All right for some

 By New Worker correspondent

A group of public servants have won inflation-busting pay rises. These are councillors in the London Borough of Camden where they voted themselves a considerable, if unevenly distributed, increase.

The council leader will get an increase in her allowance from £29,000 to £40,000, whilst cabinet members will get a 54 per cent rise from £16,275 to £25,000. Committee chairs will get a 66 per cent to £9,000 from a piddling £5,500.

Humble backbench councillors will only get an extra £451 per year more, taking them above £10,000 per year for the first time.

The vote for the rise was 27–5. The five who voted against were all Tories who might have been upset at missing out because they are not in power. Twenty-two other councillors did not take part; they were mostly Labour councillors keen to maintain their lefty street cred. Instead of a formal walkout some headed to the toilet or attended to urgent business in their offices. If one was a cynic one might think that those opposing the rise made sure that their numbers were not large enough to ensure that the measure was actually defeated, or that they were motivated by the distribution of the rise that went almost entirely to ruling senior figures.

One of the ruling Labour councillors, the Cabinet Officer, let the cat out of the bag when he publicly boasted of his excitement about booking a holiday in Brazil as soon as the rise was suggested in a council committee.

The Tories said the budget for allowances should not increase but that underspends in the finances should be “shared equally” across all councillors.