Comsidering the local elections take place this coming Thursday (5th May 2022), prospective councillors here in Birmingham are leaving it a bit late to get leaflets delivered.
Unlike other city and borough councils in the region, Birmingham now only has full elections every four years, so for many people this is their first chance to vote for their councillors since 2018.
Leaflets are, in my opinion, supposed to be for the purpose of informing you who your local candidate(s) is/are, and to give you good valid reasons to vote for them.
The featured image for this article is from the leaflet I received just today from the local Labour councillors who are standing again at this election.
It starts off well with naming the two candidates and the tagline “Keeping it local for Billesley ward”.
But then it goes off ‘sideways’, with the main headline demanding action be taken about the cost of living.
Now, I’m sorry but there is very little that your local councillors can do about the ‘cost of living crisis’ as your local council can’t do much about this, they are there to provide local services.
“There is massive support for Labour’s plan to scrap VAT on gas and electricity bills, drop the NI increase and tax the oil and gas companies who are coining it in. Why can’t the Tories understand this?”
Well yes, there may well be. But this is out of the remit of Birmingham city council, so what does this have to do with these local elections?
The next article on the front page of this leaflet is headlined “Tackling Crime”
Which fair enough, is a concern that many people do have. But then again, instead of telling us what they’re going to do about this, it spirals off into the usual rhetoric:
“Billesley is still suffering from Tory cuts to Police numbers and under investment in youth services.”
It’s the tried and tested deflection tactic. While it is indeed true that the Conservative government are responsible for underfunding the police force in England, it must be pointed out that the current Police & Crime Commissioner (PCC) for the West Midlands, who is responsible for the policing budget and allocating funding from central government, is of course Simon Foster of the Labour Party!
Also, last time I checked, it was local councils who had some responsibility for provision of youth services, and you’ll never guess which political party has had control of Birmingham city council for the last ten years now… that’s right, the Labour Party!
Next article is some irrelevant guff about ‘Healthy Air Healthy Kids’ with some promise about “air quality monitoring in local schools in Billesley”.
Over the page, more whining about “Tory Police Cuts”, and a photo of “Billesley’s Closed Police Station” – closed of course by the previous Police & Crime Commissioner (Labour) due to ‘cost savings’ while spending large amounts of money having his offices at Birmingham Central police station ‘refurbished’.
The local neighbourhood police team are now based in shared offices within Billesley Fire Station, so haven’t completely gone away, though the nearest public ‘front desk’ is now at the police station in Bournville.
It is true that the council gained powers to remove illegal traveller encampments, which has happened at several local parks in the area. Cllrs Davis & Iroh continue to whine about shortage of officers due to ‘Conservative cuts’, while failing to point out that where travellers have set up illegal camps in our parks, they have actually been swiftly moved on by the police.
There are actually then some ‘pledges’ that our two prospective Cllrs make regarding Billesley, but its the usual meaningless hollow ‘promises’.
Clean & Green – Smarten up our streets, clean up graffiti, crack down on fly-tipping, clear litter, fix potholes, extend Labour’s popular mobile Household Recycling Scheme.
I’m pretty sure they said this four years ago. Yet the streets around here still have broken pavements, covered with litter, graffiti everywhere, fridges, mattresses, furniture and all sorts of dumped rubbish, crumbling roads.
Safer streets – Keep the problems of the nearby Low Traffic Neighbourhood scheme under review – but back ‘safe routes to school’ plans protecting our kids from irresponsible drivers.
The Low Traffic Neighbourhood (LTN) scheme doesn’t cover Billesley, but is a local (contentious) issue in neighbouring Kings Heath and Moseley.
Support young & old – improve skills & training access for all; ensure older residents have the support services they need; push for proper Government funding for social care.
Blah blah blah… maybe Cllrs Davis & Iroh could explain why the Labour council recently closed down the Trittiford Learning Centre? It has a banner on the fence outside stating it is “temporarily closed”, no doubt these clowns will take credit when it opens again…
Also, if the Government will provide ‘proper’ funding for Social Care, will the Labour council remove or reduce this precept from our council tax bills?
Tackle anti-social behaviour – Continue to fight against Tory cuts to our police; push for more CCTV in Billesley and continue working with local Police and residents to tackle anti-social behaviour, including graffiti mess
Again, another dig at the Conservatives (“its all their fault really”) but not much a local councillor can do about it.
But I will stress again that the PCC for the West Midlands is a Labour man, and ultimately he is responsible for how Government funding is allocated and spent. Maybe be should be looking to do the best with the funding he gets, and ensures it is allocated where it is needed most, ie getting officers to regularly patrol local areas, rather than sitting at desks filling in paperwork or looking for ‘mean tweets’.
So in summary, this leaflet doesn’t really say a lot about why you should vote for a Labour candidate at this election, but focuses far too much on complaining about the Conservative national government. And this was to be expected really, after all Labour has controlled the city council for the last ten years, so there is a certain expectancy that you will vote them back in for another four years because “Tories bad”.
It’s almost like Labour is ashamed to campaign on what it stands for and what it actually plans to do. Bullshit propaganda. I wrote more about this as we had a by election last year, which saw Mrs Iroh (nee Carliisle) elected as councillor for Billesley
Now in the interest of balance, the only other campaigning leaflets I’ve had are from the Conservative candidates. And they’ve been pretty awful, though at least they do focus more on what they will do for Billesley ward. But still, the same empty meaningless soundbites about “cleaning up the area” etc.
There are apparently also LibDem and Green candidates, as well as a solitary Reform UK candidate, but so far not a dicky-bird from either of them. Almost like they can’t be bothered.
As I’ve written before, I have no intention of telling people how to vote, it is ultimately your choice and your decision.
Labour’s local manifesto for Birmingham boasts of a “golden decade” ahead for Birmingham.
Maybe they are hoping that voters will have already forgotten about the last decade.
