The Prime Minister has pursued a bold and innovative attempt to harness the best talents to tackle the challenges facing our country.

His efforts give a good indication as to the quality and the gravitas of various people and political parties that may well be a useful guide for us in Slough.

The attempts to recognise some genuine talent in the Lib Dems have failed due to the inability of Liberals to either take a decision or be prepared to accept genuine responsibility. A trait we have witnessed in Slough all too often these past years. Therefore, whilst there are some theoretical possibilities amongst this grouping, evidence and experience suggest otherwise.

Within the Tory Group one could previously have expected some degree of competence and certainty. However the last three years have been disastrous for the Slough Tories, riven by factions unable to select candidates for either National of local office without severe embarrassment, has left them severely weakened. This has been compounded by their unfortunate tendency to copy the mistakes of the BILLD Group rather than learn from them. As a result at a time when in other areas the Tories are revitalising, advancing against Lib Dems and attracting younger members, in Slough they are as reliant as the other fringe parties on rejects and malcontents rather than genuine members; something which will increasingly come back to haunt them in the coming months. This is a sad state of affairs for a party which once had councillors who commanded genuine respect across the chamber.

As for the various Independents very little can be said. Again as with the Tories their motivation is questionable and their talent not obvious. Of those that have Cabinet experience there is no indication of policy success or even any impact on improving performance. Of those not in the Cabinet currently there is little prospect of them ever being so in the current Cabinet 'carve-up' which is done to hold the coalition together rather than recognising ability or talent.

Therefore in conclusion as with Gordon Brown it is clear that a Government of all the talents is one that at the executive level is Labour. At some lower levels it is worth utilising specific experts in specialist fields as he has done with junior ministerial appointments. With that in mind I would say that when non-cabinet members of the administration have freed themselves as they occasionally do in Scrutiny Meetings (and privately at the coffee machine!) it is clear that there are people in the administration genuinely concerned with the performance of this council rather than merely clinging on to power for its own sake.

They, I am sure, have a valuable contribution to make to Slough in the future.