I had to pinch myself this morning when I read the Daily Post coverage of an interview with Liverpool City Council leader, LibDem Warren Bradley.
As you will see, Cllr Bradley says
“Some apathetic councillors didn’t have the fire in their belly or the experience to stand up and fight back – they didn’t have a record of action.”
Some of ours lost seats because the people that elect them felt like they didn’t represent them any more.
Labour and the Greens have made inroads because they worked harder.
At the end of the day people want to be able to rely on the local councillors that represent them. Some of the people who were elected have let the people that elected them down.
If you work hard in your community you will not lose.”
He is of course absolutely right. Labour have worked hard in their communities, I assume the Greens have too but I don't claim to have the inside track on their efforts. He is also right to say that voters have become disillusioned with being taken for granted by LibDems.
I know that Labour councillors, 14 of whom took their seats on the council, having defeated LibDems in the last 3 years, and a further number who replaced retiring sitting councillors, have worked their asses off for Labour and for their constituents.
It is an absolute badge of pride with me and my two colleagues, in Kensington and Fairfield that nothing significant ever goes down in our ward without one of us being involved in either the planning, the development or the delivery in some way. We care deeply about the people we represent and we are determined to be part of the things that matter to them. I consider myself to have failed any time that I have not been aware of people's concerns or issues and have not taken up the cudgels on their behalf.
But it is not only that, we are also passionate that any minorities within our ward, be that race, sex, disability, sexuality, religion, age or any other strand, should be represented to the best of our abilities too, even where we don't have that strand in common.
That is why we campaigned over the last 6 months not just for Labour but also for the decent values of the majority, working alongside Hope not Hate, to explain why the BNP is the Party of division and discrimination and has no place in Liverpool.
Where were the LibDems in the campaign against fascism? Where were they today on the UAF demo? Where were they at the Love Music Hate Racism gigs? Where was their candidate in Norris Green last year - the one that could have pushed the BNP into third place - they failed to stand one, despite being the party of Administration.
Warren is quite right, many have been resting on their laurels, watching idly by while their voters drift away, failing to engage, or else taking credit for things they have played no part in.
I am glad he has chosen today to give this interview, and on behalf of the people who are still represented by LibDems, I want to thank him for being brave, and I want to say to him and his group, get involved and start working for your people, or else expect the responsibility to be awarded to someone else.
There are lots of people who want your seats - and some of them are not deserving, some of them are from wings of our politics that I trust we can agree we would never wish to see sitting on benches in our Town Hall.
Personally, I would much rather have a bone-idle complacent LibDem than a BNP councillor, but it is a choice I would rather not make. Get your act together and earn your allowances and SRAs, and help us make being a councillor something to be proud of.
12 comments:
“If you work hard in your community you will not lose.” (unless of course you are deselected)
“I held people to account, and that is not something you should be lambasted for."
I bet that Cllr Paul Clein and ex-Cllr Kevin Firth are loving those lines....
The Lib Dems did help in the Hope not Hate campaign. As did every party in Liverpool.
Well I am pleased to hear it, can I have some examples of what, where and when, just so that I can be truly satisfied.
So long as the LP in Liverpool and their hard working councillors carry on working hard, I am sure Labour will control liverpool city council next year.
The newspaper was delivered in dovecot, parts of Church ward and Crocky...
Interesting that Alistair Darling admitted that the rise of the BNP was down to Labour's failures yesterday..
May I suggest Louise, those in glass houses shouldn't throw stones. I wouldn't dare use the BNP/Race card against your party, neither should you.
Fair play to the LibDems, I am very happy indeed to read that you played your part. Good for you, I take it back that you were not involved in Hate not Hope, with pleasure.
Oh yes - Dovecot, Crocky and Church - all those well known BNP-favouring wards! Please, whilst that may be useful to an extent, don't insult people's intelligence by thinking that you were doing anything except campaigning for yourselves.
Labour members in some places chose to specifically deliver Hope Not Hate leaflets - not because they didn't want to deliver Labour leaflets (they did that additionally and separately), but because the message was that important.
Wasn't our idea, it was Alec Mcfadden's team's idea.
You have a problem, take it up with him. In the meantime argue over policy not the Hope not Hate campaign... it makes you look small minded otherwise sweety.
I am not entirely sure I appreciate being called "Sweety" by a misogynist LibDem, but be that as it may, I have already said my piece on this, in an earlier comment, the response that you are referring to came from another anonymous poster, and not from me. For all we know it was some hairy arse docker who left it and thus, as far from being your "sweety" as one could imagine, unless of course that is your thing? In which case, forgive my intervention
It was meant for him not you Louise don't worry.
Lets be careful about using crass language on your blog from now on, don't want another letter from the Standards Board do we now :)
Oh come come, Cllr Makinson has already made it clear that the LibDems have better things to do than report me to the Standards Board for odd things I might say on the blog. One can only assume that he meant you to take a relaxed attitude to things like my using words like "arse", we do all have one after all. Some bigger than others, speaking personally.
Incidentally, I met Warren at a meeting today and he said some positive things about my blog on this issue. We are absolutely agreed that complacency amongst mainstream parties in some areas have let the BNP in through the back door.
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