After my negative thoughts on the Council Assembly in the last post I actually quite enjoyed it and it was pretty positive from our side of the fence with good speeches from Chris Page, Evrim Laws,Robert Smeath and Mary Foukes in particular. The great Urban versus Suburban debate was sorted out pragmatically with a compromise between the Govenment and the Council and a move away from any thoughts of a pointless and wasteful Judicial Review which is good!A couple of things did annoy me on the night:
1. The debate on the Carrib Football team - a great success strory with a deputation of quite inspirational young black men and women asking for funding fro additional changing facilities in the short term until the new facilities are built. The easiest thing in the world for the Council Leader to have done was to say "yes we will fix it" and then discuss with all parties how it would be funded But oh no that is not the way that this Lib Dem/Torty bunch work!! afterwards! Instead we had a pathetic discuyssion about funding and beudgets and that no money (probably no more than £20,000 needed!) could be found anywhere from an £800 Million Organisation and that the responsibility was on the local Community Council.... absolutely pathetic!!!!!!!
In the break the Labour CC Chairs are going to look at each giving an amount to bridge the gap and we will get it done ourselves!!!! Even a Lib Dem Chair and Vice cahir have offered funds!
I know that Kim Humphreys was upset that we spent so long on the item but there was a much bigger principle at stake here really showing up the complete absence of political leadership that exists at present and we thought that it was worth pursuing and I am glad that we did!!!
2. Watching this Administration in action is like watching Militant in the 1980's, completely Stalinist in their approach with a small cabal dictating policy, much less than the 10 Exec members I think?, where motion after motion they will not tolerate anything that even might be indirectly viewed as being critical of the Council, apart from blaming the previous labour Addministrations, or anything that credits the Labour London Mayor or the Labour Government. There were a couple of motions last night which were amended to a point where they were out of order as they totally turned the motions around into slobbering praise for all things Lib Dem!!! I dont know who they think they are kidding with all of this but they cant really believe that behaving the way that they do gives them any credibility inside or outside of the Town Hall.
It is clear from the past few meetings that some Lib Dems have just about had enough with members absenting themselves from the Chamber, or as in the case last night, openly breaking the Whip!! Perhap this Lib Dem Group photo will diminish even further over the next few months??
I returned home at 1am to the news of a 2-0 defeat to Italy in Bari with Toni getting both goals, reports suggest a comprehensive defeat but once again Hibs Scott Brown playing well, I am sure that he will be a regular starter from now on!
We are on top of Group 2 with 12 points along with France and Ukraine but I still fancy World Champions italy to win the group leaving the 3 to fight out the other 1 spot. I think that France are vulnerable so already the Autumn match at Hampden Park between Scotland and Ukraine is looking like the key game so I am hoping for a Shevchenko injury with Chelsea as they are not the same team without him!!! All to play for and Scotland developing into a very good team for the first time since the 1998 World Cup!!
Could not resist this picture of the Steve McLaren Fan Club taken last night in Spain after England's 3-0 victory over Andorra!! He was not happy and walked out of the Press Conference so it looks like the end is drawing near for another England Manager???
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