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.
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.
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