Council tax meeting farce

This year's council tax debate appears to have been another farce.

Apparently the Tories were in the loo or something for a key vote, which meant the Labour Party had a majority in the chamber and could vote through whatever they wanted. However, earlier in the evening when the Tories were in the chamber debating they were calling for a totally unrealistic freeze on Council tax which would have surely meant cuts in local public services.

On the one hand the Labour government has shafted local councils by cutting money given to them. But on the other hand politics is the art of the possible and if you simply say that you are going to freeze Council tax because the government isn't properly funding councils, then you will have no choice but to cut public services, and as always it will be the poor and vulnerable that suffer.

I would usually parcel out some of the blame to the Liberal Democrats saying "if you don't like the Labour budget, then why don't you get together with the Tories and pass your own budget" but with the high levels of incompetency within the Tory ranks I just don't think this would have been possible.

So we have ended up with a council tax rise of 2.2%.