There are five Groups on Durham County Council, plus two completely Independent Independents, one of whom, Alex Watson, is the Patron of this campaign. But only Labour members voted against the Teaching Assistants. None voted in support of the campaign that has electrified the trade union movement and the Left throughout the country, thereby earning international attention. Yet that campaign has been endorsed by the Leader of the Labour Party, at the largest working-class and left-wing event in Europe, in front of at least 150,000 people and the television cameras. Only the Conservatives even formally abstained, although that does make the Labour Group objectively "worse than the Tories".
It is therefore not only reasonable, but morally and politically obligatory, to call for the election of no Labour candidate whatever to that Council on 4th May. And then, what? A Cabinet position for every non-Labour Group and for those of no Group, with the numbers made up based on their relative size. The same for Scrutiny Chairs, obviously never mirroring the portfolios of their respective partisans. And representation on each committee and subcommittee in proportion to their numbers on the authority as a whole.
No comments:
Post a Comment