The popular idea that when we hit rock bottom, that things can only get better is something of a straw to grasp when matters seem bleak, but sadly it’s not a guarantee. In Eurovision terms Bonnie Tyler made substantial improvements on the share of the vote of Engelbert Humperdinck but our nation needn’t prepare for a contest any year soon. Many in this city will remember the contest we hosted in 1974 when Abba won. The City continues to be a great place to live and work in for many reasons apart from this small piece of Eurovision history. Neverthless we also have many challenges to deal with. For example according to the latest census data, substantial numbers of properties in Brighton and Hove are without central heating which has a detrimental impact on the health of our residents (only 18 other local authority in England and Wales have more properties without central heating!).

Resolving issues such as health and housing demands a strong political leadership and for the last 10 years as electors we have played our own part in creating challenges for the 54 men and women who give up their time to become Councillors and make tough decisions on our behalf. The Labour party formed the administration from 1996 but began to act in a manner that suggested that their needs and priorities were greater than those of the residents they were supposed to be serving. In the 2003 election their overall majority was dramatically slashed and they attempted to govern in the city with 24 seats, 4 more than the Conservatives. I recall the period as one with very mixed outcomes, I think the party was largely in denial about the changing political landscape. At the election in 2007 we decided to give the Conservatives a turn and they used their 4 years to change a number of aspects of city life and whilst they had the ‘luxury’ of 26 seats, this was still a minority administration which would have been a great deal more successful if the leadership of the party had realised that they were meant to work in a collaborative manner. Finally in 2011 we gave the Greens a go. Their majority was one seat smaller than the Labour party achieved in 2003 and thanks to a disagreement with one of their number they have now reduced this to 22 seats.

For a number of reasons the last two years have been difficult ones for the city and changes to the leadership within the Green party added to this. Bill Randall has been a brilliant Mayor, but his experience and maturity in the leaders office have been very clearly missed. However yesterday news emerged which indicate how bad things really are. The Greens pride themselves on being thoroughly democratic, and this is a refreshing approach in the light of the various machinations that the other parties appear to indulge in far too often. However yesterday in anticipation of the annual council meeting it emerged that there was a near split in the group regarding who they want to lead them for the next year. It seems pretty clear that changing leader every year will not be good for the city, and on this occasion the vote was 12:10 in favour of the current leader. However some of the Cllrs who were on the losing side decided that they were unwilling to accept the outcome of the vote and approached the Labour party to help them oust their current leader and replace him with their preferred candidate.

The Labour party made a pretence of wanting to put themselves above internal politics and refused to help. However the new leader of the Labour party then revealed all of this intrigue on the party website. Some of the more prolific Labour tweeters then decided to focus on who was behind the attempted coup. The result of the Green intrigue and the Labour parties inability to really stay above this issue is that two of the three parties have become emeshed in fruitless inter and intra party politics. The principles of collaborative leadership are clearly off the agenda for the moment, yet when the electorate delivered the outcome of the election in May 2011 that is exactly what they needed. Warren Morgan prints the following on the Labour Party website “If they cannot work together, I call on members of the Green group to resign their seats on the council, and give residents the chance to elect Labour councillors who will put the interests of residents and the city before petty party political infighting.”

My view is that Warren and the tweeters are engaged in behaviour that is no better than that of the Greens who are no longer committed to majority voting. An honourable response if governing is no longer possible would be resignation by all implicated in this infighting and outfighting. However such an action will not necessarily improve the prospects for local residents. A much better approach would be to apologise to the electorate and one another and set about the task which was supposed to have begun in May 2011. It is clear that simply carrying on today as if nothing happened yesterday will not be sufficient. The Conservatives appear to have shown some leadership by not responding to this spat. They too need to work with the administration to help resolve matters such as the number of homes with Central Heating and the demands being placed on the foodbanks in the city. In a final nod to Bonnie Tyler, the whole Council Leadership in this city needs to be able to persuade people to ‘Believe in them’ rather than be seen as the eternal ‘nil point’ recipients.