Poll day

Publishing: 29 April, 2010

• IT’S a crying shame that the government has imposed on us general elections and local council elections on the same day.
The general election has drowned the voices of local democracy. We are on the brink of savage local cuts and this was the best and only chance all parties had to focus at grass-roots level on how we are affected by the crisis.
But this precious opportunity has been bulldozered by the spin juggernauts of the major parties.
Local government cuts risk being blind. Combining the elections has made nonsense of Cameron’s “big government”, of Brown’s “localism” and Clegg’s rhetoric of local failures.
Understandably, their message and the reporting of our national media are strictly concerned with their nationwide message. So out go those key issues that are specific to our daily lives, such as pavements, local services, mixed tenancies, parking, bus stops or recycling.
In Gospel Oak ward I’ve found many households are unaware of the local council elections, even where members have been canvassed by other parties.
The Green Party, by its nature, is best placed to take stock of local needs.
Through the brouhaha of big politics, its candidates have been keeping their ear to the ground. I ask voters to give us the chance to transfer all that local knowledge into Camden Council.
CONSTANTINE BUHAYER
Green Party candidate for Gospel Oak