Always beware, as my misquote of Disraeli indicates, of politicians using statistics. A case in point is a speech made by Lib Dem Cllr Comer at the last Council Meeting.
Let me set the context. The Tories put forward a motion about ‘unreasonable absence’ by councillors. This has been based in recent examples of councillors no longer being available to their constituents either by being ‘at Her Majesties pleasure’ or having moved out of the country for extended periods. This would, in the past, have caught a Lib Dem and a Labour member in it’s net. It could also be interpreted as an attempt to hook Ashley Councillor Shirley Brown (nee Marshall). Who, it is alleged, has resided extensively in the USA since her marriage.
Back to Cllr Comers speech. He produced a table that showed all those who had missed committee meetings during the year. He wasn’t naming names but the table did show that the top three absentees were not members of the Lib Dems. This table proved that the attacks on Shirley ‘gave a false picture’ and ’the reality of the statistics’ corrected these false assumptions and ensured that ‘different standards’ were not being applied to members i.e. Shirley.
I must confess the contents of the table did surprise me. I had fully expected Shirley to be top of the non attendee list. So I did some digging.
Firstly his definition; he includes only committee meetings, not full council. He includes those meetings where a councillor has sent a substitute, a usual practice when a councillor is ill. So if a councillor is ill for an extended period, which has happened to a Tory and a couple of Labour members, they would be near the top of Cllr Comers list.
Now lets look at Shirley and see if ‘different standards’ have been applied to her and if the ‘reality of the statistics’ corrects any ‘false picture’ of her attendance.
Firstly I can confirm that Shirley’s attendance at committee meeting is 100%. That is because she does not belong to a single committee- not one – zero.
So the Lib Dems have attempted to spin the facts about a Councillor who they have kinivied to allow to take no part in council matters, whose attendance at full council is the worst on the city and has been unavailable to her constituents for months on end, into an attack on the attendance of sick Labour and Tory members. It’s almost brilliant! But oh so typical of those nice cuddly Liberal Democrats.
