I'm confused by a blog from a former boss of mine: Frank Dobson’s Election Blog.
Frank starts off in his usual lively and dynamic mood:
"'Fraid I’ve not been much good at this blogging malarkey over the last few days. Definitely think the campaigning is starting to take its toll. All that's keeping me going is the knowledge that if I stop now I’ll never get started again."
But then goes on to say:
As I achieved a 7.7% swing from Labour to Conservative and reduced the Labour vote by 11.7%, this message from Frank suggesting that the seat was winnable and I could overturn the small Conservative majority was clearly a coded critique of my candidature.Well spit it out, Frank. Why don’t you say what you mean. Talk to the local party members rather than hiding in the St. Pancras CLP office with your committee writing blogs. And then say what you mean, loud and clear: "Luke Akehurst is a two-time loser, just like me".
I'm Luke Akehurst..... aka. "Luke The Nuke".
2 comments:
Dobbo also pointed out: "Additionally Tory-held local councils, like the one in Castle Point, give voters an idea what to expect from the Tories nationally. Cuts and privatisation. In Castle Point they've tried to shut every public toilet and community hall, tried to sell the leisure centre to a private company for £1, allowed unpopular planning permission building on the Green Belt and have been graded "poor" by the Comprehensive Performance Assessment.
Voters should also take note of what Lib Dem-held councils do if my visit to Islington is anything to go by. Their record on cuts is comparable to the Tories. In Islington the social services budget has been slashed, nurseries, community centres and day centres for the elderly have been closed and children’s play places during the school holidays cut back. Meanwhile they have voted to give themselves the highest pay for council cabinet members in the UK - £40,000 each when a local nursery could be saved for just £6000.
But back to Castle Point - from what I saw last night, if local people want somebody to deliver for them, on the issues that they really care about, they’d do well to vote for Luke on election day."
Cuts to services, shutting community halls and toilets, dispensing with leisure centres, cuts to kids play spaces, unpopular planning developments AND have been graded "poor" by the Comprehensive Performance Assessment.
Phew! These Tory-run and Lib Dem-run councils sound terrible! I guess we should be relieved none of those criticisms could be directed at you or the Labour-run London Borough of Hackney, shouldn't we?
Thanks for the expanded quote, iLikeAkehurstFanClub. It just goes to prove what I've been arguing, namely that no matter how much Hackney's Labour council cuts services, closes community facilities, sells prime land to developers, overspends its budget, privatises schools, builds doomed leisure centres, cuts kids play spaces and makes unpopular planning developments... some idiots still think the Tories and LibDems do it better than us. Believe me, whatever we do we do better than any other party!
We've made enormous strides since Millbank sent me and my gang into Hackney to clean up the mess left behind by Gerry, Joe and the HNL traitors. In those days, Hackney came bottom of the English council league tables two years in a row and one from bottom the year that Wallsall council forgot to send in their forms.
You refer to Dobbo’s comments about Castle Point (where I received a bit of a thumping) and Islington. The most recent Audit Commission Comprehensive Performance Assessment for Islington Council says it is only "improving well" and gives it a mere three stars from the maximum four: http://cpa.audit-commission.gov.uk/Scorecard.aspx?TaxonomyID=104331. The most recent CPA for Castle Point says that since the Tories took back control it is making "good progress" with "strong officer and political management" leading to "improving performance": http://www.castlepoint.gov.uk/News.asp?id=SXA8F6-A7803315.
Now compared with those reports, just look at the magnificent turnaround we’ve achieved in Hackney. Last year’s CPA rated us as "improving adequately" and we were awarded a whole star: http://cpa.audit-commission.gov.uk/Scorecard.aspx?TaxonomyID=103591.
I rest my case!
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