Where I live our ‘lollipop’ men and women are being given the chop, we’re being asked to nominate streets we think are most in need of having potholes filled and mental health services are up for grabs.
One neighbour was ‘restructured’ out of a teaching job, which she believes was linked to challenging education ‘reforms’ which she opposed on the basis that they pulled against good educational standards.
Another neighbour, a librarian says it isn’t ‘if’ but ‘when’ libraries will be closed and more local jobs lost.
The small bus service that meanders around Lambeth is in danger. What this would mean for my octogenarian Aunty is an end to her daily trip into Brixton where she is guaranteed to see friends, buy good and nutritious fresh food and retain her link with the community that is her life.
And next door but one, our friend now gets home at least one hour later from her NHS job because of fewer people to cover essential work, unpaid overtime of course.
We’ve got posters up in our street to encourage friends and neighbours to join in the ‘March for the Alternative’ demonstration on 26 March. The spending cuts raining down are close and they are personal, imposed by a government that more and more resembles the Keystone Cops - chaotic and accident prone.
Hope to see you there.
The majority of the general public seem to be apathetic to what is going on at the moment. And that scares me! People need to realise that their public services are being decimated, and the "Condem" government is forcing these changes / cuts through so quickly that the public do not seem able to comprehend the scale of the cuts that are happening. Even in the South we are suffering the closure of Fire Stations, Police Stations, Libraries. Bi weekly bin collections, reduced council staff numbers (but no reduction in Council Tax??). Privatisation of "Public Services" has been proven to do one thing, line the pockets of shareholders, reduce the standard of service and vastly increase the the price of obtaining that service. You only have to look at what happened to Gas, Electric, Water & Telecoms. The conservatives are taking us down the American "model", where the gap between rich and poor is cavernous, and the poor become a "Charity Project" for the rich. We are not that kind of society, our social history demonstrates that we are a society that looks after those who fall on hard times, not use them as a banner for "Wasted" public funding.
Keep up the great work!
Paul - A Firefighter who is proud & privileged to serve my community (Even though my Tory council is closing 3 fire stations!!)
Posted by: Paul | Mar 02, 2011 at 06:17 AM