Anyone who is familiar with the work of Alcoholics Anonymous (or AA) will also be aware of the work of Reinhold Niebuhr (although not necessarily his name). In 1934 Niebuhr wrote a prayer which has been adopted by AA, known as the serenity prayer which begins:

“God, give us grace to accept with serenity
the things that cannot be changed,
Courage to change the things
which should be changed,
and the Wisdom to distinguish
the one from the other.

Without asking our political leaders to become unduly religious some of them could benefit from adopting these sentiments in their professional lives and this would in turn help each of us. I do not attend Brighton & Hove Council meetings on a regular basis but last time I attended I was struck by the amount of time the various parties spent debating issues that they could not change because they were in the domain of the national Parliament. Rather peversely they did not even seek to find agreement on a course of action that would lead to lobbying the three MPs in the city to get matters changed. They simply debated the issue and then moved on to their evening commitments. Clearly one would expect these Councillors to have opinions on such matters, but the City Council chamber is intended to be used to determine matters which they do have influence over. One could argue that such debates are actually a diversion from the real work of the Council and a waste of our money.

The same is true in reverse. On all too many occasions since the 2010 election the two Tory City MPs have spent Parliamentary time criticising the decisions of the Green Party and its activities in the City Council, yet these comments are completely fruitless. The lastest attempt to try to change things that are in essence none of Parliaments business was on Friday when Simon Kirby focused his attention and took up the time of the Leader of the House of Commons and the Housing Minister on a matter that the Government cannot possibly influence. That of the recent hike in parking charges on our seafront. This issue is of course of great concern to many of the businesses in the city and many of our residents and visitors. The people it does not affect are Sir George Samuel Knatchbull Young, 6th Baronet, Grant Shapps or the small number of MPs in the Chamber at the time. However the truth of that did not stop Simon Radford Kirby in his tracks.

Let us hope that Simon comes to realise that the Mother of all Parliaments is not a stage for his performances, but is a place to enact legislation that will change the lives of the residents of not just his constituency but all 650 constituencies in the UK.

No doubt he will be reassured that the Council is considering responding to his concerns (which to his credit he has raised locally too).