Brent Council tonight passed the cuts listed in the post below with all Labour councillors in the Conference Hall when the vote was taken voting for the budget and the three opposition councillors abstaining. Cllrs Abdirazak Abdi and Jumbo Chan attended the Council meeting but were out of the room when the vote was taken.
It was noteworthy that for the first time the Tory Group (Trio) did not put forward an alternative budget, surely the least that can be expected from a principled opposition. This enabled deputy leader Cllr Margaret McLennan, voice dripping with honeyed sarcasm, to thank them for supporting a Labour budget by not putting forward an alternative. The hapless trio made things even worse for themselves when Cllr Kansagra appeared to fall asleep during his own speech that for about the 5th year running blamed Gordon Brown for the world financial crisis. Clearly nothing to do with the Tory government. Cllr Colwill followed by saying that there was 'loadamoney' hidden in many years' worth of unpaid debts to the council and accused Labout of not scrutinising council finances properly - he is vice chair of the scrutiny committee! Cllr Maurice lulled Labour into silence with a long soliloquy on diesel cars. A Labour councillor suggested that the leader of the opposition should lose his special allowance as he was not doing the job.
Oh for a proper opposition! Come back John Warren..! (Or John Duffy).
There was a refreshing willingness among most Labour councillors to call a spade a spade and not shrink from calling cuts, cuts, rather than 'savings', 'transformation', 'efficiencies' or even the dread new variant 'Hub' - although there were several hubs in the budget proposals.
Cllr Butt had not quite mastered this new language insisting in his final speech that the budget would do harm to Brent people but also that the vulnerable would be protected. The council is of course consulting on making those entitled to Council Tax Support pay more from 2020.
There were some good speeches from some of the newer councillors as well as some obsequious one from some who should know better. Cllr Nerva sent a spasm through his colleagues when he made a veiled attack on the present national leadership of the Labour Party towards the end of his budget speech. He said that the events of the last week (presumably the formation of the Independent Group) made it clear that in order to deserve to be elected Labour had to tackle anti-semitism and misogyny in its ranks. There was a scattering of applause.
It was noteworthy that for the first time the Tory Group (Trio) did not put forward an alternative budget, surely the least that can be expected from a principled opposition. This enabled deputy leader Cllr Margaret McLennan, voice dripping with honeyed sarcasm, to thank them for supporting a Labour budget by not putting forward an alternative. The hapless trio made things even worse for themselves when Cllr Kansagra appeared to fall asleep during his own speech that for about the 5th year running blamed Gordon Brown for the world financial crisis. Clearly nothing to do with the Tory government. Cllr Colwill followed by saying that there was 'loadamoney' hidden in many years' worth of unpaid debts to the council and accused Labout of not scrutinising council finances properly - he is vice chair of the scrutiny committee! Cllr Maurice lulled Labour into silence with a long soliloquy on diesel cars. A Labour councillor suggested that the leader of the opposition should lose his special allowance as he was not doing the job.
Oh for a proper opposition! Come back John Warren..! (Or John Duffy).
There was a refreshing willingness among most Labour councillors to call a spade a spade and not shrink from calling cuts, cuts, rather than 'savings', 'transformation', 'efficiencies' or even the dread new variant 'Hub' - although there were several hubs in the budget proposals.
Cllr Butt had not quite mastered this new language insisting in his final speech that the budget would do harm to Brent people but also that the vulnerable would be protected. The council is of course consulting on making those entitled to Council Tax Support pay more from 2020.
There were some good speeches from some of the newer councillors as well as some obsequious one from some who should know better. Cllr Nerva sent a spasm through his colleagues when he made a veiled attack on the present national leadership of the Labour Party towards the end of his budget speech. He said that the events of the last week (presumably the formation of the Independent Group) made it clear that in order to deserve to be elected Labour had to tackle anti-semitism and misogyny in its ranks. There was a scattering of applause.