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A good week
for democracy
THE people have spoken – and, it appears, their elected
representatives have listened.
For years we have argued that local affairs had unfortunately
fallen into the hands of managers, not those chosen by the people
to represent them. For too long, officials have had to much
of an undue influence on decision making at the Town Hall.
A breath of fresh air swept through local politics this week
with the revelation that Labour has accepted the will of the
people (see page 1).
Ever since this newspaper revealed six months ago that plans
were afoot to close down Kentish Town baths and redevelop the
site, the public clamour of opposition has been ceaseless.
Our letters pages have bulged with demands from readers that
the Kentish Town baths should stay open.
From the start, admittedly, there have been signs that Labour
was far from solidly in favour of the extraordinary extravagant
redevelopment scheme dreamed up by officials.
But it took continued coverage by this newspaper, a deputation,
a petition, and supportive remarks by a local resident with
clout – culture minister Tessa Jowell – before Labour
took the hint. But at least they took it. And yes, perhaps,
they had one eye on the coming local election, but does that
really matter? Politics is a two-way street. This week has been
a good week for democracy.
A balancing act
THE financial condition of the privately built University
College London Hospital (UCLH) is not all that healthy.
At the end of last year it was running short of the budget projections
by about £19 million.
This week, the board has stated that its deficit now stands
at £26 million.
Don’t worry, says the chief executive Robert Naylor, this
is not all that abnormal and all will be well when we sell off
our land sites.
All well and good, but budget projections, while not sacrosanct,
are supposed to roughly hit the projected bottom line. If the
number-crunchers get their forecasts wrong by £25 million
something is wrong somewhere.
The poor financial figures came in a week when the New Statesman’s
cover story – ‘Inside the NHS, Profits before patients’
– unfairly, it seems, savaged the hospital. Judging by
the hospital’s response, it looks as if the magazine was
off-beam in their criticism but even so a letter from a reader
this week (see page 17) wonders why a nurse told her the hospital
could not afford an ice-making machine.
This is a week the UCLH probably wishes hadn’t happened.
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