VanessaMy understanding is that, following the local elections of 2014, the victorious local Labour Party was instructed to up its game and to provide a service to local people which would be so good and so popular that local voters would never again feel the need to turn to a community-based alternative such as had been provided by the ICG (as I have said before such an edict revealed a very fundamental misunderstanding of the rationale behind the ICG, but the sentiment remains the same regardless).My understanding of this edict is patchy and I do not know by whom it was issued, to whom and in which form. But I do now that it was made.It would appear that in the space of little more than a year the present local leadership has not only turned this directive on its head but has decided to actively challenge and confront its core principle. Its contempt for local people and for their opinions would not be more obvious were Steve Curran to stand in the middle of Brentford High Street on a busy afternoon, fists a-clenched, and shout "Come and have a go if you think you're hard enough!" at the top of his voice to the local citizenry (whilst enjoying ample police protection from the attentions of any angry 65-year-olds in the crowd, naturally).The contempt for local people, and for every tenet of democratic thought and practice, is palpable and oozes from their every pore.It is abundantly clear, if you speak to these people, that they are proud to thrive on the "idiot" vote which they command in numbers, from people who have no interest in local affairs and who emerge from goodness knows where once every four years to cast their vote in the same manner in which they might perform a body function, or clean their teeth in the morning, without thought either of what they are doing or why. They know that people who care enough to be active in the community are in a minority and their strategy of choice is to confront such people and to face them down rather than attempt to work with them in any way.We, as local people, must accept this situation as a reality if we are going to do anything to overcome it. It has been overcome - in pockets, and on occasions - but as you have alluded to before a more sustained and broader community response is called for. The task is not impossible, but it is a lot more difficult than a lot of people seem to imagine. Please let's all approach the New Year with these realities firmly in mind.
Phil Andrews ● 3511d