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Labour's Bizarre Housing Mood Music
January 20, 2009 10:00 AM
## You've got to accentuate the positive Eliminate the negative
## Latch on to the affirmative Don't mess with Mister In-Between
## You've got to spread joy up to the maximum
## Bring gloom down to the minimum
## Have faith or pandemonium Liable to walk upon the scene
## To illustrate his last remark Jonah in the whale, Noah in the ark What did they do Just when everything looked so dark
## Man, they said we better Accentuate the positive Eliminate the negative
## Latch on to the affirmative Don't mess with Mister In-Between No, do not mess with Mister In-Between
(Words by Johnny Mercer)
Labour's High Command had obviously reissued the old Bing Crosby number as their Group songsheet at last night's Cabinet - producing probably the most bizarre, heartless and chilling display of indifference to reality since Marie Antoinette suggested the starving should eat cake.
On offer was the bleak inflation-busting choice of a £12 a week hike in rents or a £15 a week hike in rents for thousands of Lambeth tenants - which is a bit like asking a condemned man whether he'd rather die by hanging or firing squad.
What nobody on Labour's front bench was admitting to was that they'd cocked-up big time and lost the Council the largest sum of money from its Housing Revenue Account in its history. The exact amount is still not really known but is variously quoted as being between £7- £14 Million.
Even this is dwarfed by another Labour financial scandal which came about because of toxic bed and breakfast futures that Lambeth Labour's wheeler dealers thought they'd speculate in by buying up every B&B room in sight from private landlords.
Sadly for us, Lambeth Labour's city slickers thought this was a one-way bet, and hadn't noticed the small print that the Government had already posted that it wasn't paying out for this stock any longer. Only Lambeth among the 32 boroughs failed to take heed. A colossal £22 Million may have gone walkabout.
But Hey! Said Lambeth Labour. It's not so bad. It's only money - your money. And you'll have to pay to put it right because it's illegal to run a deficit on the Housing Revenue Account - while the other monumental debt can be picked up by the taxpayer. We're just being prudent, they said.
You'd think they were shining examples of financial rectitude rather than harbingers of doom for so many hard working but low-paid tenants who may now be forced into claiming benefits simply in order to survive.
Odd, too, that none of the senior officers or members allegedly in charge at the time have walked the plank. Instead they cling-on grimly to wreckage of the Labour Flagship and cling-on even more grimly to their inflated salaries and Member's Responsibility Allowances while showing not an ounce of responsibility.
The Cabinet might have done well to sing Nearer My God to Thee while quietly accepting their watery fate. Instead, Labour's spin masters told them to whistle a happy tune to divert attention away from all this toxic debt sticking to them.
The mood among tenants leaders in the room was pretty toxic too.
However cheerfully they may want to play it in public, though, Labour's probably just composed its own Death Knell and written it's own suicide note.