THE "B" AGENDA
The council position
This is ostensibly created by the council to protect the rights of those who are brought before the committee. They are being accorded anonymity so that the innocent are protected.
The reality.
The single biggest instrument of control in the process is the use of the "B" Agenda.
By being placed on the "B" Agenda the signal is deliberately sent out to the alleged miscreant is that he should feel some shame, his mindset is being manipulated that he has indeed fallen foul of the rules and he needs to be dealt with. His misdemeanour is therefore fixed in his mind and he is on the backfoot. Initial reaction is usually to seek expensive legal help to aid him through the process.
However, the truth is the "B" Agenda doesn't protect licence holders, it protects the council. Because the secrecy allows the councillors on the kangaroo court to conduct themselves as they see fit, in the full and certain knowledge that no real record of what transpired has been made - the council is notorious for hiding matters in skeleton minutes.
No register of cases is kept, therefore no thresholds exist, no benchmarks and no precedent. There is therefore no means whereby comparisons can be made to prove the integrity of the system, as would happen in a real judicial system. This gives councillors carte blanche and, as we have seen above, they exercise their authority accordinglyin at their whim in a wholly draconian manner.
Take the case of the over officious commissionaire. Why would anyone have to explain such an uncorroborated complaint in the first place, but why would there be any problem in having this matter dealt with in open session?
Who really benefits? The licence holder who has done nothing except deal with a frivolous complaint by a doorman acting beyond his remit? Or councillors who don't want to be stiffing people, taking away livelihoods and treating licence holders as second class citizens in public?
Much easier to do your dirty work in private. Then your lack of professional training, your lack of integrity, your lack of common decency, your officious conduct isn't there for all to see.
This part of the process is like taking licence holders behind the bicycle sheds, duffing them up, taking away his bicycle and then re-emerging with the appearance that you did nothing wrong, smiling and saying, "don't ask".
The need here is for all cases to be heard publicly, which is good enough for a court of Law.
Then we will be able to record the full actions of these council officials, record each case and hold them to account for their conduct, and for pursuing frivolous complaints thereby creating unnecessary and unwarranted stress for licence holders.
The key is that licences are a right, not the gift of the council. Your Human Rights are a right, not the gift of government.
Councillors are not masters, they are public servants. They exist because we charge them to oversee the process, not abuse it to help their friends while stiffing those whom they dislike or feels superior to.
Time for change.
