Cllr Paul Bell | Working for Telegraph Hill

Before I was elected as a councillor I was prepared for the amount of casework I would get. However, what I was not prepared for was the amount of chasing and more chasing to get things done. Lets take the example of bin lids. During April 2010 I raised the issue of no lids covering the bins at Dennett's Court and while I was responded to immediately, it took months to finally get the bin lids, I and residents had been demanding.

It seems my destiny to be labelled as relentless.

Firstly, Happy New Year to everyone. I hope 2011 brings you all great happiness and joy.

Secondly, as I am preparing to go back to work I was reading the Guardian online, in particular about a drug called Avastin which is produced by the Royal Liverpool and Broadgreen University Hospital Pharmacy for £50 per dose. Why is this of interest? Well this drug helps prevent wet age-related macular degeneration, the most common form of blindness, which eye specialists have been using around the world. 

So what is the problem? Well the drug companies who produce a more expensive version are trying to block its use. Why? Well they say it is not licensed and could be dangerous. However, if they (Genentech and Roche) are trying to block it, then it not only works but has a very pleasant side effect - reducing drug company profits.

What makes me so angry is that profit appears to be more important than people losing their sight. Let us just hope that the Condems are more on the side of the people than foreign-drug companies by approving Avastin in its use across the NHS. I will not hold my breath.

The article can be found HERE.

 

Merry Christmas from me to all. May today and the coming year bring you every happiness.

Paul

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.

I am opposed to Tidemill becoming an academy. Attached is the council's response that the Children and Young People Committee discussed at length and where I led the debate against the proposal.

Below is the speech I made tonight in Lewisham...

Thank you for inviting me to speak today. 

Some here may be surprised that a Labour councillor has been asked to speak to you. Indeed, everyone knows the Labour Party was going to make budget savings across the board if we won the general election, albeit slowly and with a mind to growth. So I am not going to say that the discussions in the Labour Group at Lewisham Town Hall are about a return to 1980s when they are not. 

However, there is NOT a single Labour councillor, or the Mayor, that wants to make £60m of cuts…this is an ideological agenda inspired by Thatcherites who have been woken-up by the taste of power. They are intent on not shrinking the budget deficit because it is the right thing to do, but to challenge the ideal of a public sector, the welfare state and public sector workers. Only today have we heard yet again this agenda by the traitor Lord Hutton sending out the message that public sector pensions are somehow costing tax payers vast sums of money. In fact, the average pension in local government is £3,800 a year – and this drops to £2,000 if you look at women only. The average pension for a female NHS worker is £5,000 – but the 'median' is much less: half of all women pensioners who have worked in the NHS get less than £3,500 a year. I wonder just how much Lord Hutton and George Osbourne have stashed away?

You know, it is not just the ideals I don’t like, but the belief that we are all stupid and don’t understand what they are actually doing…

I am sure no-one would disagree who caused the problem and it is NOT librarians, nurses, admin officers, cleaners, postmen and benefit officers…I don’t know who he thinks are tax payers, but if we had to run our public services from the tax revenues of Lord Ashcroft, then we would have no schools, hospitals, roads, pavements or public transport…as it would all be in off-shore tax havens and bank accounts far, far, far away.

You know, I am fed-up of seeing a repeat of the same battles being raged again in the name of balancing the books. I am fed up of seeing yet again the poorest in our society and hard-working people blamed for the greed of the bankers, accountants and financiers who yet again are getting away with deluding and lying to the public.

But, that is fair enough you may say, but what is the ruling group on the council doing? At the beginning I said I was not going to delude you into thinking we are going to mount a Liverpool or Lambeth rebellion against government policies. While I recognise Liverpool in 1980s won concessions, which were short lived, the surcharging of 47 councillors and subsequent prosecutions do not appeal to my colleagues. I say again, the Labour Party in Lewisham does not want to make £60m cuts and this is being forced upon us by the Condem Coalition. I have heard many arguments opposing making any cuts and I sympathise, but the council is required by law to set a balanced budget. As Labour is the controlling administration that falls on the Mayor and the Labour group of councillors. No cuts have yet been decided upon apart from in-year cuts which were particularly unfair to Lewisham and imposed by central government.

I and other fellow councillors ARE trying to persuade the Mayor that there should be:

- No compulsory redundancies
- No more outsourcing

The other parties in Lewisham can vote against anything and remain credible as they do not have the responsibility of making decisions. 

However, politicians only make decisions in isolation when they are left without residents speaking-up and demanding leadership. From all levels of the community we must all lobby councillors, the Mayor and council officers in whatever way and repeatedly.

We must engage with community groups, with community leaders, churches and charities to say that everyone has the right to work and to improve their lives. This government must be brought down and the Lib Dem part of it is vulnerable and weak and must be tackled at a local and national level.

In Lewisham, Steve Bullock has publically stated that the poorest and most vulnerable will be protected. This is something that all Labour councillors believe passionately in and the proposals will be scrutinised very closely.

We should all be joining together no matter what our differences are, as this government has an opportunity to dismantle what Thatcher could not.

We have to choose the battles we can win…

If cuts have to happen, then I say lets cut the private sector from the public sector; lets take these cuts to the profit margins of the boardrooms around this country and abroad. Let’s make the private sector in the public sector squeal and get them to campaign on our behalf for no more cuts.

To finish I must quote Tony Benn who asked the powerful five questions:

1.            What power have you got?
2.            Where did you get it from?
3.            In whose interests do you exercise it?
4.            To whom are you accountable?
5.            How can we get rid of you?

Comrades, and as I am now part of the new generation it is refreshing to be able to say that after a long period of New Labour, only democracy gives us that right. That is why no-one with power likes democracy. When you are afraid of losing your job, when you are afraid about not having enough money to feed your family, when you are so tired at the end of the day, the last thing on your mind is to get up and fight for the NHS or against those with power.

And that is why every generation must struggle to win democracy and to keep it.

This is our struggle from whatever viewpoint or starting point you come from. 

We must all work together not just for the right to work, but for the right to live.

Let’s bring this Condem government down.

Thank you.

On Sunday, I got up early and went to Birmingham to march at the Right to Work demonstration near the Tory Party conference, along with Tom from my ward Labour Party, There were about 7000 to 10,000 people gathered with a whole lot of police and metal barriers never seen on the mainland before.

There are definitely battles ahead.