We all know that Eric Pickles MP (Tory), the government’s communities and local governments minister, has delivered some massive cuts in absolute and real terms to many councils, but the largest being seemingly vindictively directed to the large Labour city strongholds, like Manchester. This week saw Manchester council’s vote for the £100m+ first round of cuts to the city’s budget. That budget is determined by central government (via Eric Pickles) but has to be then distributed by the local government. The local government has very little room for maneuver.
However the Tory central government’s agenda is to deal such a severe blow to Labour strongholds (thus punishing the people of those cities as collateral damage) in the hope that by then having to deliver those cuts by choosing what services stay and go and which jobs stay and go, that the local council party gets punished by voters, hence weakening the strength of Labour party support and hoping that they can win an outright majority at the next general election by attaching the blame for cuts to Labour party, by saying the cuts are local governments’ fault.
Most intelligent people know that the cuts to budgets are plainly the fault of the decisions being made by the Tory led government. Why do we know this? Because we can also plainly see that the cuts to Tory councils are minimal and in some cases non existent (budget being increased). Some of the LibDem councils, mostly in the South, have been rewarded like this for their partnership in government. So it is quite obvious where the ethically inexplicable but politically motivated moves by the Tory government are trying to cause most damage.
On top of all that, we have a handful of LibDem councillors in Manchester too. These councillors instead of taking collective responsibility in trying to support the local Labour party councillors in the difficulty the city faces, just abstained at the vote for the size of the budget this week. The Labour council had no option but have to vote through the front loaded budget cuts, because it was a choice between increasing council tax, disproportionately affecting some of the poorest parts of greater Manchester, or cutting some less used services and facilities normally provided by the local authority. By abstaining, the liberal democrats in Manchester council have demonstrated a cowardly way of trying to shift the blame of the cuts onto Labour, whilst by not opposing it they are also showing collusion with the parliamentary LibDems. As a Party they are using this abstention method throughout parliament votes too. Cowardly, yellow, call it what you will.
The big losers in all this are the people of the cities being treated this way by the Tory led government. I hope that voters will see sense in our city and vote the LibDems out at the May 5th local elections to send them a message that we understand their tactics and the tactics of the Tory vindictiveness against progressive cities such as ours. We don’t have many Tory councillors in Greater Manchester, so the LibDems are the closest to them in my view. I know that some people who only see things locally will think to blame our majority Labour council, but it is important that the message gets out there that the cuts are being pushed onto the region by Eric Pickles’ department in central government, and that is plainly Tory-led strategy.
See also my blog on the north south divide, very much related to this issue.
