You may have seen me on television last night – my Andy Warhol 15 minutes of fame.
Then again, you may have missed my two 15-seconds-or-so slots in ITV West’s The West Tonight documentary, entitled Public Service, Private Gain.
Certainly, quite a few people who know me locally have commented on it, and I received my first call as result of the programme just 45 minutes after it had been broadcast.
Unfortunately, I didn’t actually see it myself at the time because I was at a special council meeting in Taunton.
With another hat on, I am a Conservative borough councillor representing a lot of people who live on the Blackdown Hills.
The ITV programme looked at a deal which my council – Taunton Deane – and Somerset County Council and the Avon and Somerset Constabulary have done with the multi-national computer and IT giant IBM.
It highlighted the secrecy which surrounded the deal – no elected councillor outside the County Hall elite has apparently even seen the full business case for the partnership.
It also discussed reservations and scepticism about the partnership which a handful of people hold.
The bottom line is that we are paying IBM something like £400 million of your money – yes, ratepayers’ and taxpayers’ money – to deliver a lot of our services cheaper but better than we can do it.
How it works is that IBM take on the employment of hundreds of local government staff who are doing this work currently, and they pay them the same wages and uphold the same terms of employment and save us millions of pounds as they do it cheaper and better… eh? Surely some mistake here!
In simple terms, suppose I pay you £10 to give me £10 worth of goods, but you give me the £10 goods for only £7 and I keep £3 even though it’s cost you £10 to give them to me …. with me so far?
No? Nor am I.
Which is why I featured in the ITV documentary which also couldn’t figure out where the sleight of hand comes in to save multi-millions £s.
When the programme producer looked around for somebody from Taunton Deane Council to speak against the partnership, she found there was only one councillor who actually stood up to be counted and voted against it – yes, me.
I was in good company though, as the Bridgwater and West Somerset MP, Ian Liddell-Grainger, a long-standing friend of mine, has for a long time been ferociously campaigning against this partnership and the way Somerset County Council drove it through.
I use the word ‘ferociously’ on purpose – just have a look at his website and you’ll see what I mean.
He has made highly libellous statements on the subject in Parliament, and, of course, the county council and my own council have said if only he had the guts to make those statements without Parliamentary privilege protecting him, then they would surely sue him for defamation and every penny he has got.
So, when Ian did make the statements outside of Parliament and without its privilege, I pointed this out to my chief executive and council leader and asked them to sue the arse off him.
The result? Some shuffling of paper, some coughs and splutters, a few ‘ahems’, and a weak “I’m sure it will be looked into by somebody, somewhere, some time” response.
Meanwhile, there is a growing lobby of people who are now beginning to look at this highly suspect deal the same way as I and Mr Liddell-Grainger do. Trouble is, we’re now locked in for 10 years, so King William may well be on the throne before we can undo it.
Our photo is a screenshot from the documentary, which was the last in the current series.