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Burying bad news?
You'll remember this famous expression one of Tony Blair's spin doctors used after the twin towers of the World Trade Centre collapsed.
It meant news stories that had to be released but might lead to bad headlines for the government should be slipped out when all the papers were being dominated by another major story. The hope being they wouldn't get noticed.
Of course at that time, due to the inappropriate use of the term that particular employee had to go, but the practice became synonymous with the Blair era.
I suspect the LibDem council has benefited from buried news over Christmas.
For the first time in ages I didn't get the most recent local paper, and I would guess that the sales figures for it would be one of the lowest of the year, due to everyone having other priorities over Christmas. But a quick surf of the website shows a plethora of stories that the council wouldn't want a lot of publicity for.
For example, there's a story about all the dates being unconfirmed for Airbourne, the beer festival and other major Eastbourne festivals. This is leading to speculation that the council is considering cancelling them altogether. I'm sure it's not the case, but I, along with everyone else in Eastbourne will be watching closely in the New Year.
Also, our MP Nigel Waterson has rightly laid into the council over the sale of Eastbourne Buses – saying that the council have 'sold the family silver'. The deal that the Council have done is beginning to become clear, and it seems they have taken the better of two offers on the table, but that in itself doesn't make it a good deal.
This is another area that needs to be dissected fully to ensure Eastbourne taxpayers haven't got a raw deal. Eastbourne Buses is (or was) the oldest municipal bus company in the world, and if local people have lost that status without rock solid guarantees on keeping routes, and retaining the best services, the council will have a lot to answer for.
And the council have overspent their budget by 368,000 with three months still to go – that's not counting the 360,000 cock-up over Airbourne.
It's not looking good for the Borough Council at the moment – I bet they're glad they haven't got elections this year!
Mind you at least they kept the Christmas and Boxing Day bandstand concerts – I was there on Christmas Day and it was a great atmosphere – even YMCA seemed to go down well! (not quite my idea of a Christmas carol – but good fun nonetheless)!
Next week in this column I'll be reviewing my 2008 predictions to see how many came to pass – as well as giving some predictions for the coming year. In the meantime, Happy New Year friends.
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Weather for Eastbourne
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 13 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 23 mph
Wind direction: East
Tomorrow
Sunny
Temperature: 11 C to 20 C
Wind Speed: 14 mph
Wind direction: South east
