How can a borough where half the children live in poverty justify paying its chief executive £240,000 a year?

James

Such is the story.

Let's remember that to have a credit crunch, you will have had to have a spending spree and this is what Labour has done. It has insured its voter base stays solid by swelling the salaries and ranks of people like this.

As the country drowns in state debt, we still somehow have money to pay for 'diversity officers' and bin snoopers.

Edward Heathcoat Amory catalogues some of these jobs here and some of the salaries are staggering. 'Diversity managers' on 50k! That's not the lowest salary for that sort of job.

Oh, and where do all these ads appear? The Guardian:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1054497/Its-worst-recession-60-years-private-firms-slashing-jobs-cutting-pensions-But-public-sector-boomtime.html

Trumpeter Lanfried

It is very difficult, probably impossible, for the government to cap salaries in the private sector. But in the public sector it is dead easy. It could, and should, be done by statute.

The 'we have to compete globally' argument hardly applies, since there is no global market for UK local government officers.

And as a first, modest step in the right direction, let's stop calling overpaid town clerks 'Chief Executives'.

Nicholas

The point is made and well made in the comments section of the article linked by James that most of these jobs go to Labour party activists. They are certainly politically screened.

Britain is heading towards becoming a neo-nazi state where the state becomes the nation and every aspect of life is controlled and/or influenced by the state's agenda. Of course our national socialists love that because they believe they are on a mission, an ideological crusade. And they see no contradiction in espousing (national) socialist aspirations whilst taking six-figure earnings from the taxpayer and creating a pensions bloc that will bankrupt Britain for decades ahead.

Local government leeching is far, far worse than the poll tax and yet the people acquiesce meekly as they are forced to stump up yet more and more of their hard earned money to pay for these utterly useless pariahs of political correctness.

And what do we have in this time of dire economic straits? Yet more grandiose plans from the arch spendthrift and his gang of robber barons to waste even more public money pursuing the ideological agenda, bending his own fiscal "rules" to do so. The latest is the mind-boggling amount earmarked for the super spy database that will retain the private emails and internet surfing history of every single Briton, supposedly required to combat terrorism and "crime" (the latter expanded considerably under New Labour to include more and more thought and speech "crime").

David Cameron's speech made it clear that he is well aware of the madness and danger posed by what New Labour has become (and because of that speech I don't subscribe to some of the views expressed here that he will just be more of the same). However, the Tories have an almost impossible task in trying to communicate the truth about this revolting, destructive, fascist regime because the BBC, and other MM, choose to follow the Labour party line unquestioningly. Fools.

The last time Britain faced a threat to existence like this was in 1940. The threats from extremism are nothing compared to the threat posed to the whole nation by this most extreme of governments. It is a government which instead of upholding and defending our freedoms and way of life is busy destroying them. Traitors.

Familiar Clown

On their jobs section website it say: 'Newham where the streets are paved with gold...'

Jon

Paying public sector workers high salaries makes relative poverty worse. If they paid them less then the average salary would decrease and then there would be less people earning 60% of the average, the definition of poverty.

mitch

And still the bins are not emptied and the streets are filthy which is pretty much all I want a council to do, They are not city states just glorified bog cleaners.

Keith

Nicholas...as usual, spot on comment.

Alfred T Mahan

The whole local government area is completely rotten, with huge budgets being managed by under-qualified and over-paid staff. The political and media oversight is almost non-existent. But it's huge nut to crack, and even though I think Eric Pickles is great I doubt whether the Tories will man up and attempt proper reform. It would take years to clean this particular Augean stable.

Verity

I agree with every word written by James and all the commenters above.

My arguement doesn't militate against the thrust of James's article, but one point: I do not believe there is any child poverty in Britain or anywhere in the West.

I would need to see poverty redefined as "no tv", "no vcr", "no mobile phone", "no fashionable ghetto threads", etc.

I am sick of reading about "child poverty" and it is one more incredible (meaning, cannot be credited) lie from Gordon Brown and his vile army of council ticks and fleas, bloodsuckers on the public body.

Wight Tory

As somebody from the Isle of Wight, this doesn't suprise me one bit, was useless here and was glad that he went. Vera Duckworth sense and Duckworth lewis simplicity, the biggest waste of money ever, until Now, The prisons here, Parkhurst, Albany and Camphill are looking to be renamed. It won't be cheap that much is clear.

http://www.iwcp.co.uk/News/Parkhurst_name_set_to_disappear.aspx

Man With No Name

Two words. Common. Purpose.

TGF UKIP

I agree with everyone, some brilliant posts and none more so than Nicholas.'

However, could I press a note of caution on Nicholas, and that is to not pay too much heed to a Cameron speech to the Tory faithful.

Dave has a history of feeding them the red meat they crave. Remember when he was running to secure the crown, nobody could have been more effusive in his praise of Margaret Thatcher, though it did not take too long after securing the Leadership for it to become all too evident that his mission was in reality to bury Thatcherism.

Likewise, in his recent conference speech he may have fulminated against political correctness, but who, more than Dave, has sucked up to the pc agenda (just ask the Christian Adoption Agencies.) All part and parcel of Hilton's Polly pleasing policy.

Labour's chameleon caricature should not be dismissed simply because it was Labour's.

Heed not what Dave says, but what he does.

mac

As Nicholas says, such posts - and all quango appointments - are politically screened. These absurd salaries in the public sector are tolerated because, directly or indirectly, they are felt to benefit the socialist common weal. Harman's ideological crusade for equality and 'fairness' conveniently ignores these shysters.

Marian C

Nicholas:- Well said Sir. I totally agree with every line of your comment.

Edward McLaughlin

Ditto all of the above.

Verity's gripe regarding the current vogueish cries to 'eliminate child poverty' is especially on the mark.

Just another chance for the serial moaners to get out and have a walk, carrying banners with other moaners, and have a chat about old times.

Dirty Euro

I agree where I live they want to pay the council head a 6 figure sum it is BS. It will be the same people would have got the job anyway. It is just a conn trick.

Verity

I endorse every word that Nicholas wrote. Well said, that man!

Ann

"I do not believe there is any child poverty in Britain or anywhere in the West"

Ignorant drivel.

Verity

Ann: You seem overwrought.

I will note again: other than some who lack luxuries as defined by me, there is no child in the West who lacks food, clothing or heating.

Let us stop raising the bar because eventually, it will be high enough for even bossy old academic trouts like you to creakily limbo under (with helpers on either side).

Chuck Unsworth

All of this discussion hinges on the definition of 'poverty'.

In my book 'poverty' is not an absolute, it is a comparative. But others here may disagree.

Would Verity care to help by offering a definition?

Paul B

I agree with Verity, there is no child poverty in the UK. There are useless parents, that due to their fecklessness and irresponsibility cause their children to live in poverty., However, that is different from child being actually born into poverty. As Verity, what is poverty,someone please define it for me. If I suspect it includes no dvd player, no tv, no pc, no fresh veg or meat well I would say benefit levels d allow people to have all things, as long as they spend responsibly, ie giving up their next drug fix, the next bottle of cheap cider, the next packet of 20tabs. It means your fat arsed parents getting up in the morning and going to get a job and looking after the child properly and its time we stopped pussy footing about in our language , and called it how it is (as Verity to her credit always does) . Its costs nothing to love and care for a child, apart from your time and dedication.

Whilst on the subject of phrases that irk- fuel poverty is one thats is getting right up my hooter. Yes its tough to heat your house now, it does indeed cost a lot of money, but again, spend your money wisely, plan & priorities what you spend your money on and it can be done.

We usual and cliched emotional blackmail on TV with freezing pensioners on weekly basis, but I have to ask, what are these pensioners families doing for them and why haven`t these pensioners made provision during their working lives?

Nick Kaplan

Paul B; the reason that many pensioners haven’t saved is because for most of their lives they have been in tax poverty (I wonder why the government doesn’t use the term tax poverty in the same way as they parade the term fuel poverty) so they haven’t been able to afford to do so. If the government stopped taking so much money then the levels of absolute poverty (i.e. the kind people should actually care about) would reduce significantly.

Paul B

Point taken Nick, but whenever Help the Aged manage to get the well chosen frail little old lady or man or the news, which is frequent at this time of the year, wrapped up in many layers of clothing and burning a couple of bars of an inefficient 30 year old gas fire, why arent the questions, what are your family doing (assuming of course there is a family) what did the pensioner themselves do during their working to provide, posed. How much does the chief exec of Help the Aged & Child Poverty Action Group earn ? All these questions and more are pertinent.

Incidentally it strikes one that for many of these charities and other such organistations, that it is in their interest to maintain poverty/want etc etc, whatever it is they profess to be campaigning to abolish-usually with others money of course.

Hereford

This proves, along with many other cases that the justification for gold-plated pensions, that public sector salaries are lower than private sector equivalents, is a fallacy.

Having worked with the Civil Service in I have seen evidence that salaries at the lowest levels are as good, if not better than private sector workers. The same applies to the most senior Civil Servants. There are some comparabilty issues at the middle manager level, but they are no longer as significant as is made out.

Root and branch reform of the public sector employment contract is long long overdue.

Verity

I really don't like the idea of a public sector at all. Most things should be privatised and that would mean we could lop off the ministers and civil servants suspended from them.

And once again, the public sector, which includes the welfare sector (but not pensioners who have presumably paid their dues by now) should be disenfranchised.

We have a situation where those with their hands in the pockets of the wealth producers are the largest voting block and that is lunacy on stilts.

Milz

Some good points well made here.

I would like to offer some balance to the discussions, not in justification of the CEO salary, but in the interests of clarity...

Local councils are complex, VERY complex ‘businesses’. Unlike private sector businesses which may deliver perhaps 10-50 'services' to their customers, local councils, especially unitary authorities such as Newham provide c900 services (check the Local Government Category Listing), from pest control to housing, street cleaning to social care, the list is endless and incredibly diverse.

To run this kind of 'business' requires strong and joined-up leadership, made all the more complex by the increasing ‘role’ of councils in leading their geographic areas in delivering joined-up services to citizens. Councils have a lead role in ensuring that health, police, and community services all join up to serve the public. No mean feat!

The leadership is responsible for delivering to a huge transformation agenda which, whilst definitely necessary, requires changes of mindset and behaviour the like of which has never been done before. The people that really deserve the recognition are those that are making this transformation happen, and they are few and far between as local government capacity for change slowly grows.

With regard to the ‘private sector’ matter. Many government services have been outsourced, privatised, private-sector partnered, and so on. Are these successful and do they deliver increased value to the public? I think not. There is a direct conflict of interest for starters – private sector is about one thing, profit. I have worked both sides and can confirm from personal experience that the private sector, whilst it has some good business practice, does not enter local government to help the public – it is only to make money, and that is the public’s money!

The transformation agenda for local, and central government is right, it needs to happen. Unfortunately it will take a long time, because behaviours, beliefs, opinions, and feelings are deep-rooted in government due in the main to the length of time people have been ‘in post’ without real challenge. However the change is no different to that in the private sector, it requires every individual to go though their own psychological ‘change curve’. Gone are the days however where public sector jobs were ‘for life’. This is the first visible change; council’s are making people redundant, a challenge in itself as it has responsibility for local employment!

To summarise, good leadership is essential in order to bring local government services into the 21st Century. One man alone however cannot make it happen, it in only through joined-up working and tearing down barriers that the tectonic shift will be realised.

Linda

We had to put up with this carpet-bagger on the Isle of Wight. The first thing he did was to order 3,000 "thinking caps" which was supposed to encourage staff to, believe it or not, THINK!
This farcical idea was so outrageous that it featured on ITV Tonight programme, where it was slated by a panel of council tax payers as a waste of money.
He used to have his own "Blog" on iw.com the council website. He used to post such mind boggling things like "went for a long bike ride today".
It was calculated that this jerk earned about £1,700 per day, whilst here and made sure that he did not have to return his relocation expenses by staying here just on 2 years, even though he "resigned" before the 2 years were up. I feel truly sorry for the council tax payers of Newham. Unfortunately, until the law is changed, you are stuck with officers like him and will be expected to pay a whopping pension around £100,000 a year when he retires at 60 for the rest of his life and then pay it to his widow. What an obscene joke!