The Prout and Pooter Show Goes Badly Wrong

left: Prout creates a Rout
The unlamented and unqualified David Prout who gained the reputation as a less than useful Rotten Borough planning chief( he moved before his uselessness was outed) became director-general of Localism at the Communities and Local Government Dept. No one is quite sure what he does for his £200k a year salary but making very foolish comments would seem a job he excels at. But then having spent years working for the idiotic John Prescott something is bound to rub off!
Speaking at the local infrastructure body Navca’s annual conference in London yesterday (22 November) he came out with the gem that councillors were actually volunteers!
Sajid Hashmi, chief executive of Voluntary Action Stoke-on-Trent, said he was alarmed by the comments and could not see how councillors could be part of the voluntary sector. Prouts' comments were greeted by some gasps of disbelief and gales of laughter among delegates
Fortunately-or perhaps not so fortunately, Sir Pooter Cockell was in the audience and we all know what a big volunteer he is. Firstly, he 'volunteers' for a £70,000 a year allowance as RBKC leader and then 'volunteers' for a further £53,000 as chairman of the Local Government Association.
Coming to the hapless Prout’s defence Sir Pooter- tongue in cheek, said

"It worries me that in an audience like this, there is suspicion about the motives of councillors," he said. Most councillors, said Cockell, came from community activism backgrounds. Or like him are failed businessmen who can't find any other income generative source.
We all know the only activism that Cockell knows is getting a level of allowance to ensure he lives 'on the hog'. And on close to £130,000 a year he does just that.

Sara Ruiz director of Newham Voluntary Sector Consortium, quickly put Cockell right. She said it was wrong to describe councillors’ community service as volunteering. She said councillors in the London borough of Newham received annual allowances of about £25,000 on average and more than £50,000 in some cases. "That isn’t volunteering," she said.
It is fortunate she did not know about some of the other juicy £50,000 plus 'volunteer' councillor sycophants Pooter surrounds himself with.....