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Clemency for drinkers
• I WAS pleased to read an impassioned diatribe from Councillor Greg Foxsmith on the politics of spin as I share his views (Why the time has come to kick these spivs out, May 15). I was also pleased to read his plea for the need for prison reform, for which I thoroughly commend him.
I have sent numerous emails to Cllr Foxsmith asking him to show the same clemency towards the often illiterate and downtrodden park drinkers in his own ward, but he has shown less compassion. Lib Dem Hillrise ward councillors’ solution to this complex social problem of park drinkers is not to offer education and rehabilitation, but rather to create an exclusion zone, issue Asbos and to fine already desperate and impoverished people up to £80 for drinking, while closing St Mary’s Community Centre, which offered support to this group.
This group have histories and problems which result in addictions that are not easily resolved by punitive approaches or exclusion from their own community, which Cllr Foxsmith so eloquently argues against.
Despite my many attempts to reason with him and show empirical evidence to support my plea for more services for this social group, he did not even afford me the courtesy of a response to my last email.
I’m not attempting to run anyone down, just hoping to encourage a more reasoned approach to the treatment of vulnerable people. Perhaps applying this compassion more locally would show the power of action more than words to counter spin?
JUSTINE GORDON SMITH N4 |
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