Ooops, I've upset someone again
Damian Hockney does seem to have trouble with authority figures, despite being something of an authority figure himself, as leader of the UKIP group in the London Assembly.
His latest run-in came on Wednesday (17th Nov) with Brian Coleman, Tory Chairman of the London Assembly, at the monthly session of Mayor's Question Time (MQT). Brian has been getting stick from all the political groups at the Assembly (including his own) for his efforts to thwart Mayor Ken Livingstone's knack of capturing headlines. Brian's brainwave was to make MQT so boring that it would get no media coverage at all. The problem is, he has been so successful that the media now ignores the whole event, so none of the Assembly Members gets any coverage either.
Groups have to submit questions two weeks in advance, and Ken Livingstone's written report is also a week out of date by the time the Assembly meets, so MQT suffers from built-in obsolescence. The event used to be livened up by a verbal update from Ken, followed by cross-examination by Members, but Brian pulled the plug on this. In retaliation, there was a mini-rebellion yesterday when a Labour Member asked Ken such a vague question that Ken was able to launch into his usual self-promotional spiel in response. This provoked a lively reaction from Members, whereupon a disgruntled Brian tried to call a halt.
At this point Damian performed the Assembly's equivalent of "seizing the mace" by protesting loudly that Brian was preventing Members from performing their duty of scrutinising the Mayor's activities. Brian tried in vain to restore order, but was put in his place by Ken - never one to avoid a verbal punch-up - who backed Damian's bid to liven up MQT.
Even the usually somnolent Tories seemed inspired by this turn of events, and launched a counter-attack of their own, not on the Mayor, but on UKIP, whom they criticised for voting in July to increase the Assembly staff budget to fund properly the Green and UKIP groups. Ken pointed out that it isn't his job to defend UKIP, but in this case the Tories, who creamed off £120,000 of the budget increase for themselves, were hardly in a position to throw stones.
All in all, it was the liveliest MQT for some months. Long may it be so.
His latest run-in came on Wednesday (17th Nov) with Brian Coleman, Tory Chairman of the London Assembly, at the monthly session of Mayor's Question Time (MQT). Brian has been getting stick from all the political groups at the Assembly (including his own) for his efforts to thwart Mayor Ken Livingstone's knack of capturing headlines. Brian's brainwave was to make MQT so boring that it would get no media coverage at all. The problem is, he has been so successful that the media now ignores the whole event, so none of the Assembly Members gets any coverage either.
Groups have to submit questions two weeks in advance, and Ken Livingstone's written report is also a week out of date by the time the Assembly meets, so MQT suffers from built-in obsolescence. The event used to be livened up by a verbal update from Ken, followed by cross-examination by Members, but Brian pulled the plug on this. In retaliation, there was a mini-rebellion yesterday when a Labour Member asked Ken such a vague question that Ken was able to launch into his usual self-promotional spiel in response. This provoked a lively reaction from Members, whereupon a disgruntled Brian tried to call a halt.
At this point Damian performed the Assembly's equivalent of "seizing the mace" by protesting loudly that Brian was preventing Members from performing their duty of scrutinising the Mayor's activities. Brian tried in vain to restore order, but was put in his place by Ken - never one to avoid a verbal punch-up - who backed Damian's bid to liven up MQT.
Even the usually somnolent Tories seemed inspired by this turn of events, and launched a counter-attack of their own, not on the Mayor, but on UKIP, whom they criticised for voting in July to increase the Assembly staff budget to fund properly the Green and UKIP groups. Ken pointed out that it isn't his job to defend UKIP, but in this case the Tories, who creamed off £120,000 of the budget increase for themselves, were hardly in a position to throw stones.
All in all, it was the liveliest MQT for some months. Long may it be so.
posted by Helen at 11:17 AM
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