Strayside Sunday is our weekly political opinion column. It is written by Paul Baverstock, former Director of Communications for the Conservative Party.

Following last week’s column on communitarianism, Shamima Begum and the Culture Wars, a reader emailed me with this missive: “Rubbish! Nowhere near Strayside. Local media should be for local news and opinion.” To spare blushes I won’t name the correspondent, nor share my reply, but I am stung into action. You want local. You’ve got it. I was going to do the most extraordinary budget since the war, or the 1% NHS “pay rise,” but I’ll stick to my Strayside knitting instead.

It must be difficult to be a local councillor. You pound the streets for months ahead of a local election, knocking the doors of mostly disinterested and often unfriendly strangers, canvassing their vote, making your pitch, doing your modest bit for the democratic process. Having convinced fully several hundred of your fellow residents to place their cross next to your name, you’re in. Elected to the Borough Council in the Conservative interest for the Pannal Ward, you take your first tentative steps in politics and, to mix my metaphors, you place both hands on the greasy pole and look upwards. What does the future hold? The heightened anticipation, the possibility, the responsibility, the accountability. The horrible burden of high office.

Councillor John Mann is chair of Harrogate Borough Council’s planning committee. In January the committee gave final approval to developer Berkeley DeVeer (shades of “To The Manor Born?”) to build 14 new homes on land at Rossett Green Lane. The vote was close; 6 in favour, 5 against. Step forward councillor Mann to cast the crucial vote. Were he to vote against, with the ballot tied at 6 for, 6 against, he would, as chair, have had a further and final casting vote. Councillor Mann abstained, ducking the difficult, to the consternation of local residents.

Pressed by emails from “at least” six of his constituents asking why he declined to vote, councillor Mann remained silent. When reached by telephone for comment by a Stray Ferret reporter, the councillor heard the subject and there was suddenly a poor connection and then he put the phone down saying he couldn’t hear the intrepid journo. An immediate subsequent call and voicemail message was ignored. When contacted for their comment Harrogate Borough Council’s press office said it was a matter for Mr. Mann. “Nothing to do with us, Guv” and all that.

You can tell a lot about people in general and even more about their state of mind by seeing what comes up first in their YouTube feed. Latterly I have been through a “Living Large in a Tiny House” stage; in which people create beautifully designed mobile tiny spaces so that they can escape the rat race and move to sites in the great unspoilt outdoors (a condition brought on by lockdown no doubt). Currently I’m going through a Fran Lebowitz phase. A symptom, I’m sure, of my general disappointment in myself, in life and in the actions of my fellow self-identified cis-gendered man. As Ms. Lebowitz says, “You can’t go around hoping that most people have sterling moral characters. The most you can hope for is that people pretend that they do.” In his comedy sketch handling of the Stray Ferret’s enquiries into his accountability lapse over the Rossett Green Lane development, I feel Councillor Mann ditched all such pretence.

I suspect that Councillor Mann simply panicked when he realised he had answered a call from a Stray Ferret journo and I have some small sympathy for him. I’ve been on the receiving end of several uncomfortable encounters with the press. They are no fun. During my blissfully brief time in front line politics I was once confronted by the Daily Mirror on my front door-step. I bluffed my way through it but I was terrified, both in the moment and from that moment until my political irrelevance. Modern politics is not for the faint of heart. It’s a full-contact sport. But that’s because principle, civility and accountability are in short supply among our duly elected; crowded out as they are by pliability, bile and brass neck. In large part our politicians get the coverage they deserve. They also deserve an equal measure of our sympathy to sweeten the bitter taste of our contempt.

Oprah Winfrey’s meeting with the self-obsessed Megan Markel and the increasingly new age Prince Harry (he says he wants their new Archewell podcast to provide a ‘safe space’ in which people can ‘tell their stories’) is not the only ‘event interview’ this week. I’m delighted to be able to report that The Stray Ferret conducted a wide-ranging interview with Harrogate Borough Council Chief Executive Wallace Sampson OBE on Friday. This is great news for local democracy and marks the first time that a senior representative from the council has felt able to speak with this publication. Bravo. Let’s hope the discussion marks the start of a new chapter, one in which visible accountability and open dialogue bring the council and townspeople together in community.

That’s my Strayside Sunday.

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