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Judge Labour on its record here, not Iraq
• The introduction of ward-level community-police consultation
via Safer Neighbourhood Panels should have been something to
welcome unreservedly.
It is a great shame that their creation has been at the
expense of the larger sector meetings with police, which had
existed for around 12 years. With the demise of the sector groups,
the community can only discuss issues of concern with the police
at ward-level via the panels or at borough-level via the Camden
Community Policy Consultative Group (CCPCG).
Why should the local groups in my ward, Frognal and Fitzjohns,
not be allowed to share concerns with, say, their counterparts
in Hampstead Town ward and gain feedback from Camden’s
police? Criminals don’t respect the often-arbitrary ward
boundaries, and it is surely helpful if the ward-based safer
neighbourhood teams are speaking to their colleagues in neighbouring
wards!
As part of our manifesto for the local elections, the Conservatives
are promising the creation of five local area committees.
These area committees will bring together the local councillors
and local groups, with senior council officer and police representation.
These bodies would play a key role in improving Camden’s
consultation on local issues including planning, licensing and
community health, and also on community safety.
I strongly believe that these local area committees will fill
the gap left by the demise of the police sector groups, and
will be able to take the good work these groups carried out
on local safety issues into areas such as planning, licensing
and community health as well.
Cllr Andrew Mennear
Conservative
Town Hall, WC1
• Your article on the launch of Camden Labour Party’s
local election campaign didn’t paint a full picture of
what actually happened on the night.
We were delighted that the keynote speaker on the evening
was Hazel Blears MP, the Government Minister for policing, who
made a passionate speech on the work that Labour has done in
Camden to make the community safer.
The introduction of excellent schemes, such as the Families
in Focus in King’s Cross, was discussed and the positive
impact that has had helping vulnerable families.
She also discussed our innovative use of anti-social behaviour
orders – including achieving the first order against a
multinational company for flyposting. This one Asbo has saved
the council £250,000 per year in reduced street cleaning
costs alone.
I wish your article had focused on the positive message that
Hazel Blears gave at this meeting about making communities such
as King’s Cross safer for the residents that live here.
That is why I am proud to be standing as a Labour Party candidate
to represent this area.
Abdul Hai
Labour Party Candidate
King’s Cross Ward
• NEW Labour elite at Westminster have passed the ID
card law without consideration for the real damage it will cause
to our historic and hard-earned personal liberties from the
state over the centuries, exemplified by the Magna Carta in
1215.
Arrogance of power is finally getting the better of them.
This will cost billions but do they care? It will certainly
be over budget and ironically it will not benefit anyone or
any organisation conducting their affairs any better or efficiently.
The potential for fraud and criminality, just like cigarettes
smuggling, will shoot up.
It will not reduce or deter terrorists as some apologists have
claimed.
I have written to Frank Dobson MP in the past asking him to
oppose this crazy, expensive, illiberal law but he supported
it with qualification.
Champagne drinking New Labour in Camden go on and on endlessly
increasing our council tax year-on-year, keep on remorselessly
hitting poor car drivers with ridiculously high penalties for
minor infringements with no right to reply, carry out improvements
to council owned properties but hit the poor leaseholders who
choose to invest in their own homes and not move to the suburbs
with astronomical bills.
Decent, law-abiding, tax-paying citizens of Camden should not
pay for this conceit anymore and in May they should send them
a strong signal. Enough is enough. Its time for a change. The
people deserve no less.
Abdul Salam
Camden Street, NW1
• I read with interest the letters from ‘British
Muslim’ readers on the voting intentions of ‘Bangladeshi’,
‘Somali’ and ‘other Muslims’ in Camden election
on May 4 (Muslims are able to think for themselves, March 30).
It is the majority view that ‘British Muslims’
irrespective of their country of origin are affected by what
is happening in Iraq and Palestine. It seems strange to me that
they are neither affected by the issues of the country of their
origin viz.
‘Bangladesh’ or ‘Somalia’ or ‘other
Muslim’ countries nor by the local issues of Camden where
they have come to live.
I have been a member of the Labour Party over the last quarter
century.
Naturally I vote for the Labour Party but regretfully I shall
abstain this time owing to over 40 per cent increases in heating
charges and 7.3 per cent increases in rent. The rent increases
is nearly three times over the inflation rate.
I live in a flat, area less than 700 sq. feet, with my wife.
The heating area is less than 500 sq. feet but the heating charges
have been increased from £8.78 to £12.29 per week.
Annually I have to pay £670.80 heating charges for such
a place. It may not matter much to those tenants who are on
benefits but it matters a great deal to fork out such high increases
from hard earned money. If all those who have been directly
hit by such large increases in the heating charges and rent
as in our tower block (Mary Green) and abstain like me and my
wife, the Labour Party will have a big problem on May 4.
For all inhabitants in Camden, local issues are more important
than Iraq or Palestine. Voting pattern based on religious solidarity
on issues outside the UK will harm the cohesion of the local
community if not the country.
Regretfully our Party is appeasing the Muslims on the issues
in Iraq and Palestine.
Sunil Kumar Pal
Abbey Road, NW8
• The letters page of this paper often seem to focus
on the negative things about Camden, rather than recognising
what a wonderful area we live in.
I would personally like to extend my heartfelt thanks to
Pat Callaghan and Jake Sumner for all their hard work over the
last four years as our local councillors. Diligent and caring
to their core – they have been the there all the time for
residents on issues.
I am personally deeply unhappy with the Labour Party nationally
– but recognise that the elections on May 4th are for local
councillors.
I will be supporting Pat and Jake on the basis that they are
the best campaigners for our area – and therefore deserve
our on going support for their miraculous hard work.
Melanie Croft
Camden Street
NW1
• I AM glad my letter, which you kindly printed in your
issue of March 23, excited so much comment, even if some, from
Labour Party quarters, was unnecessarily abusive (Muslims are
able to think for themselves, March 30). It shows the CNJ really
is a paper read and appreciated across the communities.
Like former mayor Nasim Ali, I have lived in this country
for many years. Long enough, in fact, to date my distrust of
Labour back to 1947 when the late John Stonehouse MP, a former
Labour Government minister, absconded with some £1.25
million raised from the Bangladeshi community for the liberation
struggle and for flood relief.
Recent revelations about the financial affairs of Labour minister
Tessa Jowell’s husband David Mills, and about Tony Blair’s
dealings with Asian benefactors Dr Chai Patel and Sir Gulam
Noon over peerages for loans, have done nothing to convince
me Labour has become more trustworthy since.
I note that in the past week new figures have been published
about the sharp increase in the use of stop and search powers
by the police. As I suggested in my previous letter the figures
show they have been used disproportionately against blacks and
Asians.
I saw also that in last week’s paper Camden Council leader
Raj Chada is quoted (page 6) as “distancing himself”
from the war in Iraq saying: “I was vehemently opposed
to the war in Iraq. I publicly came out against the war in the
New Journal.”
And what good did that do Mr Chada? Did it save the life of
one innocent civilian, or spare a single detainee from torture?
Of course not. Mr Chada leads a Labour council which is refused
money by the Labour Government even to bring council homes up
to decent standards. This week schoolchildren in Jakarta have
been more effective at putting Tony Blair on the spot than Mr
Chada has ever been! Mr Chada and Mr Ali may not like being
called stooges, but it is as stooges that their own Labour Government
treats them.
When politicians do wrong things the only way to stop them is
to vote them out. That is why I ask my fellow Muslims nor to
be tricked or misled in to voting Labour again. There is, I
am glad to say, a decent and vigorous alternative with the Liberal
Democrats.
O Faruque Ansari
Athlone Street, NW5
• Your fascinating report of the talk given by ex-LA
gangster Abu Jaffa shows how important strong role models are
for our young people (Gang life has no glory, former Crip tells
kids, March 30).
As Mr Jaffa said, our streets are a far cry from parts of LA,
but young people in areas like Gospel Oak and Kentish Town need
to be supported and reminded that there are alternatives to
a life of drugs and crime.
Credit for this work must go to groups like the Kentish Town
Community Organisation, which do an excellent job mentoring
young people and giving them alternatives to hanging around
streets and estates at night.
But some credit should also go to Labour-run Camden Council,
which gives more money to community groups and the voluntary
sector than any other borough in London, money which many such
groups rely on. Meanwhile, in Islington, the Lib Dems have made
swathing cuts to nearly 120 community and voluntary projects
since 2001.
For people deciding how to vote in the coming local elections,
this will be an important factor in their decision.
Mike Katz
Haverstock Labour Party
c/o 8 Camden Road, NW1
• For more years than I care to remember I have read
in your letters page endless moans and groans about Camden’s
Labour council. The usual stuff, closing down public services,
financial mismanagement of public funds, high council tax, draconian
traffic wardens etc, etc.
Well just to remind people on May 4 there is something every
registered voter can do about it. It’s fairly simple. You
go down to your local polling station and vote for another party
that isn’t Labour.
Name and address supplied
q Your Lib Dem correspondent Mr Ansari is sadly misguided if
he thinks Labour has abandoned our Muslim communities or if
he thinks the Lib Dems would offer any credible alternative
(Letters, March 23).
As a local Bangladeshi, hoping to be a Labour candidate in Haverstock
ward, I want him to explain why Lib Dem MPs voted against Labour’s
new law protecting Muslims against religious hatred. The Government
was right to want this law extended to offer to Muslims the
same protection and equality in the eyes of the law given to
Jews and Sikhs and Christians.
What hypocrisy to blame Labour for the fact that BNP bigots
walk free from court, whilst his party opposed the law which
can tackle these hatemongers.
Nothing demonstrates so clearly the the lip service the Lib
Dems pay to Muslims – nothing except the fact that no Lib
Dem councillor supported Cllr Nash Ali in his bid to be Camden’s
first Bangladeshi mayor.
In practical terms, Labour gives Muslims in Camden real support.
Camden awarded a new school meals contract, spending an extra
£390,000 a year. This won’t just provide healthier
meals, it will ensure that we can better cater for the needs
of Muslim children.
In May, Muslims will vote for Labour, a party which has shown
long-term support for them, not the Lib Dems who flirt with
them as the elections conveniently roll around.
Syed Hoque
Haverstock Labour Party
Maitland Park Villas
NW3
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