Thu 9 Nov 2017, 04:30 AM | Posted by editor
Haringey Development Vehicle – a Labour privatisation process
The HDV (Haringey Development Vehicle) is no more or less than a means of privatising the assets of – in this case – a Labour authority. To their undying shame, a group of Labour councillors in this north London borough are just handing Tory Government cuts on to the shoulders of their residents. We reproduce here a link to a letter of protest written to the Haringey leader, Claire Kobey, by a single Labour councillor who is bravely standing up to these cuts.
http://stophdv.com/damning-indictment-of-claire-kobers-leadership-record/#.WgI5PnnfWK2
Unfortunately, many Labour authorities are still dominated by the old-guard of the Labour Party. Many of these councillors have been in post for years, if not decades, and deem their own personal position and ‘standing’ in their community as more important than defending the jobs and service of the working class people they claim to represent.
We should be completely unequivocal on this issue – it is not the job of any Labour representative, in Parliament or in a council chamber – to cut the living standards of working class people, either by cutting their jobs or their services. If the Tory Government makes their position difficult – and it does – the fundamental role of Labour representatives is to fight, campaign and in any way possible oppose cuts. If that means going out to address meetings in working class communities, work-places and trade union branches, then so be it. If it means ‘opening the books’ and sharing the financial figures widely and freely, then so be it. If it means mobilising mass opposition, demonstrations locally, then so be it. What a “Labour” council cannot and should not do is just pass on cuts dictated from above.
