00:00Well, it's taken a month, but Birmingham finally has new leadership, with the Greens, Liberal Democrats and some independents now
00:08running it together as a minority administration.
00:12So we've got this coalition of sort of led by Roger Harmer and a sort of deputy, he's from the
00:17Liberal Democrats, by the way, and there's a deputy from Julian Pritchard from the Greens and a sort of a
00:22cluster of independents, which are only sort of going to be 40 of the sort of elected councillors.
00:27Remember, this is the Birmingham City Council, 101 seats, so even with this coalition of sorts, if I can call
00:34it that, this grouping, it's still well short of having sort of an overall majority.
00:38Now, this is absolutely fine, and of course they will have a number of things that they need to do,
00:42primarily of which of course is the bins dispute or the refuse dispute, so people want to sort of go
00:47back to having sort of regularity in terms of collections, although that's not so bad, but certainly in terms of
00:52recycling, which we've not had for well over a year.
00:55Notwithstanding that, there was a number of other things that sort of Boeing needs to do.
00:58Well, the new administration takes over a council still under Government Commissioner oversight after its 2023 Section 114 notice, with
01:09pressure over finances, cuts, equal pay liabilities and the long-running bin dispute.
01:15The new leadership says basic services are a priority, but without a majority, it will need support from others to
01:23pass key decisions.
01:24And of course, what it's always about is confidence to sort of outsiders to invest in the city, because of
01:30course they want stability, and why do I say that?
01:32Well, when you've got a sort of coalition of sort of varying interests and different sort of groups which want
01:38different things, you have to compromise, and in any coalition there's always a sort of danger that they fall out
01:44about something, and then the sort of coalition sort of collapses, and then you're back to sort of the chaos
01:48that we've sort of seen in recent weeks.
01:49There's a difficult agenda, and it's not been made one iota easier by the fact that we, as I say,
01:55you have to sort of put together this loose coalition of sort of interest groups.
02:01And of course, the real test is how long will it last?
02:03Would it make any difference if we had another election?
02:06No, of course, because people probably vote very similarly, and maybe we even get more fragmentation, but it's hard to
02:11sort of see.
02:12And perhaps finally, just to say, what we're seeing in Birmingham is what we'll probably like to see in the
02:18next general election, very difficult to sort of see any sort of party getting an overall majority, and there, of
02:23course, we enter into coalitions.
02:25And if you want me to make an even longer term prediction, for as long as I'm alive, and I'm
02:29not going to sort of put a number of ears on that, I don't expect ever to see another majority
02:34party, or another party with a majority in parliament.
02:37I think we're into the age of sort of a permanent coalition. The end of sort of the two big
02:41parties is over, and as I say, it's about sort of fragmentation and different interest groups, and it does mean
02:47perhaps we should have sort of a system of proportional representation.
02:50But hey, they are bigger questions. At the moment, Birmingham people just want to sort of see stability and moving
02:55forward for the betterment of the citizens and, of course, future generations.
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