Labour Candyfloss Melts on Contact
By their words shall they be judged - our socialist masters and mistresses are bewildering our 'be-knighted' people in Lambeth with their 'all style and no substance' approach to community safety.
Labour words like candyfloss melt on contact with reality. How pompous, for example, to read the weighty sermon in the press from the comrades' cabinet member for community safety declaring that he would have joined my inspection of Brixton Road's drug dealers had be not been, dearly beloved, "at a faith event in Stockwell for Lambeth Peace Week, remembering victims of violence in our borough." This is the same man who admires Sherlock Holmes and belongs to the Sullivan Society when he is not pontificating about 'drug dealers and their vile kind'. No harm in admiring fictional detectives, especially for 'two pipe problems', but come to think of it I'm sure he could do an excellent rendition of 'a policeman's lot is not a happy one'.
More seriously, he pronounces with the myopia of King Canute that "one solution we're working on is an Asbo for every dealer" and that "those who breach Asbos will be heading for prison for much longer than a day."
Gosh, can New Labour really do this, as well as taking yobs to cash machines for instant fines? Where will they site the new prisons capable of holding a 'Noah's Ark' of dealers who come to Brixton from all over Europe? Is the cabinet member for community safety the new commissioner for Brixton, holding judicial powers to eradicate drug dealing? What's happened to our courts? It may be uncharitable to say this but is he the new Governor of California or just a contemporary King Canute trying to hold back the waves of crack heads?
A reality check now. Cut to last night when long after the New Labour cabinet had drunk its Fairtrade nightcap cuppa and retired to bed, I checked out Coldharbour Lane at midnight, following a Planning Committee meeting. Within a few metres of the Ritzy, I was surrounded by feral menacing dealers and pimps offering me mind bending substances and sexual proposals that the over 50s need to look up in a text book, but no sign anywhere of our community safety people.
In Tory Romford, they do things better with council workers, night club supervisors, taxi marshals, and uniformed people all wearing distinctive yellow jackets when policing the town centre - branding is effective and reassuring to the public. Me, I'm still waiting for a reply to a letter I sent a fortnight ago to the community safety bods about drug dealing in Brixton near Iceland. I won't hold my breath until it arrives, although I was pleased that a senior uniformed person went round to see one of my constituents last night to follow up on a letter she wrote at around the same time about the dealers.
And the reference to 'be-knighted'? It's probably not connected, but it seems that 'Red Ted' Knight who wrecked the council when Labour ruled Lambeth in the 1980s is regularly attending the Norwood Housing Forum. Perhaps he'll put in a bid to become the next Labour Minister for Asbos and New Prisons.
Labour words like candyfloss melt on contact with reality. How pompous, for example, to read the weighty sermon in the press from the comrades' cabinet member for community safety declaring that he would have joined my inspection of Brixton Road's drug dealers had be not been, dearly beloved, "at a faith event in Stockwell for Lambeth Peace Week, remembering victims of violence in our borough." This is the same man who admires Sherlock Holmes and belongs to the Sullivan Society when he is not pontificating about 'drug dealers and their vile kind'. No harm in admiring fictional detectives, especially for 'two pipe problems', but come to think of it I'm sure he could do an excellent rendition of 'a policeman's lot is not a happy one'.
More seriously, he pronounces with the myopia of King Canute that "one solution we're working on is an Asbo for every dealer" and that "those who breach Asbos will be heading for prison for much longer than a day."
Gosh, can New Labour really do this, as well as taking yobs to cash machines for instant fines? Where will they site the new prisons capable of holding a 'Noah's Ark' of dealers who come to Brixton from all over Europe? Is the cabinet member for community safety the new commissioner for Brixton, holding judicial powers to eradicate drug dealing? What's happened to our courts? It may be uncharitable to say this but is he the new Governor of California or just a contemporary King Canute trying to hold back the waves of crack heads?
A reality check now. Cut to last night when long after the New Labour cabinet had drunk its Fairtrade nightcap cuppa and retired to bed, I checked out Coldharbour Lane at midnight, following a Planning Committee meeting. Within a few metres of the Ritzy, I was surrounded by feral menacing dealers and pimps offering me mind bending substances and sexual proposals that the over 50s need to look up in a text book, but no sign anywhere of our community safety people.
In Tory Romford, they do things better with council workers, night club supervisors, taxi marshals, and uniformed people all wearing distinctive yellow jackets when policing the town centre - branding is effective and reassuring to the public. Me, I'm still waiting for a reply to a letter I sent a fortnight ago to the community safety bods about drug dealing in Brixton near Iceland. I won't hold my breath until it arrives, although I was pleased that a senior uniformed person went round to see one of my constituents last night to follow up on a letter she wrote at around the same time about the dealers.
And the reference to 'be-knighted'? It's probably not connected, but it seems that 'Red Ted' Knight who wrecked the council when Labour ruled Lambeth in the 1980s is regularly attending the Norwood Housing Forum. Perhaps he'll put in a bid to become the next Labour Minister for Asbos and New Prisons.
posted by Cllr John Whelan on Wednesday, October 04, 2006
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