No not that one. We have a Full Council meeting tomorrow where we will listen patiently to Cllr Drage telling us that we have never had it so good and that we should be grateful for only having to pay an extra 3.4% tax in the coming year.
He won’t be speaking for an hour with a glass of whisky as in the Parliamentary debate. Fifteen minutes is more than enough for all of us before we correct him on a few points:)
I’ll report back tomorrow
Only a Lib-Dem could call a 3.4% INCREASE good news.
Totally agree, how can these smug Lib Dems call this good news?! An increase is still and increase and bottom line: the Council is takign more money out of my and every other Sutton resident’s pockets.
I’m glad to vote for anyone with serious solutions for cutting the burden. That sure definitely isn’t the Lib Dems.
A 3.4% increase is above inflation and poor in itself, what is important to remember is that this is 3.4% on a huge base that has risen massively ahead of inflation over previous years.
What compouonds my annoyance is that having imposed a huge tax burden on the residents of this Borough, the LibDems then waste so much of it on daft politically correct nonsense.
Like all Conservatives I want to see a lower taxation burden. It is hardly rocket science, there is no need for ground breaking policies, just follow the lead of those well publicised London Conservative councils that are already doing it.
I had a one-minute speech written for tonight’s budget meeting, but decided against it when it descended in my opinion into utter farce. Firstly the Lib-Dems were waving pieces of paper around saying “87” (The tory majority in Cheam), and then childishly, the tories countered with another piece of paper saying “1st”, alluding to the Cheam win.
It’s all very well, but at the end of the day, I’m afraid full council meetings just show local politicans up for buffoons. And I’m talking about both sides, and not attacking the Tories here. I’ve spoken with Paul Scully tonight, and said that the attacks on the blog have reached a natural point, and we’ve agreed a kind of truce. Local politics isn’t helped by the kind of nonsense that was spouted tonight. In all honesty, only Cllr Russell made a speech worthy of note.
An interesting night.
I was surprised that Drage did not sum up and that the LDs only line of attack was that we had not prepared a Budget of our own.
Terry Faulds did a good job of getting under Ruth Dombeys skin and i have to agree with DP that Barrys speech was great and encapsulated exactly what is wrong with this administration.
We also got an assurance from Brett Youing that the Stanley Park money was to be ring fenced.
I bet that stuck in his throat.
Now though the message about the LDs has to be effectively communicated to the wider public.
They seemed a bit obsessed with Cheam considering they lost and as was pointed out the party with the biggest swing was UKIP.
Strange
Tim – thanks for the plug!
David
Some of our group did get goaded into responding to the LibDems but did you not think it extraordinary that the ruling party should carry out such a stunt?
John Kennedy was right when he suggested that this might have been the first time that a party in power took such glee in showing off the number of votes that they lost by. This was just another example of the LibDems failing to have anything positive to say about their own actions and instead deflecting analysis of their own failings onto the Opposition.
To the LibDems I say, keep going. It just reminds me and no doubt others what a tired complacent administration we have in Sutton relying on victories long since past. David, you must have smiled as I did when the LibDems conveniently ignored the UKIP-effect in Cheam.
Paul, yes I couldn’t agree more. I thought they may have given us some credit! I just thought the evening was rather childish (to be fair the Lib-Dems did start that off), but there we go. Perhaps an off night. You’ll notice I abstained on the Post Office vote as I thought it pointless trying to point out to everybody that the EU is at fault. I’d probably have got shouted down anyway!
Must admit the return in Cheam in May 2010 will be most interesting. I wonder what tack the Lib-Dems will take? By the way congrats to JP on his maiden speech, it’s not many councillors that say anything on their first night.
David and Tim
Many thanks for your kind comments regarding my speech last night.
I feel strongly about the way in which the under privileged are being let down by Sutton’s Libdem administration. Their failure to apologise for evicting a vulnerable person into our parks to die on a freezing night is beyond shameful.
Like all present, I was shocked at Ruth Dombey’s very puerile response to Terry Faulds’ fully justifiable attack on her. How she became the joint deputy leader of the Libdems is a mystery to me and one I suspect her rival (Colin Hall) must lament. She does nothing to enhance the image of democracy locally.
Von Pickles, I was sorry not to hear your speech. I still regularly smile at the memory of your attack on the duplicitous former Cllr Coman last year (as indeed do many of her former colleagues!).
David
I would be interested in what you were going to say on Monday night. Why not post it here?
Paul – here for your delectation and enjoyment!
“Madam Mayor, fellow councillors, ladies and gentlemen.
The old adage “you can’t fool all of the people all of the time”, is obviously not one Cllr Drage and the Lib-Dems have heard of. I am sick and tired of the annual announcement before Christmas of an increase of x per cent., then lo and behold a smaller increase of y per cent. at the budget meeting. The word INCREASE should be noted here, instead of a DECREASE, and it’s an increase from a higher base. Yes there are Tory councils nearby that have put up their council-tax bills by more percentagewise, but from a much lower base. When are Cllr Drage and his colleagues going to realise that people cannot continue paying ever-increasing amounts for worsening services? It’s enough to drive you up the totem pole”
Not earth-shattering, but a dig nonetheless. Perhaps had the mood been slightly less trivial in parts I would have felt obliged to speak, but in the end I was rather fed up with the whole evening.
Nonetheless both delectable and enjoyable. Good use of the totem pole which has made it into the Politically Correct Scrapbook published by the Campaign against Political Correctness (www.capc.co.uk)
Paul – thanks.
Crikey David. All of this peace breaking out. People will talk.
Anyway, I’m thinking of writing an article about the implosion of the LibDems in the EU treatistution debate in Parliament today in which case I’ll light the blue touch paper and watch the UKIP firework go off:)
Apparently one LibDem shadow cabinet member has resigned with a possible 3 more tonight. I spent an hour with their Chief Whip, one Paul Burstow, this morning. Funny, he didn’t mention it.