Richard Baum

I had an interesting discussion with a recently pregnant work colleague today about how she’s going to handle the time when her as-yet-unborn child asks how babies are made.

We agreed that the response depended on the age and circumstances when the question was asked. A four year old screaming the question out loud in the middle of Sainsbury’s could probably be fobbed off (and silenced) with tales of storks and cabbage patches. A genuinely anxious 11 year old asking in the privacy of the family home may well get the whole story until it wished to God above that it had never asked.

But one thing we agreed would probably never ever happen, was the child asking how the Mayor of Bury is made. And yet, were the child to ask that very question, it could be yanked to the Town Hall and shown first hand tomorrow. For tomorrow is the annual Mayor making ceremony, when the Borough’s first citizen dispenses with the chains of office and hands them over to someone else.

The outgoing Mayor is Cllr Peter Ashworth, who has covered just about every inch of the Borough on official engagements over the last twelve months. He will now become the Deputy Mayor for a year, and be replaced in the hot seat by Cllr Sheila Magnall as from tomorrow afternoon. I wish her luck for her year in office.

One of the least enjoyable tasks of being Mayor (I suspect) is having to chair meetings of Full Council, when 51 grown men and women come together and bawl at each other like it’s the grand final of the World Playground Argument Championships, occasionally lapsing into serious debate and getting real answers to questions, but usually not. Mayor Magnall will be spared this dubious honour for now, but the last act of Mayor Ashworth will be to be slung head-first into the mire when he chairs the “State of the Borough” debate just prior to the Mayor-making.

Any avid watcher of “The West Wing,” or student of American politics, will be aware of the State of the Union address, when the President ascends to oratorical levels not seen since ancient Greece, and outlines achievements and plans that make the world seem so rosy that it’s actually made of petals. Unfortunately, in my experience the State of the Borough debate in Bury doesn’t quite reach those peaks of brilliance. Admittedly we’re starting from a challenging base. Whereas Presidents Obama and Bartlet can talk about billions of pounds in projects and aid to fight disease and spread freedom throughout the world, the Leader of Bury Council has the development of The Rock shopping precinct at the top of his list. And whilst this is nothing to turn one’s nose up at, even Pericles would struggle to retain an audience with material like that.

Regardless though, the following two things are absolutely certain to happen:

1) The ruling Conservative administration will, through its Leader Cllr Bob Bibby, attempt to take far more credit than they deserve for anything good that has happened in Bury in the last twelve months, whilst blaming anything bad on either the government or the previous Labour administration in Bury.

2) The Labour group will counter that anything good that has happened in Bury in the last twelve months is in fact down to the exceptional stewardship of the Council when they were in charge, whilst blaming anything bad on the staggering incompetence of the Tories. 

And I suspect that the whole thing won’t restore the faith in politics that has disappeared down the plug hole of a Tory MP’s moat this past couple of weeks. In fact, I am surprised and disappointed that the State of the Borough debate has never been referred to as “The Borough’s in a State” debate. I only hope that someone from an opposition party making a speech tomorrow reads this post and makes this gag, because it’s a good one and it’s long overdue.

The truth, in my view, is that politicians from all parties have sought to do good for Bury this year, and in most cases what successes there have been have been because of their combined efforts, plus those of the Council officers and the good people of Bury who’ve helped along the way. Obviously sometimes there are things that one party or another should crow about because it’s genuinely been something good of their making. But I bet we don’t see the list retained at just those things in the speeches tomorrow.

And so one municipal year ends, and another begins. The merry-go-round of meetings and debates, of decisions and plans, and of victories and disappointments, begins again. I hope that next time we make a Mayor, Bury’s a better place.

Rick