Thursday, September 04, 2008

The Fight Back Starts Here: A Ward Meeting with Labour AM John Biggs

While earlier today I attended an excellent London regional committee meeting of UNISON Labour Link, this evening I’ve just come back from my first Labour Party meeting following the summer break.

We first had a short local ward business meeting (introductions, minutes, Councillor reports, Q&A - a very good debate on a Capital Stewardship motion) then had a joint meeting (North and South) with our sister Forest Gate ward with local London Assembly member John Biggs (City & East) as our guest speaker.

Despite all the “doom and gloom” put about by commentators and so-called “critical friends” about the state of the Party, this particular meeting was well attended, constructive and very positive. We had brand new Party members (one a UNISON trade union activist!) turn up and while we made jokes at the current problems facing the government I feel that there is in no way any sense that we are facing “utter disaster”. There are very difficult economic problems to face but it is just nonsensical to claim that all is lost.

John was “on form” and gave not only a lively speech but a thoughtful analysis of why Labour lost the London mayor elections, the current state of the Party, life under Boris and what we need to do in order to win next time.

For example John pointed out that we need to think why in a era of general rising prosperity in London (until recently) many voters who turned their backs on Labour felt left out of this prosperity, even though by most indicators their standard of living had indeed improved.

He warned us that Boris is by nature a very right wing Tory but he knows that London is on the whole quite a “moderate” electorate and therefore he will try to pretend he is something else.

Boris has said that he will review the “London Plan” and it is feared that he will redirect resources away from areas of extreme poverty and need into the Tory suburbs. Tory Council leaders on the night of the election were openly boasting that with the election of Boris “their time has come”.

Boris has promised to freeze the GLA Council tax contribution. Eventually this can only be paid for by reducing Police numbers, fire and transport services. But Labour needs to be mindful that for many of our traditional voters that Council tax increases are painful, especially if you are on a fixed income.

Boris has promised to do away with the infamous London “bendy buses”. Despite the fact that they are very efficient at transporting people into central London and back during rush hour. Instead of possibly redesigning “bendy buses” to take account of complaints (too crowded, too much fare evasion) Boris is going to scrap them and supposedly replace them with modern day Routemasters (the open door – jump on/jump off buses). This is not going to happen since no form of Routemasters will ever comply with disability access laws.

Boris has control now over planning and has declared that he will let London Councils build what they want to allow. The fear is that Tory boroughs will simply stop building homes for social housing. There are so many people in housing need in London, if this happens where will they live? Instead of affordable “homes for rent”, Boris wants “shared ownership” housing. However, the income needed to buy these homes he sets at about £50,000 per year. This is far out of reach for many Londoners.

I put a question to John that the Government should take back the investment powers over housing that the Mayor was recently given, since Boris has already proved himself incapable of exercising these powers properly (going against the advice of his professional planners etc). John, I suppose quite sensibly, pointed out that Boris was democratically elected and that we will just have to live with this fact for the next 4 years.

Finally, John pointed out that we should not underestimate Boris. To many non-political Londoners, he comes over as a “cheeky chappie”, witty and charming. Boris has a lot of goodwill at the moment. I think that John meant by this that Labour needs to build its organisation and work hard to win and not just rely on Boris pressing the self destruct button.

There again, with Boris, you never know, that might just happen!

Fingers and toes!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Boris just put up mu bus fares
i thought he promised not to do that

really green idea to put up bus fares

John Gray said...

Anon

I think outside elections, Boris has never been on a bus in his life

Anonymous said...

Bit like Cherie Blair then who forgot to pay for her train ticket

John Gray said...

Hi Anon

Nope - there is a difference between a train and a bus don't you know? Buses are Big, big red things in London. You can't miss them.