The Mayor, Malcolm Noonan, has been a very busy man since taking up office in June, but he has quite a way to go before he catches up with Peter Davies, the new Mayor of Doncaster.
On his first morning in office he cut his own salary from £73,000 to £30,000 and then scrapped the Council's newspaper for “peddling politics on the rates.”
That was just the start. Three weeks later he announced plans to cut the number of councillors from 63 to 21, saying, “If 100 Senators can run the United States of America, I can't see how 63 councillors are needed to run Doncaster”.
Next up was withdrawal from UK's Local Government Association, describing them as “just talking shops”, saving another £200,000.
We never got too caught up in the whole twinning business here in Kilkenny. As far as I know there's some arrangement with a little town called Moret-sur-Loing (population 4,587 ) somewhere in France, but they seem to leave us alone most of the time. There's also a link with Leicester and that seems to be it.
Not so over in Doncaster, which is currently twinned with nine cities around the globe. The list of cities includes Dandong (China ), Avion (France ), Gliwice (Poland ), Herten (Germany ) and Wilmington in North Carolina, USA. You'd want to have the suitcase permanently packed and ready to go if you're a member of Doncaster Council. No wonder the local soccer team is called Doncaster Rovers.
“Doncaster is in for some serious untwinning,” says Mayor Davies. “We are twinned with nine other cities around the world and they are just for people to fly off and have a binge at the council's expense.”
It doesn't look as if there will be too many parties or receptions hosted by Mr Davies during his term of office. He has promised to end council funding for Doncaster's International Women's Day, Black History Month and the Lesbian, Gay and Transgender History Month.
Let's make Mr Davies an offer and get him over here! Can you imagine putting him in charge of FAS or making him chief executive of one of our banks?
Decisions, decisions
I thought I had a bit of a dilemma to sort out last week. Would I go out and celebrate Arthur's Day on Thursday or wait and get a blast of the arts during Culture Night on Friday? As it turned out there was no decision to be made. Kilkenny, supposedly the arts and cultural hub of the country, wasn't taking part in Culture Night 2009. Mayo, Cork, Galway, Letterkenny, Limerick, Roscommon, Sligo, Tralee, Wexford, Waterford, Belfast and Dublin were all on board, but nothing in Kilkenny, during this, the 400th anniversary as a city. The only artistic effort I saw on Friday night was a colourful hen party and they seem to be getting scarcer by the week also.
James McMurtry
“The billionaires get to pay less tax
The working poor get to fall through the cracks
So that’s how it is, that’s what we got
If the president wants to admit it or not.
You can read it in the paper, read it on the wall
Hear it on the wind if you’re listening at all.
Get out of that limo, look us in the eye
Call us on the cell phone, tell us all why?”
Part of the lyrics to “We can't make it here” by American singer James McMurtry, son of the writer, Larry McMurtry. No one seems to be writing protest songs here anymore about the state of the country. We used to rely on singers like Christy Moore or Andy Irvine to sing about the issues of the day, but despite the goings on in the Government and banks, there's not a hint of a song of protest.
James McMurtry will be appearing with his band, including Ian MacLagan of The Faces, at The Set Theatre on Wednesday 14 October. Whether you go along for a bunch of songs that mean something, or just to enjoy a rocking American band, this is one not to be missed.
