Local MP Glenda Jackson has strongly criticised the Tory / Lib Dem budget as “Thatcherism dressed up for the twenty-first century” in a barnstorming speech to the House of Commons.

The full transcript of the speech can be found here.

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In a first of a series of announcements – and with immediate effect – Camden’s new Labour administration has ordered the end to the unpopular policy auctioning of council homes to private developers to pay for repairs. In November 2007 Conservative and Liberal Democrat-run Camden council announced plans to sell off 500 of its existing council-rented properties, despite over 18,000 people remaining on Camden’s housing waiting list. The unpopular policy was made even more controversial after several auctioned flats reappeared on the market, ‘flipped’ by speculators for hundreds of thousands of pounds of profit.

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The voters of Camden have put their faith in Labour.  At the elections on Thursday 6 May, local people elected Frank Dobson as MP for Holborn & St Pancras, Glenda Jackson as MP for Hampstead & Kilburn, and returned a majority of Labour councillors after four years of rule by the Tory/Lib Dem coalition. 

Labour now has thirty councillors compared to ten for the Lib Dems, ten for the Tories and one for the Greens.  You can read a full breakdown of the results here.

Due to the sad death of a candidate, there will be a by-election held for three councillors in the Haverstock ward of Camden on Tuesday 25 May.  Labour’s candidates are Tom Copley, Sabrina Francis and Joynal Uddin.

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Local newspaper the Ham & High have judged Labour candidate Glenda Jackson as the clear winner in an important hustings meeting last week.

Underneath a headline which reads “Labour MP triumphs at Ham & High’s hustings”, the report says that the consensus was that Glenda was the best candidate at the meeting.

The paper added that Glenda brought “more than a touch of class” to proceedings on the night.

About 200 people turned up to see the representatives of five parties scrutinised at Rosslyn Hill Chapel, Hampstead Town on 25 March.

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Following a vociferous campaign by residents of the Crown Estate and their local Labour MP and councillors, the battle to stop the sell off the Cumberland Market Estate in Regents Park ward has received a boost from the influential Treasury Committee of the House of Commons. 

Tulip Siddiq, Frank Dobson MP, Cllr Heather Johnson and Cllr Nasim Ali show their backing for local residents

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Camden Labour have launched our manifesto for the 2010 local elections.  The full document, entitled “Building our Future Together”, can be downloaded here.

Camden Labour’s 10 Pledges

If elected we will:

1. Stop the housing sell offs: we will crack down on illegal sub-letting; review contractors performance with tenants and leaseholders; and do everything in our power to stop the privatisation of caretakers.
2. Listen to you: we will bring people into the heart of our decision making with places on scrutiny committees, a housing procurement panel and within three months convene a Camden Green Summit.
3. Deliver value for money: Camden Labour proposed a council tax freeze for 2010/11. We will freeze senior officer pay and share services with other public sector bodies to save money. We will introduce a London Living Wage.
4. Tackle climate change: we will hold a Green Summit involving the whole community to develop a Camden strategy to reduce carbon emissions by 40 percent by 2020.  We will increase facilities for cyclists and introduce 20mph zones where communities want them.
5. Defend education: we will do everything we can to maintain standards in Camden’s excellent state schools and have an immediate review to find a way to begin the building of a school south of Euston Road.
6. Protect advice services: we will reinstate Camden’s  Welfare Rights service that helped the vulnerable manage debt and bought money in to the borough. We will properly fund other advice services like CAB and Camden Law Centres.
7. Support Camden’s economy: we will use the new Learning and Skills funding to improve jobs and apprenticeships for the long term unemployed. We will expand Camden’s own apprenticeship scheme.
8. Keep Camden safe: we will reinstate the dedicated executive member to give a real focus to tackling crime in our community. We will work with businesses to keep Camden Town clean.
9. Promote Camden’s voluntary and community sector: our vibrant community and voluntary sector really delivers for local people.  We will keep it that way. In tough times the voluntary sector has a crucial part to play.
10. Protect Camden’s vulnerable: we will bring together all the expertise in Camden to develop a holistic programme for looking after older people and vulnerable adults to enable them to live independently for as long as possible.

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Camden Labour is joining forces with families across the Borough in a campaign to Save Our Sure Start children’s centres from Tory plans to cut their funding and prevent access to these valuable services for families on middle and modest incomes. You can support the campaign at www.saveoursurestart.com.

Instead of the universal service Labour has created for all families, the Tories have said they would cut £200 million each year from the Sure Start budget – which could see one in five children’s centres being forced to close.

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Campaigners and users were dismayed at news that Camden Council Executive voted to plough ahead with cuts to UK online centres across the Borough.

Protestors outside Camden Town Hall

Labour councillors had urged the Lib Dems and Tories to not to proceed with a staggering 83% cut to the funding the council gives the centres, suggesting that they use the councils recession fund to at least guarantee fundingfor the coming year.

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Camden Labour is supporting the Crown tenants in their campaign to prevent their landlord, the Crown Commissioners, from selling off their homes to a speculative developer. The proposal involves 539 units of social housing in Regents Park Ward. Many of the residents are elderly and have Rent Act protected tenancies. More recently, flats have been allocated to “key workers” under assured shorthold tenancies.

Local residents, Mary and Bill Greenleaf with Cllr Heather Johnson, Frank Dobson MP and Cllr Nasim Ali

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Michael epitomised the true socialist values and beliefs of the Labour movement; whether as a Leader of the Party from 1980 till 1983; or as Member of Parliament from 1945 for Plymouth Devonport constituency for 10 years and then losing the seat. He became MP for  Ebbw Vale  and held cabinet posts including that of Employment Secretary.
 
Born in 1913; he was for part of his early life Liberal following the political views of his father, Isaac Foot. He was a passionate advocate of freedom of the press with his famous call for “we must fight, fight, fight” to defend freedom of speech. He led the then Old Labour Party until 1983  and resigned as Leader after the Party’s election defeat and was succeeded by Neil Kinnock. 

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