Right

... how this has happened, why it happened, when it happened, who made the decision, and how much money has already exchanged hands, should it be repaid.

Um, so that review is ongoing.

Um, and then the third thing is what it means nationally, because obviously Councillor Ali is co-deputy leader of the Greens.

And if you think that, you know, something you- we've talked about on the podcast before is, is Zac Polanski's political identity is very much to do with transparency, accountability, public institutions, uh, working for the ordinary person.

This kind of flies in the face of that.

Given that the Greens, um, you know, have had this surge in membership and way more counselors over the last two local elections, um, you know, some 1,500 counselors nationally now.

So do you think this is reflective of a wider, like pe- You know, are there people who are unhappy with his role in the Greens for whatever reason, that this is ref- this, uh, scrutiny is reflective of that?

But there is some training and briefing if you're newly elected as a councilor, I presume.

Yes, of course.

Well, there, there's all sorts of things.

There's, you know, you have your political group in a council.

Uh, you know, you might wanna do your own research perhaps.

[laughs] You know, look at the council handbook, download it.

Um, there's also something called the Local Government Association, for example, which is a membership body, uh, that most councils belong to, and within that, each political party has a presence.

Some people, as you've said, have applied and they've got no experience, and that there's a slightly different phenomenon, which is where you've got, uh, as we say, paper candidates who didn't expect to win at all, didn't think they would, are, are really just there to be a name to represent their party or the party they support, and then they end up winning.

Is this what we're meant to be looking for, is that Reform isn't just home counties, it's not seaside towns, it is it can make it in the big post-industrial North?

Yes, exactly that.

So I think that one interesting thing is that the amount of candidates, um, Helen, you mentioned that the thousands of people that are standing, Reform is fielding candidates in about ninety-five percent of seats.

And I, I went onto the Reform website just for research purposes to see what it would take to stand as a, as a candidate.

And you know, uh, obviously the, the nominations have closed now, but before that, uh, it was very clear they were very, very, very keen for as many candidates, many people as possible to stand and clearly said, you know, "No experience necessary," which, given the state of local government now, bankruptcies, pressure on services, you really want somebody in there who knows what they're doing.

in Birmingham, has it?

No.

You would think it would be a positive thing because you then have more local debate, uh, you don't have a party political stance.