County Hall, Maidstone
Reform prays as roads and buildings crumble
The Reform UK administration at Kent County Council seems determined to push through proposals to introduce the Lord’s Prayer at the start of every council meeting with the National Anthem to be sung at the end. This is despite the 2021 census revealing that less than half (47.9%) of Kent residents identify as being Christian while 41.2% had ‘no religion’.
Responding to the proposals the Leader of the Green Group at KCC Cllr Mark Hood said “I firmly believe that religion is a personal matter and that we should operate in this council in a wholly secular manner to respect the followers of all religions and none.”
Cllr Mark Hood (Tonbridge) commented about yet another flag being brought into the council chamber “We are talking about full council not the Last Night of the Proms. If people want to sing songs then, by all means, sing the songs elsewhere. If this is going to eat into the time allocated to the democratic processes being undertaken in this room, then it’s absolutely unacceptable,” He continued “To pretend that singing a song at the end of the meeting somehow makes us superior in our level of patriotism, that is just a joke”.
The introduction of prayers and singing accompany a proposal to cut a minute from the time allowed for opposition leaders to reply to the Leaders announcement. Reform Leader Linden Kemkaran gets ten minutes to speak and a further six minutes to respond to comments from the opposition. The changes will see the Labour Group leader’s speech cut by a third from three minutes to only two. There has been no indication that the leader’s time will be cut. The justification for this scrutiny-slashing measure was to save time yet we will make time for praying and singing instead.
Currently we do not have time to hear answers for all of the questions asked by members but we have found the time to sing. Reform members also opposed to opposition group members having prior notice of what would be covered in the leader’s speech so they could respond fully to her key points.
Reform UK additionally called for the livestreaming of the Lord’s Prayer and singing of the National Anthem against officer advice that that is illegal, the logical conclusion drawn is that they want members who do not wish to participate can be identified and vilified.
Cllr Rob Yates (Green, Cliftonville) told the Member and selection Services Committee “This chamber is not a place of worship, we are here to serve all of our residents in Kent regardless of their beliefs. We are not elected to pray to God in this chamber or to sing to the King although many of us are happy to do that, so let’s keep our focus on serving residents rather than serving the political aspirations of Nigel Farage or Rupert Lowe”.
The obsession with flags, payers and anthems are a convenient distraction from the continuing deterioration of the condition of Kent’s roads and the council’s estate. Since coming to power Reform UK have overseen an additional £125m of additional work required to bring them up to the required standard (in March 2025 the outstanding works were £625m in February 2025 we were told £750m of works were needed) the same applies for our estate of schools and other buildings where a total of £705m of maintenance is required, yet Reform are proposing to cut maintenance funding by half according to their Medium Term Financial Plan.
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