|
|
 |
| |
Opposition behaviour a clue to future ways
• Councillor Deirdre Krymer’s letter on the Liberal
Democrat’s decision to base their election campaign bashing
our local police, hit the nail on the head.
I was visiting a friend in Belsize Park earlier today and noticed
a group of Lib Dem campaigners handing out leaflets to members
of the public. As I am interested in local issues, I stopped
to chat with one of the activists. Our entire conversation seemed
to be based on the fact that the Lib Dems thought Hampstead
police station could close. They didn’t seem to understand
that the thing that matters is that we have an increased presence
on the streets rather than bricks and mortar.
Camden has clearly seen the increased benefit from powers such
as anti-social behaviour orders (Asbos) and our local street
wardens. When I discussed this with the Lib Dem activist, he
said that his party was almost entirely opposed to Asbos, and
said that the first thing they would do if they gained power
would be to scrap them.
I found this conversation very revealing. The Lib Dems seem
to doing everything within their power to attack the police
and are openly lying on some issues surrounding safety on our
streets. They are irresponsible and therefore unfit to represent
anybody within Camden.
LINDSAY ROSS
Russell Court,
WC1
• I believe that how a political party runs itself
in opposition and raises funds can give clues as to what it
values and would be like in government – local and national.
And as a paid care worker to vulnerable adults, apprentice educator
of jobseekers, and disability equality trainer, I am proud to
stand as a Green Party candidate for Swiss Cottage Ward.
Becky Purcell’s exposé reminds me partially of why
I left that party after a year on the Executive Committee of
Hampstead and Highgate Lib Dems (1997-98) (Lib Dem launch is
a bit rich at £50 a throw, April 13).
As a mature graduate on the poverty line, my Lib Dem experience
was not just of attendance expenditure expenses unremunerated,
but of being undervalued in my campaigning efforts and creativity
– I bought and studied Lib Dem policy papers and then had
a relevant letter published in the CNJ. A senior local Lib Dem
figure then told me I should have consulted their designated
local media person before sending such a letter; “and beside,
[the issues my letter raised] won’t win us votes at the
local level.”
By contrast, my Camden Green Party membership manifests itself
in more than distributing leaflets written by others. Community
Care – a national social care trade journal – has
published letters from me with my own byline almost monthly
for about two years, including one where I gave the Green Party
perhaps its first mention ever in that national weekly (To be
a member is to be a limb of a body). I then exercised further
initiative in drafting a letter toward an official Green Party
byline and forwarded it to Adrian Oliver, Chairman of Camden
Green Party for further forwarding.
Thus the Green Party’s Disability Spokesperson for London
had a letter published nationally on the fact that incapacity
benefit claimants die more frequently in winter – sans
cold weather payments entitlement – than at any other time
of year.
In the Green Party, we treat political communication as an opportunity
to engage with and inform the public – to leave them wanting
more.
Meanwhile Labour Cllr Dermot Greene, (April 13) opens a letter
with a sentence of gobbledegook. Was no one available to support
him in that attempt at “political communication?”
Or does he, like Learning and Skills Council directives and
“consultation documents”s knowingly promote the idea
that reading and education should be seen as hard work –
a sentence to a living death for the disadvantaged?
In either case, I stand for election as a Green sprout in Swiss
Cottage Ward where I lived for the first four of my 26 years
in the borough of Camden, and look forward to voting for my
three Green Party candidates in Highgate Ward on May 4.
ALAN WHEATLEY
Croftdown Road, NW5
• It is quite clear from the volume of correspondence
published in your pages, one thing undisputedly is due for a
change in Camden on May 4 (Make sure you check for a winning
ticket, April 13). Labour’s parking regime is currently
nasty, unfair and inefficient. It is time for the Labour Council
who spawned it to go and it is high time the parking system
was humanised.
Recently the Liberal Democrats undertook an exercise to ask
thousands of people all over the borough what their priorities
were to improve daily life in Camden. Changes to the parking
system were right up there as the second highest priority just
behind safer streets and 24-hour local policing.
Whilst policing is a matter over which the Council has no direct
control, action can certainly be taken over parking. All those
who complain via your pages, who complain to their local Councillors
or simply suffer and pay up in silence, will be pleased to know
that changes to the current parking regime (including the abolition
of clamping and towing away, except in very special circumstances)
are one of the most urgent priorities in the Liberal Democrat
Manifesto. You can read this in full on our website at www.camdenlibdems.org.uk
or you can take my word for it and simply go out and vote for
your Liberal Democrat candidates on May 4.
Cllr FLICK REA
Deputy Lib Dem Leader,
Camden Town Hall
• I read with interest the CNJ coverage of the apparent
launch of Labour’s manifesto and was amused by David Miliband’s
desperate attempt to divert attention onto other parties and
away from Labour’s abysmal failure to release the much
needed £283 million for council housing maintenance (Minister
turns on critics of housing cash deadlock, April 13).
I write “apparent launch” because on Saturday I went
to Labour’s Camden headquarters to try to pick up their
manifesto, but the building was shut. Repeatedly over the holidays
I’ve tried to find it on the Labour’s website. One
week after the so-called launch, it still isn’t available
– one wonders what they have to hide? All I can find is
just a press release about the April 11 launch, reporting the
first manifesto priority is, I kid you not, “More CCTV”.
The Labour Party has become frighteningly authoritarian, with
its penchant for CCTV cameras and ID cards to watch over us.
In this creeping big brother “1984” world, it’s
apt that George Orwell actually lived here in Camden, on Lawford
Road. However, if the Lib Dem team is elected on May 4, we will
listen to and respect our constituents – not just watch
over them.
PAUL BRAITHWAITE
Lib Dem candidate in Cantelowes ward,
Bartholomew Villas, NW5
• One of the greatest things about living in Camden
is the strength of our many community organisations. Camden’s
voluntary sector is well resourced by our council and supported
by members of the community.
I was surprised to read the Lib Dem’s manifesto for the
forthcoming council elections and their statements on the future
of the voluntary sector should they have a say in the running
the council. Their paper makes it clear that they would scrap
the council funding that enables our voluntary sector groups
to survive.
The Lib Dems have implemented a similar policy in Islington
where they run the council – causing community groups for
our ethnic minority communities to disappear.
I do not want to see this happen in Camden and would urge all
members of the community to seriously think before considering
voting for the Lib Dems on May 4. Their intentions for the voluntary
sector are clear – we cannot risk allowing them to take
place.
ALI KHAN
Cromer St, WC1
• Keith Moffit’s comments that the Lib Dems would
work with police in last week’s CNJ struck a false note.
During this campaign, the Lib Dems have spent more time knocking
the police than working with them. They have spread wholly groundless
rumours that police stations and the Safer Neighbourhood Teams
which Labour brought to Camden, would be closed down.
Cllr Moffit says the Lib Dems would use Asbos. Why then did
they propose massive cuts to Camden’s budget for taking
out Asbos when the council finances were being decided?
In Camden, Labour faces up to its responsibility. Working with
the police, we have issued more than 200 banning orders, nine
out of 10 on drug crime.
In neighbouring Islington, the Lib Dems running the council
are critical of Asbos and have issued only 20 or so.
Labour pledges to do more in Camden – provide more wardens,
wider CCTV coverage, clamp down on street drinking and invest
in more youth facilities to give young people more to do.
Voters will look at the Lib Dem’s record and realise that
they are safer with Labour.
MIKE KATZ
Lab candidate,
Haverstock ward
c/o 8 Camden Road, NW1
• I was shocked to read your article where a sitting
councillor from the Liberal Democrats claimed that building
additional social housing in Kentish Town would create a “slum”
(“Slums” fears spark housing policy row, March 30).
As a former worker in the homelessness sector, I know that there
is a desperate need for high-quality social housing throughout
London and in particular in Camden.
The councillor who made the statement on slums is either pandering
to the middle classes or indeed naïve to the point of stupidity.
Many parts of Camden have high levels of social housing –
Kilburn, Somers Town, and King’s Cross spring to mind.
Would Jill Fraser say that these areas are slums also?
I am very grateful that you have brought these ill-judged and
misinformed comments to the attention of the public.
We have a right to know what our elected representatives are
saying.
Unless the Liberal Democrats publically disassociate themselves
from these comments they will have lost my vote and hopefully
those of many of your readers.
JESSICA PRICE
Tanza Road, NW3
• Rex Warrick wants to know how New Labour squares with
the values once held by the Labour Party (Letters, April 6).
Let me enlighten him. Traditional Labour values of equality
and fairness are alive and well.
Since this Labour government came to power, we’ve seen
two million more jobs and long-term youth unemployment virtually
eliminated; more money being invested in health and education
as a proportion of national income than any other major developed
nation; inner city regeneration and an end to the worst pensioner
poverty; leading the world in fighting poverty in Africa, influencing
the last G8 Summit to write off $55 billion of debts and increasing
aid by $40 billion; introducing and updating the national minimum
wage, first aspired to by Kier Hardy; and in the chancellor’s
budget last month, increasing child tax credit and child benefit.
This very week sees the introduction of a new Property Licensing
regime to raise standards for private tenants in bedsits and
shared houses.
Protection for some of the poorest and most vulnerable members
of our communities.
These are just a few examples of traditional Labour values,
not being talked about from the safety of the opposition benches
like the Liberal Democrats, but put into practice day after
day, despite all the challenges of today’s world.
And yes, some of the billions invested in new schools and hospitals
does come from private finance. Does Mr Warrick really think
people would prefer to pay for all that investment out of increased
taxation?
This is a proud socialist record and it is nonsense to say otherwise.
It’s not a denial of socialism to want the best quality
services for all, and I for one am proud to live in a socialist
borough like Camden, where year after year, the Audit Commission
declares Camden one of the best run councils in the country.
JACKY PEACOCK
Goldhurst Terrace, NW6
|
| |
|
|
|
