Paul Garraway, the newly elected branch secretary of the local post workers union branch has been selected as the Respect candidate for Cowley ward in the city council elections this May. Mr Garraway was unanimously selected by Respect branch members at a meeting in Florence Park Community centre on Thursday night. Respect intend to make the proposed closer of the Cowley Mail centre and its relocation to Swindon a key theme of their campaign.
Paul, who is 41 and works in the East Oxford delivery office commented that:
“As well as 400 plus families affected by the plans it will be a disaster for local small businesses, it will mean later deliveries and earlier collections, imagine your mail stuck on a truck in traffic on the Swindon Road, that’s what they are proposing. This is an attempt to break a union branch that is prepared to stand up to bullying and privatisation, there is no other explanation moving to Swindon, we are determined to overturn this decision”
Respect stood in Cowley ward in 2006 and obtained 13% of the vote. It will also be campaigning against the creeping privatisation of health and education by Labour, supporting the call for an oxford living wage of at least £7 an hour and keeping the pressure on pro war East Oxford Labour MP Andrew Smith over his support for the invasion and occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.
Respect point out that in the last election many people in Cowley voted Liberal Democrat to punish Labour over the war, only for the elected Lib Dem candidate to defect to the New Labour party.
Pippa Whittaker, a local teacher and Cowley Respect candidate for 2006, said
“Cowley is not being well served by New Labour, Council budgets are being squeezed at the same time Labour is pouring billions into the war and bailing out Northern Rock. I think it’s brilliant that Paul has agreed to stand, he is an excellent candidate”.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Very interesting. I'm anti-Labour too, but it strikes me that a shambolic Lib Dem administration has been running this city for the past two years, and you've not commented on them. What's your critique of them?
Also, there are lots of statements here that a lone councillor will be powerless to achieve, so what's your position on the day-to-day issues, the crucial issues facing Oxford that ou'll have to decide on as a councillor:
- how, as a local councillor, will you vote on selling individual council houses which are worth a lot of money (e.g in Jericho, worth £250-500k), to fund investment in the rest of the stock, given that there is currently no fourth option and you can't use council tax money to fund council house repairs and upgrading?
- what about fortnightly collections - are you for or against?
- given that the council tax rises are capped at 5%, would you have voted with the Lib Dems on a 2% rise, or with Labour on a 4% rise?
- what do you think about converting houses into flats?
- should the council fund projects targeted at one ethnic group (e.g. the Asian Cultural Centre) or should no funding be allocated on ethnic or religious lines?
- what would your position be on neighbourhood policing - would you adopt the IWCA line of ignoring the meetings and not engaging with the police?
Perhaps you could write a new post on these issues. Thanks.
Thanks for your questions, I will try and provide a detailed response shortly. I am currently rushing about for the campaign.
Below is a quick attempt to answer your questions..
1. Critique of Lib Dems.
The Liberal Democrats don't prioritise services for working class people. They are service cutters and privatisers (currently investigating privatisation of leisure services). They pour loads of money into useless consultants' pockets.
The Liberal Democrats are not an effective anti war vote. They supported the Afghanistan war from the start and the Iraq war once it started.
In Cowley the Liberal Democrat councillor elected on a swing over the war has defected to New Labour. As a local administration they are in chaos, haemorrhaging defectors to both Labour and the Tories.
2. Single councillor.
We appreciate the limitations of local government politics, nevertheless we have both a national and local perspective. We believe fundamentally that New Labour has to be held to account for the war and policies of privatisation and that means starting at a local level, given the way the electoral system is organised and given the character of first past the post elections.
Respect have a strong policy on re-establishing local democracy by holding more regular surgeries. Even a single Respect Councillor can have an impact e.g. Mike Lavallette on Preston council, Ray Holmes in Bolsover or Rhania Khan in Bethnal Green.
A Respect councillor would use the position to support local community campaigns and trade union struggles, starting from the principal that a councillor is there to both represent the local ward and encourage wider democratic participation.
3. Local issues to decide on.
Our councillor would take their position on issues as per democratically decided on at the local Respect ward meeting, or if there has not been a local ward decision as per Oxford or national level Respect policy. Therefore issues such as housing and refuse/recycling collection would not be decided personally by the councillor but democratically at whenever possible at grassroots level.
4. Re-cycling
We are in favour of pushing for radical solutions for reducing waste and CO2 emissions but recognise these have to be structural and state led (integrated public transport, mass insulation, regulation of business and building, investment in renewable etc). We are therefore cautious of pursuing 1) tokenistic solutions that disproportionately effect lower income families 2) cutting other services to pay for recycling. We are in favour of more regular collections for all forms of waste and providing greater re-cycling choice, however fundamentally this cannot be achieved on the scale required when the government is spending billions on war yet capping local council spending.
5. Council Tax.
Respect is against the present unfair council tax system, as the wealthy don't pay according to their means and the working class pay too much. As per the previous answer the position taken on a particular council tax increase would be discussed locally.
The fundamental issue is again one of progressive taxation and distribution of wealth. At a local level the issue is one of spending priorities and whether essential jobs and services will be cut without a council tax rise, this is something we would consider having reviewed the budget in detail and having taken the discussion through a local ward meeting. Fundamentally we believe that it is not the job of local councils to implement cuts for the government.
6. Conversion of houses into flats.
To be discussed locally Respect would argue that the solution lies in building more houses and purpose built flats as per our policy on the Fourth Option. Some of us live in flat conversions, because it's all we can afford. I think the case for each application should be reviewed at the local area committee with a general view to population density and service provision.
In the current situation of shortage of all types of housing developers are taking advantage of market conditions to make a buck out of conversions, which is reducing the stock of family housing and keeping prices exceptionally high.
7. Council House Repair
We have not discussed the issue of council house sales to pay for council house repairs at branch level. Our starting point is that it makes financial and social sense to use rents to invest in the council stock and allow new council housing to be built by councils (The fourth option). Selling of council housing to pay for repairs is not a sustainable long term option. The government has to be confronted over its housing policy.
8. Funding on ethnic religious lines.
Respect stands for bringing people together and unity not fragmentation on ethnic/religious lines, but it does not follow that no funding at all should be targeted to particular groups when those groups would be disadvantaged unless helped.
The Asian Cultural Centre is used by all sections of the community for everything from Yoga and political meetings through to the regular Saturday farmers market so I don’t think it works as an example of funding on ‘ethnic religious’ lines.
9. Neighbourhood policing
We are for constructive engagement with the Police, starting from the perspective that it is in the interest of both the police and the community for the service to be under greater democratic accountability and scrutiny.
We would be of the position that councillors should concentrate on getting facilities, education and training for youth in working class areas along with family and drug users support infrastructure which would do more to combat crime than any amount of policing.
Post a Comment