The Conservative – sorry, I mean Coalition – government unveiled its crash and burn budget this week as Im sure many of you will have noticed, mainly because it hits every single ordinary person in the UK hard. The Tories and their Lib Dem lackeys did their best to sell it as a “progressive” budget, which had economists raising objections, some of their own backbenchers tabling amendments and most of the rest of us laughing.
Well, almost laughing, as the cuts to services and support will impact on the lives of everyone, mostly those who cannot afford it. It will be the residents throughout Clapham Town – from the Willard Estate to Nelson’s Row – who will have their child credits cut, Sure Start Centre’s cut back, their local magistrate courts closed and other public services slashed. It’s likely to get even worse as the Con-Dem government gears up to impose massive cuts to local government funding that will see Lambeth as well as other councils face a budget squeeze, despite the good work Labour has done to sort out the council finances we inherited in 2006 from our own disastrous Con-Dem council.
And there really is no need for this. Yes, the budget needs to be curtailed, but it could have been done with less pain than this and with more progressive taxes, such as when Labour asked the top earners to pay more during the economic downturn.
If youre interested in fighting these cuts then get in touch with us, either by joining Labouror if youre not political contacting your local councillors with your concerns.
