Do not destroy the brand

He reminds us that in the highly-competitive airline business when BA and Virgin were slagging each other off, they never, ever suggested flying with the other could be dangerous – that would have denigrated the business and damaged both their brands.

Political parties, of course, do the opposite, especially at local level, and Mr Page’s point is that, while opposition councillors are demolishing the reputation of their council, they are also destroying public confidence in the brand itself.

If a voluble elected member with access to the local media accuses the council of incompetence, of inefficiency, mismanagement, charging too much council tax or making a dog’s dinner of refuse collection, then the public are likely to conclude their council is in sorry state.

Ex-minister, Nick Raynsford, used to make much the same point, that while individual services scored well in polls, those of the council itself always came out worse, and he attributed this partly to opposition councillors.

To this, we can add MPs, since they, too, will rarely miss a chance to take a pop at their local council, if it is run by the opposite party – increasingly likely nowadays, with Conservative-dominated councils and a large Labour Commons majority.
As always, there is a balance. Opposition councillors do not expect to be censured for ‘bringing their council into disrepute’ in the way an officer might.

Their job is to expose weakness in the council which can be blamed on the administration. And the new engagement White Paper wants to see more influence at ward level on council policy, so we can expect more pressure at scrutiny level which, again, is right and proper.

But this needs to be balanced by a recognition that if oppositions successfully demolish the reputations of their council in the eyes of the public, there will be little for them to inherit should they take on the administration. And it will do little for its CAA reputation either.

Michael Burton
Editor, The MJ