Unlikely.

Unlikely.

Eric Pickles continues to roll out his localism agenda in new and interesting ways.  Reading Iain Dale’s blog today I picked up on an announcement that I hadn’t yet seen elsewhere, made during an interview Iain did with Eric Pickles.  I hope Iain Dale wont mind if I repeat the text he quoted as I’d like to comment on it.

Iain Dale: The cabinet system in local authorities is very unpopular with a lot of people. If local authorities wanted to change that and go back to the committee system, what would your reaction be?

Eric Pickles: Fine. We will be putting something into the local government bill to let them do that. I don’t care how things are organised. They can have it on the basis of a committee system, on a cabinet basis, on the mayoral system. If they want to introduce it on a choral system with various members of the council singing sea shanties I don’t mind, providing it’s accountable, transparent and open. That’s all I need to know.

The cabinet system has strengths and weaknesses.  We’ve discussed some of them on this blog before in response to the critical comments of some readers.  But I don’t want to comment on whether I like the cabinet system or not – it’s like commenting on whether or not I like the sky.  It’s there.  It’s not going away.

I can imagine a lot of things if I put my mind to it.  I can imagine a future where free energy is abundant.  I can imagine a world with no war.  I can imagine the colonisation of different planets as Mankind reaches for the stars.  I can even imagine a Labour party which didn’t destroy the national economy (though that’s a tough one.)  But I cannot imagine a cabinet voting itself out of existence in a move back to the committee system. I just can’t.