Mayor Making
I'm back in Birmingham after attending my father's Mayor Making, which happened on Tuesday and also coincided with the Annual Council of the Borough of Islington. That being the one occasion in the year where the entire council gets together and votes effectively on who will be on the autocratic ruling committee known as the Executive Committee, making all the decisions for the next year. It's wonderful to see Democracy in action, isn't it?
They also elect the Mayor for the year. The Mayor duties are two sided: presiding over Full Council and fulfilling a ceremonial role.
In the former, the Mayor acts like a chairperson, keeping people to time, making sure people are heard, maintaining decorum in the chamber etc, thus the Mayor is a position, more than any other, in which goodwill between parties can be created and destroyed and in which it is important to have some level of cross party support. The Mayor also has the casting vote among the 48 councillors and, as Islington is a hung Council (24 Lib Dem, 23 Labour, 1 Green), this is the only way the Lib Dems have been able to keep control of the Executive Committee and therefore the Council (note, it's perhaps ironic that Labour were the ones to bring in the Executive Committee as a form of denying the then fledgeling Lib Dems any influence in the Council...)
In the later duties, the Mayor effectively acts like the personal embodiment of the concept of the non-corporeal entity known as the London Borough of Islington. It's strange, but people do still seem to react to other people better, and pageantry and symbolism still awe people. It should be fairly obvious that the Mayor as a Councillor, attending some ceremony or award etc, isn't going to care, understand or be interested in whatever has been achieved. However, dress them up in robes, stick a great big gold chain around their neck and make them wear a silly hat and they become something greater than themselves and their attendance becomes meaningful. The Mayor also uses the ceremonial role to help a charity and can entertain guests in the Mayor's Parlour.
The event itself was very cool. pplfichi was there, along with my cousin Marta and pretty much all the family in England attended, including my uncles and aunts on my grandad's side, who I don't get to see often. It was good to see them and it felt so good that they came to support my dad. The event was also attended by the Polish Consul (the Ambassador was meant to come but didn't, which was all very well because the thought that she would come made the council officers shit themselves). The outgoing Mayor made some speeches, which were a bit long but not too dull and there were speeches of thanks from both sides of the chamber. Apparently, the outgoing Mayor had made a point to invite Labour Councillors to events in her parlour and had been a fair chairwoman. The leader of the opposition also took the time to talk about dad as the prospective Mayoral candidate who would probably win and said some nice things about him. Scarily, I was mentioned as the "apple of his eye". Eeek, so much for anonymity. This was later somewhat deflated when she walked out past me and pplfichi and called him me. Well, I suppose that's an easy mistake to make since pplfichi gets to see more of my dad then I do...
After the speeches, both sides were asked to propose and second candidates of their choice for Mayor. My dad's ward co-Councillor stood up and gave a really nice speech about dad. It started off by comparing him to Boris Johnson (eh?!), generally to do with the hair and general disarray, on which she had a point. However, she soon branched off that topic and the speech more or less confirmed my picture of my father, gathered through long conversation and seeing him in action: the fair, moral voice of the group, who's never going to allowed any real power for that reason and isn't ruthless enough to be successful but has the respect of the group and every so often shames the group into a new direction when they get too ruthless themselves. The opposition voiced their candidate and the vote was taken (25-24 for dad, the Mayor's casting vote deciding it in his favour) and dad was elected Mayor. The outgoing Mayor left with dad and dad came back, dressed in all the regalia. I was very proud. Dad then gave a speech, citing his roots as son of Polish immigrants and talking about Islington's cultural diversity and acceptance. Twas very cool. *sniffle*
Finally, the Mayor called for a vote on the leader of the Council (which went to, well, guess...) and several appointments were debated, the nice atmosphere degenerating into a somewhat barbed one (it should be noted that the governing and opposition groups in Islington have a lot of bad history between them and that the current bad treatment is considered to be retribution for past treatment when the tables were turned, this being a lesson that, if you go into politics, be nice to the opposition, for some day, you may be the opposition too).
Then the Council ended and we buggered off to get some food while Mum and Dad swanned around being important :) The longest title I can get for my dad (that he has every right to use) is His Worship, the First Citizen of the London borough of Islington, Councillor Kasprzyk. If you ever meet a Mayor, the correct form of address is Your Worship, or Mr/Ms Mayor. Strangely, people seem to like using Your Worshipfulness quite a lot, although this is not required :D The Polish newspapers were out in force and taking lots of photographs. At a time when Polish immigrants are more numerous then they have ever been, the election of a Polish Mayor is big news to them and there's a small non-zeor chance that my picture may have ended up in the newspaper :S I ate, chatted with pplfichi, chatted with my family and just generally tried to be lovely, charming and subtly sarcastic, which worked for me really well that night. I also met and chatted with Euan, one of dad's ex-co-Councillors who got unelected when the Lib Dems nearly lost control of the Council last election, who had the attitude that he was going to get his council-tax's worth by drinking as much as he could that night. This seems to be a more common attitude among attendees than you would think...
It was a good occasion, and I got to see more about the intricate workings of our great Democracy. I hope you found it interesting too.
They also elect the Mayor for the year. The Mayor duties are two sided: presiding over Full Council and fulfilling a ceremonial role.
In the former, the Mayor acts like a chairperson, keeping people to time, making sure people are heard, maintaining decorum in the chamber etc, thus the Mayor is a position, more than any other, in which goodwill between parties can be created and destroyed and in which it is important to have some level of cross party support. The Mayor also has the casting vote among the 48 councillors and, as Islington is a hung Council (24 Lib Dem, 23 Labour, 1 Green), this is the only way the Lib Dems have been able to keep control of the Executive Committee and therefore the Council (note, it's perhaps ironic that Labour were the ones to bring in the Executive Committee as a form of denying the then fledgeling Lib Dems any influence in the Council...)
In the later duties, the Mayor effectively acts like the personal embodiment of the concept of the non-corporeal entity known as the London Borough of Islington. It's strange, but people do still seem to react to other people better, and pageantry and symbolism still awe people. It should be fairly obvious that the Mayor as a Councillor, attending some ceremony or award etc, isn't going to care, understand or be interested in whatever has been achieved. However, dress them up in robes, stick a great big gold chain around their neck and make them wear a silly hat and they become something greater than themselves and their attendance becomes meaningful. The Mayor also uses the ceremonial role to help a charity and can entertain guests in the Mayor's Parlour.
The event itself was very cool. pplfichi was there, along with my cousin Marta and pretty much all the family in England attended, including my uncles and aunts on my grandad's side, who I don't get to see often. It was good to see them and it felt so good that they came to support my dad. The event was also attended by the Polish Consul (the Ambassador was meant to come but didn't, which was all very well because the thought that she would come made the council officers shit themselves). The outgoing Mayor made some speeches, which were a bit long but not too dull and there were speeches of thanks from both sides of the chamber. Apparently, the outgoing Mayor had made a point to invite Labour Councillors to events in her parlour and had been a fair chairwoman. The leader of the opposition also took the time to talk about dad as the prospective Mayoral candidate who would probably win and said some nice things about him. Scarily, I was mentioned as the "apple of his eye". Eeek, so much for anonymity. This was later somewhat deflated when she walked out past me and pplfichi and called him me. Well, I suppose that's an easy mistake to make since pplfichi gets to see more of my dad then I do...
After the speeches, both sides were asked to propose and second candidates of their choice for Mayor. My dad's ward co-Councillor stood up and gave a really nice speech about dad. It started off by comparing him to Boris Johnson (eh?!), generally to do with the hair and general disarray, on which she had a point. However, she soon branched off that topic and the speech more or less confirmed my picture of my father, gathered through long conversation and seeing him in action: the fair, moral voice of the group, who's never going to allowed any real power for that reason and isn't ruthless enough to be successful but has the respect of the group and every so often shames the group into a new direction when they get too ruthless themselves. The opposition voiced their candidate and the vote was taken (25-24 for dad, the Mayor's casting vote deciding it in his favour) and dad was elected Mayor. The outgoing Mayor left with dad and dad came back, dressed in all the regalia. I was very proud. Dad then gave a speech, citing his roots as son of Polish immigrants and talking about Islington's cultural diversity and acceptance. Twas very cool. *sniffle*
Finally, the Mayor called for a vote on the leader of the Council (which went to, well, guess...) and several appointments were debated, the nice atmosphere degenerating into a somewhat barbed one (it should be noted that the governing and opposition groups in Islington have a lot of bad history between them and that the current bad treatment is considered to be retribution for past treatment when the tables were turned, this being a lesson that, if you go into politics, be nice to the opposition, for some day, you may be the opposition too).
Then the Council ended and we buggered off to get some food while Mum and Dad swanned around being important :) The longest title I can get for my dad (that he has every right to use) is His Worship, the First Citizen of the London borough of Islington, Councillor Kasprzyk. If you ever meet a Mayor, the correct form of address is Your Worship, or Mr/Ms Mayor. Strangely, people seem to like using Your Worshipfulness quite a lot, although this is not required :D The Polish newspapers were out in force and taking lots of photographs. At a time when Polish immigrants are more numerous then they have ever been, the election of a Polish Mayor is big news to them and there's a small non-zeor chance that my picture may have ended up in the newspaper :S I ate, chatted with pplfichi, chatted with my family and just generally tried to be lovely, charming and subtly sarcastic, which worked for me really well that night. I also met and chatted with Euan, one of dad's ex-co-Councillors who got unelected when the Lib Dems nearly lost control of the Council last election, who had the attitude that he was going to get his council-tax's worth by drinking as much as he could that night. This seems to be a more common attitude among attendees than you would think...
It was a good occasion, and I got to see more about the intricate workings of our great Democracy. I hope you found it interesting too.