Bradford's cuts budget goes through on the nod

As was only to be expected, the cuts to public services in Bradford went through on the nod. While there were pious declarations of the "this hurts me more than it hurts you" variety and much crocodile tears, as well as finger-pointing across the house on the question of who was to blame, Labour's last government or the Con-Dem elective dictatorship (answer: both), in the end the only speaker to consider (and reject) the alternative of refusing to set a budget was Dave Green, who said that this would allow the dreaded Pickles to take over and push through even more swingeing cuts.
Of course, they could have set a "no cuts" budget, which would have set them in direct confrontation the Tories and their Lib-Dem lapdogs.
The public gallery was packed, and very vocal they were too, chanting "No Ifs, No Buts, No Public Service Cuts". At one stage the Lord Mayor threatened to suspend the session, if they didn't shut up. So - apart from the occasional heckle - everyone behaved themselves after that.
But if they hadn't, and the session had been suspended, would Bradford have dared to reconvene with the public gallery closed to the hecklers? And if they did, wouldn't that have escalated the issue in the public eyes?
Footnote-1: The Tory amendment would have kept the five local libraries open, but said nothing about Manningham Pool, no doubt because the libraries are in the Tory rural hinterland, and the pool is in a working class area with a large Asian electorate.
Footnote-2: The T&A had a photographer there, but the Lord Mayor didn't notice him until he'd been snapping away for quite a while. Apparently no one from Newsquest had thought to ask for permission. Several councillors appealed to His Honour to let the snapper carry on, but he was adamant. No pictures, please, our proceedings are not for too many of the public eyes to see.
The public galleries hold a hundred seats, while the T&A has 28,839 readers. Wouldn't do to let so many to see what our leaders get up to, now, would it?
It'll be interesting to see if any of his pix get published.

Related articles

• Eric Pickles: Public enemy number one? (guardian.co.uk)
• Fighting talk from NUJ as Newsquest revolt spreads (newstatesman.com)