Bah Humbug to the Labour Lambeth Xmas
Our diverse borough, with more churches than any other in London, is being treated to a display of Christmas humbug by the Labour Party not known since the civic service was abolished in Ted Knight's time. First the Comrades put up last year's 'Happy Christmas' banner over the entrance to the Town Hall, which was commissioned by the Tory-Lib Dem administration in 2005, and then Labour's spin doctors claimed they'd restored Xmas. Next a Labour Cabinet member went to a Xmas service at a Lambeth crematorium and in a joint welcome with a senior member of the clergy started off by emphasising her Labour Party credentials - many eyebrows were raised in shock. In death there are no political parties. In remembrance of loved ones, we are all 'one nation' from the Cenotaph to Lambeth Cemetery. What is all the more remarkable is that this is the Party that until recently, and with honourable individual exceptions in Lambeth, rarely went to church, and still has an ideological dislike of church schools and faith-based education from the relevant Children's and Young Persons Cabinet member downwards.
As we look towards the New Year, our long-suffering citizens have little cheer to anticipate. We are living under a tax and spend administration that rarely listens to reasoned argument. Former Labour councillor in Lambeth Ken Livingstone is proposing an inflation busting 5.3 per cent tax rise from City Hall. Labour's highly paid officers also tell us that 'not enough people are dying because of the mild autumn and that funeral charges may rise'. Was that a day, perhaps, to bury bad news - tucked away on an inside page of the Tuesday South London Press which few people read? We have also discovered, via official reports, that the cost per head of accommodating our bureaucrats in the Town Hall is GB pounds 3,600 a year. The principal council buildings are collectively only 70 per cent occupied - wasting GB pounds 2 million a year of our money.
In the meantime a tide of anger rises among our 33,000 tenants who are still being denied a ballot on whether or not the Labour Party should sell the roofs from over their heads. Even the Labour MP for Vauxhall, 60-year-old Kate Hoey, thinks they are making a mistake, but our New Labour leaders dismiss her as a fiery maverick. Perhaps that's why some Tories vote for her.
Finally, as Xmas gets under way - a traditional time for caring for the homeless whether in a manger in the Holy Land or a shelter run by the Sally Army - let's spare a thought for 'Puss'. That's a feral tabby cat which has taken up residence in the underground car park of the Town Hall - it had heard that fat cats occupy office space in the Town Hall. Despite my finding it there overnight for the past week, Labour spin doctors deny it is resident. When I e-mail them about it there is a deafening silence. As for me - I'm going to call up the cat rescue service, if it hasn't gone by Boxing Day. The Labour spin doctors won't be around then having all disappeared to the ski slopes.
As we look towards the New Year, our long-suffering citizens have little cheer to anticipate. We are living under a tax and spend administration that rarely listens to reasoned argument. Former Labour councillor in Lambeth Ken Livingstone is proposing an inflation busting 5.3 per cent tax rise from City Hall. Labour's highly paid officers also tell us that 'not enough people are dying because of the mild autumn and that funeral charges may rise'. Was that a day, perhaps, to bury bad news - tucked away on an inside page of the Tuesday South London Press which few people read? We have also discovered, via official reports, that the cost per head of accommodating our bureaucrats in the Town Hall is GB pounds 3,600 a year. The principal council buildings are collectively only 70 per cent occupied - wasting GB pounds 2 million a year of our money.
In the meantime a tide of anger rises among our 33,000 tenants who are still being denied a ballot on whether or not the Labour Party should sell the roofs from over their heads. Even the Labour MP for Vauxhall, 60-year-old Kate Hoey, thinks they are making a mistake, but our New Labour leaders dismiss her as a fiery maverick. Perhaps that's why some Tories vote for her.
Finally, as Xmas gets under way - a traditional time for caring for the homeless whether in a manger in the Holy Land or a shelter run by the Sally Army - let's spare a thought for 'Puss'. That's a feral tabby cat which has taken up residence in the underground car park of the Town Hall - it had heard that fat cats occupy office space in the Town Hall. Despite my finding it there overnight for the past week, Labour spin doctors deny it is resident. When I e-mail them about it there is a deafening silence. As for me - I'm going to call up the cat rescue service, if it hasn't gone by Boxing Day. The Labour spin doctors won't be around then having all disappeared to the ski slopes.
Labels: ALMO, Christmas, Council tax, Puss
posted by Cllr John Whelan on Friday, December 15, 2006
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