You Can Not Be Serious...

Quite a number of my Labour colleagues laughed out loud when I told them: It turns out Cllr. Mark Loveday, H&F Conservatives’ campaign strategist, has written a piece accusing me of moving H&F Labour towards the “ultra left” of British politics. I think that says more about his political perspective than mine.

To evidence this, Mark Loveday says H&F Labour councillors opposed 24/7 policing in Town centres. That’s plainly not true. We opposed the Conservatives’ 25% cut in policing and worked with residents and local businesses to get that reversed, as you can read here and here. We have consistently called for more to be done on policing since 2006 and have pledged to provide more police, should we form an Administration, as you can read here.

Next, Cllr. Loveday says that I’m seeking to “forge an alliance with the ultra Left Respect Party”. This is nonsense and silly. His evidence for this is that I’m speaking at the Progressive London Conference about the need for more and better affordable homes to buy and rent along with more intermediate private housing. I am very pleased to be able to take part in this debate on the 30th January. Other speakers at the Conference include:

Rt Hon Ed Miliband MP – Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change
Cllr. Serge Lourie - Lib Dem Leader, Richmond Upon Thames
Jenny Jones AM - Green Party
Rt Hon Tessa Jowell MP - Minister for London
Bonnie Greer – Playwright
Kevin Maguire – Political Editor, The Daily Mirror
Ken Livingstone – Progressive London and former Mayor

There’s many others attending too. It turns out that members of the Respect Party will be speaking elsewhere in the Conference. From this Mark Loveday says I have taken an “inexorable slide to the Left”. Er… No I haven’t.

It is understandable why H&F Conservatives fear the next local elections being about their record. Instead, all this seems pretty desperate stuff usually more associated with student politics. Indeed, it is so ludicrous, I can only conclude Mark Loveday has confused reality with his wildest dreams.