| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Do the Council really have a choice with Ealing's libraries? | |
| Posted by: | Simon Hayes | |
| Date/Time: | 19/07/19 16:59:00 |
| At last year’s local elections the Labour Party capitalised on the Brexit disaster and basically campaigned on national issues, such as NHS cuts. A disaffected electorate returned more Labour councillors, giving them a huge majority in the chamber. Their manifesto was remarkably light on detail when it came to how they would exercise that power. Vague promises to fight austerity and make Ealing a better place to live. That austerity fight means keeping council tax down (a good thing if you don’t care about service provision, a bad thing if you do). The environmental arguments they put forward at every opportunity are totally lacking in credibility. Force drivers out of their cars by hiking up CPZ charges, which has absolutely zero impact on anyone with off street parking. Go down to Southall and look at the car ownership there but is there a serious effort to deal with it? No, and you all know why. The level of political debate is laughable. Anyone who has attended a council meeting will know it’s a mockery of democracy. Most councillors sit playing with their phones. They take every opportunity to abuse their political opponents. Issues that seriously affect large swathes of the population are nodded through without examination. And all these people drain more than a million quid from our taxes every year. We used to joke about banana republics and the despots that ran them to their personal agenda. Well, you don’t have to travel far down Ealing Broadway to find the modern equivalent. |