What Should the role of the elected member be in the 21st Century??

What should the role of the elected member be in the

21st Century?Bridget Harris

MyPublicServices Conference November 26th 2009

public perception /1

people know what they want

public perception /2

politicians do what people want

public perception /3

the bureaucracy is neutral

public perception /4

solutions are obvious and achievable

are we sure?

'The moment a people give itself representatives It is no longer free' (Rousseau, on the social contract)

levers of influence.. not power

single point failure

what do politicians actually do?

• make decisions• explain decisions• listen & debate• have ideas• help people• raise money• take 'responsibility'

hours per month spent on each activity - from 'The State of Local Government: a audit of local councillor opinion' conducted by ComRes Sept 2009

the challenge for politicians...

this: versus this:

“doing so is to be discouraged”

- Deputy Speaker, on MPs quoting from an 'electronic device' in debates in the House of Commons2nd November 2009, debate on anti-social behaviour (Hansard Column 667)

If government is going to change we will need politicians

to change too

manifesto for a modern

local politics

Carrie Bishop

case-study: Swindon

384..

...is the number of 'citizen facing' services provided by county, metropolitan, unitary

and district councils source: Local Government Services List: www.esd.org.uk/standards/lgsl

384..

rate the 384 areas according to:

1. who should be providing it?2. what kind of problem is it?

2. do we need politicians to get involved?

Live results (crowdsourced) from Thursday 26th November @2.40pm21stCenturyCouncillor.com/whoshoulddowhat

director of politics and partnerships [email protected]

co-ordinator of [email protected]