Thursday 15 January 2015

Brent Labour support campaign on cuts but not refusal to implement them

Apparently Cllr Butt recently advised fellow Labour councillors not to read Wembley Matters as it is 'the enemy'. He is still searching for 'leakers' amongst officers, councillors and members.

Anyway, everyone is going to have to be a lot more careful and not leave documents behind after meetings and avoid any other carelessness with information Muhammed deems the public should not know.

Interestingly, at Saturday's All Brent Labour Pary meeting, a motion was put which if published would go some way to improve Brent Council's tarnished reputation over internal policy.

So here it is.

This is the motion put by Kilburn branch:

This all-member forum notes that the £54 million cut in Brent Council’s funding over the next two years, on top of the £89 million already cut since 2010 will have a devastating effect on jobs and services in the borough. We cannot accept that the Labour Party and Labour Council should take responsibility for passing on this attack, which will inevitably hit the most vulnerable in the borough.
This cut in funding is not just a financial attack, but also an ideological one, stemming from the Tories declared aim of cutting back the welfare state, alongside a reduction of local democracy and centralisation. Their model for local government is the one promoted by Tory Barnet, where the role of the Council is simply to award contracts to outside companies.
 
This assault requires a political, not just a managerial, response from the Labour Party, both locally and nationally.
 
Therefore, the Brent Labour Party, together with Brent Labour Councillors, will:
 
1. Mount a campaign informing all residents of the effect which government cuts are having on local services and jobs, encouraging them to become involved in demanding the return of the money from central government:
2. Meet with Council and other trades unionists, service users etc. to urge them to mount a campaign with them against the cuts;
3. Approach other Labour Councils, in London and beyond, urging them to mount a similar campaign and to coordinate our efforts;
4. Incorporate this campaign into our efforts to win the general election, showing how coalition government policy is affecting jobs and services in the borough;
5. Urge, together with others in the labour movement, the national Labour Party to support such a campaign and to commit to restoring local government funding and democracy, including examining ways of placing the cost on the rich and corporations rather than the most vulnerable;
6. As an integral part of this campaign, Brent Labour Councillors will give a commitment to refuse to make the cuts demanded by central government

The leadership argued that they were already doing most of this and successfully substituted an amendment to Point 6, the most radical part of the motion.

I haven't got the exact wording of the amendment (please send it to me if you have it) but it was along the lines of recognising the difficulties councillors face in making the budget decisions and supporting their efforts.

I would support the motion as it was put (retaining the original Point 6) except for widening the appeal to all Councils as many other Councils under different political control, including the Greens in Brighton, want to see the restoration of local government funding and recognise the devastating impact of the Coalition's local government funding cuts.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well done, Kilburn branch, I didn't think there were any like you left.

By the sound of it, Bunker Butt seems to have slipped into the terminal paranoia stage of his leadership odyssey; very dangerous, and sometimes necessitating the use of a judiciously-placed sedative dart.

As for Wembley Matters being 'the enemy (within?)', I think 'Bunker' is simply trying to flush out the opposition by provoking a mass outbreak of pencil-waving demonstrators assembling in front of the Civic Centre surveillance cameras holding up signs proclaiming 'JE SUIS MARTIN'

Charlie

Anonymous said...

Dear Councillor Butt (even though you may not actually read this),

Wembley Matters is NOT 'the enemy'. It is a popular exchange of views, open to people of all party political persuasions, or none, which upholds the values of openness and transparency - the very things you said that your Labour-run Brent Council was committed to when you became its Leader in May 2012.

I agree that many of the comments on this blog site are critical ones, but often there is good reason for that. If you and your colleagues were to take notice of some of the sensible advice given by Martin and his contributors, and those who comment on their blogs, your Leadership and Brent Council under it might not be in the mess it is in today.

Philip Grant.

Anonymous said...

Dear Brent Labour,
On tuesday a senior member of your local party that you have re-selected to stand for parliament lined up alongside the Tories and the Libdems to vote for more austerity and more cuts. If you all stand by this motion is it not time to hold Barry Gardiner to account for his actions? Then is it not tome to mobilise Tulip, Dawn and Barry to stand up to Ed Balls and Ed Miliband and challenge them on the damage they are doing. If they won't do this then its time to leave and join a party that will take action.

Join.GreenParty.org.uk

Bw,

Scott Bartle

Anonymous said...

LEADER OF A LOCAL LABOUR GROUP IN BRENT ADVOCATES CENSORSHIP OF LOCAL BLOG

Reads headline in A.NEWSPAPER

#JesuisMartin

Anonymous said...

Thankfully the internet has changed the information flows, so the stupid people are not so stupid after all.

It is a real game changer as collectively we can all work things out rather than sitting in isolation.

Well done Wembley Matters your job is done as leaders only point to the enemy when they know they are wrong, but can't face up to reality.

Keep up the good work.

Anonymous said...

You're all wasting your time. Cllr Butt won't read any of these comments. All Great Leaders lead by example and, having 'advised' (and we all know what that means) his followers not to read Wembley Matters he certainly wouldn't 'sleep with the enemy', as it were, himself.

Anonymous said...

Is this the British parallel of the case of Saudi Arabian Blogger Raif Badawi? Raif was sentenced to 1,000 lashes for criticising leading clerics, with 50 lashes each friday.There are 5 ways you can help Raif. Include #FreeRaif and @AmnestyOnline on any tweets you send.

1. Tweet Saudi Arabia
Saudi Arabia is very sensitive about its public image and international standing. If we target officials publicly, they could be forced to respond and publicly shamed into stopping the flogging. Here are a few Twitter accounts to try:

Ministry of Justice: @MojKsa
National Society for Human Rights: @NSHRSA
Ministry of Foreign Affairs: @KSAMOFA
Crown Prince and Minister of defence, Prince Salman bin Abdul Aziz Al Saud: @HRHPSalman

2. Get your government to pressure Saudi Arabia
Your government should be doing all it can to make Saudi Arabia do the right thing. Tweet your government’s official accounts (for example, your Ministry of Foreign Affairs, or your country’s embassy in Saudi Arabia) and ask them to push Saudi Arabia to stop the flogging and release Raif now. Here are the Twitter accounts for some country embassies in Saudi Arabia:

UK: @UKinSaudiArabia
Netherlands: @NLinSaudiArabia
Sweden: @SwedeninKSA
USA: @USEmbassyRiyadh
Germany: @GermanyinKSA
EU: @EUintheGCC

3. Contact the Saudi Arabian embassy in your country
Search online for the phone or fax details of the Saudi Arabia embassy in your country, and call them up to demand that Raif is not flogged again and that they release him immediately. We know this can be a particularly effective (and annoying) form of campaigning. You could also Tweet them, though the only Saudi Arabian embassies known to have Twitter accounts are the USA @SaudiEmbassyUSA and UK @SaudiEmbassyUK.

4. Demonstrate outside the Saudi Arabian embassy
Across the globe, campaigners have started to organize protests outside Saudi Arabia embassies. Contact your local Amnesty International office to see if something is already planned, or get some friends together to organize your own demonstration.

Raif Badawi with his children. Credit: Private
Raif Badawi with his children. Credit: Private

5. Tweet your support to Raif and his family
Please send your messages of solidarity to Raif’s family, so they know we are standing with them and pressing Saudi Arabia to release him. Tweet to @raif_badawi (Raif’s official Twitter account) and @miss9afi (Raif’s wife, Ensaf Haidar, who lives in Canada with their three children).

Ensaf has told us she fears her husband may not be able to physically withstand a second round of lashes. “Raif told me he is in a lot of pain after his flogging, his health is poor,” she said.

“I told our children about the news last week so that they would not find out about it from friends at school. It is a huge shock for them. International pressure is crucial, I believe if we keep up the support it will eventually pay off. We must keep on fighting.”

Anonymous said...

Is this the British parallel?

What are you on?

Anonymous said...

Not really a parallel, Anon 22.26, is it? Raif Badawi is a brave man suffering for free expression in a country where the ruling class think that excruciatingly painful flogging is an appropriately cruel punishment for questioning its authority. Martin Francis is a brave man exercising his right to free expression in a country where quite a number of the ruling elite (including apparently the current chancellor Osborne) think that excruciatingly painful flogging is a rather jolly lifestyle option which is so pleasurable that they’re often prepared to pay damn good money for it.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/10341440/George-Osbornes-dominatrix-friend-is-ready-to-tell-all.html
I agree with most of the rest of your post, however, and it looks as if pressure is already beginning to have an effect.
Mike Hine

Anonymous said...

You can't see it? read this article again as Councillor Mo has declared WembleyMatters the enemy for daring to critique his odious rule.

Martin Francis said...

Of course it is not a parallel and I disassociate myself from any such suggestion, well meant as it might be. Muhammed Butt at bay attempts to be controlling but is not succeeding.

Anonymous said...

Quite right. The only thing you'll ever see Brent's 'ruling class' flogging is a dead horse (or their grannies for a few votes at election time).

Anonymous said...

Butt will be L-ing his FAO at the way you lot are busying yourselves with this stuff instead of the primary question of the cuts and his acquiescence in them.

Anonymous said...

Rather than - foolishly - seeing Wembley Matters as 'the enemy', it seems council leader Butt should thank Martin Francis. I'm reliably informed that someone in the council came up with the title Business Unit Managers until Martin pointed out the acronym...

Martin Francis said...

That was a long time ago and under a different adminstration, but fun!