What is the difference between the Current Leader model and the Directly Elected Mayor model?
We found this very useful: It’s a briefing paper from the website of Briefing on proposals for directly elected mayors November, 2011 Background The legislation allowing for directly elected mayors has been in place since 2000. Since the powers were introduced 37 referendums have taken place. 24 have been rejected and 13 approved. Currently 14 [...]
Julia Higginbottom Speech from Brum Debate event 15/4/2012
Welcome to the beautiful and hallowed place of the Town Hall Birmingham, a fitting place to have this debate. The Town Hall opened in 1834, when Birmingham was at the forefront of the protests for national democratic reform, It was an important symbol for the City of Birmingham and was the place where local government [...]
A bit of ‘Meat’ to the #jobsmayor discussion
The British are not, by and large good at political theory, it is why we have an Unwritten Constitution. It is, therefore, no surprise that the mayoral debate has been as much, if not more about practical as theoretical matters. Of late, attention has begun to focus upon the economy and the high level of [...]
The Birmingham Chamber’s Katie Teasdale adds this to our #jobsmayor discussion
Any number of success stories from Chamberlain’s Birmingham to the contemporary examples of New York, Auckland and London trip off the tongue as examples of cities which underwent an economic renaissance under a directly elected mayor. The Chamber was founded almost 200 years ago to create the best environment for business in our city. This [...]
A response to Martin Mullaney’s Guest Post in the Chamberlain File-By Alex Burrows
Councillor Mullaney makes a plea for retaining the power of Birmingham’s 120 local councillors in his recent blogpost for The Chamberlain Files. Given the effectiveness of the Council to date it seems odd for him to think that is an appealing argument to ordinary Brummies. That we also benefit from voting 3 years in 4 [...]
Fundraising kicks of for grassroots campaigning
Yes To Birmingham Mayor Campaign launches 1st fundraising drive. The referendum to choose to elect a Mayor for Birmingham or not happens on May 3rd 2012. We launched the Yes campaign in August last year and our activities have been entirely volunteer driven and with no costs associated at all. The reach through social media [...]
Alex Burrows answers the No Campaign on Corruption
I will declare an obvious interest which is that I am part of the Yes to a Birmingham Mayor campaign before commenting on the no to a power freak organisation’s entertaining top 10 naughty American mayors. While entertaining, it is an utterly weak argument based on a couple of very curious premises: (1) a democratically [...]
Alex Burrows: Green light for the Mayor referendum and other news
The Localism Act has now become law and we are delighted to have the final confirmation that a referendum will take place in Birmingham next May for Brummies to decide if they want an elected Mayor. It also appears that if Birmingham votes Yes in May 2012 that the actual election for the Mayor will [...]
Julia Higginbottom: Locals to decide powers, Greg Clark asks for your input.
We have been promoting the idea of a directly elected mayor to the city and one of the main tenets of the campaign has been that local people will get to influence the powers that their newly elected Mayor will have too. Greg Clark has been talking to the press about this and in conjunction [...]
Phil Parkin-Response to No Camp
With the mayoral referendum looming on the horizon, it’s good to see the nascent ‘no’ campaign start to get itself established and argue the case against elected mayors. Whilst I don’t agree with their arguments, being firmly in the ‘yes’ camp and believing that an elected mayor would be beneficial for Birmingham, this is, nonetheless, [...]
