I want to make it clear that 95 per cent of the British left are certainly responding to opposition in a way that is a hundred times more mature, disciplined and responsible that the orgy of infighting and wish-list ultra-left policies that followed our defeats in the past.
But in these last few weeks the tattered warbands of the British far left have been on the march again, and marching to a familiar drumbeat.
At first I thought it was just that I lived in Hackney and that we have more than our fair share of extremists, so I was just spotting a localised problem.
Then I started to get calls and see stories online from other London boroughs and further afield reporting odd activity.
And a pattern begins to emerge.
The canary in the coal mine that always tells you the far left are up to something is the student movement. Why? Because it’s full of idealistic young people who are enthusiastic about politics and naive about the motives of people selling them political newspapers. That makes it the ideal recruiting ground for the 57 varieties of ultra-left faction.
We saw early upping of the ante with the violent confrontations on the demos in the run-up to the tuition fees vote, and the pseudo-revolutionary posturing by superannuated Trots like University of London Union president Clare Solomon.
This reached its logical conclusion with the obscene spectacle in Manchester on Saturday of Socialist Workers’ Party and other far-left students throwing eggs at Labour’s Tony Lloyd MP when he tried to speak in support of students, and chasing moderate NUS President Aaron Porter down the street having interrupted his speech with chants of ‘you’re a Tory too…’ and according to the Union of Jewish Students, the anti-Semitic variant ‘Tory Jew Scum…’. Pause for a moment and digest this. What kind of leftwinger shouts antisemitic abuse at anyone? What kind of leftwinger throws eggs and shouts abuse at the people on the same side as them in the campaign against the tuition fee hike and the EMA cuts because they are not revolutionary enough?
The student movement is just the start though. Local government is the next key target, as it was in the 1980s, as councils are about to set their budgets. Activists were dishing out leaflets outside Hackney town hall (where I’m a councillor) on Wednesday night, three quarters of the text of which attacked in aggressive and personally vitriolic terms not David Cameron, Nick Clegg, George Osborne or Eric Pickles but Labour mayor of Hackney Jules Pipe.
In the ‘through the looking glass’ world of the ultra-left, Labour councils are not the victims of Eric Pickles’ massive cuts; we are the villains ‘implementing’ them. We are to be harangued, insulted and abused until we agree to replicate the 1985 ratecapping rebellion by setting illegal unbalanced budgets. That won’t stop any cuts – they’ll just be made by officials instead, but with no Labour input into deciding which services to protect. But the people campaigning for it think it would ‘send a signal’ to government. Actually the signal it would send is that we were completely irresponsible. Eric Pickles is laughing all the way to the polling station about this because his strategy of localising the blame for cuts on councils is being implemented by the far left. It’s a classic Trotskyite transitional demand – call for councils to do something they can’t – spend money the government hasn’t given them – then when this doesn’t happen tell people revolution is the only solution. A tactical objective for the far left is to get left Labour councillors to break the whip and get themselves expelled from their Labour groups – thereby fracturing the unity of the Labour party and creating political martyrs.
On Saturday in Hackney as Labour members used street stalls to promote the 26 March TUC national demo against the cuts and explain their impact on one of the UK’s most deprived areas, the SWP counter-leafleted the people our members were talking to, attacking the Labour council and saying there was no difference between Labour’s deficit-reduction plans and the Tories’ (surely halving the deficit not eliminating it is a difference of 50 per cent, quite aside from the difference in emphasis between the parties on the balance of cuts versus tax increases?). Another unachievable transitional demand – call for Labour to support having no cuts at all.
In weeks to come the SWP have announced they will be turning up en masse at individual Labour councillors’ advice surgeries, effectively stopping residents with real problems seeing their councillors, and creating a very intimidating atmosphere.
I have this message for the far left: if you want a unified political campaign against the cuts then you need to be protesting with the Labour party, the TUC and the NUS leadership, not protesting against us.
The Labour party and the TUC represent millions of people. The far-left organisations represent a few thousand, but are organised, noisy and focused on street protest.
The trade unions and local Labour parties need to step up to the plate in providing political leadership to the anti-cuts protests and focussing them on achievable short-term political goals around specific government policies where protest can cause a rethink, and the long-term objective of Labour returning to power.
If we don’t then the protests will continue to be hijacked by extremists who care more about their own recruitment targets and paper sales than about the actual issues, and will drift around directionless as the demo on Saturday in London did – protesting about a mix of unrelated issues, with no defined political objective, protest for its own sake.
The key event is the 26 March TUC national demonstration. We can’t let it be a playground for the far-left factions. Mainstream union and Labour activists need to build for it, be on it and ensure that it is a massive demonstration of the strength and unity of public opposition to the Tory-led government’s cuts.
Interesting article that brings out a crucial debate that Labour and the wider “sensible” left needs to be having – about how to protest loudly and proudly but without Socialist Worker placards all over the place and a few thousand highly motivated nutters dragging the whole thing down for their own petty interests. I am guessing that issue is why Ed Miliband has not joined in an protests so far, which is a problem. I think he should get out there and put himself on the line by standing up to the nutcases and saying Labour wants nothing to do with them while attacking them for hijacking the causes of ordinary people. Give those naive students a bit of a history lesson on the chequered history of the left while clarifying where you stand for the wider public. It could be the making of him as a leader – you’ve got to show you are tough and prepared to have a fight when necessary.
hanks Luke. The article points to the practices of the ultra-left we all need to be aware of. In my constituency of Aylesbury we have seen several defections over to the Socialist Party. Their rhetoric and posturing can appear, however misguided, as a genuine alternative to many constituents in an area where Labour has been weak for some considerable while. Their local campaign against the cuts is called Bucks SOS. As usual with the ultra-left rather than an attempt to pick up the progressive baton and move it forward, the movement is designed to appease members of their own party. Following the report in the New Statesman 25.01.11 ‘The Quiet Rebellion over Libraries’ I have been trying to promote in the local party a library orientated campaign to re-engage with local residents. The article talks about how residents of Stony Stratford borrowed every book in the library to show how important the local library is to them. This was a very British revolution and a great way of showing disapproval with a policy and simultaneously getting media coverage. The only way to highlight the irrelevance of the minority left is by continuing with meaningful campaigns people can associate with and with little effort contribute to in some small way. With this particular example I hope my clp can re-engage with parents and teachers alike and although in its conceptual infancy, this campaign, I hope, will put us on the slow and steady track to chipping away the Lib Dem’s council dominance and the Socialist Party rhetoric in the area. Thanks again for writing this post.
When the police cuts come in at 25% next year,there should be from Ken Livingstone and Luftur through to the Greens and George galloway oppostion, this’ll be an examaple where SWP wont side with the far left and the Progress end ,opposed to the cuts.
I am Treasurer of Southend Against the Cuts, a broad coalition with all shades of left-wing opinion. Me and my fellow Labour members not only want to protest, but we also see ourselves as a moderating influence. In my opinion Labour has got to be involved, and Labour members have to be strong enough to have their voice heard. I see the protests as an opportunity for us, but we have to be seen as mature and intelligent.
“extremists who care more about their own recruitment targets and paper sales than about the actual issues” This is just the most blatant and ridiculous of the lies in this article. Why on earth would SWP and other socialist/communist activists (full disclosure: I’m an SWP member) bother to recruit other members and sell papers if we didn’t think it was a good way to promote the message of socialism? if I just enjoyed giving people papers, without caring about the issues, I’d open a newsagents or hand out the Evening Standard. Your attack doesn’t even make any sense. It’s not the socialists or the communists who risk messing up the campaign against the cuts – it’s the careerist elites at the top of the Labour Party and the big trade unions who are too invested in the current system, too reliant on corporate patronage, too accustomed to liquid lunches with lobbyists, to be a reliable opponent of Tory attacks on working people. We can see this in the House of Lords: scrutiny, yes – but only until the aspects which hurt the Labour Party most are conceded. I’m not opposed to cuts: there are lots of cuts that I’d like to see. I’d like to cut Trident, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I’d like to cut the subsidies and tax breaks for millionaires and transnational corporations. I’d like to cut the salaries of executives in councils, quangos, etc. But those are always off the table. It’s never our nuclear weapons that disappear, it’s our hospital beds. It’s never tax avoiders that are cracked down on, but poor people scraping by on benefits. It’s never the top dogs who have their pay slashed, but nurses and teachers and firefighters and council workers and everyone else who can’t afford to take a pay cut. The SWP and the other, smaller parties of the socialist / communist left get out there and talk to real people and make real protests. I don’t know about you, but I’m not at all relaxed about the filthy rich getting away with what they’re doing to this country. When you’re willing to join us, come on down – the weather’s lovely.
You may be interested to know that all though there is small independent leftist party in Yeovil called the Central Committee (!), the only noticable trend of political defections around my way has been from LD to Labour.
This is an interesting article which I think is based only on Hackney. In Southampton the Anti Cuts Group which met last week consisted of a real mixture of the ‘usual suspects’ well known SWP and Socialist party comrades as well as Labour Party people and a fair few ordinary people. The Socialist Party proposed standing ‘Anti cuts’ candidates in the council elections. A proposal I had to stamp as major Lib Dem /Tory losses across the country to Labour is one of the only effective ways to drive a wedge between the coalition partners. We have to remember that the active base of the Liberal party is based on its Councillors and their friends and relations. They wield considerable power and influance. Following the meeting one of the SWP members who I have worked with on anti racisum campaigns congratulated me on what I had said and said all the other local trot groups had rejected the Socialist Parties strategy. As an aside we now have a Labour member running the communications side of the cuts campaign working out of the Unite office. We are building the demonstration on the 26th and hope to send a dozen coaches from the area. We are in opposition on the Council and because of our election by thirds system we won’t be back in control until 2012. However we may go NOC in May with a 5% swing on 2010. This gives us more freedom to make friends. I do sympathise with comrades in Labour controlled Councils who are having to make tough decisions and in some eyes share the blame. The Tories in Southampton are proposing a Cut in staff wages of about 5%. They are also insisting on continuing the OAP Council tax discount paid to the wealthiest pensioners and costing the rest of us a million pounds a year. It is likely that if staff reject this offer then they will all be sacked and asked to reapply for their own jobs. Takes me back to the 80’s when we had ‘the grotesque sight of a Labour councils sending out taxis to deliver redundancy notices to its own workers’. Southampton could become a big story. Simon Letts
Luke, Attempts have been made to make you aware of the shambles of Labour party selection policy and processes for Labour candidates and many of the left wing supporters you mention now infiltrating the Labour Party, possibly the NEC. Before one starts to preach external issues, which as it goes you have valid and authentic concerns, listen to experience, listen to Labour Party members. That is your role. Unite backed candidates, students who backed Labour rallys on students, hand picked labour shortlisting by NEC panels. There are a serious underlying issues. The question you ought to be discussing is what relationship has Ed Miliband to Compass minority Labour influence. NEC…Ignore Labour Party members concerns at your peril. The Labour may split
Strongly agree with this Luke. Attacking our own side or sending all the most friendly councillors to jail isn’t going to achieve anything at all. I personally think that the strategy has to be to emphasise how wrong the Government is. They are the root cause of the cuts. Secondly, I think the anti-cuts movement must be pluralist. It must find a place for Labour, TU and previously so called ‘non-political’ people to march alongside the trots. It can’t just be a small band of usual suspects. I would suggest the best way to do this is to keep fire off anyone we march with and put it onto the people who matter, while pushing for Labour to have a bit of policy backbone in pledging to protect and rebuild public services. This must be done while taking the campaign out into communities beyond those who have been active. Unions could learn some stuff from Labour in this regard – and we can all learn from community organisers. The wider answers are not at municipal level – all councillors can do is make the best of an awful hand. Just part of why it is completely irresponsible and two-faced for the Lib Dems to blame Labour for implementing their own national policies.
John Reid (no relation?), the SWP will call for cuts to cops, they want to free the weed, or something, man. I know I’m writing this on the Progress website, but nevertheless I should emphasise that Ken Livingstone is NOT the SWP, and quite right too.
Are you suprised, the SWP have always been extremist and trouble making. Indeed the vast majority of the SWP membership are not real socialists at all, but instead upper middle class “fastionable socialists” who are doing it because they want to rebel against mummy and daddy, and cause trouble. This is why they do not get what Labour has done, and contunies to do for the working classes in Britain, simply because they do not get the working classes, because none of them are working class.
Are you suprised, the SWP have always been extremist and trouble making. Indeed the vast majority of the SWP membership are not real socialists at all, but instead upper middle class “fastionable socialists” who are doing it because they want to rebel against mummy and daddy, and cause trouble. This is why they do not get what Labour has done, and contunies to do for the working classes in Britain, simply because they do not get the working classes, because none of them are working class.
What you are saying is that Labour Councillors can implement the Government’s cuts in a nicer way, and all we need to do is have a big demonstration and this will lead to the return of a Labour Government. This seems to have few flaws as a policy, but certainly lets you off the hook as a Labour Councillor. I seem to recall the Labour Party didn’t back the Poll Tax non-payment campaign that brought an end to the Poll Tax, because it was inconvenient for Labour Councils. You say that the extremists demand no cuts – but isn’t this the policy of the TUC? They don’t think that working people should have to pay for the banker’s crisiis, and put forward alternative ways of getting the money. If Brown was still in power we would be implementing ID cards and replacing Trident, despite all this. What will we do on March 27th, when the Tories just carry on with the cuts. You talk about leadership – why aren’t Labour Councils meeting together to find ways to fight the cuts, rather than just implementing them. On Saturday Liverpool Councillors joined the march against cuts organised by their workforce – but they will be the people making 1500 staff redundant. In the 80s Liverpool Councillors joined with their trade unions and the community to fight similar cuts – they didn’t just sit back an implement them. As trade unionists we either accept Labour Councils making us redundant “nicely” and hope for a Labour Government, or we take strike action against our employer – from whatever political party. Which would you do? Councils that refuse to implemet the cuts will build the mass campaign of pressure that is building across the community, just like those who strike. It is time you elected leaders of the community stopped shirking your responsibility to give a lead. I am involved in West Cheshire Against the Cuts, and I am a Labour Party member and trade union activist. I want a Labour Government and a Labour Council, but I don’t want a Labour Government or a Labour Council that implements Tory cuts. Sadly 13 years of Labour privatisation across the public sector and maintenance of the anti-trade union laws has destroyed the Party’s credibility as a Left force fighting for working people. You call for unity around your right-wing policies. You can’t have unity with the person making you redundant. Either it is unity in the fight or no unity. Sadly many of us have spent years fighting Academies, Housing Transfers, and NHS creeping privatisation against people like you. Like the Poll Tax the campaign against the cuts will be fought with or without the Labour Party, so stop thinking you can determine how it will be fought just to give yourself an easy ride. Labour will benefit from opposition to the Coalition, but if it doesn’t dump its Blairite policies it will simply replace the Coalition making the cuts.
An interesting article which is tainted with the author’s obsession with the past. Let it go – you are not in NOLS anymore. Bit sad as well that he feels the need to regurgitate the myth that the hecklers were making anti-Semitic comments. Most reports indicate that the heckles were of ‘you’re a Tory too’. He is right about the importance of the 26th March demonstration. It is vital that the movement turns up in strength, this will help to drown out fringe elements and those intent on a ruck. What is missed out however, is that the demonstration is a springboard – not an end to the campaign. The 26th March is a start to the campaign not the finale. It would be devastating to get hundreds of thousands of people out on the streets only for them to go home and have the cuts implemented anyway. Some might say it would be a grotesque spectacle to have Labour councils scuttling round issuing redundancy notices.
Regrettably this type of patronizing analysis about students will alienate rather than build bridges with students – most of whose parents are in the aspiring squeezed middle. The fact is the scale of the student protest caught us by surprise – for sometime we had assumed the bulk of students were focused on vocational reward rather than fairness in society and therefore distinct from the baby boomer generation. So let’s engage rather than look for reds under the bed. What Aaron Porter experienced was unpleasant but the real dilemma he has is that he whether accidentally or design he sounds like an aspiring politician !
As a former SWP member I’ve had my fair share of involvement in Trotskyist politics in the past, so I find myself agreeing with Luke on many of the points he makes. I especially like your description of SWP activists as ‘superannuated’. They prey on naive, angry, disaffected young people like me, giving them hopes and dreams which cannot possibily be fulfilled. However, you quickly discover that you only valuable to them when you can offer something to them. I still put myself firmly on the Labour left: I would not oppose a popular socialist revolution but I would also not want a revolution led by an unprincipled and amoral elite like those in the far left. However I do not put the parliamentary road to socialism on a pedestal: we need the protest movements and we need Labour representatives who listen to it. Unfortunately, the Labour Party has precious little it can offer passionate and angry people. We are sometimes unwilling to take to the streets, believing that people should just focus on the next election and hope enough people will vote Labour. We rely on the ‘mainstream trade unions’ to show leadership, but all too often in the past trade union leaders seem more concerned with their fat pay cheques or grovelling to the Labour Party leadership than they care about their members. There are also many people who join the Labour Party seeing it as the first step in a political career. I know this from Oxford days when I first joined Labour after my brief time in the SWP. They cannot put so much as a foot out of line; they refuse to have anything to do with ‘troublemakers’ and ‘members of the awkward squad’ like me unless they want me to vote for them for some position or another; in short, they have no depth to their principles and ideology. I have other motivations for being involved in politics, many of which are deeply personal so I beg the reader not to see me as morally sanctimonious here. It must have been so annoying for them having to solicit a vote from me in student union elections. Because of this, the mainstream labour movement has a habit of betraying the passion of those most affected by Tory policies just as surely as the far left betray them with their insane tactics. There is no excuse why every Labour councillor, MP, MEP and Peer or every trade union leader should not be joining the national protests in March. The House of Lords has limited powers of amendment, but it remains one way we can delay or amend destructive Tory legislation until the very last minute. Labour peers tabled a very good amendment to the tuition fees legislation, and it might have gone through, if enough of the great and the good had bothered to turn up and vote. It’s bad enough having an unelected Second Chamber without the members of that body taking it for granted. If we are not going to support rate-capping and mass refusal of councils to set budgets, we’ve got to do something to show the Tories that we mean business.
To be honest Luke, I’m more worried about the likes of you on the soft Left who elected Ed Miliband as Labour leader. That self-indulgent choice means that the Tories will be in power for at least two parliamentary terms and be able to inflict more cuts.
yes but how else is something going to get done about “the filthy rich” unless through Parliament via the Labour Party,realistically ?
So what do you want Labour councils to do if they cannot set an illegal budget? Resign en bloc, saying that they refuse to implement Tory/Lib Dem cuts? Cut children and adult social services in favour of keeping the current expenditure on street cleaning and maintenance, say, because it benefits more people and we don’t want the area looking a tip? Trots, there are still a number “sleeping” in the Labour Party and I suspect many of these CLPs are in the leafy suburbs, if my experience is anything to go by. Trots love their comforts and sex…lots of it!
Frankly you’re just being rude. My reply in full: http://alexandertumilty.net/post/3102038405/luke-akehurst-hypocritical-left-unity
Yeah, because like, Liverpool council in the 1980s achieved nothing by opposing cuts? Oh and we all thank Kinnock for overturning the Poll Tax. Three cheers for Labour! Ultra-Leftism can be problematic at times, but It is labour careerists who screw over the movement. Tell me, what did Porter do for students, well, except try to sell out the poorest? While I didnt agree with the Ultra-Left heckling at Manchester most of the time, as they heckled people who actually do things, like the gen sec of the FBU. We should heckle posers on the left, who tell us to support them, while they may no sacrifices or take a stand themselves.
Perfect rubbish spouted by the new labour right wing of the party, bloody Tories.
Spot on Luke. The ultra-left were at it in Lambeth last Monday night too. Attempting to orchestrate residents’ groups who had genuine fears that we all share. They even had ‘Red’ Ted Knight in tow, and Lee Jasper whose recent history at the GLA we all know about, and I recognised several of the individuals who have affiliations with the SWP and groups like Workers Liberty and Permanent Revolution. They infiltrate genuine protests then when you point out what they are up to they claim you are attacking the concerned residents gathered around them. Well done for exposing their tactics. Everyone seriously concerned about stopping these Tory-Lib Dem cuts must stand together, not let these crazed revolutionary groups tear us apart.
Hi there, as labour activist in Northwest I can see how cuts will be difficult for the ordinary people. Yesterday the council of Manchester decided to scrap libraries, swimming pool or nurseries. At the end 2000 people will lose their jobs and entire communities will be devastated by the effects of these cuts. Labour party and Labour councillors should fight back by refusing these wrecking cuts. Let’s be clear most of British people are not responsible for the economic crisis.. Bankers are responsible for this mess. So why we should pay for their failures ?
“I have this message for the far left: if you want a unified political campaign against the cuts then you need to be protesting with the Labour party, the TUC and the NUS leadership, not protesting against us.” It’s widely acknowledged that the country has the deficit it does because of the actions of the last – Labour – administration. Indeed, it was the last government which so promoted things like the PFI which have turned out to be awful and long-lasting disasters. It seems to me that having Labour as part of an anti-cuts campaign when they are in the very real position of creating this situation does not address the core issue. This is that neither the Labour party nor the government – nor, for that matter, the likes of the SWP – are or were acting in the interests of ordinary people. The massive bank bailouts and the massive borrowing of the last government are now being paid for out of the pockets of the most vulnerable. And for a Labour councillor to say Labour’s got a part to play in redeeming the situation really takes the biscuit.
The PFI adopted now by many worldwide ,’failed’ due to Corporate greed and then with the downturn, finance no longer ‘available’ from Corporations.
Cllr Steve Reed the fact is you have colluded with these Tory cuts Steve instead you should be leading the fight against them instead of slagging of the left. Your cheap comments about myself are not worthy of serious political comment. Red baiting and attacking black leadership the last and most desperate resort of the New Labour Lambeth faction. I note that you have now launched a disciplinary witch hunt ‘ investigation” following the 7th Feb Cabinet meeting, against Cllr Kingsley Abrahams the only Labour Cllr to vote against the Lambeth ” economic lynching of the poor” budget. So summarizing your opposition to the Tories seems to consist off slagging off the left and McCarthyite with hunt against fellow Labour Cllr instead of fighting the Tories and saving our services. I often hear you say in public that you did not come into politics to make things harder for poor communities. Admirable sentiments however they are crocodile tears from a Labour administration that has capitulated at the first whiff of grapeshot from the Tories. If that is the case then maybe you should resign and lets get some people elected who are prepared to fight back. You have failed to produce any serious equality impact assessments of these cuts. Your budget will have huge disproportionate impact on black people, women the elderly and vulnerable. This is despite you’re so called commitment to equality. You are not only implementing the Tory cuts but you are ensuring by failing to do these assessment that they massively and disproportionately impact on equality groups. Your commitment to fighting these cuts is about as vacuous as your commitment to equality. You prettify these Tory cuts by telling local residents that that they will have no or little effect on front line services. You should be telling the people of Lambeth that these cuts will leave Lambeth devastated. You should be leading the fight back, out campaigning with us not resorting slick leaflets extolling your administrations ability to cope, snide comments and red baiting. You should be challenge the Government in the courts, calling local demonstrations leading from the front. But no you prefer to kowtow to Government and slag of those who are defending poor communities in your borough whilst deceiving the public into believing that Lambeth can manage these cuts and introducing local cuts decided by you that attack black people and target the most vulnerable in our community. Why are you refusing to pay anything other than lip service to challenge this Governments ideological assualt on the poor? Why are you attacking local black leadership opposed to the cuts Steve? Why are you failing to ensure that black people and other vulnerable groups not viciously targetted unfairly by your administration decisions?
Cllr Steve Reed the fact is you have colluded with these Tory cuts Steve instead of colluding with them you should be leading the fight against them instead of slagging of the left. Your cheap comments about myself are not worthy of serious political comment. Red baiting the last and most desperate resort of the New Labour faction. I note that you have now launched a disciplinary witch hunt ‘ investigation” following the 7th Feb Cabinet meeting, against Cllr Kingsley Abrahams the only Labour Cllr to vote against the Lambeth ” economic lynching of the poor” budget. So summarizing your opposition to the Tories seems to consist off slagging off the left and McCarthyite with hunt against fellow Labour Cllr instead of fighting the Tories and saving our services. I often hear you say in public that you did not come into politics to make things harder for poor communities. Admirable sentiments however they are crocodile tears from a Labour administration that has capitulated at the first whiff of grapeshot from the Tories. If that is the case then maybe you should resign and lets get some people elected who are prepared to fight back. You have failed to produce any serious equality impact assessments of these cuts. Your budget will have huge disproportionate impact on black people, women the elderly and vulnerable. This is despite you’re so called commitment to equality. You are not only implementing the Tory cuts but you are ensuring by failing to these assessment that they do not disproportionately impact on equality groups. Your commitment to fighting these cuts is about as vacuous as your commitment to equality. You prettify these Tory cuts by telling local residents that that they will have no or little effect on front line services. You should be telling the people of Lambeth that these cuts will leave Lambeth devastated. You should be leading the fight back, out campaigning with us not resorting to snide comments and red baiting. You should challenge the Government in the courts, calling local demonstrations leading from the front. But no you prefer to kowtow to Government and slag of those who are defending poor communities in your borough whilst deceiving the public into believing that Lambeth can manage these cuts and introducing local decided by you cuts that attack black people and target the most vulnerable in our community.
It is racist to describe black people as being essentially a vulnerable group. Can you name the ‘ equality groups ‘ affected please.