Peter Kent-Baguley

BIAS WATCH: Bias bashing bonanza

From now until the 23rd October referendum on the future form of governance for the City council there will undoubtedly be increasingly shrill cries of "bias" and even perhaps the occasional yell of "lies"! Much of the material will be garnered from the local daily newspaper and maybe the local BBC radio station. The local paper certainly hit the tracks in fine style yesterday. Within an eye-catching dotted box, usually indicative of a free coupon offer, the paper attempted to summarise the essence of each of the two options allowed by the government and thus point up the difference. No matter that they put the elected mayor and cabinet option first, and with two more lines than council leader and cabinet option next because we don't want this bias watch to become pettiness incarnate. No, the real subtle bias lies in describing the origins of the cabinets for the two systems.

For the elected mayor option: "He or she will ...employ a cabinet of advisers to help in the decision-making process."  What about the council leader option? "They (sic) will work with a cabinet of council members to decide on council policy and make decisions affecting the running of the city."

Curiously a single leader is referred to plurally as "they". Since supporters of the mayor and cabinet system seem to have a pathological hatred of the 60 democratically elected councillors they cannot even bring themselves to admit that the elected mayor "will work with a cabinet of council members"! It would serve the local paper right if it were flooded with requests about the employment conditions for the mayor's cabinet and how the application forms for the advisers jobs will be made available!