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No place on the pension panels, by Cemlyn Foulkes

The London ­Pension Fund Authority Green Paper referred to conditional indexing of pensions increases and the ­wider implications of this in relation to pensioner representation (voting) on the Local Government Pension Scheme investment ­panels (‘Local government pension reform “requires independent commission”,’ April 19 2010). Read more...

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FDs do not have ‘right’ to top jobs, by Martin Southwell

It is with some hesitation that I question CIPFA luminary Philip Sellers’ comments on the status and position of local government finance directors in today’s bleak economic environment. Read more...

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Selection of senior staff up to councils, by Michael Keene

No, Philip Sellers, it is not ‘obvious that the finance director is number two in the organisational structure’ (‘There must be room at the top’, Letters June 4–10). Read more...

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PF took my comments out of context, by Heather Wakefield

Your web story, ‘Union members might accept job losses in return for more say’, reports less than 10% of my speech to the CIPFA conference – and so takes the little mentioned entirely out of context. It creates the impression that Unison is prepared to negotiate away our members’ jobs in return for vague promises about in-house service delivery and genuine engagement. We most certainly are not. As you reported, I made my view very clear – that every redundancy is a personal tragedy. We will fight to defend every job cut Read more...

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They have got your number, by John Wilkinson

I’m not sure that voting in polling stations is as secretive as Paul Leake believes (Letters, May 7-13). Read more...

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Coalition won’t harm LibDems, by David Gadbury

Peter Wilby is unduly pessimistic about the electoral prospects for the Liberal Democrat party after its coalition with the Conservatives (‘Two’s a crowd’, May 28–June 3). Read more...

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There must be room at the top, by Philip Sellers

Rob Whiteman has written an absolutely classic piece on the role and status of the finance director, especially those in local government (‘Tough at the top’, May 21–27). Read more...

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The participation party’s over, by George Jones

David Walker has demolished the fashionable nonsense from the political parties in favour of civic activism (‘Drama out of a crisis’, May 7-13). Read more...

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Accumulate to speculate, by John Hopwood

There seems to be a confusing trend towards reporting changes in the level of spending cumulatively over a period of years instead of annually, and there are two examples in your issue of May 7–13. Read more...

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Polls apart

John Thornton suggests that the process of voting ‘has failed miserably to keep pace with social and technological change’ (‘Vote with your finger’, April 23–29). Read more...

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