More on KentOnline
More on KentOnline
Politicians often resort to a tactic called the ‘dead cat on the table strategy’ when they are struggling to move away from an issue that is causing them some difficulties.
Boris Johnson resorted to this tactic when he used a speech fleshing out his ‘levelling up’ agenda to casually drop in the idea of a generation of new directly elected mayors for counties.
Just how serious is he? You can never tell with Boris and there was a suspicion that this might be a diversion designed to get away from people talking about racist abuse directed at certain England footballers and criticising the government for not doing enough to punish the perpetrators.
He invited people to come up with a name for these elected mayors and social media seemed to come down in favour of ‘sheriffs’ - although it can’t be long before some wag starts a petition urging they be called “BoatyMcboatface” or something.
The question is whether anybody has any appetite or enthusiasm for what would be a radical overhaul.
In a county the size of Kent, the idea that one person could take charge as a mayor of such a disparate area in which there are considerable differences between and within it may not be credible or practical.
Kent is notoriously resistant to this kind of initiative: the last attempt anyone made at something like this was when four district council's in East Kent deliberated merging.
The planned arrangement to share services and cut down overheads ended up as a bit of a damp squib when one of the quartet - Folkestone council - decided that it was not for them and the plug was pulled.
The last meaningful reorganisation goes back to 1996 when the government signed off a plan to create a unitary authority in Medway.
Still, we have seen the advent of regional and metro mayors in big cities like Manchester and after an initial period in which many people questioned what they were there for, they have been thrust into the public spotlight by the Covid pandemic.
Whether that is a good or a bad thing depends on whether they have genuine clout and powers to make a difference – the jury is still out on that.
IF there was a vote on the least loved traffic management scheme in the country, It would probably be won hands-down by Operation Brock.
So the news that it is to be reintroduced at the start of the summer holiday period has unsurprisingly produced a collective groan from hauliers, motorists and residents who live nearby to the M20.
It is only a few months since people were celebrating that the movable barrier was to be dismantled.
We suspect Highways England and other organisations decided to reactivate it now as a pre-emptive move in anticipation of possible delays at the Channel ports.
Officials obviously anticipated the backlash and a press release issued by the Kent Resilience Forum - the multi-agency group which oversees Operation Brock - duly emphasised that everything was being done to limit traffic disruption and that the operation would be kept under constant review.
AMONG the more unusual elements of Boris Johnson's speech on levelling up was the pledge that everyone would have access to a football pitch within 15 minutes of where they lived.
Perhaps this was an attempt to smooth over a rather bumpy few days for the Conservative Party .
Either way, it is an awful lot of football pitches and you have to ask whether anyone has got the calculator out to work out exactly how many.
And why football pitches? Admittedly, it is the national game but if you’re going to widen access to sport why not basketball courts, swimming pools or tennis courts?
We can live without the croquet lawns, mind you.
