Apparently Greg Clark, Minister for Cities, reckons elected mayors will have more powers than some cabinet ministers. Er, which cabinet ministers?
Meanwhile, here in Leeds we have a referendum on the 3rd of May on whether we should have an elected mayor. I can hardly wait either. The question will be:
How would you like Leeds City council to be run?
- By a leader who is an elected councillor chosen by a vote of the other elected councillors. This is how the council is run now
- By a mayor who is elected by voters. This would be a change from how the council is run now.
Leeds council helpfully provides a list of questions and answers at http://www.leeds.gov.uk/Council_and_democracy/Councillors_democracy_and_elections/Referenda__information_and_advice.aspx. One question they don’t include is quite a biggy:
What powers will an elected mayor have that a nominated mayor does not?
Unfortunately the answer is “none”. That leads on to the second question:
So what’s the point of having an elected mayor?
Answers on a postcard because I think no-one knows. It seems to be a resurrection of a gimmick from the Tony Blair years. These days local government doesn’t actually have a lot of direct power so reforms tend to be daft things like this. It’s tricky to say whether or not it’s good or bad