Potholes.

"Following a review of our inspection policy, changes to our highways response categories have been approved, focusing on five‑day and 20‑day repairs. This helps ensure response times are clear, realistic and applied consistently across the network."

What else do you expect from politicians?

Nobody employs them.

You do. If you care enough you can - and I have - actually attend some of their meetings and get yiur hands on who voted for what, and when election time comes, vote for someone else.

The better councillors will actually tell you what happened in 'closed' meetings.

No - they are very keen on the sort of statements such as "If we were in power, we would have done (whatever)".

Well what else would you expect them to say? What is contentious is whether they mean it and whether they have the will and the power to implement it.

What seems to be the issue is the opacity of government beyond the political aspect. That deals are dime by career civil servants or council employees that transcend the ability of even government ministers to alter.

I suspect that the only solution is to completely shut down certain areas of (local?) government, sack all the incumbents and start again.

Absolutely none with the present system. Even "parliamentary democracy" is a nonsense when they don't pay any attention to their manifestos. And let's not talk about MPs changing allegiances without accountability...

The nearest we've got to "democracy" in recent years is the Brexit referendum. Even then those in the House of Commons chose to ignore the vote because it didn't agree with what /they/ wanted. It took a general election and change of government before the referendum result was "honoured". It doesn't matter whether Brexit was right or wrong, if those in power ignore what the people voted for, why bother with any voting at all?

If you want a more current example, you need look no further than the "End of Life" bill, which is supported by a much larger percentage of the population than Brexit ever was, and yet has almost no chance of being passed.

Well, dictatorships aren't exactly known for their democratic nature. Not sure why you include the EU in such esteemed company as Russia and Iran. There /is/ voting of a sort involved as long as the flow of gravy isn't affected too much. ;-)

Nothing. They're "professional" liars who don't care what they say when they can't be held to account.

Well, finances are finite, and unless you're willing to accept an increase in taxes to pay for it, things won't get done even if they have the will and power to implement it. If they'd only say "We can fix the potholes, the NHS, or the Police, but not all of them", but they don't. They don't *dare* to say "You choose which we should fix of the three", because then they would be delegating the power they have at present to us.

Perhaps, but if the system is at fault as much as the incumbents would sacking them all help that much?

Interesting point. Does the system govern the people or do people create the system that governs / Quality control theory insists that people govern the system and when things go pear shape the system gets changed. Which is why commercial air crashes seldom happen in the same way for the same reasons.

Did anyone who thought about the topic really imagine they would?

If there really _was_ some low hanging fruit to be had, the previous council would have scoffed it.

Reform's promises of sweeping, simple, cheap and 'attractive' changes should have rung more alarm bells with more people.

Take it up with Westminster. Those things being complained about are requirements imposed on local government by the central government. This has been the case for many decades, so governments of all stripes are responsible.

In all the mentions of Reform, can we delete the word "party" and replace it with "Corporate Entity" - since that is what it actually is. At least it is no longer a private limited company owned by Farage.

I don't recal that ever being promised by anyone,. dealing with bureaucrats is tedious and very hard work

And there is no hope whatsoever whilst Starmer's gang remain in power

No, because it isn't. Any more than Labours is a trade union in favour of the public sector only

Or Renewable UK is a charity supported by disinterested donors...

That's not true. Aside from the strategic road network (motorways and trunk roads), highways are typically a county or UA level matter. Reform control a number of county councils, so they are in full control to fix the roads on their patch. If they have special pothole fixing talents, we should find out fairly soon if there is an evidenceable difference between a Reform council and one of a different colour next door.

Theo

(C) Friends Of The Earth, 1973.

That is not a statement about the past. It is an assertion - and a totally unprovable one at that - about what they would have done in an alternative universe.

Did anyone deny that?

But before change can even be envisioned, it is necessary to make the required analyses.

Is that really the best political argument you might make?

Surely discussing their policies would be more reasonable?

As I said, I hold absolutely no brief for Reform, but as far as I m aware, there is no law governing the structure of a political party. Perhaps other parties may yet come along with similar organisational set-ups.

What was the problem with that, then?

The party's voters don't seem to bothered about it.

I'd have another look at all the above text if I were you.

The discussion was not about the past, it was about the present and the future and also about what might be said in the present about the future.