He's Young, He's Brash and He's Proud To Be Ginger.  But Then This Is 2008!

Diversity is all the rage these days especially in recruitment. Organisations go to enormous lengths to to ensure that no petty prejudices are allowed to influence any decisions affecting people - and rightly so. Ethnicity, gender, disability and sexual orientation should (in theory) no longer play a part in either recruitment or career prospects. However, as Catherine Tate so ably demonstrates, there is one minority group who still suffer the stigma of personal circumstances over which they have no control - the Ginger Community. Regrettably, it appears to be his own labour group that is having the most difficulty in accepting Cllr Brash as its leader and accepting that even ginger people are entitled to play a role in the community.

No-one knows for sure how it was that Cllr Jonathon Brash found himself elected as leader of the Labour Group. The most common theory is that between the rush of people making it clear that they did not want the job and the unpopularity of the people who did; somehow Cllr Brash managed to sneak through on the inside track to claim the poison chalice. If there was any white smoke seen coming from the chimney, it was more likely to have been nothing more than the rush of condensing breath from the people in the room below gasping as they realised just who it was they had elected.

Rumblings of discontent began almost immediately. He was too young. Too naive. Too much of a wind-bag. A Top-Hat Socialist. Too educated. He pronounces Hartlepool with an 'H'. And worst of all - Yee Gods, he was Ginger!  Presumably, the Top-Hat Socialist remark came from one of the all too many members of the labour group who remember when people still wore such apparel.

Cllr Marjorie James ' . . said to pay little attention to labour's new leader. . "

Cllr Chris Simmons ' . . busily training himself up. . "

Cllr Robbie Payne ' . . eyeing up the Mayor's job. . "

Elected he may have been, but consolidating his position as leader of the labour group has proven to be more problematic. The older labour members are apparently particularly dismissive of the young gun.

Cllr Marjorie James, who has been busy building her own power base through an expanding scrutiny function, is said to have coveted the leadership for some time. Not surprisingly then, she is thought to pay little attention to Cllr Brash's utterances. Indeed, the olive branch held out by Cllr Brash appears to have been swallowed, digested and regurgitated at his feet within a matter seconds by the said Ms James. Mad Dog's' problem is that leadership contests can be little more than popularity contests. This leaves her own best chance of winning being a sudden outbreak of Ebola virus at the Civic Centre.

The Dark Horse in all this appears to be Cllr Chris Simmons who is hoping to make up for a failed vaudeville act by securing a future leadership contest. No doubt hoping to pick up both the geriatric and anti-youth vote, Cllr Simmons is apparently busily training himself up for the job by sticking his nose in everywhere. Whether he fully appreciates all of the places where he will have to stick his nose in order to get elected remains to be seen.

Perhaps one of the more interesting aspects of the change in leadership is the attitudes of the party's previous leading lights. Cllr Carl Richardson appears to be pre-occupied with ploughing through his recently acquired copy of 'Chairmanship For Dummies' where it is rumoured he has reached Page 37.

Cllr Peter Jackson is said to have become disillusioned and is considering a possible move to a Kibbutz.

Cllr Wallace settled some time ago for pursuing his hobby of trying to appear clever through making cheap quips at meetings and in maintaining his obsession with Cllr Allison.

The only ex-leading light who seems to maintain any ambition is Cllr Robbie Payne. The finance portfolio holder apparently searches daily for any subject over which he can fall out with current Mayor, Stuart Drummond; possibly with his own eye on the 2009 Mayoral election.

So where does all this leave young Brash?

Well, wearing a Kevlar waist-jacket would seem like a prudent idea; if only to defend himself from any kitchen knives seeking to separate his vertebrae. It probably all rather depends on his ability to exert control and discipline over his flock. To which end, he may well find that a scrabble-like vocabulary is not enough. It is perhaps the less savoury aspect of political leadership that he needs to learn quickly if he is to survive what one of his predecessors described as the 'snake-pit' of labour group politics.

Perhaps he too has his eye on the £70,000 a year Mayor's job. After all, having positioned himself as labour leader, he is now well placed to seek the labour nomination. With a labour group split between those who support him and those who would like to see the back of him, he would seem to be set for a fair wind should he decide to seek the nomination. But then that's the trouble with the Mayor's job - since Drummond's election, there are now 93,000 people who believe they could do it just as well.

Stop Press: The rumour mill is suggesting that young Brash is off to Cumbria to pursue his career but he's adamant it isn't true - so come on, Marjorie - stop filling in job applications for other people!.

Black Cat