Lambeth Conservatives

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:

"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

Paying Through The Nose for Labour

Our Labour bosses who now meet as a Cabinet in the afternoons when most people are at work have pulled no punches in hitting the elderly and vulnerable hardest in their first budget. It also means they won't be bringing children to demonstrate as they did in 2005 because they're all at school until after 3 p.m.

If you live in an average home the Council Tax bills dropping through your letter box early next month will be a tad under 1,200 pounds. Last year the previous Conservative and Liberal administration managed a tax freeze in the Lambeth element of the Council Tax while Labour proposed a cut in council tax through a series of ranting speeches that had no properly constructed table attached with the specific details.

But, lo, history has been rewritten. In his speech at the afternoon Cabinet on February 8 the Leader of the Council criticised the previous administration for NOT raising council tax to allow for inflation when his proposals in 2006 would have CUT the council tax not freeze it. The Labour proposals last year were put together by a journalist - and we all know that the press exercises power without responsibility. Perhaps this is less important than the rising tide of anger about the proposed huge increases in social care charges for the elderly and the voluntary sector.

Despite some hand wringing, nothing has emerged from the Cabinet about how it plans to mitigate the effect of these cuts on elderly people and their carers. The proposals on February 8 were unchanged from the previous Cabinet meeting on January 8, (surely some mistake?).There are plenty of proposals in the alternative Conservative budget amendments that would help reduce waste and leave resources to spare that could restore the cuts. They could start with their own bank accounts and revisit some of the huge allowances that have paid to the administration's payroll vote. Looking at the council agenda for budget setting on February 28, which contains a proposed debate on Palestine and Israel and a jibe at Tony's mate George W Bush, they are clearly more interested in foreign policy than local residents.

Labels: Care charges, Council tax, Elderly, Foriegn policy in Lambeth, Labour Lambeth

Celebrating Conservative Success in London

Conservatives are often rather backward in coming forward to celebrate their progress in local government. London is no exception. Yet it is becoming clearer by the day that Labour realises we are now the dominant party in both London and local government nationally for the forseeable future. The actions of the Labour government in adding to Mayor Livingstone's powers show how desperate they are - only through Livingstone's mayoralty can they retain any dominance over London politics.

But Labour is also losing its grip. At last week's meeting of the London Fire Authority Livingstone's chairwoman - the GLA Assembly Member for Lambeth and Southwark - had the rug pulled out from under one of her pet projects - the GLA Labour Brussels Office. Taking advantage of an absence of two Labour members, Conservatives voted to withdraw funding on the basis that the authority is about fire and rescue services in London not Belgium.

Indeed Conservatives now control 16 out of the 32 London town halls with a joint Conservative administration with the third party of national politics in three more. If you look at the political map of London, Labour has retreated into its fortress boroughs in parts of East and North London. In East London they are under threat from an extermist nationalist party, largely because of decades of taking absolute power for granted. There is no Labour council west of a line drawn between Sutton and Barnet.

As for the 'Ming Emperor', his Party has very little to celebrate. In May, in their three flagship boroughs, Liberal Democrats narrowly held Sutton and Kingston, but lost overall control of Islington. As the Kingston and Sutton results show, Conservatives can go head to head with Liberals and win.

Londoners have only a bleak outlook to face from City Hall with a huge increase in fare rises on public transport in London - 33 per cent in the past year alone. Essentially, by shunting NHS costs onto London's boroughs, the Government has turned the council tax into a health 'stealth' tax.

In Lambeth, the elderly are facing a 132 per cent increase in the cost of social care. The new Labour zealots at the town hall are enthusiastically enforcing the philosophy of Gordon Brown before he has even moved next door to No 10. It won't take long before the voters see that the promises made last May were as worthless as the manifesto they were written on. And as for the Labour MP for Dulwich and West Norwood, instead of living in South Africa under the stars for her long Christmas holiday working on a sports project, it might be a good idea to spend the odd night in her constituency visiting a multi use games area.

Labels: Elderly, GLA, Ken Livingstone, Labour Lambeth, NHS, Val Shawcross



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	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: "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 click here to have your say on this issue and read the 0 comment(s) so far click here to view other web pages linking to this post Paying Through The Nose for Labour Our Labour bosses who now meet as a Cabinet in the afternoons when most people are at work have pulled no punches in hitting the elderly and vulnerable hardest in their first budget. It also means they won't be bringing children to demonstrate as they did in 2005 because they're all at school until after 3 p.m. If you live in an average home the Council Tax bills dropping through your letter box early next month will be a tad under 1,200 pounds. Last year the previous Conservative and Liberal administration managed a tax freeze in the Lambeth element of the Council Tax while Labour proposed a cut in council tax through a series of ranting speeches that had no properly constructed table attached with the specific details. But, lo, history has been rewritten. In his speech at the afternoon Cabinet on February 8 the Leader of the Council criticised the previous administration for NOT raising council tax to allow for inflation when his proposals in 2006 would have CUT the council tax not freeze it. The Labour proposals last year were put together by a journalist - and we all know that the press exercises power without responsibility. Perhaps this is less important than the rising tide of anger about the proposed huge increases in social care charges for the elderly and the voluntary sector. Despite some hand wringing, nothing has emerged from the Cabinet about how it plans to mitigate the effect of these cuts on elderly people and their carers. The proposals on February 8 were unchanged from the previous Cabinet meeting on January 8, (surely some mistake?).There are plenty of proposals in the alternative Conservative budget amendments that would help reduce waste and leave resources to spare that could restore the cuts. They could start with their own bank accounts and revisit some of the huge allowances that have paid to the administration's payroll vote. Looking at the council agenda for budget setting on February 28, which contains a proposed debate on Palestine and Israel and a jibe at Tony's mate George W Bush, they are clearly more interested in foreign policy than local residents. Labels: Care charges, Council tax, Elderly, Foriegn policy in Lambeth, Labour Lambeth posted by Cllr John Whelan on Thursday, February 15, 2007 click here to have your say on this issue and read the 0 comment(s) so far click here to view other web pages linking to this post Celebrating Conservative Success in London Conservatives are often rather backward in coming forward to celebrate their progress in local government. London is no exception. Yet it is becoming clearer by the day that Labour realises we are now the dominant party in both London and local government nationally for the forseeable future. The actions of the Labour government in adding to Mayor Livingstone's powers show how desperate they are - only through Livingstone's mayoralty can they retain any dominance over London politics. But Labour is also losing its grip. At last week's meeting of the London Fire Authority Livingstone's chairwoman - the GLA Assembly Member for Lambeth and Southwark - had the rug pulled out from under one of her pet projects - the GLA Labour Brussels Office. Taking advantage of an absence of two Labour members, Conservatives voted to withdraw funding on the basis that the authority is about fire and rescue services in London not Belgium. Indeed Conservatives now control 16 out of the 32 London town halls with a joint Conservative administration with the third party of national politics in three more. If you look at the political map of London, Labour has retreated into its fortress boroughs in parts of East and North London. In East London they are under threat from an extermist nationalist party, largely because of decades of taking absolute power for granted. There is no Labour council west of a line drawn between Sutton and Barnet. As for the 'Ming Emperor', his Party has very little to celebrate. In May, in their three flagship boroughs, Liberal Democrats narrowly held Sutton and Kingston, but lost overall control of Islington. As the Kingston and Sutton results show, Conservatives can go head to head with Liberals and win. Londoners have only a bleak outlook to face from City Hall with a huge increase in fare rises on public transport in London - 33 per cent in the past year alone. Essentially, by shunting NHS costs onto London's boroughs, the Government has turned the council tax into a health 'stealth' tax. In Lambeth, the elderly are facing a 132 per cent increase in the cost of social care. The new Labour zealots at the town hall are enthusiastically enforcing the philosophy of Gordon Brown before he has even moved next door to No 10. It won't take long before the voters see that the promises made last May were as worthless as the manifesto they were written on. And as for the Labour MP for Dulwich and West Norwood, instead of living in South Africa under the stars for her long Christmas holiday working on a sports project, it might be a good idea to spend the odd night in her constituency visiting a multi use games area. Labels: Elderly, GLA, Ken Livingstone, Labour Lambeth, NHS, Val Shawcross posted by Cllr John Whelan on Sunday, January 14, 2007 click here to have your say on this issue and read the 0 comment(s) so far click here to view other web pages linking to this post	Conservative blogs David Cameron MP Boris Johnson MP Ed Vaizey MP Richard Spring MP Stephen Crabb MP David Davies AM MP James Duddridge MP Iain Dale James Cleverly (Lewisham) Cllr Nigel Fletcher (Greenwich) Conservative Home Tory Radio Other Conservative weblogs Other political blogs Guido Fawkes Political Betting Dizzy Thinks UK Polling Report 18 Doughty Street Nick Robinson (BBC News) Adam Boulton (Sky News) Daniel Finkelstein (The Times) Lambeth weblinks Vauxhall Conservatives Dulwich & West Norwood Conservatives Lambeth Council Virtual Norwood Forum Peabody Online Community Forum Other political weblinks Conservative Party Can I have the bill please? 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