Councillors — The Voice of Choice

Abstract

This chapter explores who councillors are, what they do, why they do it and how they might do it better. First, though, try to talk to one or two councillors yourselves. Find out at first hand how they spend their time and how they justify their elective existences. They will not be ‘typical’, but part of the message of this chapter is the unhelpfulness of thinking exclusively of typical roles and behaviours. Others may generalise — like the former Conservative Welsh Office Minister, Rod Richards, whose most memorable contribution to central-local government harmony was publicly to label Labour councillors as ‘fat, slimy and fundamentally corrupt’ (Local Government Chronicle, 6 January 1995, p. 7). You should aim for a little more subtlety and sophistication in your own analysis, and you will probably find that your councillors differ one from another just as much as do our own small castlist, to which we shall now introduce you.