Hoey Puts Her Hunting Boot Into Labour Lambeth
Our most feisty Lambeth politician is the veteran independently-minded MP for Vauxhall Kate Hoey. It's sometime hard to believe that this pro-hunting right-wing Labour MP is really one of the Comrades given her voting record: anti cannabis, anti casinos, anti 24-hour licensing, and pro grammar schools in Northern Ireland at least. It is no secret at Westminster that she does not see eye to eye with her sister MP for Dulwich and West Norwood and if there is a controversy Kate is bound to be in the heart of the storm. On one occasion attending a Holocaust Day commemoration at the Town Hall, she muttered cattily under her breath about some very ungodly matters including the dress sense and hair style of a leading public servant on the podium and then sang lustily an Anglican hymn that reminded her of school assembly.Yet Kate is very often on the money when it comes to taking our Labour-led Cabinet to book. "They're very cocky," she exclaimed a few months before the last local elections. She then agreed to have her photograph taken for publication with a Conservative candidate she liked in his leaflets against her own candidates. Her own re-selection for Parliament was by all accounts a difficult piece of navigation, but it seems that at the 11th hour her critics took their tanks off her lawn. Otherwise, she had told contacts in other political parties she was planning to stand as an "independent Liberal Conservative," which is in itself an unusual combination although perhaps not to someone brought up in Ulster. Oddly enough had she stood as an Independent I'm sure many voters who normally support other parties than Labour would have backed her.So where has the girl from over the Irish Sea done good? Tell the truth the way Labour doesn't like it , I guess. She told The Commons last week:
"There has recently been a ballot in Lambeth for an ALMO [see previous blog] and I was ashamed by the way that my borough handled it. The ballot form was biased and set out in a way that was clearly one sided. Something like GB pound 400,000 was spent on glossy brochures, DVDs, and all sorts of things that were sent to tenants, and they amounted to propaganda as to why the tenants should have their housing put out to an ALMO."
Carry on, Kate!Labels: ALMO, Kate Hoey
Ballot As Fishy as the 1950s Docks in Hull
Labour came in last year on a promise to improve the housing service for our long suffering tenants and what's happened? They are about to cut the emergency out of hours repairs service and the Handy Persons scheme in a desperate bid to stave off bankruptcy. In the meantime in a ballot worthy of a banana republic, Labour is claiming that a majority of its residents living on its estates want to transfer themselves to an Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO). Why have the wheels fallen off the Labour bandwagon quite so quickly? One of the answers is that Labour doesn't like any kind of scrutiny and is too slow to open the books when things go wrong. Overspending on the housing revenue account by GB pounds 2.1 million for the year ended in April 2007 smacks of incompetence, especially as it was supposed to be GB pounds 2.5 million in the black. They can hardly blame anyone but themselves, but no doubt they will given their GB pounds 150,000 team of spin doctors at least two of whom used to work full time for Labour.It seems that the district auditor has also caught the Labour Party cooking the books and processing revenue receipts - such as costs for building maintenance - as capital receipts. This may not mean much to many people, but as far as bean counters are concerned it's serious. The auditor has ordered GB pounds 2.3 million of expenditure be restored to the housing revenue account, which is supposed to be spent on housing and for no other purpose.Finally, the ALMO ballot is about as fishy as the docks in Hull used to be when I was growing up in the 1950s. The 51% to 49% alleged result actually involved the leaseholders voting 'No' by a large margin of 57.5% to 42.5% and some 1,505 ballot papers were returned marked 'don't know.' Hardly a convincing mandate, especially given the complaints from some residents that they never received a ballot paper.
UPDATE: Vauxhall's Labour MP Kate Hoey has submitted a Parliamentary Early Day Motion that "notes with dismay the balloting process undertaken by Lambeth Council".
Labels: ALMO, housing, Labour Lambeth
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.Labels: ALMO, Christmas, Council tax, Puss
Labour's First Big Test - We Can't Wait
Our citizens are waiting with nervous anticipation for Labour's big test at the autumn council meeting this week. If the Comrades succeed in their aim of denying our tenants a ballot over the Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO), bonfires will be lit for the ritual burning of their election manifesto, which is silent on this contentious matter. None other than Comrade Kate Hoey, the feisty Ulster-born Labour MP for Vauxhall, thunders in her latest newsletter that tenants must have a democratic say in the future ownership of their homes through a proper ballot. How will the Houdinis of the Labour front bench wriggle out of this one?Labour hates Council meetings and Area Committees where our citizens can vent their spleen on their rulers. Whereas in their wildnerness years they brought delegations to the meetings now they are less keen on hearing the voice of our people. That is why the ALMO meeting was rolled into the regular council meeting to cut down the time for debate. In an almost incomprehensible document attached to Wednesday's agenda the popular Area Committees are to be scrapped: the smart money is a return to a 'local governors' system in Lambeth favoured by Labour in 1998-2002 and not dissimilar to how the Blair government runs southern Iraq. This extract from Scottish civil servant Rory Stewart's account of a year as a governor of a province in Iraq post Saddam is instructive: "It was vital that WE selected the right councillors, for they would have to guide the province through the first few months of independence [for this read Labour rule in Lambeth] with very little support from the centre."It would also be worth our people taking comfort by reflecting on Machiavelli's warning in The Prince Chapter 19 'What will make [the ruler] despised is being considered inconstant, frivolous, effeminate, pusillanimous: a ruler must avoid contempt as if it were a reef.'Another piece of stealth attached to the back of the council agenda is the huge pay hike Labour councillors are proposing to award to their leaders with the Leader himself drawing GB pounds 38k plus GB pounds 10k in ordinary allowances. It is unlikely, in my opinion, to be debated but nodded through at the end of the meeting. While some of the 'payroll vote' within the administration are jobless a few are being tempted to combine well-paid part-time jobs in the real world with these new allowances. Rumours, no doubt untrue, reach me that up to a dozen Labour members have reservations about the size of some of the new allowances. What is sure is that the doubters will not have the strength of mind to vote against this sleight of hand.Labels: Allowances, ALMO, Area Committees
Labour's 'Chucklehead Month' As It All Begins To Unravel
Our new masters are experiencing a 'Chucklehead month' as their 'Brave New World' begins to unravel in Lambeth and beyond our boundaries at the House of Commons. To parody Lord Reith - "they know what Lambeth people want and they're damn well not going to get it."Our good citizens were treated to two days of free entertainment at the Lambeth Country Show where many queued for hours to buy huge quantities of Chucklehead cider in the exotic foods tent. That may be the only source of council-organised goodies for a while.Meanwhile, in the Mayor's tent Labour bosses quaffed cases of wine and other beverages paid for by their cleaning contractor Cleanaway, whose contract is up for renewal in the autumn. While the party went on into the dusk, our library users were waking up to the fact that the new books fund had been reduced by GB pounds 160,000.What interested New Labour bosses gathered in the Mayor's tent, however, is the triple prospect of a contest to succeed the MP for Streatham at the next election as well as possible challenges to the other two Lambeth MPs who include the Camden-based Cabinet Culture Secretary and the maverick pro-hunting MP for Vauxhall. The latter congratulates herself on having a good relationship with her local party, because she votes against the government so often. Last word on that story was the quote from Vauxhall Conservative Association Chairman Stuart Barr - "if Labour won't have her, we certainly will."In the meantime, citizens of West Norwood have been punished by Labour's first 'big porkie'. When the Environment Cabinet Member responded in Full Council to our Councillors' questions about when a play area would open for the summer, she replied with real brass neck, "next week". After the week had expired with no play area, our Councillors were told: "I share the frustration and disappointment that the games are will not be ready for the summer holiday as promised."August is traditionally the time when our Council officers take their holidays in Umbria or Portugal, while our citizens face the same old unacceptable levels of service. Our new Chief Executive has, since arriving in March, uncovered some good examples of poor service (as well as islands of good service) especially at our sports halls. Another contract is up for renewal there in the autumn and we await with interest what our new masters will do.One or two of our well-paid officers enjoy nothing more than starting a legal action for unfair dismissal when they have left for better paid jobs or after being invited to fall on their swords. The common denominator is that all these actions stem from employees working for failing services where our citizens rightly complain about poor practice.Privatisation is very much on Labour's agenda, especially for our 33,000 tenants who are to be exported to an Arms Length Management Organisation (ALMO). Out of sight - out of mind is the Labour priority while they prepare our citizens for their next big project - upping their members' allowances at the next Council meeting in November. The initial document on the proposed changes show the Leader potentially going up from GB pounds 25k to GB pounds 51k.It was indeed a Chucklehead month, but our citizens are unlikely to have the last laugh as services stagnate and dissatisfaction rises about Labour's broken promises. They are hoping to combat this by bringing in highly paid spin doctors to take over the press office - watch this blog for the details.CassandraLabels: ALMO, Kate Hoey, Keith Hill, Labour Lambeth, Lambeth Country Show, Libraries, Porkies, Tessa Jowell
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posted by Cllr John Whelan on Sunday, July 29, 2007
