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Riot Police Storm Lewisham Council Budget Cuts Meeting (NOW)

moon23 said:
Well I think if it was an open meeting and they knew it would be popular they should have arranged for a bigger venue or had some kind of application and lottery system if spaced was limited to allow some people attend. What were people doing inside, anything to provoke a police response or was it a complete over reaction?
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attempting to hold the councillors to account and ensure a meeting that should have been held in public was held in public presumably. The police should have been assisting them in this process rather than defending the councillors IMO.
 
Well I think if it was an open meeting and they knew it would be popular they should have arranged for a bigger venue or had some kind of application and lottery system if spaced was limited to allow some people attend. What were people doing inside, anything to provoke a police response or was it a complete over reaction?
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it was a full council meeting, these meetings are alway open to the public to attend & speak at - and in the past they have always accommodated those who either wished to be in the room or watch it on the broadcast outside - they told us a few days before the meeting that there was no plans to make the accomodations that they previously had, despite knowing hundreds would be turning up. The meeting was held in the town hall which has countless large meeting rooms that could accommodate higher numbers, they chose however not to hold it in any of these - so space was not limited by design, they limited space through choice to restrict public attendance at an event that we had a right to attend - people gathered outside to protest and assert their right of witness - the answer was riot shields, TSG, horses, dogs and brutality from police & private security

this was the number 2 item on BBC national news just now!
 
smokedout said:
latest on council meeting vote - not confirmed

Lewisham cuts package approved. 36 for. 3 against. 11 abstain. Greens and tories against. Lab for. Ld abstain.

Lewisham wont forget this labour
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Interesting.

A couple of questions.

1) Is Lewisham still Labour?

2) Is there still a mechanism like the old surcharge on councillors if they failed to set a legal rate? Could the Labour councillors, if they form the administration, have accepted the cuts so they couldn't be "surcharged", or do you reckon it's just (the unfortunately usual) careerism at work?
 
love detective said:
The Metropolitan Police (Met) said 15 officers suffered minor injuries, with two needing hospital treatment

that sounds like complete bullshit - it was a bit rowdy but not 15 injured policemen rowdy
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Previous public order injury figures have included bee stings. But it's too cold for bees, so that would be ridiculous at this time of year.
 
ViolentPanda;112847452) said:
Is there still a mechanism like the old surcharge on councillors if they failed to set a legal rate? Could the Labour councillors, if they form the administration, have accepted the cuts so they couldn't be "surcharged", or do you reckon it's just (the unfortunately usual) careerism at work?
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LD are you sure there isn't? This was the same financial duty on councillors that later got Shirley Porter. Has it really been repealed?
 
Saw this point made elsewhere: "These are some of the same Labour councillors that Lewisham Right to Work campaign, set up as a clear rival to the Lewisham Anti-Cuts Alliance had on their platform at their founding public meeting. Perhaps the Lewisham SWP comrades can put all their herculean efforts to foist the local Labour Party onto the anti-cuts movement to good use and prevail upon their mates in the Labour Party not to set the riot police on working people trying to defend their jobs and local services?"
 
dennisr said:
Saw this point made elsewhere: "These are some of the same Labour councillors that Lewisham Right to Work campaign, set up as a clear rival to the Lewisham Anti-Cuts Alliance had on their platform at their founding public meeting. Perhaps the Lewisham SWP comrades can put all their herculean efforts to foist the local Labour Party onto the anti-cuts movement to good use and prevail upon their mates in the Labour Party not to set the riot police on working people trying to defend their jobs and local services?"
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:D :D
 
Ah, so they may have passed the cuts purely to save their own hides.

Wankers.
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pretty much - I don't think they can be jailed or anything like that anymore like what could be done back in the 80's - if they set an illegal budget the first thing that happens is that they can get warned by unelected finance officials, which they are able to overturn, potentially can result in a fine, but i'm sure it's not the same as the old surcharges

there's still a few of those pro-labour swp types in/around LACA - they were the ones who were arguing against ridculing the notion of labour councillors desire to implement 'democratic socialist cuts' as one day we may need them as friends - boners bruno stuff! - thankfully the worst of the lot seems to have taken their ball and went home as they weren't happy about the 'revolutionary relevance' of LACA being compromised because we didn't want to be mates with pro-cuts councillors
 
Ha! i a looking at the longer video at the cuts link, it's mental! I have just got to the point where the smoke bomb gets thrown in. I am very proud of the lot of you.
 
Labour mate of mine asked why people should protest the council when the council have almost no choice but to enact the cuts. The answer is two-fold:

1) People are pissed off and need a place to focus that anger. There were more issues than just the cutting of services, there was also the way they went about holding the meeting
2) Yes, councils are bound to produce a legal budget, otherwise central government will bring in people from outside to set one. In that respect, it is pragmatically better for the council to liaise and consult with the local community to make it hurt less than letting gvt come in and make it hurt more, however these 'consultations' rarely happen, and even when they do the basic premise that there have to be cuts in the first place is dodgy.

Difficult to say that to him in 140 char on twitter though :D
 
Great stuff - this is going to be happening at town halls around the country for months on end. We must make sure people know about them - before and after.
 
dennisr said:
Saw this point made elsewhere: "These are some of the same Labour councillors that Lewisham Right to Work campaign, set up as a clear rival to the Lewisham Anti-Cuts Alliance had on their platform at their founding public meeting. Perhaps the Lewisham SWP comrades can put all their herculean efforts to foist the local Labour Party onto the anti-cuts movement to good use and prevail upon their mates in the Labour Party not to set the riot police on working people trying to defend their jobs and local services?"
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you can barely make three consecutive posts without mentioning the swp. well funny.
 
ViolentPanda said:
Ah, so they may have passed the cuts purely to save their own hides.

Wankers.
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It is a confused law, as far as I can tell. The terms under which Liverpool & Lambeth got done are removed, but there is still an obligatory Code of Conduct to sign which has provison for 'wilful misuse of public funds.' There is no case law in this at the moment tho, so how it might be aplpied would be interesting.
 
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