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Where is the compassion for our elderly in these hard times?
IT seems as if Whitehall and local authorities operate in parallel worlds. They shouldn’t but that’s politics for you. If the concept of “joined up thinking” – the big New Labour PR idea dreamed up at the start of their 11-year rule – means anything then at least it should spell co-operation between Whitehall and the Town Hall.
It clearly doesn’t when it comes to a recognition of the period we are going through, namely the worst recession since the end of the Second World War.
Gordon Brown repeatedly states that the elderly need special protection in these times.
You might think that this should have alerted the Town Hall to test the efficiency and cost of their services for the elderly.
However, far from at least stabilising costs, the Town Hall increased the cost of home visits and other charges.
How Town Hall officials and politicians thought this would be in harmony with national policy, we don’t know.
And now that the “home care” bill has fallen by £1million (see page 7), the Town Hall spuriously suggests this is evidence that the elderly simply require fewer services.
We agree with Age Concern. It suggests, on the contrary, that the elderly, intimidated by the publicity surrounding the higher charges, have simply been fobbed off from seeking the help they are entitled to.
Other signs are emerging – in the imposition of higher rents on commercial properties managed by the Town Hall, for instance – that Gordon Brown’s pledges are being ignored by the Town Hall.
A tighter political control on the management of budgets by officials needs to be exercised by those politicians with compassion – which is seems to be lamentably absent at the moment.
Well done, WAC
CONGRATULATIONS to the Weekend Arts Centre on its 30th birthday!
Anyone who has been to the dance, theatre and arts classes held by WAC at Hampstead Town Hall on Saturdays is naturally overwhelmed by the sheer buzz of excitement and enjoyment expressed by both parents and children.
Over the years its fame has justly spread throughout the borough and beyond.
It’s not surprising that the rising playwright Kwame Kwei-Armah has now become its patron.
He will draw in even more support from the world of theatre and TV, adding much-deserved lustre to WAC, whose success is an example of what can be achieved by a well-run voluntary organisation. |
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