Is Brighton and Hove council, Britain’s first Green Party, a good example of what will happen when councils get more powers and freedom to do their own thing? Apparently, they’ve upset their refuse collectors by declaring Mondays a meat free day in the council’s canteen – along with the rest of their borough incidentally.
We all know that councils run by minority parties and groups can come with some wacky ideas sometimes, but once all councils get their hands on the business rates cash, I’ve a suspicion some mainstream ones will be following suit.
In defence of the little guys, in the past, it’s been the extreme behaviour of councils run by mainstream parties, such as Liverpool and Lambeth, that led Maggie Thatcher to centralise the business rates in the first place.

Heaven help the taxpayers!