Cllr Andrew Marshall recently asked me why I continually refer to Labour Camden's deputy leader Angela Mason as Angela Merkel.
Well, Chancellor Merkel is undoubtedly the most powerful woman in Europe and Cllr Merkel is undoubtedly the power behind the throne at Camden Town Hall. Even before she was elected to Camden Council in May 2010, she was writing a column in the Camden New Journal to say how the previous Conservative-LibDem Administration's 'Better and Cheaper' programme was the wrong strategy for Camden and announcing her intention to set up an 'independent' inquiry into Camden's finances.
The independent inquiry didn't last long as Mrs Merkel was employed by the dreadful quango the IDeA (now 'rebranded' as local government Improvement & Development) and she realised that an IDeA consultant shouldn't really be criticising a top-performing local council in this way. But hats off to her anyway, as it was a more constructive piece of opposition than anything Cllr Theo Blackwell came up with during 2006-2010.
Now, this isn't special treatment I'm giving out here to Mrs Merkel. We've been here before with Camden's former Labour leader Dame Jane Paddington Roberts. Paddington got her nickname for the way she stared intensely at anyone saying anything she found hard to swallow in the council chamber, like a certain bear from darkest Peru.
Now if only Theo remotely resembled anyone remotely interesting, such as Ivor Dembina the Israelian comedian....
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