Mayor Ken Livingstone seems to have inspired an entire clause in the DCLG's newly published Local Government & Public Involvement in Health Bill:
"Codes of conduct
131 Conduct that may be covered by code
(1) In section 49 of the Local Government Act 2000 (c. 22) (principles governing
conduct of members of relevant authorities), after subsection (2) insert—
“(2A) The principles which may be specified under subsection (1) or (2) are
not limited to principles applying to a member or co-opted member only in his official capacity.
(2) In section 50 of that Act (model code of conduct), after subsection (4) insert—
“(4A) The provisions which may be included in a model code of conduct are
not limited to provisions applying to a member or co-opted member
only in his official capacity.”
(3) In section 51 of that Act (duty of relevant authorities to adopt codes of
conduct), after subsection (4) insert—
“(4A) The provisions which may be included under subsection (4)(c) are not
limited to provisions applying to a member or co-opted member of the
authority only in his official capacity.”
(4) In section 52 of that Act (duty to comply with code of conduct), in each of
subsections (1) to (4), omit the words “in performing his functions”.”
Translated into English that means that the law will be changed so that part of Ken's defence in the Finegold case - that he had his coat on and had left the building so was "not acting in his official capacity" would no longer hold any legal weight - anything that any councillor says or does at any time has to comply with the Code of Conduct, there is no such concept as "off duty" if you hold public office.
This is pretty petty isn't it? Ken Livingstone has been an excellent Lord Mayor of London. He's clever, he's funny, he's Labour. He doesn't like obnoxious hacks much. And I expect he would extend that to bloggers if he could be bothered. But I'm sure he'll be more careful in future. Wouldn't it be better for a Labour blogger to point out how this would tighten the net on racists like the Lib Dem mayor of Settle in Yorkshire who greeted the BME section of the RMT union with the "joke" that he wouldn't be using any coon jokes. Hah hah hah. How we laughed. But the Lib Dems did not suspend him, did not send him for re-programming, and value his input.
ReplyDelete