Flagging Municipal Misgovernance

The post above this one is about the election to determine who will govern my city of London. I have written that I think it is a mess and getting worse by the week. The city, that is, not the election.

As a sort of tonic, let me give you some of the details of a story about governance in another city, this one in England, which is fast becoming the world leader in bad government.

I will summarize the story here, but if you want more details, you can read the entire original, no paywall, here, in a story published last year in the Daily Mail. There is also a follow-up story here, published at the end of last August.  Can’t make this stuff up, and I did not.

An org calling itself Raise The Colours has sponsored a campaign to put UK flags and flags bearing St George’s cross on lamp posts, homes and roundabouts throughout England. A St. George flag looks like this, in case you have not seen it:

This was the flag of England until the Acts of Union in 1707, when it was replaced by The Union Jack, in which the cross still appears.  Its origins go back to the Middle Ages, and other countries have also incorporated it into their lore, including the old city-state of Genoa. Well, the city council of Birmingham is taking legal action to remove those flags. A quote from the DM story:

Jane Baston, a Green councillor and Birmingham’s cabinet member for equalities, communities and social justice, said: ‘The council is taking a lawful, proportionate and evidence-led approach to unauthorised attachments on the highway.

Cabinet member for equalities, communities and social justice.

Indeed.

Council first said the flags were a danger to traffic and pedestrians, despite being 25 feet above the ground.

In the story from last year, it is noted that the council admitted in an email that it was afraid to take down Palestinian flags that had been put up on lamp posts without police help. From the DM article:

In a leaked email obtained by the Mail, council cabinet member Majid Mahmood said of the Palestine flags hanging from lampposts in February: ‘We are taking these down, but we need the support of the police due to issues that have cropped (up) when we first tried to take them down.’

Here’s a photo from that story:

It gets better. The Birmingham Council went bankrupt last year, and a bin strike (British speak for garbage strike) has been going on for months, leaving garbage strewn about the city. Like this –

The story also contains a link to another story with the title:

Birmingham Council’s executives jetted to Cannes as city was gripped by bin strikes

Yes, Cannes is not that far from Birmingham, but still – those execs are good, eh? Off to the Bin Strike Film Festival. (Sorry, cheap shot, it was actually an ‘investment conference’. In Cannes.)

It is good to be reminded that ‘things could be worse’ I guess.