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Vote for us to end 30 years of misrule
• Now that the election campaign is in full swing, and
the letters that once dominated your columns are revealed to
have been written by council candidates who masqueraded as local
activists, one hopes that things will settle into a more traditional
style. No more scares or false alarms please, and spare the
hyperbole.
As one of those who is standing down to find other things
to do, the time comes to reflect on one’s successes and
failures.
Modesty forbids the former, but there is such a lot of “unfinished
business”. One thinks of the recurring debates, once dealt
with, such as that over the bus stands in South End Green. One
will miss, no longer as a councillor, the launch of the superb
Cantelowes Gardens or the opening of a new public open space
known as Camden Broadway.
One will regret the missed opportunity for local people presented
by the still empty St Luke’s church in Kentish Town.
And one will never forget the mind-numbing seven years that
it has taken so far to reopen a simple pedestrian and cycle
route from Arctic Street to Regis Road as a result of the intransigence
and plain stupidity of Network Rail.
One will certainly not miss the volume of paper, and I will
soon look forward to seeing my carpet again.
One will remember those ineffective council officers, particularly
in housing at junior levels, who fail their tenants and leaseholders.
One will remember those who never answer letters and, even worse,
those who smile, patronise and nod but do nothing.
In spite of lapses, Camden is an exciting place, which in a
small way I have been proud to represent over 12 years. We are
fortunate in our unique resource, our residents, who give their
time and goodwill to their local environments or housing estates
or to the borough as a whole. There are also exemplary councillors
who show their commitment. And, before anyone gets the wrong
message, there is a team of talented and hard-working officers
across all departments who deliver a very high quality service
for us all. Add to this a strong voluntary sector and three
excellent local newspapers, and the vibrancy is palpable. The
combination, when it works, is magic. Just step across the borough
boundary into Islington, Barnet or Westminster where the difference
smacks you in the face.
COUNCILLOR GERRY HARRISON (Lab)
Town Hall, WC1
• Amidst all the political knock-about about the Liberal
Democrats (A joke party with joke policies, March 30), the truly
startling thing about Alain Davidson’s letter is that he
appears to be convinced that New Labour offers a shining example
of a party consistently holding true to its political beliefs.
That is nothing short of extraordinary. Consider: New Labour
gave us the utterly disastrous Iraq War. With the help of Conservative
votes it is now setting out to privatise our education system
and put into place an anarchic ‘all against all’ within
our schools.
It is privatising the probation service. It is rapidly expanding
the role of private medicine within the health service.
It is apparently preparing to spend vast sums of public money
on restoring the nuclear industry. And it seems hell-bent on
spending billions more on replacing the Trident nuclear weapons
system.
All this adds up to a ferociously right wing programme by any
standards – perhaps the most audacious hi-jacking of a
political party in our history.
Meanwhile under New Labour inequality has continued to grow.
Under New Labour spouses never seem to talk to each other about
taking out (or paying back) eye-watering mortgages. And of course
under New Labour we have just had the embarrassing spectacle
of our Prime Minister quietly flogging off peerages round the
back.
Nor is this political metamorphosis confined to national politics.
At local level, too, the stripping away of responsibility for
major areas of local government like housing and education and
the imposition of the Executive System has clearly done much
to destroy local democracy.
(It will be interesting to see what the turn-out proves to be
in May.) The spiteful treatment of council house tenants who
had the temerity not to vote as they were told over the introduction
of Almos is another public scandal.
And even the Chancellor’s welcome increases in investment
in the health service has been soured locally by the Government’s
continuing obsession with targets and competition, leading dir-ectly
to the agonising choices now confronting the Royal Free.
How you square any of this with the values once held by the
Party is a problem for its dwindling number of members to sort
out. But if New Labour is now about anything except the exercise
of political power – and socialism and even social democracy
have long become creeds that dare not speak their names –
the one certainty is that it no longer has anything whatever
to do with the progressive politics with which Labour used to
be honourably associated.
Rex Warrick
Priory Road, NW6
• The Lib Dems were a close second behind Labour in
the last local elections in Kentish Town in 2002, just 121 votes
off electing councillors. And in last year’s General Election,
the Lib Dem vote in this area surged to 29 per cent, snapping
at Labour’s heels.
In these council elections, voting Lib Dem – in Kentish
Town and across Camden – offers the best chance for a generation
to end Labour‚s grip on the Town Hall.
The Lib Dems are popular in Kentish Town because we have been
side-by-side with residents campaigning to save Kentish Town
Baths and the police station.
On a national level, people like our defence of civil liberties,
our opposition to the war in Iraq, not to mention scrapping
the council tax and our firm stance on environmental issues.
It is clear that most people are now unhappy with the way Labour
are running things. The Lib Dems in Kentish Town are offering
the best alternative – three hard-working, dedicated local
candidates ready to continue serving the area after May 4.
Philip Thompson
Kentish Town Lib Dem candidate
Fortess Road, NW5
• I’d like to thank Theo Blackwell for publicising
the EMAG website (Letters March 23), which describes the campaigning
work I’ve been doing to seek compensation for failed government
regulation on behalf of a million Equitable Life sufferers.
I have never been involved in any way with Canary Wharf
but I am striving, with the King’s Cross Railways land
Group, for a much better deal for locals in the King’s
Cross plan.
It did seem to be scraping the barrel for Cllr Blackwell to
highlight that I worked on the famous Conservative election
campaign in 1979!
That was in a professional capacity – one to which I was
pleased to be assigned – with the laudable objective of
removing a disastrous Labour regime.
Actually, rather as I’m campaigning today to try to do
the same, to kick out after 30 years another burnt out regime
– Labour’s in Camden. It’s time for a change!
Paul Braithwaite
Liberal Democrat candidate Cantelowes ward
Bartholomew Villas, NW5
• I recently received a tabloid newspaper which was
cunningly disguised to try and look as if it didn’t come
from the local Liberal Democrats.
Containing numerous pictures of supposed residents with
mock looks of concern, the paper is a real masterpiece in the
art of political propaganda.
A particularly highlight is a man with a pudding basin haircut
and a woman councillor who has one stock “I’ve just
swallowed a wasp” look of exasperation.
It succeeds in taking up four pages to be wholely critical of
Labour-run Camden Council – without even suggesting once
a positive policy on how the Liberal Democrats would do things
differently if they were in charge.
If this is the best they can do in terms of setting the agenda
for change in Camden – then they really need to do much
better.
I hope that the Liberal Democrats did not pay good money for
these leaflets. Until they actually talk about what they would
like to do, rather than just throwing their hands about in mock
outrage, they will be wasting their time locally.
Susie Mann
Warwick Lodge, Shoot-up Hill, NW2
• I was very sad to learn that Hampstead will be losing
two of its excellent councillors in the next few weeks –
the Lib Dem Margaret Little and Conservative Brian Cattell.
Both have been excellent advocates for our community despite
coming from very different political approaches. I wish them
well in whatever they decide to do next.
With Hampstead being one of the few remaining village areas
of London and many passionate residents willing to talk for
their community then it is no surprise that we have historically
had such good community councillors representing our interests
at the Town Hall.
Moving forward however, I was surprised to learn that in what
would appear to be an odd choice the Liberal Democrats have
chosen to select a man who lives in far east London as their
man to replace Margaret.
This smacks a little of desperation. Indeed, I understand that
their former Parliamentary candidate decided to move to from
Watford to Hampstead only in September last year.
On the basis that we need a guarantee of strong community activists
in our councillors – I would urge people to back Mike Green
and the Conservative team in the coming elections on May 4.
The Liberal Democrats candidates smack of desperation –
not of a passion for NW3.
Kevin Knight
Downshire Hill, NW3
• We oppose all proposals for redundancies and pay cuts
at the Royal Free. Management proposes to slash 480 jobs and
100 beds at our local hospital.
Four wards will close including the award winning stroke
unit on Berry Ward.
It is likely that a further 70 beds will be lost later in the
year. Management is also urging staff to take a pay cut to help
clear the £25 million ‘debt’.
The Royal Free is in crisis, as are many other hospitals in
the NHS because of the market system (which the three major
parties back) which puts profits before health care and which
awards the fat cats in the private companies which now operate
within the NHS.
We demand that the £25-30-million pound ‘debt’
of the Royal Free and the £182-million ‘debt’
within the NHS in London be written off by the Government, otherwise
there will be a meltdown of health care within London. The Royal
Free played a key role in treating victims of the 7/7 bombings,
we cannot afford a rundown in services and patient care at this
hospital.
The Government can find hundreds of millions of pounds for warfare
but cannot provide a decent health service. We demand that the
NHS is totally publicly funded and that private finance is driven
out of our health service.
The health service should be democratically run by health workers,
patient groups and the local community, to ensure an efficient
and safe service is given to the local community.
John Reid
Branch Secretary
Camden Socialist Party
Lamble Street
NW5
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