Tuesday 16 March 2010

Political stripes revealed - will not remain neutral in face of Labour smear campaign

A few days ago, after a bit of Boris-bashing, I was accused of being politically non-neutral.  That is probably true.  I'm deeply non-neutral, despite my best efforts.  I have now written in the "About me" link that:
"Politically, I'm generally on the side of the people who do not currently hold power in local or national government."
The problem is that my non-neutrality tends to reveal itself under the guise of dislike or disgust of some policy or lack of action.  I am not a member of any national political party, and I'm a true floating voter.  I tend to vote for people, rather than parties as I tend to think you're better off with local politicans who act on your behalf, rather than those with whom you might agree on every issue.  I thought I'd give you a guide to my current general South London political feelings so that you can see that my non-neutral feelings are not particularly uni-directional.

Boris Johnson - Unimpressed by super highway that, in reality, is just blue paint.  Unimpressed by abandonment of cross-river tram.  Unimpressed by attempts to close the South London line.  Unimpressed by refusal to turn Vauxhall into a high-rise mecca, despite supposed dislike of tall buildings.  Unimpressed by attempt to regenerate Nine Elms by "intensification", without having any funding plan for Northern line extension or solution to overcrowding on Victoria line at Vauxhall.  Unimpressed by attempt to include Elephant and Castle in the Crossrail levy, despite it not being anywhere near Crossrail.  Unimpressed by money being found for Crossrail in North London, but no equivalent South London transport investment.

Local Labour lot - Pleased that none of current Labour councillors have run off to Bristol like the last one did.  Pleased to receive regular email updates re. planning consent and bike plans.  Unimpressed that former-Lilian Baylis project still has no legs, and refuse to be fobbed off by the SAZ occupation.  Unimpressed that Beaufoy project was scuppered by insiders at Lambeth Council and is also going nowhere.  Accept that current Councillors appear to do their job adequately, but would be pleased to see a bit more vision and "fight" for the local area.

Lambeth Labour lot (in power) - Deeply deeply unimpressed that the campaign to re-elect Labour is proceeding on the basis of "slag off the Lib Dems" and videos that contain no policy content.  Not impressed by the level of leisure facilities available (or rather, unavailable) to Lambeth residents (particularly re. swimming).  Not impressed by the number of Lambeth leaseholder service charge queries that I(!) have received due to the outsourcing of accommodation management to Lambeth Living.  Annoyed by general Labour smugness.  [I have said on Twitter, in recent days, that unless the Lambeth Labour lot clean up their act, and cease publishing antagonistic videos, that I will refuse to be non-neutral in the next election.  Haven't decided who I'd publicly support, but I despise dirty campaigning.]

Lambeth Lib Dem lot (not in power) - Unimpressed that they only seem to pop up with vigour near to an election.  Unimpressed that, if not carefully watched, they could launch into an aggressive anti-Labour campaign, without detailing their own policies.  Quite impressed by local Oval councillor who spoke up persuasively at recent Nine Elms consultation meeting.

Lambeth Conservative lot (not in power) - Again, tend not to think they do very much outside of local election time.  Neither impressed nor unimpressed by them, but think they lack gravitas locally.

Caroline Pidgeon (Lib Dem London Assembly member)- Quite impressed that Caroline Pidgeon is so re-active when it comes to local SE11 issues.  Quite impressed to have received timely and relevant emails from Cllr Pidgeon when questionned.

Kate Hoey (Labour) - Generally impressed by Kate Hoey, as am in awe of anybody that can topple a speaker.  Particularly approve of Kate Hoey's anti-war and anti-trident stances.  Secretly admire Kate's public disavowal of the whole of Lambeth Council.  Deeply impressed to see Kate Hoey at a number of very small local meetings that couldn't really be used for political capital.  Unimpressed by Kate's occasional attempts in campaign literature to claim that the work of local organisations are somehow all attributable to her in the end.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

If you are referring to the lib dem oval councillor who turned up late and spoke at the St Peter's meeting, all he did (as I recall) was say that he was very concerned! what's impressive about that?

Anonymous said...

when exactly has Kate Hoey disavowed the council publicly? I've never noticed this.

SE11 Lurker said...

Anon 1... I'm sympathetic to late meeting arrivals, especially where there are 7pm starts, as it can be tough to cross London. The point is, that I remember that he spoke, and it was quite impassioned. I don't think I've seen Cllr Campbell at any local public meeting this year.

Anon 2... I've heard Kate Hoey distance herself from Lambeth many times, but I don't have exact dates. I can instead provide references...

See here in 2005 re. parking:
http://www.katehoey.com/electionstatement.htm

See here in 2009 re. Council selling off housing stock:
http://www.southlondonpress.co.uk/tn/Letters.cfm?id=45945&headline=Everybody%20needs%20good%20neighbours

See here re. somebody else stating that she "has been critical" re housing:
http://www.thisislocallondon.co.uk/whereilive/localheadlines/5044902.Lambeth_housing_issues_to_be_discussed_at_debate/

Anonymous said...

in 2005 there was a LD/Con council so she was simply criticising her political opponents.

the 2009 link demonstrates some independence of thought. But has she bothered to demand an answer from the council? of course she is uniquely well placed to do so.

could not see anything about Kate hoey on the third link

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