Now the debate around the cuts has quietened down apart from the impact they will have on workers and residents in Lewisham, I thought I would write about my perspective of the process and the past year as an elected councillor.
At public meetings, I do get asked about why the council did not vote for an illegal budget and defy the government. My answer is always the same: there was no desire within the Labour Group and the Mayor to do it. Party politics is about consensus and the Labour Group on Lewisham Council debates and votes for particular policy directions. Despite having an elected Mayor, he listens and adds to the debate and then we vote on the group view. This is hard and is probably the biggest difficulty, as I end up voting for things, as a lay member of the Labour Party, I would be campaigning against. During the process, I questioned everyday and at every debate as to was I doing the right thing? I will not specify the answer here, but suffice to say I was uncomfortable with my responses in the council chamber. I made speeches advocating discomfort but the vote you place is the one that defines you.
Any political group is a broad church of opinion. I make no apologies for the fact that I am a more left wing member. I am a trade unionist and I set about trying in my own way to defend public sector jobs and fight outsourcing, along with other members. However, there is no doubt that the former Labour government did embrace the market in a way I opposed at every opportunity and not because I am a “Trot” but because I believed allowing the private sector to run services in the public sector would be a mistake. An example of this is Medirest, part of the Compass Group, who have catering and cleaning contracts in the NHS. This company along with similar companies do not pay sick pay, i.e. an occupational sick pay scheme to their workers; workers who are low-paid are therefore forced to make a choice between coming into work sick or staying at home and not getting paid. These workers clean intensive care wards; children’s cancer wards and we wonder why hospital viruses are in the news almost on a weekly basis. This is the supposed efficiency. Workers terms and conditions, numbers and quality of service make way for profit.
So the past year has been compromise and heavy debate. We have some excellent councillors who care about services to our community and whom hate tearing down progress made by Labour. Setting an illegal budget would have been pointless and futile, except to pamper to our own ideas of self-worth. While it appealed to my radical side, my progressive left-wing politics recognises the practical application of decisions made based purely on belief and ideology.
We can still make progress, as this is one of the ways we can resist this ConDem government taking us back into the past. We must continue to fight for every social advancement at whatever level, small or large. I still hold the same beliefs and will not sacrifice those for anyone but have to realise I am not the Mayor or know everything.
Being a politician is a tough job, as you are pulled in various directions. It is easy having one position on a belief and to stick to it, when you don’t have to convince others with power. I envy that. My father always uses the expression, “I have a tongue in my head,” and I use mine quite a lot. Nearly a year of being a councillor has taught me some valuable lessons which I shall use during the next year.
At public meetings, I do get asked about why the council did not vote for an illegal budget and defy the government. My answer is always the same: there was no desire within the Labour Group and the Mayor to do it. Party politics is about consensus and the Labour Group on Lewisham Council debates and votes for particular policy directions. Despite having an elected Mayor, he listens and adds to the debate and then we vote on the group view. This is hard and is probably the biggest difficulty, as I end up voting for things, as a lay member of the Labour Party, I would be campaigning against. During the process, I questioned everyday and at every debate as to was I doing the right thing? I will not specify the answer here, but suffice to say I was uncomfortable with my responses in the council chamber. I made speeches advocating discomfort but the vote you place is the one that defines you.
Any political group is a broad church of opinion. I make no apologies for the fact that I am a more left wing member. I am a trade unionist and I set about trying in my own way to defend public sector jobs and fight outsourcing, along with other members. However, there is no doubt that the former Labour government did embrace the market in a way I opposed at every opportunity and not because I am a “Trot” but because I believed allowing the private sector to run services in the public sector would be a mistake. An example of this is Medirest, part of the Compass Group, who have catering and cleaning contracts in the NHS. This company along with similar companies do not pay sick pay, i.e. an occupational sick pay scheme to their workers; workers who are low-paid are therefore forced to make a choice between coming into work sick or staying at home and not getting paid. These workers clean intensive care wards; children’s cancer wards and we wonder why hospital viruses are in the news almost on a weekly basis. This is the supposed efficiency. Workers terms and conditions, numbers and quality of service make way for profit.
So the past year has been compromise and heavy debate. We have some excellent councillors who care about services to our community and whom hate tearing down progress made by Labour. Setting an illegal budget would have been pointless and futile, except to pamper to our own ideas of self-worth. While it appealed to my radical side, my progressive left-wing politics recognises the practical application of decisions made based purely on belief and ideology.
We can still make progress, as this is one of the ways we can resist this ConDem government taking us back into the past. We must continue to fight for every social advancement at whatever level, small or large. I still hold the same beliefs and will not sacrifice those for anyone but have to realise I am not the Mayor or know everything.
Being a politician is a tough job, as you are pulled in various directions. It is easy having one position on a belief and to stick to it, when you don’t have to convince others with power. I envy that. My father always uses the expression, “I have a tongue in my head,” and I use mine quite a lot. Nearly a year of being a councillor has taught me some valuable lessons which I shall use during the next year.
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