A few days ago I was reading the Barking & Dagenham Post (BD Post) and I was quite surprised!
The front-page was about the BNP losing all its seats in Barking & Dagenham and I expected the editorial comment to praise the good people of the borough for kicking the ‘racists’ out. (this is how we are usually described by the local press).
I was wrong.
Of course the editorial focussed on our bad results but it also expressed concerns about the fact that with no opposition to Labour it will make important decisions behind closed doors and will be unaccountable to anyone.
It also raised alarming concerns about the cuts that will need to be made in order to reduce the £36m budget deficit.
Indeed in the same issue there was another article about a plan to shut down 17 (out of 23) council buildings in order to cut costs.
That the financial situation of the borough was bad is hardly news, and that is why when BNP councillors delivered their alternative budget the BNP focused on reducing wasteful expenditure and using the savings to reduce the £36m deficit and cut the council tax.
Not surprisingly Labour rejected our proposals and they may have deliberately allowed the council financial situation to deteriorate so that if the BNP gained the control of the council (they knew we had a good chance of achieving it) we would face the fury of residents angered by the unpopular decisions we would be forced to make in order to deal with the problem.
Unfortunately things went differently but it now means that Labour will have to deal with the problem they created in the first place.
It is likely that many council workers will be sacked and council tax will increase, who will take the blame for it?
Labour of course.
The British National Party would have implemented common sense policies, such us cutting spending on interpreters and translation services, stopping the funding of immigrant groups, bringing in house some services that are now outsourced, thereby hugely reducing the salaries of senior council workers.
We all know it is very unlikely Labour will do any or all of the above, and that is why in the next 1-2 years they may lose so much support they will regret having taken the council in the first place.
It will be interesting to see how they justify an increase in the council tax or the cutting of some vital services when at the same time fat-cat civil servants are getting six figure salaries and ring fenced pensions.
Until now they have managed it by focusing on the ‘fascist’ threat and mobilising people like the UAF to stop the British National Party, a crafty and underhand way to move voters attention away from Labour failure and local politics.
Unfortunately for them they cannot do it anymore because the BNP now has no councillors and therefore they have no excuses, or anyone to blame.
Labour won control of the council but it also got its own poisoned chalice. Hoist on their own petard?
GIUSEPPE DE SANTIS
