Somerton: The Whiff of Change

Local politics in the UK are stifling, often deliberately so. An episode in Somerset reveals that the locals are not political vegetables, which warms the heart.

Somerton is a small town in the West of England; adjectives use to describe it mark the place as being ordinary to the point of boring. Somerton has a rather nice antique building called a ‘Butter Cross’,  a little history  (including an bomb hit by the Luftwaffe on the local dairy), and a pub called the Half Moon. In this regard, Somerton is Anytown, UK – a place where the local kids see the town’s fields as walls, while City Boys plan to escape to it. Only recently, the town has been abnormal, in that it has hosted a pitched battle between politician and plebiscite which has just ended badly for the politician. This sort of thing is unusual in the leafy world of English local councils.

The English social contract is built around a simple swap: a slow pace of change is surrendered for increased material comfort; progress is deliberately slow, and it isn’t unfair to suspect that the slow pace of change in rural communities is deliberate. The state generous provision of subsidy dulls the electorate’s appetite for improvement. While suffrage is universal, the resulting endless tedium frequently returns apathy over policy. Most Brits decline to participate in local government because the rewards are few and the risks plenty. If you are on the planning committee, you might block your neighbor’s application for an extension, which might result in being barred from the local establishment; Half Moon or otherwise. This is a very real check on the officious curtain twitchers who volunteer to ‘serve’ their local communities as councillors. Apathy is mainstream, suffrage universal, and the range of debate narrow.

Somerton, however, has proven to be an exception; there has been an unusual outbreak of political activity in the town recently.

The established facts are as follows:

1. The Parish Council (the area’s ruling body) is no longer quorate following the resignation of 11 of the council’s 15 members on 27 October.

2. The Council’s vice chairman lodged a planning application to develop an area of the town called Badgers’s Cross earlier in the year.

3. Local interest is elevated.  At least 100 people attended both the 27th and the previous meeting, which is at least a two sigma event versus the ‘nearly nobody’ moving average.

4. Electoral turnout is also raised: A third of the electorate participated in a recent election for a vacant council seat. For reference, this is high for what is normally seen as a minor skirmish.

5. A local ‘concerned citizen’ has been blogging about local politics and was mentioned by the BBC as a possible cause of the above resignations. Councillors are reported to be ‘tired of criticism’ from the blogger.

While comparisons to the ‘Dukes of Hazard’ are probably unfair, certain parallels are notable.

Subjects resident in Somerton were apparently not prepared to accept development in Badgers’ Cross.  The issue was sufficiently paramount for the town’s voters to get them out of their homes and into the Council chamber on the evening of the meeting. That the planning applicant was also the Council’s vice chairman is seen – at least by the blogger – as a secondary issue. The outcome of the crowded meeting appears threefold: the failure of the Badger’s Cross Planning Application, the destruction of the council as a quorate body, and an attack against the blogger. A derivative outcome is a considerable amount of anger. Whether a triumph or tragedy, in absolute terms this is a major deal in an area where the local attractions include cheese chasing.

The BBC’s coverage reports the councilors’ dim view of the blogger, whom Harry will defend on the principle of free speech. In my view, the electorate can call a public official whatever it likes; the listener retains the right of discretion and can ignore the speaker at any time. That the blogger has garnered attention to his topic is a function of the validity of his criticism. 100+ people turning up at a council meeting suggests that the electorate cares about proceedings, a situation which should be welcomed by the local public servants. Last time Harry checked, Somerset County practiced a variant of democracy which encourages the electorate to care about the stewardship of the community’s assets; that means the entire community, not just politicians. Equally worth noting is the long tradition of rabble rousing in the field; Somerton having its own answer to Tom Paine is a good thing for the town. Apathetic voters rarely police elected officials and this is not always good for the municipality.

Bloggers are apparently a new feature in the Somerton debate, but are not so in Boston. Compare the coverage of Muck&Brass to the near reverence awarded by the Boston press to the Allson-Brighton Community Blog. A major issue in the current Boston City Council race in the city’s 9th District is the Redevelopment Authority’s desire to build a large mixed use development by the Charles River.  Locals are incensed; The ABCB is in the heart of the story and has done work of real value to expose the BRA’s intention to ignore the local voice. So good is the ABCB that the local journos suicidally recycle the site into column inches. The local authorities take the site’s postings seriously and typically attempt to engage the electorate via responses to its posts. Meanwhile, back in Somerset, the enabling nature of the technology has crowds turning up at council meetings, subsequently producing en masse resignations. Harry can find no blog rebutting Muck&Brass, but would welcome the voice.

Democracy works because it encourages debate. Attempting to silence stakeholder voices, even with implied disapproval, is undemocratic. There is appetite for change and improvement in every society and English local councils are no exception. Systems which fail to deliver improvements to voters are doomed to fail, and in this includes local government in England. Episodes which challenge the common view that the English local voter is locked in a persistent vegetative state are rare; Harry welcomes them as evidence that the system cries out for much needed reform.