| Topic: | Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re:Re::Re:Re:Re:Re:Hounslow Council support a unconstitutional and unfair Residents Group | |
| Posted by: | Phil Andrews | |
| Date/Time: | 19/03/15 11:27:00 |
| I agree with that. And it's worth repeating that this is not about whether any or indeed all of a residents' association's members are Labour supporters or members. It is about whether they are there as servants of their communities, or of their party. A little anecdote if I may be permitted. During the Hounslow Central by-election in 2000, in which the ICG was running a candidate, my path crossed frequently with that of Bob Whatley, who was the Labour candidate in that contest. He is an affable guy and we invariably suspended activities for five or ten minutes for a brief chat. During one of those chats he related to me how the Council never got any trouble from RAs in Hounslow Central "because we (the Labour Party) control them all". This is the rub of it. He could have pointed out that every officer of every association in the ward happened to be a paid-up member of the Labour Party and, though it would have been an extraordinary coincidence, the fact in itself would not have been relevant. What was relevant was the fact that the presence of Labour Party members in key positions within these associations amounted in his view to "control" being exercised by the party over those groups. In other words those people holding those positions did so not in their capacity as active residents, but as party members. Or to put it another way, not to serve their respective associations in their dealings with the local authority, but to serve the Labour-led local authority on those associations. It is a simple enough point, which politicos sometimes deliberately confuse in order to cloud the water. What it means is that whilst in an ideal world Labour members should be as welcome as anybody else to serve on a residents' or tenants' association, in practice they must always be viewed as potential fifth columnists because the party to which they belong would appear to require them to infiltrate and control. |