Bristol Council big budget consultation fraud
chris | 12.07.2010 22:22
'hidden' conversation to co-opt the public's name to cuts
Barely a month after its launch the council is to close its public forum for gathering budget cutting ideas from you, the public. The number of contributors who have managed to access this site is barely 50, a substantial portion of whom are clearly council employees.
Yet, in the near future as the cuts start to tear at the fabric of front-line services and blight the lives of Bristol's vulnerable people and communities, have your ears open for the phrases like "after public consultation" and " having listened to the people of Bristol", the will fall glibly from the public 'servants' who earn more than the Prime-Minister.
Two things only are to be commended about the "Bristol's budget conversation" website recently spawned by the Councils PR section.
First is the audacity of their cynicism, which is truly, in the favoured phrase, "world class".
Second is that in the modern electronic age they have managed to hide its existence so well from the people it purports to represent, and in whose name the axe will swing. I'm sure the Pentagon will soon be after them for their internet encryption skills, may be they could raise some money as information camouflage consultants.
Make no mistake - the scale of the coming cuts is to be severe, and people are going to suffer.
Though not every one of course:"Salaries of Bristol City Council's top 300 wage earners amounts to nearly £17m http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/HEadad-svsdvsdvs/ar....html"
The apparent reason the consultation ends so soon is that shortly after the Council actual spending figures are to be published.
As some of the contributors have pointed out, this refusal to publish the information on which the supposed conversation is based demonstrates exactly how insincere the exercise is - you can't have a proper conversation about anything if you are denied the facts.
It will close in 4 days - on the 16th of July.
Please, please will some one get on to this site and give these people some of the grief they so richly deserve.
It will close in 4 days - on the 16th of July. After that you will have been officially consulted, so it will all be your fault.
http://askbristol.wordpress.com/2010/06/24/bristols-bud...ments
Barely a month after its launch the council is to close its public forum for gathering budget cutting ideas from you, the public. The number of contributors who have managed to access this site is barely 50, a substantial portion of whom are clearly council employees.
Yet, in the near future as the cuts start to tear at the fabric of front-line services and blight the lives of Bristol's vulnerable people and communities, have your ears open for the phrases like "after public consultation" and " having listened to the people of Bristol", the will fall glibly from the public 'servants' who earn more than the Prime-Minister.
Two things only are to be commended about the "Bristol's budget conversation" website recently spawned by the Councils PR section.
First is the audacity of their cynicism, which is truly, in the favoured phrase, "world class".
Second is that in the modern electronic age they have managed to hide its existence so well from the people it purports to represent, and in whose name the axe will swing. I'm sure the Pentagon will soon be after them for their internet encryption skills, may be they could raise some money as information camouflage consultants.
Make no mistake - the scale of the coming cuts is to be severe, and people are going to suffer.
Though not every one of course:"Salaries of Bristol City Council's top 300 wage earners amounts to nearly £17m http://www.thisisbristol.co.uk/news/HEadad-svsdvsdvs/ar....html"
The apparent reason the consultation ends so soon is that shortly after the Council actual spending figures are to be published.
As some of the contributors have pointed out, this refusal to publish the information on which the supposed conversation is based demonstrates exactly how insincere the exercise is - you can't have a proper conversation about anything if you are denied the facts.
It will close in 4 days - on the 16th of July.
Please, please will some one get on to this site and give these people some of the grief they so richly deserve.
It will close in 4 days - on the 16th of July. After that you will have been officially consulted, so it will all be your fault.
http://askbristol.wordpress.com/2010/06/24/bristols-bud...ments
chris
Original article on IMC Bristol:
http://bristol.indymedia.org/article/692721