SamYou have more than once expressed the view that residents who engage in high-visibility protest are reckless, and/or immature, and/or lacking in dignity. They can be all of these things of course, however I do feel there is place for imaginative engagement which highlights injustice, just so long as it is done in a good-humoured, measured and proportionate way.Instead you may feel that your voters will be turned on by your raising of points of order at pension investment committees and, who knows, you may be right, but different methods work for different groups and sometimes those groups must make the best use of the resources, the media and the opportunities which are available to them.If ever a group "punched above its weight" it was the ICG, winning seats in three elections on the bounce with no political experience, few resources, no external support and in the face of rabid hostility from both major political parties, the local (and sometimes national) media and much of the officer establishment at the local authority. Yes, inevitably, it all came to an end eventually but our "student politics" certainly struck a chord with a good number of very mature and very moderate voters for a very long time. The local Conservatives, by contrast, are clearly happy to remain in perpetual opposition, ensconced in one tiny corner of the borough, and seem only to become truly animated when there is the prospect of a third party or group emerging onto the scene to threaten the comfort of their servitude.Now that there is the prospect of the Tories losing seats in their own back yard, in spite of the best efforts of the Labour leadership, suddenly all is urgent. Well I am afraid Sam that the bed you lie in is the bed you make.There is indeed an urgent need for change in this borough but so ineffectual has the traditional opposition been that that change is much more likely to come from within the local Labour Party than from without. How ironic is it that the only role left for the Tories to play is to do what it can to prevent that change from happening?
Phil Andrews ● 2664d