North Lanarkshire Council pass cuts budget
North Lanarkshire Labour Council have failed in their prime responsibility to protect the communities they purport to represent by deciding to implement what have been described as “brutal and savage cuts” in public services.
Council Leader Jim McCabe, a Labour politician, claimed that this is a “socialist” budget and that “We would rather not be in this position and the crisis facing the UK is a problem not of our making”. Then he and his colleagues went on to punish the residents of North Lanarkshire who are completely blameless for the so-called financial crisis. If this is an example of Mr. McCabe’s socialism then the socialist councillors of Poplar in 1919-21, Clay Cross in 1972-73, and Liverpool in 1983-87 must have been reading from a different script. Mr. McCabe’s version of socialism seems to be about inflicting pain on all, rather than defending the community from the loss of jobs and necessary services.
Councillors have been saying that this is not why they came into politics. They should now be asking themselves why they sought the trust and support of the people in the first place because in times of crisis people expect their elected representatives to show leadership and this Council manifestly failed to provide it.
An illustration of how the Labour Group regards the electorate and the principle of democratic accountability was that they used a debating device of denying a roll-call vote to ensure that each councillor would not be identified individually as to how he or she cast their vote. One senior Labour Councillor offered an excuse for adopting this tactic. He claimed that the SNP group had, in the past, misused the roll-call vote as a frivolous time-wasting exercise. On this occasion, a two-year budget cut of £55 million involving at least 600 job losses and severe cuts in service provision is not frivolous and demands the accountability of those who voted for it.
The whole budget debate was conducted in a pantomime style more in common with the theatre players in the same building complex than possibly as serious political debate concerning the most important issue to come before North Lanarkshire Council in its short history.
The flawed public survey they conducted “Hard Choices – Big Decisions” failed to secure a mandate for their actions (only 1924 returns) whilst a much bigger response to the “NO CUTS” petition organised by North Lanarkshire Trades Union Council and Lanarkshire Against the Cuts (3821 as a first instalment) reflected the widespread anger and opposition to the cuts.
Some of these politicians will cynically hope that by the time the next local elections come round in 2012, voters will have forgotten this betrayal. However, the public will rightly ask the question as to why, when given the circumstances, these local councillors complied with their Scottish and Westminster counterparts in their eagerness to punish the poor for crimes committed by bankers,
financial speculators, tax-dodging billionaires and multi-national corporations.
That is why the campaign of resistance to the cuts agenda will continue whether it is at Local Authority level, Scottish Parliament level or at Westminster – the people need elected representatives who will take up the fight on their behalf and not simply capitulate when faced with an attack on their valued services.
The main local political parties, Labour and the SNP, both had their cuts programmes – so we can forget the empty panto rhetoric and political point scoring witnessed in the council chamber and beyond, because as far as North Lanarkshire Council is concerned they collectively failed when tested – a sad indictment of political representation in our area.
