Labour Verdicts on Dying Administrations
It took a call from the warden at a Lambeth sheltered housing scheme telling me about the death of an elderly constituent to realise how worrying the threatened changes to care packages are for the elderly. "The anxiety about change hastened her death," he asserted, repeating it several times in a short telephone conversation. At the Lambeth budget setting meeting in February the Labour administration delivered a 'double whammy' blow to the elderly and the vulnerable of the borough by increasing social care charges by more than 120 per cent while at the same time tightening the eligibility criteria.
Is this any way to treat older people - the generation that lived through the Second World War and its aftermath? There are a series of so-called consultation meetings planned for the month of May, but no one believes anything will change as a result. Confidence in this administration because of its unwillingness to listen to people is at an all time low. In any case people are already dying as the call from the warden indicates.
Lambeth, in common with the rest of London, had no opportunity to go to the polling stations this month but the verdict elsewhere in England was pretty decisive. There are 89 councils where there are no Labour councillors at all. The Tories won control of 38 more councils, including Warwick the very last to declare on May 8. With 900 more councillors the Conservatives are by far the biggest party in local government.
So I thought I'd share with you an e-mail from Labour MP Jon Cruddas which somehow got forwarded to me. This seems to becoming a habit because a Labour councillor recently sent me his ward activist list by mistake - they have all been targeted for conversion to the Tory cause. Mr Cruddas writes in a rare moment of Labour honesty:
He follows this with a call to action to his party workers. Arguably, it is already too late to save a dying government.
Is this any way to treat older people - the generation that lived through the Second World War and its aftermath? There are a series of so-called consultation meetings planned for the month of May, but no one believes anything will change as a result. Confidence in this administration because of its unwillingness to listen to people is at an all time low. In any case people are already dying as the call from the warden indicates.
Lambeth, in common with the rest of London, had no opportunity to go to the polling stations this month but the verdict elsewhere in England was pretty decisive. There are 89 councils where there are no Labour councillors at all. The Tories won control of 38 more councils, including Warwick the very last to declare on May 8. With 900 more councillors the Conservatives are by far the biggest party in local government.
So I thought I'd share with you an e-mail from Labour MP Jon Cruddas which somehow got forwarded to me. This seems to becoming a habit because a Labour councillor recently sent me his ward activist list by mistake - they have all been targeted for conversion to the Tory cause. Mr Cruddas writes in a rare moment of Labour honesty:
"Dear friends,
Last Thursday, the Tories won 41% of the vote compared to Labour's 27%. Despite some bright points in areas like Thurrock, Sandwell and Tyneside, and despite the hard work of activists and candidates, we lost almost 500 councillors, and many Scottish MSPs and Welsh AMs too. In the days since the election, some people in the press and the party have insisted that the results "are a springboard" to the next election. I disagree."
He follows this with a call to action to his party workers. Arguably, it is already too late to save a dying government.
Labels: Care charges, Elderly, Elections, Labour Lambeth
posted by Cllr John Whelan on Thursday, May 10, 2007
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