Forum Topic

Hypocrisy of our local elected representatives

As much as the presence of our local MP and the three Isleworth councillors was welcomed at yesterdays protest against the possible closure of Isleworth Library I have to say that the hypocrisy stinks as there would of course been no such need for a protest if it was not for the actions by themOur MP is under orders from Central Government to push though the savings/cuts that I think everyone agrees needs to be made due to the fact that we left high and dry and skint by Brown and Blair's tenure and our local councillors must have been privy to the discussions when the potential closures of our libraries were first mootedAs I predicted a few weeks ago Cllr Ruth Cadbury would eventually come out of the woodwork and say that she wanted the libraries saved after all despite being the Deputy Leader of the Administration who proposed the closure idea in the first place but still thinks most are gullible enough to believe herPlease remember though folks that if any of our local councillors are whipped/instructed to vote for the closure of either Isleworth or Brentford libraries at the Budget setting Council Meeting then they will do as told and I challenge any of them to say they would not?

Paul Fisher ● 5549d39 Comments

My dear,I make it a daily moment of truth never to imbibe either with drugs or alcohol. Just having survived all this time makes me one lucky lady.

Dawn Hardy ● 5541d

A generalisation; like all drugs are bad except the ones you use or all drugs are linked to crime except the legal ones.

Philip Walsh ● 5541d

What you do in your own home is your business, providing you do not encourage other's that's all I have to say.Also the you!! I used is a generalization!!!

Dawn Hardy ● 5541d

I think he's probably still on something that causes delusions!

Vanessa Smith ● 5541d

Yes, I took drugs, says Cameron - UK Politics, UK - The Independentwww.independent.co.uk

Philip Walsh ● 5541d

Lol Robin, I don't actually but one tends to get sucked in.  I would prefer to concentrate on the positive developments and be constructive about our local political representatives.  It is very easy for people to snipe from the sidelines and cause difficulties when they have nothing themselves to lose.

Phil Andrews ● 5545d

A very beautiful country without doubt.

Dawn Hardy ● 5545d

Ahhhh... I love the Phil & Vanessa show.

Robin Taylor ● 5545d

As it was before, my fathers was from Waterford way.

Philip Walsh ● 5545d

If they have any sense, as I believe they have, our local councillors will certainly be pleased to be making more and more friends within the wider community as a result of their active and visible support for initatives such as the anti-closures march last Saturday.I am aware that some councillors in the past have considered it demeaning to lend their support to any activity organised by the hoi polloi (or "rabble" to some), but traditionally their snobbish, elitist arrogance has cost them.

Phil Andrews ● 5545d

The people are still hard up? the cost of living is such that they pop up to Northern Ireland to do their weekly shop.

Dawn Hardy ● 5545d

Vanessa,What is more of a priority, youngster's being allowed to go to the Gym at cost, don't get me wrong my children go to the Gym every week(37 pounds per month)-or an adult or child being able to go to the library for free. Unless work to be carried 3 years ago is written in stone, a new administration has the right to change plans. Out of 1000 people living in our community probably 50 of those use a Gym on a regular basis, where as an awful lot more utilize our libraries.I don't think I am being selfish expecting my library to stay open whilst a Leisure Center has been completely refurbished at the cost of (Isleworth)9 Million at the last count. Health & Safety covers an awful lot of sin and expense.

Dawn Hardy ● 5545d

Ireland was the poorest country in western Europe before it joined the EU, so not much has changed except there is higher employment and top industries are still being attracted there.The economic woes of Ireland are related to sub prime mortgages and the failings of the banking system.

Philip Walsh ● 5545d

Oh dear - I am speaking my own mind, sorry you can't tell, as a matter of fact I would like to know if Ruth Cadbury has lost the power of communication as I have been waiting for well over a week for a response to an e-mail I sent her in her capacity as Deputy Leader. I complained to Ruth about a response to questions I had put to the Executive Member for Eduation, it was a disgrace, and he clearly had no idea what I was talking about or had any handle on his brief, I felt quite insulted that anyone should send something like that. I am not impressed.I'm sure that our local councillors are absolutely delighted to have the ICG seal of approval. What you consider "gratuitous aggression and belligerence" is someone forcefully putting their point of view to someone who they consider is talking pure B.S. I like to call a spade, a spade - not a a shovel.

Vanessa Smith ● 5545d

How many more times? THE CONTRACTS FOR THE LEISURE CENTRE REFRURBS. WOULD HAVE BEEN LET AGES AGO, WAY WAY BEFORE ANYONE COULD HAVE POSSIBLY KNOWN WHAT WAS COMING AT US, THESE THINGS ARE NOT DONE FIVE MINUTES BEFORE THE WORK IS DUE TO START. The money to pay for this was evidently affordable at that time, ask someone who was on the council then. You are being incredibly selfish about the gym facilities - you might think these are a luxury we can do without - but the people who use and appreciate them are also local taxpayers and just as entitled to have services they want, there are loads of services I don't use but that's beside the point - people who live in this area quite likely do. Whether or not the gym equipment was O.K. I have no idea, but I suspect like everything else there is more up to date stuff available and there are loads of regulations that have to be adhered to before the public can use it, Health & Safety springs to mind. You think libraries are a top priority - and I love my library, but that doesn't stop me from understanding that there are others who never step inside one but do go to the gym several times a week.

Vanessa Smith ● 5545d

Terrified Vanessa, what with your track record and all that.But no actually, I was just curious as to why somebody who has traditionally spoken her own mind has suddenly become such a parrot-like cheerleader on this forum for the Labour Group on the council at precisely the same time as Robin Taylor would appear to have been decommissioned.But I am reassured that you are not acting in any formal capacity on behalf of the party.  There was a serious danger that your unhelpful antics and gratuitous aggression and belligerence over here would negate much of the good work that is being done by the ward councillors, who generally speaking are making a good impression.

Phil Andrews ● 5545d

Without consulting anyone, the man ruined us, what made it worse we didn't need the money at the time, the blighter sold 3 loads of gold bullion just because he could. Somewhere up in Wales there are million's and million's of Euro Notes that he had on hand for when Labour took us into the Euro.  Let's hope that Welsh Mice have a voracious appetite the good old pound will do for my lifetime.

Dawn Hardy ● 5545d

Vanessa has of course also failed to mention that Brown sold Billions of our Gold Reserves at the lowest price ever as well!

Paul Fisher ● 5545d

A very truthful point that Vanessa will argue against.

Dawn Hardy ● 5546d

However Mary MacLeod was there at the most crucial time, when TV cameras were, that in itself along with Anna Ford also Susan Penghalion gave Brentford Library air time, she also attended last Saturday at Isleworth Library and went on the walk on Friday she was at Hounslow Heath supporting another cause.So give the woman her due she does an awful lot in the background for our Constituency. Yes I am a Tory and proud of it, but and it is a big but!!! I have no fear of criticising my party when they are in the wrong, how and why? can I do this because I am English and I am fortunate enough to still live in a Democracy.As for Greece,Portugal and Spain, the Euro has destroyed these economies it is essential to have competitive exchange rates, why go to these countries on holiday when it is more expensive than your own country, men who work hard all year round don't want to pay 7 pound for a pint whilst on holiday, whether it's liked or not people go on holiday to relax and not count pennies. A meal in Malta for  2 will cost you approx 90 Euro here go to the Harvester and it will cost you 40 pounds including drink's. The point is no tourist's no job's after all isn't that what their economy is based upon. You include Ireland before they joined the Euro they didn't have to close village schools they do now, they were forced into taking another loan that they could well have done without. The EU is a Communistic rote run on a Capitalistic frame work, it's failing and will continue to fail (3rd time)

Dawn Hardy ● 5546d

"if the ICG is taking part in the election"Do bears c**p in the woods?Quote away - what does it take to explain to some people? I am NOT a member of any political party and have absolutely NO INTENTION of seeking election. Worried were you Phil?

Vanessa Smith ● 5546d

Hardly Vanessa - I think everyone agrees that GB persuading Lloyds TSB to buy HBOS and then steam rollering it through the anti competition rules was at best misguided. And then to renege on the promised peerage......

Sara Dodd ● 5546d

As I have said before I think no Cllrs or the local MP should turn up. The MP just jumped on the bandwagon. It would have been different if she had joined in at the start of the battle. She didn't.As for the so called mess left by Labour, who knows how much of a mess we would have been in if Labour hadn't intervend. Think Greece, Ireland, Portugal & Spain.

Neil Chippendale ● 5546d

Of course it matter's, an old saying"it's not over until the fat lady sings" the objective is never to give up also not to make it easy for them to penalize us. As for the borough not having enough money, if that is the case why??? have we Several New Optic Fibre CCTV Cameras in Brentford High Street surely the huge one outside Goddards see's as far as Brentford Bridge. How much has been wasted on those, as it is to stop to drop someone off cost you 50 pounds in the High St.

Dawn Hardy ● 5546d

If you are to be a candidate in 2014 and if the ICG is taking part in the election, expect to be quoted on that Vanessa.

Phil Andrews ● 5546d

Hardly matters now though does it?

Vanessa Smith ● 5546d

Would it have really happened???, although that would have given them the ideal excuse for closing our Libraries. As it is they are using Central Government still!!! If all Executives took a pay cut to 100 Thousand Pounds per year, we could keep our libraries open easily.

Dawn Hardy ● 5546d

Vanessa,Can you tell us then why?? if money is in such short supply, have the Leisure Centers have been completely re-fitted out at an astronomical amount of money that we do not have, also that whilst Libraries have been refurbished again at a ridiculous cost, are 8 out of 11 up for closure. Where was the forethought in this, surely the Gymnasiums could have waited a few more years especially as the equipment was still in pretty good nick. If this had happened then our Libraries would have been safe.

Dawn Hardy ● 5546d

The local Labour Party pledged to cut the Council Tax in Hounslow regardless of who the Government was though!

Paul Fisher ● 5546d

Please tell me how the Library Travesty can be blamed on Central Government(this administration)Because the government give a specific amount of money to local authorities every year, that has been slashed, at the same time local authorities are not being allowed to raise their own taxation (council tax), hence there is a big shortfall, Therefore the local council has to in turn cut their budget.

Vanessa Smith ● 5546d

Vanessa,Precisely, Fiduciary e:g:Given in Trust!!! councilor's take the job to do their utmost for the community not to put us in such a strangle hold that it will cost the earth to get out, we pay if we stay with Laing and we pay if Council break the contract.Please tell me how the Library Travesty can be blamed on Central Government(this administration)Also don't you think that 13 year's of Labour Government had something yo do with the Financial Mess that this administration are trying to get us out of. I wonder if Tony Blair has to worry about having enough money to pay the rent or feed the kid's!!! on your bike he get's richer whilst we get poorer and he's still doing it flitting around the Middle East earning a bloody fortune and we are paying for his protection, if that stopped we would be 2.5 Million Pounds per year better off that could go toward the countries libraries don't you agree.

Dawn Hardy ● 5546d

Don't you think that you are being a tad unfair, at least these persons had the ball's to stand beside the local populace and give their support. In Central Government a Whip controls the House, the same as in Local Government now, I don't like it, I don 't agree with it however that's the way the cookie crumbles. The Libraries can and should be saved by cutting back on money wastage easier said than done you say, not really just good house keeping,just because work is seconded out a watchful eye by council exec's would save many many thousands of pounds. Thus negating the need for library closures.

Dawn Hardy ● 5546d

Are you still trying to blame the last government for what is happening in Ireland, the USA, Greece etc etc.? That's just plain daft. In fact in everything I have read GB has been credited for his work on the financial crisis and the fact that it wasn't as bad as it might have been without his input. I have never asked anyone to believe that if Labour had been re-elected there wouldn't be any cuts, (your words - not mine) there would. BUT, any cuts would not have been idealogically driven, they would have been slower and not so vicious or deep. But then you spent four years in cahoots with your Tory mates for exactly the same reason as Cleggy's merry band, and much good it did you.

Vanessa Smith ● 5547d

And the bail out of the banks with trillions of pounds of taxpayers had nothing to do with the alleged parlous state of public finances? We are in a mess because of that, not because the previous administration employed a nurse or policeman. Then again that doesn't make good headline grabbing for the Daily Mail does it as the banks fund the present incumbents, and their poodle partners - who prior to the election promised all sorts of retribution and reorgoanisation of the banking casino 'system' - have nicely come to heel...

Ken Collins ● 5547d

And yet after all that huffing and puffing Vanessa you are still in a state of denial that your comrades caused the mess we are in and you would have us believe that if Brown had been re-elected then none of us would have to suffer any cuts

Paul Fisher ● 5547d

I just wonder when a lot of people are going to wake up and smell the coffee, whatever the wishes of local councils this government is hell bent on completely doing away with public services. They have absolutely no intention of funding local government properly and if people march stark, b*****k naked around the boroughs of London in five feet of snow it will not make a scrap of difference, they won't change their stance and local government can't change theirs no matter how much they want to protect services much valued by residents. Of course people should protest  but whether that will influence central government one iota is dubious. They are making policy on idealogical grounds no matter how they protest to the contrary, it seems that everything apart from the judiciary and armed forces is to be up for grabs by their wealthy mates. We can only hope that bootlicker-in-chief Nick Clegg comes under pressure from the spineless shower he leads when the AV referendum (cost to the taxpayer £250 million - how many libraries and day centres would that fund?) goes pear shaped and there isn't a Lib Dem councillor left after local elections in May, may be then they'll finally find their guts and leave the slimeball Cameron without a majority and having no alternative but to go to the country, we live in hope. Anyone who thinks people go into local politics to screw their electorate is potty, after all councillors are local residents too, the difference being that they have a fiduciary duty to the local taxpayer. If this government survives then we should all face the very unpleasant reality of things getting a damned sight worse, and ask ourselves what we really are going to have to live without.

Vanessa Smith ● 5547d

I could not unfortunately make Saturdays protest so was unable to make my point but I did e-mail all three councillors asking what steps they personally would be making to safeguard our libraries and after not recieving any response I e-mailed again a couple of weeks laterCllr Mayne responded but I did not of course hear from the other two representatives which was disappointing but not unexpected

Paul Fisher ● 5549d

They were all in a no-win situation - damned if they did, and damned if they didn't, had none of them shown up you'd have been on here having dig about that! At the very least you had an opportunity to speak to them and make clear how you feel.

Vanessa Smith ● 5549d

Thank you for saying this Paul. I too felt very unhappy about being led on the march by someone representing the very party that is introducing the cuts that make library necessary.

Huw Morgan ● 5549d