Labour snubs invitation for talks on cuts (From Echo)

Speaking as a complete outsider without any political affiliation (I think I have voted for all major parties as well as the Greens at some stage or other), the non-participation seems rather petty.

To Davin Norman (and anyone else who has the same attitude).
If you dont want to be involved - Resign and stop taking cash from the council funds as salary and expenses.
Why did you take on the position if you dont want to do the job?
Typical councillor - wants the cash but doesn't want to do anything to earn it.

It was Labour that got this country into the mess it is in. Cuts are needed/necessary and the sooner they are done, teh sooner we can get back to being a enviable country.

That's a real shame for the people of Victoria ward, given that all their councillors are Labour members.

It means the whole ward will be without representation during the budget review process. A point they might want to remember when next at the ballot box.

Given, as someone mentioned above, that it was the Labour Party's economic mismanagement that has caused this situation, you would have though that they might want to help the town out of the financial mess!

If they do not take part then they have NO right to moan about the cuts that will be made.

But I bet they do moan.

The Tories and their Orange Tory partners only want labour involved as part of their human shield. Since Labour oppose the cuts, and rightly so, how can they then discuss which cuts to make? It is akin to opposing the death penalty then being invited to discuss the calibre of bullet to be used by the firing squad.

Well done Councillor David Norman for taking this principled stand.

"It is akin to opposing the death penalty then being invited to discuss the calibre of bullet to be used by the firing squad." No, it's nothing like that. In the example you give, no tangible difference can be made to the outcome. In the case of cuts, there are lots of different ways in which they could be managed, thereby affecting different sectors of the population to a greater or lesser extent.

As I said in my letter today, the Labour Group has already made a number of sensible suggestions for saving money.

Firstly, reverse the Tories' decision to increase councillors allowances.

Secondly, reverse the Tories' daft decision to increase the size of the council's cabinet - if you're going to do less in the future you don't need a bigger cabinet to administer it.

If the Conservatives won't take on board these blindingly obvious suggestions, it's hardly giving us confidence that we'll have a genuine input in the future.

To be blunt, until we know what our financial settlement is which won't be for months, it is an academic exercise anyway.

I'm rather fed up of the Tories hanging on to every single lever of power in Southend, and then when things go wrong, blaming the opposition.

Very understandable why should they face the truth after all it is far easier to leave your head in the sand and accept what is known in polite circles as :

'A male chicken up'

Julian Ware-Lane wrote:
The Tories and their Orange Tory partners only want labour involved as part of their human shield. Since Labour oppose the cuts, and rightly so, how can they then discuss which cuts to make? It is akin to opposing the death penalty then being invited to discuss the calibre of bullet to be used by the firing squad. Well done Councillor David Norman for taking this principled stand.

Principled stand? How funny when their party in government created the mess. In case Mr Ware-Lane has forgotten, the last "principled" government he so loves also saddled us with:

- the dubious honour of being the most watched country in the world through CCTV
- road pricing legislation (yep - triple whammy of vehicle licence, fuel tax and super tax road pricing to have the privilege of benefiting from your aforementioned taxation)
- the loss of the non-arrestable offence, meaning that arrests can now be made for minor offences such as litter dropping
- the world's largest DNA database
- "Human Rights" to allow the indefensible to be defended
- an NHS fattened by throwing money at an inefficient organisation (wasted countless millions) based upon a 1940s model - not the best use of money in modern times perhaps?
- destruction of local democracy through hair-brained schemes such as the removal of council housing stock away from Councils (and telling them if they don't, there's no money to fix it)
- a weakened UK through devolution, at considerable cost to the English taxpayer
- little gold reserves left as they were sold at rock-bottom prices
- pillaged pension funds, leaving countless people worse off in retirement
- creation of a welfare state so large through a fixation with "tax credits" - with the wonderfully efficient means of taxing an employee and then make them a benefit claimant to get some of their money back
- a loss of the British reputation abroad through its aimless and destructive foreign policy
- creation of "equality" legislation that states equality can be obtained by practising inequality to eradicate it
- creation of "terrorism" legilsation that allows an old man to be arrested under its guise for protestation
- abolition of the "double jeopardy" rule - so the state can have a second crack at prosecution (when it doesn't have to prosecute until it has a sound case in the first place)
- the irony of blaming banks for the economic mess after forgetting the obscene amounts of money in taxation they had already benefited from and wasted and forgetting that banking is the only real means of getting income into the country as we do not have any other real wealth generating sector to speak of
- university fees, saddling young people with almost mortgage-sized debts before they start out in work

Actually, after all that, perhaps I back their "principled" stand - as I'd prefer Labour to stay away from any type of governance!

Julian Ware-Lane wrote:
The Tories and their Orange Tory partners only want labour involved as part of their human shield. Since Labour oppose the cuts, and rightly so, how can they then discuss which cuts to make? It is akin to opposing the death penalty then being invited to discuss the calibre of bullet to be used by the firing squad.

Well done Councillor David Norman for taking this principled stand.

Julian YOU and you lot of spend thrift cronies lined your own pockets and found jobs for the boys by creating unelected quangos that bled us dry.

THAT IS OBVIOUS TO ALL ESPECIALLY TO YOU PERSONALLY WHO FAILED TO GET ELECTED.

Go away and accept that we need a new form of politics, learn by your loss and appreciate that your Socialist form of Politics has failed throughout europe and will never be allowed to destroy OUR country again until your gang of cronies offer government that we can all afford which does not mean a few of us paying for a multitude of various scroungers, that political way is no longer affordable.