Labour Double Talk Over Rat Catching
It's official - the Labour Party are friends of the Rat and we don't mean the children's favourite in Toad of Toad Hall. Since seizing power at Lambeth Town Hall, Labour has cut the pest control budget by more than GB pounds 300,000 in the hottest summer on record. And that came after a Cassandra-like warning from Labour Councillor Dr Neeraj Patil, one of Tony's cronies in the NHS, who thundered in the Council Chamber about the danger of a plague of rats on the Springfield Estate in Stockwell. The good doctor, of course, doesn't live on an estate, but in leafy West Dulwich where he is represented by Conservative councillors. Oddly enough, for all its faults, Lambeth Council is quite good at rat catching, perhaps because its pest control officers have so many furry customers spreading, among other things, Weil's disease.
If cuts are inevitable under Labour then equally we can expect plenty of broken promises as the days slip by. One pledge was about having a fairer parking service with new cuddly parking attendants ready to exercise common sense. How crazy then to hear the tale of a double amputee and distinguished and decorated campaigner for disabled ex servicemen and women. He asked a warden if he could double park for a few minutes to pick up his dry cleaning from a local shopping parade. What happened next? You've guessed it - the warden said OK and when the wheelchair bound old soldier came out of the shop the car was festooned with a parking ticket.
Finally, we smell a whiff of hypocrisy in the ranks of the local Labour Party. Perhaps it's just going to be a story about rats again, only of 'metaphorical rats' thinking of leaving Labour's sinking ship. We're positive this can't be true, but word has reached Tory HQ in Lambeth Town Hall that an administration Councillor is considering making a gift to the Conservative Party through his company and is interested in meeting David Cameron. Surely some mistake, eh? Perhaps he or she collects autographs or is Labour worried about the Tory Party's 40 per cent rating in the opinion polls. It must be the August silly season.
Ratty
posted by Cllr John Whelan on Friday, August 04, 2006
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