Colluding with cuts

Published: 18th March, 2011

• IT is a fact that opposition is, by its  very nature, divisive – otherwise it would be agreement. No amount of calls for solidarity can obscure the fact that Islington’s Labour council passed a budget cutting public services, which was no more of an election platform for councillors than raising student fees was for Nick Clegg (When fighting cuts we can’t afford the luxury of division, March 11).  

Those who oppose the cuts should not be forced into a coalition with a Labour Party they do not support, or be told to be silent. Many of us opposed Gordon Brown’s bail-out of the banks to the sum of $1trillion in April 2009. Many of us agree with Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England, that the cuts in public services are the price that the community is paying for this gift from the public purse. 

He is surprised there is not more anger from the public. Well, there is anger and that is what was being shown at Islington town hall (and perhaps why Labour’s vote was 29 per cent in the General Election of May 2010.

As a  retired secondary school teacher in Islington, I am very aware of the social devastation the cuts will have on us all in the immediate future. Those who collude with the cuts in any way will be responsible for increasing deprivation at every level. 

Protesters will never be silenced while so much is being lost by so many to pay for so few.
Ann Eliot
Spencer Rise, NW5

• GARY Heather quite rightly said that the campaign to oppose the cuts must be “as broad based as possible” (Letters, March 11). It is a shame, therefore, that within this he includes the very councillors who voted through £52million in cuts last month. 

It is argued that if the council had set a cuts-free budget, Eric Pickles would have stepped in to make cuts. The choice from this would be clear – either cuts from the Tories or cuts from Labour. It doesn’t matter what colour tie the executioner is wearing – a cut is a cut, and they all hurt.

Our council had a choice, it could pass cuts or it could fight. It showed whose side it stands on – the side of the bankers and their servants in red, yellow and blue ties. 

Justifications for their actions simply won’t cut it. We need action, and we cannot afford to let ourselves be led up the garden path by Labour councillors.
Glenn Davids
NW1

• THERE are a lot of people who are disgusted with Labour councillors for not refusing to implement the drastic reductions in public services imposed by the Con-Dem government, which will really hurt the community and vulnerable. 

Would it not be more constructive if these people joined the Labour Party, and put in a motion for the Labour councillors to make a stand nationally on the cuts. If this was passed at the national Labour conference, then it would be national Labour Party policy for its councillors to refuse to implement Con-Dem cuts, as did Liverpool and Lambeth councillors in the 1980s.

Attacking Labour councillors is falling into the hands of the Con-Dems, who will exploit this to make gains. It’s time we all united to oppose the attacks on our communities. 

Let’s all go to the demo on March 26 and show these Con-Dems we are united against their cuts.
M Still
N5