AdamIt's nice to be agreeable but sometimes the hard evidence is just so "in yer face" that you will find yourself on a hiding to nothing by even trying.One Labour local election promise, under the heading of "Crime", was to place "100 new uniformed officers onto the streets of this area".We can argue about what was meant by "this area", but the clear inference was that a Labour administration would employ at least 100 new, uniformed police officers within the borough. I challenge you to suggest otherwise whilst maintaining a straight face.As you know local councils do not, other than in exceptional circumstances, employ police officers and even if they did the idea that 100 could be taken on within the local authority's budget (whilst cutting Council Tax) and sent out onto the streets of Hounslow was manifestly ridiculous. We said so at the time and our protests were met with a calculated if slightly embarrassed silence.When Labour won control of the council it promptly announced that the "officers" in question would not be police officers but council officers, and that the reference to "new uniformed officers" was never intended to mean new officers, but rather new uniforms issued to existing officers!It is difficult to conceive of a more cynical confidence trick that could have been played on the voters of this borough, but the new administration thought it was hilarious and I would imagine Vanessa in particular probably still does.However that was then and now is now, and in the interests of balance I have to say I have seen a lot of positives in the new administration now that the dust has settled. I watched most of the budget meeting on the webcast on Tuesday and felt the Labour Group was in command of its brief in a way that I never saw it being during its time in opposition.I was particularly impressed by Councillor Ed Mayne and the confidence and authority with which he conducted himself in spite of his youth and relative inexperience, and in a slightly perverse kind of way (he defeated the ICG to win his seat) I was proud that an Isleworth ward councillor was making such an impact on the debate. I believe he will go on to lead the Labour Group in the not too distant future, and indeed I hope that he does.As I have previously stated on this forum I was also very encouraged by the fact that the three Isleworth ward councillors came out to support the local community over the ongoing threat to our libraries and public halls. It would have been unthinkable that Labour councillors would have lowered themselves to attend an ICG-organised community activity a decade ago when they were last in office in the ward.The demeanour of the Mayor is less arrogantly political and far more statesmanlike than I recall it having been in the days of the previous Labour administration. In short, it is just a personal observation but when I look at these people today I do not instantly see "the enemy" as I probably once did.But I do not accept the view that deliberate dishonesty is inevitable in politics nor that it can be justified by simply dismissing it as an integral part of the political process, and it is on this point more than any other that I find myself in conflict with the culture of the Labour Party as an organisation. I don't claim never to have told a lie, but I like to think that I retain a sufficient understanding of right and wrong to know that the truth is something to which we should aspire.To me it is this casual acceptance of deceit and dishonesty in our politics that is worse than the practice itself.
Phil Andrews ● 5271d