Now Children, are you listening?

Heres something from the last council meeting:

Right then settle down, now I shall begin.

Er, Palmer, sit down will you, oh sorry, you are, just that your head is way above the others.

Now, as you know to be a good councillor you need to engage with your constituents, listen to their concerns, and hold surgeries. Well, you don't do any of that, but you do make use of the subsidised computer equipment, paid for technology all loving supplied to you by the generous tax payers of the borough.

Now take this paper and pass along to the boy or girl next to you will. No Marshall, dont turn it into a paper plane, take one and pass the rest along.

Thats good, now read it because this tells you how you should be using your paid for or subsidised computers and the like, and I would like to draw your attention to 2.1(i) that says not to send anything that is likely to bring the council embarrassment or into disrepute.

Now settle down, children. Dont worry Carol, there is an explantion of the big words at the end of that section, but its ok, it doesnt make any rules about your LibDem "two horse race" images downloaded from EARS.

Now that got Hornet kind of wondering.....

Firstly the scandal that cost the seats of Daley and Phelps happened in June, although in one of their cases it was maybe a disaster waiting to happen long before that. So why the hell has it taken the council SIX MONTHS to come up with the "Code of Conduct for Members Use of IT"?

Secondly, what methods are there in place to police this new regime? What monitoring is there and what sanctions are there to punish errant bungling councillors who fall foul of the new regime? Councillors can by and large do what they want, they are the bosses of the council workers, and cannot be "fired", so who polices the police?

Thirdly, professional firms in the "real world" have as part of their contracts of employment "Use of IT Facilities" and this states quite clearly what they can and cannot do. Why did it take the likes of Phelps and Daley doing what they did for the council to be dragged into the 21st century?