I think it was Margaret Thatcher who said that `the trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people`s money.`   Well, I can`t include Kent County Councillor Valerie Dagger as being among the ranks of rampant socialists but nevertheless she seems to have a curious attitude towards other people`s money.

Yesterday`s edition of the Kent Messenger (`Black and White and Read all over`) included an item about traffic control measures being introduced into the sleepy village of St. Mary`s Platt - Mrs. Snopper`s home village no less - in order to combat `rat-running` through the narrow village lanes.   All very commendable and a much needed initiative.

However, the report mentioned that "the measures are being financed by the local KCC Member, Cllr. Valerie Dagger, from her member`s budget after persistent complaints from residents about speeding cars."  An interesting turn of phrase this, which might be down to slipshod reporting, which I seriously doubt, or which might accurately record the pompous notion that Mrs. Dagger might have whereby she has money at her disposal that she can disperse at her choosing. 

The truth, of course, is that it is other people`s money.  It will be the council tax payers of Kent who finance the work on the leafy lanes of St. Mary`s Platt but this is yet another example of a growing trend on the part of local politicians acting wholly in the misguided  belief that we will be impressed by these patronising announcements, whereas they might well be advised to steer clear of developing the delusions of adequacy that so often give local bureaucracy a bad name.  Or maybe the KCC Press Office needs a good sort out?