owned Brooke House in Market Harborough in the 19th century.

There seems to be a tendency among local Tories to fall back on their great families when they are short of candidates.

At the height of the Lib Dem ascendancy here in Market Harborough they put up two Hazleriggs from distant Noseley Hall.

Their ancestor Sir Arthur Haselrig was one of the five members whose arrest Charles I sought and would have taken the radical side in the contest.

The most significant story from Oundle may be the fall in the Labour vote.

Oundle, with its public school and fine stone buildings, does not feel like the kind of town that is ever going to elect a Labour councillor. But it does lie within the Corby constituency, which is a key Tory-Labour marginal.

At the last election the Tory majority was only 2690 and it is just the sort of seat they need to win to gain a majority next time round. Instead they are going backwards.

The second by-election was in Cardiff and saw the Lib Dem vote dropped to only 2.4 per cent.

Ely (Cardiff) result:

PC: 43.1% (+17.8)
LAB: 40.4% (-7.1)
CON: 14.1% (-2.4)
LDEM: 2.4% (-6.2)

Plaid Cymru GAIN from Labour.

— Britain Elects (@britainelects) February 21, 2019

The Ely ward has never been an area of strength for us, and the top Lib Dem candidate last year outpolled the other two by some way, so we may have lost a personal vote here.

Still, it was a poor result and reinforces the point I made yesterday in my Thought 2. 

We should not assume that The Independent Group will rush to do a deal with us that encompasses every seat in the council. They have little to fear from us in most of them.

Money found for repairs to Oundle's North Bridge

Northamptonshire has been subject to a Conservative double whammy of central government cuts and local mismanagement.

So it is a relief to hear that the Department of Transport has allocated £1.3m to repairing the North Bridge over the Nene at Oundle.

At present, I am told, the Corby bus tales passengers on "a crazy magical mystery bus tour" around the town, adding 20 minutes to the journey.

Should you find yourself at the North Bridge, I can recommend the Nene Valley Brewery and the Tap and Kitchen.

Market Harborough to Northampton bus service to be halved

By the time I had finished chasing rainbows at Great Oxendon yesterday, it was threatening to get dark. So I abandoned my plan to walk home and caught the bus instead.

Even before I checked the timetable, I knew there wouldn't be too long to wait. There are two buses an hour between Northampton and Market Harborough.

That is soon to change. 

A service update from Stagecoach says it has been through a 

process of reviewing its entire bus network across the Midlands. Over this period detailed analysis has taken place to review passenger numbers on each route and ways of tackling services which are not commercially viable.

And when you get to the detail, the update says:

On Mondays to Saturdays service X7 will run hourly between Leicester - Market Harborough - Brixworth - Northampton - Milton Keynes. 

Additional journeys will run between Leicester and Market Harborough & between Brixworth and Northampton to provide two buses an hour on these sections of route during most of the day. 

The X6 & X7 combine to provide two buses an hour between Northampton, Grange Park and Milton Keynes.

In other words, there will continue to be two buses an hour on the route except between Market Harborough and Northampton (or, more precisely, between Market Harborough and Brixworth).

This is a commercial decision by Stagecoach and there is, of course, no prospect of Northamptonshire County Council stepping in to maintain the service.

Six of the Best 829

"Brexit has been a sobering experience for believers in Britain's constitutional arrangements. While in principle we have parliamentary sovereignty, in practice we have an over-powerful executive." Alexandra Runswick on how 'the will of the people' shattered our constitution.

Sam Knight explains how the Conservatives bankrupted Northamptonshire: "The plan ... involved cutting the number of staff directly employed by the county from four thousand to a hundred and fifty. At the same time, officials set up a number of external companies to look after the county’s old people and neglected children. The companies would, in theory, turn a profit. The project cost millions of pounds and never got off the ground."

Wearing the poppy has always been a political act. Sam Edwards sets out its history.

"I had another reason to fear psychiatry; the usual alarmist warning to anyone who misbehaved in the 'fifties and 'sixties was, 'You’ll end up in Saint Nick's,' the bin on Great Yarmouth sea front. And an imposing place that was. My beloved grandma spent two nights there – but more of that later." Why Craig Newnes has written a book on electroconvulsive therapy.

We need to take action to stop Sheffield architecture being destroyed, says Owen Hatherley.

Graham Duff looks back over 45 years of Lindsay Anderson's brilliant film O Lucky Man!

Conservative-run Northamptonshire splashed out on luxuries as its finances collapsed

Rushton Hall

Sarah Ward reports in the Northamptonshire Telegraph:

Northamptonshire County Council spent huge sums on corporate hospitality, string quartets and lavish events as it was heading towards its financial crisis. 

During 2015 when the state of the finances was becoming increasingly serious, the authority paid for a number of luxuries including £2,700 on a heritage dinner at Rushton Hall, £3,624 on a flypast at the Grafton Underwood memorial event and £4,500 on a marquee for an occasion at Boughton House, Kettering. 

It also spent £80,000 with Northampton Saints rugby club, which included the cost of a stadium hospitality box. 

The payments were made through NCC-owned company NEA Properties, which an internal council investigation has found had ‘minimal’ governance and documentation.

She goes on to explain that the money came from the sale of property to the University of Northampton. The bulk of the proceeds was returned to the council, but £120,000 was retained by NEA Properties.

The report quotes the Liberal Democrat councillor Chris Stanbra:

"There is some serious explaining that needs to be done here.

"I knew the company existed but I made the assumption that it was managing the resources properly and that all funds were coming back to the county council. 

"I certainly didn’t think they were spending money on hospitality boxes and on fly pasts at Grafton Underwood. 

"The money should not have spent on these things and of course I expect that minutes of the company meetings would have been taken and properly documented. 

"It is public money at the end of the day and it is completely wrong."

Will Leicestershire County Council ever see its £5m again?

If you were making a list of the worst organisations to grant an unsecured loan, Northamptonshire County Council would be somewhere near the top.

But that is precisely what Leicestershire County Council did, loaning them £5m at an interest rate of 0.75 per cent.

As Bill Boulter, the doyen of Leicestershire Lib Dems, observed to the Leicester Mercury:

“There was enough indication that Northamptonshire was in financial trouble before that loan. 

“They were saying it themselves. Yet still we gave them the money. ... 

“The Tory run council in Leicestershire is planning to close children’s centres and make millions of pounds of cuts but we still have £5 million to loan to another struggling council.”

I am unable to confirm rumours that Leicestershire County Council has spent a further £5m on buying London Bridge and some magic beans.

Why Tory Northamptonshire has gone bust

Patrick Butler writes in the Guardian:

Northamptonshire county council’s catastrophic financial collapse, and the desperate measures it now proposes to balance the books, reflect management incompetence on a grand scale as well as the punishing effects of eight years of austerity cuts.

If you want a more detailed explanation, watch the video above. It emphasises that the Conservative mania for privatisation has also played its part.

Liberal Democrats call on the leadership of Northamptonshire County Council to resign

For the second time in a year, a section 114 notice has been issued by the chief financial officer of Northamptonshire County Council. It is a Conservatice-run authority led by Cllr Matt Golby.

As I explained when the first notice was issued in February, this is a measure the officer takes if a council has, or is likely to have, an unbalanced budget.

Commenting today the leader of the Liberal Democrat group on the council, Chris Stanbra said:

"Matt Golby now needs to consider his position, as do cabinet members Cllr Michael Clarke and Cllr Ian Morris. Cllr Golby was deputy leader before and has been in the cabinet for many years. Cllr Clarke and Cllr Morris were also in the cabinet and so would have been involved in making these decisions. 

“They need to seriously think about whether they should step down in light of the current situation the council is in. If they don’t, they need to be ready to explain why it is that they should stay, as they bear a responsibility in this."

The Labour chair of the council's scrutiny committee said much the same:

"Clearly Matt Golby was a leading part of the cabinet and knew what was going on. 

"Those responsible now need to be held accountable. In the opposition we knew there were huge financial problems but we did not know a lot of the detail as it was hidden from us."

According to another Northamptonshire Telegraph report, Mr Golby

said he was disappointed that opposition politicians had called for him to step down.

But he added magnanimously:

"I am OK with taking responsibility for my involvement in the past."

Every local authority is under dreadful financial pressure, but the problems in Northants are an order of magnitude greater than any that have been revealed elsewhere.

Why is this? Let me try a theory on you.

Northamptonshire is the heart of Conservative Brexit country. Just think of the MPs the party selects: Angela Leadsom, Chris Heaton Harris, Peter Bone, Philip Hollobone, Tom Pursglove...

I think it fair to say they are more remarkable for their ideology than their intellect.

Local Conservative branches used to be filled with people who know how many beans make five. I suspect that in Northamptonshire at least, they have been replaced by ideologues who would could not read a spreadsheet to save their lives.

And those are the people from whom Northamptonshire Conservatives choose their council candidates. Those are the people who get to make that choice.

Market Harborough's buses are under threat

Last month I reported that the 58 bus from Market Harborough to Lutterworth was to be withdrawn.

The good news is that the county council has stepped in and will support the service for another year, possibly with a different bus company running it.

But it may be best not to get too hopeful. Here is part of the announcement of the move on the county council website:

The replacement service will run until June 2019 as all existing subsidised bus services across the county have been extended to the date. This allow for the development and adoption of a new passenger transport policy. 

Cllr Pain added: “We are finding that we having to cover the costs of supporting commercial bus services more and more which is why it is important we have a new policy in place to help mitigate the impact.”

Meanwhile, people are collecting signatures to save the 33 bus, which is a Market Harborough town service, and also the 44, which runs from Fleckney via Harborough to Foxton. Tur Langton parish council is also worried about the future of this service.

And the 67 service from Haborough to Corby and Gretton has already gone - a victim of the extraordinary financial crisis at Conservative-run Northamptonshire County Council. There is currently talk of a vestigial service being financed by Corby council.

Meanwhile, national government talks of cutting carbon output and combating loneliness.

Ireland's libraries to open seven days a week till 10pm: In Northamptonshire 21 are being closed

Add mismanagement by its ruling Conservative group to the huge cuts made to local council funding by the Coalition and Conservative governments, and you have a crisis at Northamptonshire County Council.

One result of this is that the council is proposing to close 21 public libraries across the county.

Meanwhile in Ireland:

The public will be able to use most libraries seven days a week from between 8am and 10pm under new plans to double the number of visitors over the next five years. 

Nearly 200 of the State’s 330 public libraries will open for longer, while the public will be able to take and return books when the libraries are unmanned using scanners. 

The extended hours will give members more opportunities to study, use wifi, hold meetings and, in some cases, use libraries’ free "hot-desking" facilities to work remotely from offices.

It is hard to resist the conclusion that Britain is becoming a more backward country and that Brexit will make this process worse.

Commissioners and a police inquiry? Just another day in Northamptonshire politics

On Tuesday evening the Guardian reported that the government is going to send in commissioners to run Northamptonshire Country Council.

The Conservative-run authority issued a section 114 notice at the start of February. This imposed financial controls and banned expenditure on all services except those with statutory safeguarding obligations.

Northamptonshire was the first council to issue such a notice in two decades, but it won't be the last.

The Guardian says the National Audit Office has suggested that up to 15 other councils could follow suit in the next three years.

No doubt mismanagement by the Conservative cabinet played a part, but authorities are having to cope with a rising demand for social care and a 50 per cent cut in central government grants since the Coalition was formed in 2010.

Today came news that David Mackintosh, former Conservative MP for Northampton South and former leader of Northampton Borough Council, was interviewed by police under caution.

The inquiry concerns a £10m loan made by the council to Northampton Town Football Club. As the BBC report says, the funds have "seemingly vanished, leaving an unfinished stand".

There have also been questions about the funding of Mackintosh's campaign when he was elected to parliament at the 2015 general election.

He was obliged to stand down when in became clear that the members of his constituency party did not want him as their candidate in the 2017 election.

Northamptonshire's Conservative MPs turn on Northamptonshire's Conservative council

On Friday the Conservative-run Northamptonshire County Council brought in emergency controls on spending to avoid breaking the law by setting a budget where income does not cover expenditure.

Today the county's seven MPs - all of them Conservatives - issued a statement saying they had lost confidence in the council's leadership.

The MPs are Michael Ellis (Northampton North), Andrew Lewer (Northampton South), Chris Heaton-Harris (Daventry), Andrea Leadsom (South Northamptonshire), Philip Hollobone (Kettering), Peter Bone (Wellingborough) and Tom Pursglove (Corby).

The Northamptonshire Telegraph has the full text of the statement, part of which runs:

We also knew from backbench County Councillors that very little information of any use was being giving to them and they were undermined by the County Council’s Cabinet when trying to scrutinise decisions. 

We completely understand that position, as we were in a similar one. Indeed, we had concerns that if the leadership of the Council were giving central government the same information they were giving us as MPs and backbench County Councillors, then a completely incorrect picture of the County Council’s finances would be being passed on, which in turn would undermine any legitimate ask for fairer funding.

How fair this is may be revealed by the investigation of the authority announced by Sajid Javid.

But people have been saying today that Northamptonshire will not be the last authority to find itself in such trouble. And there have been rumours at Westminster of a rebellion by rural Tories over the settlements given to their local authorities.

It did not get the same publicity as tuition fees, but I fear the Coalition's decision to impose savage cuts on local authority spending marked the greatest break with what people thought they were supporting when they voted Liberal Democrat.

Northamptonshire County Council brings in emergency spending controls

Alarming news from the Conservative-run Northamptonshire County Council this evening:

A cash-strapped local authority has imposed emergency spending controls as it faces "severe financial challenges". 

The section 114 notice bans all new expenditure at Northamptonshire County Council, with the exception of statutory services for protecting vulnerable people. 

Last month the government said an inspector would look into allegations of financial failings at the authority. 

The notice is to be discussed at the full council meeting on 22 February.

It's been clear for some time that Northamptonshire has serious problems.

At the start of the year Sajid Javid, the secretary of state for housing, communities and local government, announced a government inspector is to look into the authority's finances.

And last week the council announced plans to sell and lease back its new headquarters.

An old post by Alison Scott on Public Finance explains what a section 114 notice involves - a 'CFO' is a chief financial officer:

The ultimate recourse of the CFO remains the section 114 powers of the Local Government Finance Act 1988. These are not to be taken lightly and should be used very carefully and only after great consideration. 

Section 114 requires the CFO, in consultation with the council’s monitoring officer, to report to all the authority’s members if (in broad terms) there is, or is likely to be, an unbalanced budget. 

This would include situations where reserves have become seriously depleted and it is forecast that the authority will not have the resources to meet its expenditure in a particular financial year. 

The issue of a section 114 notice has serious operational implications. Indeed, the authority’s full council must meet within 21 days to consider the notice. During that period, the authority is prohibited from entering into new agreements involving spending.

Councils are the only public bodies required by law to set a balanced budget every year.

Concern over Northamptonshire County Council's stewardship of the John Clare archive

There was a letter in the Guardian today from some of the literary great and good expressing concern at plans to downgrade Northampton's central library:

This library is home to many a unique resource pertaining to Northamptonshire history and culture, but we are specifically concerned about the John Clare collection – arguably the world’s greatest archive of the poet’s manuscripts, of his books, and of a wide collection of unique ephemera and publications by or about Clare. The collection is used by international scholars and artists of all kinds, and has been a hub and stimulus of activity in response to this increasingly significant poet for many decades. 

The collection at Northampton has always been maintained by expert, attentive, scholarly librarians, who do their level best with scant resources to make this publicly owned archive available to readers and researchers of all kinds. Our central concern here is that – given the size of the cuts planned, and the loss of staff and expertise delivered by all of the council’s options – there will be a permanently detrimental effect upon the care and curation of the Clare collection. 

John Clare's literary stock has been rising and rising for years. You can read all about him on the John Clare Society website.

All local authorities are facing enormous financial pressure, but it is notable that yesterday Sajid Javid announced an inquiry into the finances of the Conservative-run Northamptonshire County Council, which runs the library.

Meanwhile, a police investigation of a loan made by Northampton Borough Council (also run by the Tories) to the town's football club continues.

The struggle to save Northampton's Eleanor Cross

Last month I went to take some photos of Northampton's Eleanor Cross because there are concerns about its state of repair.

Now Graham Evans from the Northampton Battlefield Society has written an article on the currents state of play for The Pipeline.

He explains:

A major part of the problem is that with a Monument that is listed and under the protection of Historic England you just can’t go and pull the weeds out and slap on some Polyfilla. And although it is under HE’s protection, they don’t own it.

So who does own it? The prime candidates are Northampton Borough Council and Northamptonshire County Council:

The evidence points strongly towards the Borough. They did the last restoration in the 1980s, it appears on their asset register, it formed part of the Conservation Management Plan they produced and the County say they have documentary proof that it was transferred to the Borough in 1965 and provided with funding for its upkeep. 

The water is slightly muddied as the last restoration did use the County Archaeologist, but as archaeology is a county provided service used by all authorities at a lower level within the county this is no surprise and doesn’t denote ownership. 

So the situation we now have is that the Borough have agreed to do the work but don’t currently accept they own the Cross. That’s a start, but isn’t where we’d like to end up.

The battle to save the Market Harborough to Gretton 67 bus

Conservatives are generally in favour of austerity until it affects their own ward or constituency.

Still, I am pleased to see that Conservative councillors are campaigning to save the Market Harborough to Gretton 67 bus.

According to the Northamptonshire Telegraph:

Conservative councillors Rob McKellar, Kevin Watt and Bridget Watts, who represent Weldon, Gretton and Priors Hall on Corby Council, are campaigning to save the service which Centrebus has announced will cease in July after its county council subsidy was withdrawn. 

They have launched a Facebook page calling for the service to be saved and are working with MP for Corby and East Northants Tom Pursglove, Gretton Parish Council and Northamptonshire County Council to try and broker a deal. 

Cllr McKellar said: “The Number 67 bus is a lifeline to many residents in Corby’s surrounding villages. 

“It doesn’t just transport local people between Gretton and Market Harborough, but it also connects our villages to Asda and to the Corby Business Academy, as well as providing a link between Priors Hall, Gretton and Rockingham. 

“We will fight hard to save the service and we will do everything in our power support to those affected by its cancellation.”

The photo above shows a bus at Gretton, but it is not the 67. It was taken during what turned out to be the final Welland Valley Beer Festival.

Market Harborough to Corby bus route under threat

The Fox Inn, Wilbarston

The 67 bus route, which runs from Market Harborough to Gretton via Corby and Rockingham, is to be withdrawn this summer after the decision by Northamptonshire County Council (NCC) to remove its subsidy.

Andrew Royle, the chairman of Gretton parish council, told the Harborough Mail:

“NCC were surprised by Centrebus’s decision to withdraw the whole of service 67 after July 23 as their understanding had been that the single vehicle operation on Monday to Friday was commercially viable, and Centrebus had given them no indication otherwise when they informed them of the likely withdrawal of their support for the service before Christmas.”

Campaigns against the decision have been set up in both Gretton and Wilbarston.

I did use this bus occasionally to get out into the countryside when there was a Saturday service, but that was withdrawn some years ago.

I wish the campaigners well in their attempts to save this route, but it is the massive cuts in central government funding for councils that are at the root of this.

Save Semilong Post Office in Northampton

Sarah Uldall, Lib Dem County Councillor for the St George Division in Northamptonshire, has started a campaign to save Semilong Post Office from closure after news emerged that the current subpostmistress is retiring and a new owner is needed for the Post Office to stay open.

"The Semilong Road Post Office has been in existence for 50 years. Not only does it provide essential services, it is also a local landmark and a meeting place. It will be sorely missed." said Sarah.

Puzzled reader: I am sure this is an admirable campaign, but why are you blogging about it?

Liberal England replies: Because I am almost certainly the only Lib Dem blogger with a photo of Semilong Post Office in his files.