Last night saw a new low in Barnet Town Hall politics. Tuesday was the night when Barnet Labour lost any fig leaf to protect its reputation. The council debated the budget for the coming year. The Labour group failed to propose an alternative budget. Whilst this blog has taken issue with many of the initiatives prooposed by Barnet Tory Leader Richard Cornelius, the sad truth is that if Barnet Labour, lead by discredited leader Alison Moore, cannot even get its act together to propose and alternative, then Mr Cornelius wins by default.
The Barnet Eye lead the way in blogging in Barnet. This was the first blog to video the council. We forced Barnet Council to reverse its unconstitutional ban on filming town hall debates. We regularly attended debates and reported on the events. We have been unofficially boycotting the Town Hall since the last council election in protest at the lack of effectiveness of the Labour Group. We cannot justify giving up valuable drinking time to report on council debates where the opposition are so useless that they cannot muster a coherant position to oppose the Tory administration.
The local paper reports on the chaos in Labour here - http://www.times-series.co.uk/news/11833705.Council_leader_slams_Labour_for_failing_to_put_forward_alternative_budget/
The Barnet Eye has not given up on the people of Barnet, but we have completely given up on Barnet Labour group. Until such time as the local Labour Group actually have some policies and a leader who is capable of making a coherant case, we have no choice but to accept that any sensible opposition to the policies of the administration will not be provided by the Labour group in the council. Given that the only other opposition voice is the lone Lib Dem Jack Cohen, who Labour did everything possibe to unseat in the last Council election, delivering two seats to the Tories and losing the council as a result, there really is no debate to listen to. If Labour councillors, who are paid a minimum of £10,000 a year to oppose administration policies, cannot come up with sensible alternatives, then there is no point in giving them any support.
The sad truth is that the sole Lib Dem, Jack Cohen, is the only person with anything sensible to say about the Tories policies. With over three years until the next Council election, it seems like Richard Cornelius, the Tory Leader can sleep easy, in the knowledge that the only threat to his power, are the whippersnappers in his own party, who think they are a tad more talented than their behaviour suggests,
None of this means that the Barnet Eye blog has given up in our mission to make Barnet a better place. It purely means that until either the Labour party gets it act together or a sane alternative emerges, there is no point opposing the polices of this administration in anything other than a personal manner. To pretend Labour would be better is would be dishonest. They clearly haven't got a clue
5 comments:
You have not factored in the difficulty for any opposition party to construct an alternative budget. The ruling party will have worked from June to February with the benefit of officer advice which is given entirely in confidence and not shared with the opposition. Directors will have prepared numerous cut and growth scenarios and had the potential outcomes debated in private closed sessions. It is not therefore at all surprising that the opposition doesn't put forward an alternative budget as to do would expend inordinate time on what at best would be untested in many areas. This perhaps explains why the Tories did not put forward an alternative budget when Labour ran the Council and vice versa. It is time consuming, distracting and ultimately pointless!
That is complete bollocks. Jack Cohen managed to put an alternative budget together on his own. Dont insult our intelligence with such nonsense.
Common abuse- the refuge of those unable to muster an argument! Jack Cohen proposed a few changes to the tory budget - it is not an alternative budget as understood by most people!
Bit rich comment coming from an anonymous commenter, who is not able to muster a budget at all. At least Jack bothered.
You want an argument, put your name to this and present an argument. You have no argument as you presented no budget. End of.
I didn't realise that commenting on your rant required me to provide an alternative budget. I was merely pointing out the disparity in resources between the ruling party in local government and the opposition parties makes the task very difficult and ultimately pointless. Why do you offer anonymity if you don't expect people to use it?
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