Across the country, Labour and Con-Dem councils are sharpening their axes, ready to make massive cuts to jobs and services nationwide. Islington is no different. The borough is facing an estimated £335 million in cuts, with £52 million set for this year alone. On 2 February 2011, Islington’s Labour-run council published an official list of 200 cuts to be made to services across the borough, to be introduced from April this year. Speaking at a press conference, Labour council leader Catherine West said ‘We’ve done our best to provide a battered shield to protect the vital services people rely on.’ The cuts budget that she and her Labour colleagues has drawn up says otherwise.
Set to be cut is Sotheby Mews day centre in Highbury, whose contract with the council runs out on 31 March. The council has cynically declared that its users are ‘not heavily reliant on it for their well being’. This was powerfully refuted by users of the day centre, who have prepared to fight to keep their day centre open. One user, Cerelia Lynk of Highbury, said, ‘A lot of us depend on this place and without it we would have nowhere to go. It would be wicked to shut this place.’ These claims were backed up by many other users, with chairman of the user’s board Henry Bourner warning that, ‘Putting it bluntly, a lot of older members will lose the will to live and die if this place shuts.’ Elderly residents also face reduced assistance with cleaning, shopping and laundry services.
Teenagers are facing enormous attacks on their futures. Whilst rises in University tuition fees and the elimination of EMA will tear away the chance of an education for working class students, Islington council is also chopping back advice services for teenagers. The council plans to axe jobs in support for Young Parents, and reduce the funding to this area. Agency staff with Connexions will not be retrained and frontline personal adviser staff are set to be cut. Meanwhile funding in Youth Positive Activities is being reduced and five posts will be cut. Islington Labour Party claims that, ‘The councillors’ priority has been to protect services that support low-income people, the young and the vulnerable.’ How cutting away at education, career advice services and social assistance helps young people, only the Labour council seems to know.
Other cuts are equally vicious. 350 council workers are set to lose their jobs – 50 more than anticipated. Council rents are set to rise by 7%. Tenants’ charges will similarly rise by 4.6%, and there will be new charges for certain services to the elderly. Countless “efficiency savings” will inevitably affect service provision.
Meanwhile, the council has been shedding crocodile tears about their cuts. Labour council leader Catherine West had the nerve to say that the Labour council is ‘on the side of Islington’s community, and that is why we have worked hard to protect what we can.’ Such fine words butter no parsnips. With this budget, Islington’s Labour council has made very clear whose side it stands on. No amount of attempts to shift the blame elsewhere, or to declare that they are ‘on our side’, can change this. Labour has set its budget, and has shown it is just as determined as the ConDem coalition to put our services and jobs on the line for the interests of the banks and British capitalism.
The lives of elderly people, teenagers, council workers and countless service users in Islington are being sacrificed on the altar of ‘efficiency savings’ and ‘deficit reduction’, while a Labour Party council, Con-Dem government and array of parasitic bankers escape with bonuses, fat salaries and massive profits. We have to stand up and make our voices loud and clear – we didn’t cause the crisis, and we aren’t going to pay for it.
Murray Andrews
