Tuesday's Full Council meeting gave a taster for the future under the Condems. This coalition has no mandate from the people of Reading to slash and burn vital front line services and it is bankrupt of ideas and a vision for the future of Reading. The Lib Dems attempted to justify their radical about turn in politics to carry out the very cuts they consistently criticised for a number of years. They claimed that we had left the council in crisis even though the budget had balanced and services paid for. In fact, whilst the Lib Dems, such as Cllr Daisy "calamity" Benson tried to portray the council in severe crisis they still were prepared to accept our budget for 2010-2011 as they did not have one themselves, so much for bankrupt politics.
The Tories on theo ther hand have an ideological vision to cutback severely on front line public services as it was their political mission. Cllr Richard "lets open a few coalmines so we can shut them down again" Willis reiterated Thatcherite policy of cuts to services to slim down the public sector. Cllr David "I was born to rule" Stevens took any amendments with an arrogance of dismissal by proposing to shut down any meaningful debate about how the coalition was going to turn platitudes into firm policy. So much for new politics.
I stand on record as the opposition Lead for Children's Services as supporting the coalition in prioritising child protection and I will assist Cllr Mark Ralph in his work to lead in the protection of our children. My questions to him on Tuesday were how was he going to undertake this priority whilst having to cope with the loss of £1.6m from central government grant to Reading Children's Services.
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