Local Labour Round-up

Camden’s Cllr. Theo Blackwell has had the excellent idea of setting up a local Labour blog round-up. Different people, active in their communities, will take turns to summarise some of the issues going on with other councils and so give readers an opportunity to see what’s happening elsewhere. It's my turn this month.

This all coincides with Ken Livingstone’s launch of Progressive London. That initiative has attracted a breadth of political support and Progressive London will be holding it’s first Conference this Saturday.

I think it's right that we should start with Theo as this was all his idea. Here he demonstrates that those residents who believed they were all alone, in their frustrating dealings with their local council, are not - as Camden offers these unusual benchmarks. And, it seems that H&F Council isn't the only one handing out handing out inflation busting amounts of tax payers' cash to political cronies. Camden has been similarly generous too.

Islington Councillors Catherine West and Richard Watts are proposing to introduce free school meals for all children under the age of 11. A welcome bonus in these tough economic times. They plan to do it by raising the extra funds by cutting waste - such as spending on glossy PR. This is something H&F’s residents may want to ponder when viewing their Council's PRAVDA styled propaganda sheet.

Putney’s Stuart King suggests that Wandsworth Tories’ 27 per cent increase for parking permit charges is indicative of the stealth tax approach any future government led by David Cameron would take.

Over in Hackney, Cllr. Luke Akehurst tells how his borough has managed to invest in new front line services and deliver real terms reductions in Council Tax without the fantastic cuts in essential services or the 578 stealth taxes introduced into our borough by H&F Conservatives.

John Gray raises concerns about Boris' probity saying that he ceases to be funny when - putting aside the rights or wrongs of Damien Green’s arrest - he seems to have used information gleaned because of his Mayoral position to tip off his Tory colleagues of an impending police investigation.

And finally, Cllr. Kerron Cross gives an insight, that all involved in politics will recognize, when he takes an amusing slant on his recent invite to spend Valentine’s Day showing his "love for the good people of Poplar" by campaigning for Jim Fitzpatrick MP - the first rate Member of Parliament for Poplar and Canning Town.

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