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Tough choices hit politicians’ pockets
• I AM absolutely delighted that councillors in Islington voted for the progressive budget last Thursday. Parents have emailed me to congratulate us on introducing free school meals for all children in Islington nurseries and primary schools, including a mother-of-four who works part-time and will save £1,200.
We want to put working families who are struggling to make work pay as one of our top priorities.
The council tax discount of £100 for all households with a 65-year-old or over has also proved popular. This discount will help those with small occupational pensions who fail to qualify for council tax benefit. Pensioners are disproportionately hit by inflation, so this targets help to where it’s needed.
And our budget measures to extend apprenticeships to Islington’s young unemployed and to increase sporting opportunities for teenagers will help to reduce anti-social behaviour and classroom failure.
To achieve this exciting vision we had to propose £15million in cuts to excessive council spending on bureaucracy, high councillors’ salaries and glossy PR.
In the end local politics is about choices. We are on the side of working families and the over-65s – even if it does mean a reduction in councillors’ allowances, including our own. These are the tough choices which need to be made in the current climate. Only Islington Labour can make these choices, as the Lib Dems seem set on clinging to their salaries at this time when the community is at its greatest need.
CLLR CATHERINE WEST
Islington Labour leader
• LAST week, Labour councillors blocked the Liberal Democrat administration’s plans to freeze council tax this year – and instead imposed inner London’s biggest council tax rise on Islington residents.
Although the Liberal Democrats continue to run Islington, the council has been in no overall political control since 2006. It only took the emergency hospitalisation of one Liberal Democrat councillor to give Labour a chance to seize a few minutes of power.
The first thing they did was to raise everyone’s taxes. It demonstrates the real nature of local Labour party politicians: not only were they willing to exploit a serious illness for political ends, but the first thing they did was to hike up the taxes of all Islington residents to pay for their ill-considered, back-of-envelope schemes.
In the council meeting, they were even calling each other “comrade”. It was just like 10 years ago, when Islington’s loony-left Labour council was a national laughing stock – and a disaster for local people.
My first priority continues to be delivering the top-class council services that residents expect and deserve, and delivering value for money for the local taxpayer. I’m also going to be campaigning for a real Liberal Democrat majority at the next election, to stop local Labour Party politicians springing any more nasty surprises on our borough.
CLLR JAMES KEMPTON
Lib Dem leader, Islington Council
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