Friday, May 16, 2008

Lib Dem/Tory leadership drink champers whilst Southwark burns!, Camberwell Green gets best Labour vote in Southwark and the Labour Group AGM !

The local press had a lot of fun at the Lib Dem/Tory expense covering the £6000 party with Veolian after the hand wringing whining from them about how financially stricken the Council was and of course the closure of the Livesey. At best this was crass stupidity to attend something like this but it really highlights how out of touch they really are!
The news report illustrated the tone of the coverage:

"A TOWN hall that claims it’s hard up has defended spending £6,000 of taxpayers’money on a posh champagne party.
The event, at the exclusive Vinopolis next to Borough Market, was held by Southwark council bosses on April 25.
Council Leader Nick Stanton, deputy leader Kim Humphreys and Tory councillor Toby Eckersley quaffed champagne and tucked into nibbles with 60 guests at the £100-a-head extravaganza.
A council spokeswoman said the party was organised to “foster good partnership”after completing a deal to contract out its waste collection service to private company Veolia.
But pensioners have reacted angrily after seeing the council hike the price of meals on wheels and reduce the number of people eligible to receive social care. Southwark Pensioners Action Group member Stan Hardy said: “If they needed to celebrate, they could have gone somewhere a lot cheaper. “Councillors should be a lot more sensitive to the needs of people suffering their cuts.” The move comes as the Lib Dem/Tory-run authority claimed it was short of cash due to a lower-than-expected Government grants and closed the Livesey children’s museum last month. Southwark Labour leader Peter John said: We’ve had to listen to Nick Stanton preach about the council’s difficult financial situation for months. “Now it seems he’s happy to guzzle champagne but can’t find the money to keep meals on wheels prices at an affordable level and has scrambled to sell off the Livesey Museum to try and raise quick cash.” "

The stats came through about the recent Elections showing that Camberwell Green brought in a great result for both Val and Ken!

The votes for the GLA Seat were as follows:
1747 Lab , 390 LD and 358 Tory We also secured 2007 votes for Ken so we did not let him down!
The real story in London behind the obvious Ken disappointment was the collapse in the Lib Dem vote, resulting from the inevitable squeeze from the big two parties and the woeful choice of candidate.
The Lib Dems took a real battering in Southwark, not just from us but the Tories also and Surrey Docks looks really vulnerable in 2010!
It may be that the poor Lib Dem vote actually did for Ken as many Lib Dem voters switched to Boris once
again showing how the Lib Dems and Tories are merging into one at a local, regional and national level!
The Southwark Labour Group had Part 2 of it's AGM on Monday night and I am back on the Shadow Executive as Spokesperson for Community Safety and back as Scutiny Chair in Education and Children's Services.
I did not stand as Camberwell Community Council Vice Chair as with Dora as Chair I felt it better to have a VC from one of the other wards and nominated Ian Wingfield.
I am not on Planning and not doing Tenants Arbitration as it was conflicting too much with the day job although I did find it interesting. I am still on the Corporate Parenting Panel and am now a full member of the Disciplinary Appeals Committee so enough to be getting on with!
I attended 2 T@RA Meetings this week at the D'Eynesford and Poets Corner and was really impressed with their organisation and level of activity and it appears that many T@RA's in Camberwell Green are having a new lease of life and really developing strongly which is great to see!

The Hibs season comes to an end this weekend with no good cup runs and 4th in the SPL which is really disappointing after last season and the start of this season but Mixu is getting new players in and we have to look for progress next season showing the same flair on the ground but a bit more defensive steel at the back. Two pre-season friendlies against Wigan and Middlesborough already set up and perhaps an Inter-Toto adventure as well so time to look forward to the new season!

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