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Why the time has come to kick these spivs out
• PAT Edlin has broached a dilemma for many who support Labour yet are repulsed by the stink emanating from this New Labour government (I have left party that will reap a whirlwind at polls, May 8).
The first crop of revelations about MPs’ expenses claims focused on the Cabinet. Now it is the Tories’ turn. Nevertheless, most of the mud will stick to these New Labour ministers and rightly so. Tony Blair promised that New Labour would be whiter than white. The cat is now well and truly out of the bag for New Labour.
New Labour promised to abolish “boom and bust”; we got the worst depression since the 1930s. New Labour promised an ethical foreign policy; we got an illegal war in Iraq. New Labour opposed ID cards; we got ID cards. New Labour promised not to introduce top-up fees; we got top-up fees. New Labour promised a referendum on the EU Constitution; we got the Lisbon Treaty and no referendum.
Traditionally, Labour has been the champion of the welfare state and a “fair deal” for all. Under New Labour, we see the welfare state being “outsourced” to businesses, quangos, Almos and PFI schemes. New Labour has built fewer council houses than Margaret Thatcher. Seven million people do not have access to an NHS dentist. The gap between rich and poor is now greater than at any time since the 1960s.
And all the time ministers have had their fingers in the till. They may not have been the only ones but New Labour can’t spin its way out of its policy failures. It has lost the public’s trust and undermined the good work of our Labour MPs and councillors. It’s time for Labour to kick these spivs out.
RICHARD ROSSER
Highbury New Park, N5
• PAT Edlin’s passionate and thoughtful letter about his decision to leave the Labour Party and start voting Green is a sign of the times. It gives me and my colleagues no pleasure to see someone who has given so much to a political party end up feeling betrayed and disillusioned. But we can offer him a few words of comfort.
First, he’s not alone. Time and time again we are meeting people on the doorsteps of Islington who are sick of the three main parties, their spin, deceit and compromise, and now their desperate attempts to defend a political and economic system that is bankrupt, morally and financially.
Second, he’s spot on in his analysis of why the Greens are the real alternative. Yes, we are still fighting to protect our environment – at a time when it has never been more threatened. But, as he says, the Greens are now the only party also genuinely defending public services, offering progressive social policies and setting out radical job creation strategies based on a sustainable economy.
Lastly, I can assure Mr Edlin that he’s supporting a party in Islington that gets things done – fighting the Sobell sell-off, winning a 20mph limit in the borough and pushing through a raft of green measures in the 2009 budget, to name a few
No big donors, no flash PR, no paid staff, just ordinary people trying to make the world, and Islington, a better place.
So, pleased to meet you Mr Edlin – and welcome on board.
MICHAEL COFFEY
Campaigns manager, Islington Green Party
Rosebery Avenue, EC1
• THERE was an interesting letter in your paper from a correspondent who was resigning his membership of the Labour Party, in part because of revelations of the Prime Minister’s smear operations against his political opponents, and the Labour Party’s obsession with spin.
Ironic then that in the same letters page there was a letter from an Islington Labour politician which contained classic spin with the tired mantra that Lib Dems are “soft on crime” and which implied that the Liberal Democrat campaign for prison reform should be held against us. I disagree – making prison work has to be at the heart of tackling crime in this country.
The reality is that after more than a decade of Labour government, two thirds of all prisoners are re-convicted within two years. Half are re-convicted in only 12 months.
Prison isn’t working. This is bad value for the taxpayer, and a bad deal for the victims of all those repeat offenders.
Labour’s record of running prisons has been a disaster because it thinks that “tough talk” is a replacement for actually doing what works to bring re-offending down.
Prisons need to have proper drug treatment for prisoners, which many still don’t have. And there needs to be constructive preparation for life after release, including proper vocational education.
Ninety-five per cent of all prisoners need help with basic literacy. Half of them are below the reading level expected of 11-year-olds.
Rehabilitation and education are not some wishy-washy, soft-on-crime answer. They are the proven, effective, Liberal ways of bringing down re-offending and making our communities safe.
And anyone working or who, like me, has worked in the criminal justice system knows this to be true, including many Labour Party members who are ashamed of the constant tough-but-empty rhetoric of their party’s spin doctors.
CLLR GREG FOXSMITH
Lib Dem, Hillrise ward
• GARY Poole, secretary of Islington South Labour Party, claims Lib Dems have not done anything to tackle crime in Islington. He is wrong.
Islington’s Lib Dem council has funded extra officers for the borough’s Safer Neighbourhoods police teams and a police team dedicated to tackling problems around Finsbury Park. We have provided funding for 18 police community support officers to work in schools and keep young people out of trouble. We paid for metal-detector search wands to help police deal with knife crime. We have funded a patrol to keep our parks safe.
We ordered alcohol-free zones to deal with drinkers in parks and many of our parks have seen major redesigns to make them safer. New work done to the Peace Garden at Elthorne Park, as just one example, has opened it up and eliminated shady hiding places. Residents have told us that, although they used to find it intimidating, now they can enjoy it with peace of mind. The council has repaired 28,000 street lights, and has brought light to 105 miles of roads, making the streets safer.
Islington’s breach rate for anti-social behaviour orders is just eight per cent compared to 50 per cent nationally. That’s because Islington’s Lib Dem council doesn’t believe in just slapping them on haphazardly, but works with families to help them behave better and live more peacefully with neighbours. The Home Secretary even said that Islington’s model was so successful it should be used across the country.
CLLR BARBARA SMITH
Lib Dem, Canonbury
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