Lewisham council's outrageous attack

A RECENT meeting of Lewisham council's con-stitutional working party discussed a Labour and Lib Dem-backed proposal to limit the number of motions a councillor could propose or second to one per council meeting.

For some reason, however, this would only apply to political groups with less than three councillors. Entirely coincidentally, of course, New Labour have 27 councillors in Lewisham, the Liberal Democrats 17, the Greens six, the Tories three and the Socialist Party... two!

If this wasn't an outrageous attack on democratic rights it would be comical. But it is a disgraceful attack and it's not funny. The Socialist Party will launch a national protest campaign if this plan is pursued.

Fat cat housing chiefs

AT THE same time as these changes (see above) are being wrought in social housing for the low-paid, the average pay of Housing Association chief executives rose 7.9% to Ł110,000 in 2005-06.

John Belcher, boss of Anchor Trust, got an 11.1% increase to bring his pay to Ł241,000 per year and others are not far behind.

Social Housing magazine calculates the chief executives' annual cost per tenant. Even in very large associations where the cost is divided between many tenants it is often over Ł5 per tenant. Devon Community's boss, however, costs each tenant Ł75!

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In The Socialist 15 March 2007:

Łbillions for rich... Pennies for us!