Originally published @ 3:50 pm, Sat 6th Nov 2010
Meeting voters this morning, with the excellent Labour Councillors from Sherwood ward in Nottingham this morning, recent polls of Labour matching the Conservatives on 40% and the Lib Dems at around 10%; and very encouraging results for Labour in council by-elections were backed up by doorstep responses this morning of "I voted Lib Dem at the General Election, but I'll vote Labour next time" and others actually leaning out of the car to say how angry they are about the cuts. (Perhaps Paul O'Grady has lit the fuse - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JE88U5CocpM )
As we canvassed, the party's leafleting network was kicking into action and the latest newspaper delivered. The centre-piece spells out the unfair nature of the cuts the ConDems have introduced with cities in the Midlands like Nottingham and in the North being hardest hit.
-- Nottinghamshire Police face a £50 million cut;
-- Nottingham City Council funding to lose £89 million;
-- £116 funding cut for Nottingham children (£94 million from secondary school building, SureStart cash frozen and Education Maintenance Allowance axed);
-- Jobs funding losing £125m (incl. Future Jobs Fund);
-- £6,000 million from regional development lost;
-- £190m lost from housing funding.
Chris Leslie MP is also questioning whether the cuts to the local Fire Authority means the loss of 6 tenders.
Meanwhile, hats off to The Mirror, giving front page coverage to the finding from the House of Commons Library that a real-terms increase for the NHS can only be claimed if you include an increase in funding for social care, which in fact goes to local government. http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/news/2010/11/06/david-cameron-cuts-nhs-funding-by-500million-115875-22696335/
And yet another member of David Cameron's political staff has found their way onto the national civil service payroll. David Cameron has complained about this kind of focus, but having developed the notion that we reduce the complexity of a nation's economy to the budget of a household (ignoring the idea of a mortgage representing debt), can he really complain if papers like The Mirror then publish editorials like "austerity starts at home".
Comments