Cllr Paul Bell | Working for Telegraph Hill

Below is what I said at Full Council on 1st March.

I hate having to do this and I have thought about voting for no cuts…this will be of no surprise to my Labour colleagues. But there are so many uncertainties about what that would achieve.

Yes, it would make me popular with protestors;
Yes it would give me the badge saying we are part of the “official” resistance;
And yes I can hold my head-up high knowing that I have done the popular thing for some today.

But in reality it would be theatre. If all my colleagues did the same then would we achieve anything other than an uncertain future?

I have been agonising over this question for the last few months. Would civil servants run the council if we set an illegal budget?

Would Whitehall appointed bureaucrats cut more services to the poorest?

All are uncertainties…but it is a serious risk.

I am reminded of the film the Wizard of Oz…for it seems a parallel world exists in some peoples minds where we are all on the yellow brick road trying to find the grand old Wizard of Oz, to send us over the rainbow and away from making cuts.

To get there people shout we need courage, a heart, a brain to remember our home all metaphors for resistance, fighting against oppression levied out by the wicked witch and her minions.

The reality of setting an illegal budget is unfortunately somewhere over the rainbow…. though a part of me would like to do it; but our brains and courage in the Labour group have to take us on a journey of protecting as much as we can from the scoundrels that now inhabit the Ministries of State.

We have no house to drop on the wicked witch today….as there are three wicked witches; Cameron, Osbourne and Clegg, who have an army of flying monkeys, though I somewhat doubt Eric Pickles could ever fly.

I’m not being flippant….but as a Labour Councillor, melting the wicked witches is going to take more that one illegal budget.

We as Labour Councillors are not the enemy. For 10 months, not a day has not gone by without today weighing heavy on our collective minds.

We take no pleasure – we have no desire to do this and I for one feel sick to my stomach. However, I have no mood to be told I am the enemy….examine who we are, what we believe and in what we stand for before condemning us.

I call upon all members of our community to come together and unite with our leader….in Lewisham that is the Mayor Steve Bullock. We are not all going to agree on methodology but we can resist together.

Over the last 10 months, the Labour Group and the Mayor have secured services to the most vulnerable, resisted the worst examples of Condem arrogance, like taking away working people’s trade union representatives, seen again in the Lib Dem alternative budget.

We’ve reduced consultants and this will go down further…I have been fighting for this since I was elected, along with colleagues like Cllr Foxcroft and others.

We have created a view that we should have the lowest possible number of compulsory redundancies of any council hopefully, by redeploying people and valuing the staff of this authority not just as employees but also as people.

So I will not be condemned and let the Labour Group be condemned by loud protestors, as we are all part of the resistance…. this government is the enemy of the people.

And while there is no place like home, namely a social democratic and socialist future for the people of this Borough and country, the 26th March demonstration is the Yellow Brick Road and the Emerald City is the NHS and public services,

Resistance is not just for protestors but for all decent people who care and want to create a fairer society.

So get off our backs and fight the real enemy: Cameron, Osbourne and Clegg. For dividing the opposition makes us weaker and plays right into the hands of government.

Below is the statement I made at the full council meeting tonight. As Labour councillors we had to make decisions that go against our beliefs but we must protect the most vulnerable.Speech to Full Council

I, like my Labour colleagues, are feeling quite sick tonight, sick that we have to be voting for these cuts, especially when I know they are ideological and that we, in the UK, have the lowest domestic and foreign debt levels in the Western world. For example, the changes to the Community Wardens Service and reducing our capacity is a major concern to the Telegraph Hill Ward Councillors, as regards the Honor Oak Estate. However, I am reassured that discussions and the subsequent  decision to keep the Warden’s office on the Honor Oak Estate as a community presence is commendable.

I have listened to the arguments saying we should set an illegal budget and I sympathise but I know that I stood for council against the backdrop of this looming. I am a member of the Labour Group and that has responsibilities. I know that democracy also has to be preserved at all costs and setting an illegal budget would mean civil servants appointed by the Treasury to take services away from the most vulnerable; this is a price I and the Labour Group are not prepared to pay. Therefore I will have to vote for the cuts package this evening.

However, to the Lib Dems and Tories I say this: you are residents of Lewisham too and your government is progressing an agenda not for the people but to turn this country into a “Tea Party” American experiment, dismantling the hard won welfare state and NHS; taking away people’s homes and going further than Thatcher could ever dream of. You are decent people, you must be the resistance in your parties to say we shall not accept this.

To the public I say this: we are not the resistance that our community needs as we are bound by rules, regulations and laws. Democracy does not end and begin with elected politicians but within the heart and soul of every member of the community. You are the resistance and when politics is not able to build those barricades, then, all that is left is for the resistance to mobilise and shout loudly that enough is enough. We did not vote for this and we will NOT accept that central government can bring so much misery to people’s lives…the very people who did not create this so called crisis are yet again the victims.

These cuts effect people’s lives and jobs and that we must prevent compulsory redundancies at all costs. If officers are to sign the end to such jobs, voluntary redundancies and an end to interims and consultants must be the top priorities before anyone loses their job.

Finally, we must satisfy our consciences that every steps have been taken to let the wealthiest share the burden more than the less well off. This means seriously looking at reducing senior executive pay by a percentage to cushion job losses of lower grades. We must always seek to protect the most vulnerable not just in the services they receive but in the workforce that we employ.

When we are forced to make decisions we don’t like, we cannot shake our responsibility to make them. However, we can resist in different ways.

Resistance is to say that as individuals collectively we can take control of our lives. The ConDems are behaving like the Gods of Olympus, but they are merely Madhatters at the Public Services Tea Party Sale, celebrating that they have a once in a generation opportunity to carry the wrecking ball to our public services.

Public opinion moves politicians; but just like a tanker, it takes time to turn it around. We have begun the resistance to the ConDems and we should not resist against each other. United in opposition to this government is not only essential but it is required, before history repeats itself and we find ourselves suffering in the past.