Beware of the Lib Dems’ Tory agenda
• The view that there was a ‘meltdown’ in the Labour vote in the May local elections is not borne out by the statistics.
Labour remains the most popular party in Camden, having received 47,715 votes compared with 44,141 for the Lib Dems, 43,443 for the Tories and 21,495 for the Greens.
Over 7,000 more people voted Labour this year than did so in 2002.
It is true that there was a proportionate fall in the Labour vote – down to 30.2 per cent of the total votes cast, from 34.9 per cent in 2002 – which anecdotal evidence suggests was the product of hostility to the Blair government rather than dissatisfaction with Labour’s record in Camden.
Either way, this hardly amounted to a catastrophic collapse in Labour support.
Labour lost a swathe of seats because the relatively small decline in their share of the vote was matched by a similarly modest rise in the Lib Dems‚ share (27.9 per cent as against 23.3 per cent in 2002), and the effects of this were exaggerated by a first-past-the-post system which gave the Lib Dems two more council seats than Labour with a smaller number of votes.
Another feature of the Camden results was the failure of the Tories to make any political capital out of the widespread disaffection with Blair.
Their share of vote remained almost static, rising a mere fraction to 27.5 per cent from 26.8 per cent four years ago.
If a ‘Conservative revival’ is under way, as David Cameron would have us believe, there is certainly no sign of it in Camden.
This year, as in 2002, almost three-quarters of the votes in Camden were cast against the Tories.
The reason is not hard to find. Despite Cameron’s efforts to present a more touchy-feely image for his party, voters in Camden recognise the Tories for what they are – a right-wing outfit committed to a Thatcherite programme of privatisation and cuts in public services.
The large majority of people in Camden do not want them running our local authority.
With a hung council, the onus lay on the Lib Dems as the party with the largest number of seats to construct a coalition that would represent the anti-Tory consensus in the borough.
They could have proposed a power-sharing deal with Labour and perhaps offered a place on the executive to the Greens who, though they have only two councillors, represent a significant component within the anti-Tory majority in Camden.
Instead the Lib Dems offered Labour a derisory two seats on the executive in a partnership with the Tories.
It was an offer the Lib Dems knew would be refused and was intended purely to provide a cover for their real agenda, namely the formation of a coalition with the Tories, which they have now concluded.
The result is that a party rejected by three-quarters of the voters in Camden has joint control of our borough.
This isn’t the first time the Lib Dems have behaved like this.
After the London elections in 2004 their Assembly members rejected a coalition with Labour and the Greens and cut a deal with the Tories, as a result of which Brian Coleman, the hard right-wing Tory member for Barnet and Camden, is currently chair of the London Assembly.
The reason for this behaviour on the part of the Lib Dems is that, although they appeal for votes by portrayng themselves as a radical alternative to Labour, their practical politics have far in common with the Tories than with progressive political parties like Labour and the Greens.
Hopefully voters in Camden will remember this next time they are minded to back the Lib Dems in an election.
Martin Sullivan
Georgiana Street, NW1
• The Camden New Journal reported last week that the new Lib Dem/Tory coalition that runs Camden Council is to carry out a ‘review’ of Asbos (Radical agenda as Cons and Lib Dems agree pact).
We all know that the Lib Dems are ideologically opposed to Asbos, having voted against them in Parliament and campaigned against them locally in the recent local elections.
The review is likely to be no more than a whitewash leading to the policy of not using Asbos – just like the Lib Dems who run Islington Council.
Under the previous Labour administration, Camden was really innovative in its use of Asbos – issuing over 200 Asbos against ticket touts, flyposting, illegal cigarette sellers and drug dealing.
Remember that in each of these cases there was sufficient evidence to persuade a magistrate that an Asbo was warranted. Given that each of these Asbos would have been opposed by the Lib Dems on ideological grounds – what strategies do they propose to use instead of Asbos to tackle such serious issues?
Omar Salem
Dynham Road, NW6
• Whilst I wish Councillor Jill Fraser the best in her year as Mayor I must say that the action of the council officer or councillor from the Lib Dem/Tory coalition in grossly insulting past mayors by cancelling their invitations with a couple of days to go to the Mayor-making ceremony was typical of the sort of attitude that doesn’t look good for the future four years.
That someone could imagine that by inviting past mayors, who gave of their utmost during their mayoral year, would lead to a political row was appalling.
Past mayors go to the mayor making every year as part of the custom of our council and borough- not to make political points or arguments but to lend their support to the Mayor of the day; and to be there as a tribute and respect to the outgoing Mayor – whoever could have thought that if they were there it could cause political mayhem obviously hasn’t a clue whatsoever about the mayoral system.
If this is an example of the petty thought of this council and its coalition of Tories and neo-Tories seeing ‘reds under beds’ with mayoral badges on ribbons around their necks even at the annual mayor-making, then heavens knows what the rest of the next four years will bring to Camden.
Cllr Roger Robinson (Lab)
Former Mayor
Town Hall, WC1
• The Liberal Democrats and Tories have only been in power for a few weeks, but I’ve already noticed a visible difference – the platform area around West Hampstead tube station is so ridden with graffiti it looks more like the Bronx than leafy Hampstead.
Not content with letting their political masters in Westminster vote against almost every piece of the government’s anti-social legislation, including laws on graffiti, local, Liberals and Tories now seem happy to sit back and do nothing about the taggers who have recently blitzed the station surrounds.
Why are they not consulting with Network Rail and Transport for London to clear the station area of this anti-social menace?
Meanwhile, how do Camden’s Liberal Democrats square their hatred of Asbos with Ming Campbell’s first public support for them, which he made in a speech last week?
He even went so far as to say he wanted to see a new ‘Asbo Plus’, which he hopes would go further than Asbos!
Simon Benson
Acol Road, NW6
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