I’ll write a bit more about this story in due course, but in the meantime here’s the link to the Guardian’s story this morning about Barnet’s “easyCouncil” plans. The Guardian’s Robert Booth reports: 

Barnet wants householders to pay extra to jump the queue for planning consents, in the way budget airlines charge extra for priority boarding. And as budget airline passengers choose to spend their budget on either flying at peaktime or having an in-flight meal, recipients of adult social care in Barnet will choose to spend a limited budget on whether to have a cleaner or a respite carer or even a holiday to Eastbourne.

Barnet council are not unrepresentative chancers – their leader is a Parliamentary candidate in a seat Cameron wants to win; and their Mayor is Boris Johnson’s appointee to run the London fire service.

More here. 

And more on this later.