Forum Topic

Riots: "In power but not in control"

Why has this happened in Ealing? Were the Ealing Tories right at the last full Ealing Council meeting to heckle Ealing Labour saying that they were "In power but not in control" in Ealing (Note the headline in the Ealing Gazette website where Labour Council Leader Julian Bell is quoted at 11.30pm last night as saying that the police were in control in Ealing)?Is this a reflection in part of a youth with no hope and no opportunity? Does this reflect the importance of youth centres and youth services (that Ealing Labour are cutting back on)? Will building a five million pound car park in Southall at the expense of such services while preserving the pay packets of Bell and his union cronies in the higher echelons of Ealing Council help to either control or alleviate this?

Soren Ericsson ● 5355d8 Comments

P.S. (Car Park Theme). I personally think that it is very important to keep the matter of the cuts in Ealing alive throughout the term of Labour's office in Ealing so that they do not hoodwink us into believing that they have done us good come the next local elections. Labour, Conservative, it makes no difference they are self-serving with their own agendas. Our present lot has cut disabled facilities, social services, while building a skateboard park, planning to build a giant car park in Southall, and all while preserving the highest paid in Ealing Council at the expense of the lowest paid who actually do something. This should be regularly pointed out on this Forum lest we start to believe what Bell (Labour) and Millican (Conservative) say to get themselves elected.

Phil Mamy ● 5348d

I think that you will find that the Southall Car Park is something of a cause celebre in Ealing. To true Labour socialists it represents a joke at the expense of the residents and the Ealing Labour Party in which Southall Labour Group detroys inclusive public services such as day centres for the disabled and the mentally ill while ignoring its socialist principles of inclusiveness and looking after those least able to look after themselves while going ahead with a five million pound car park that is not actually necessary (Conservative Phil Taylor's blog provides some interesting research into how needed it is). To the Ealing Conservatives the Southall Car Park project is viewed as a joke on the basis that Julian Bell our Labour Council Leader is a paid resercher for the sitting Ealing Southall MP Vivendra Sharma and that the car park is a promise made to the mercenary shopkeepers of Southall (remember when a bunch of them changed from Labour to Conservative after election a few years back because they felt their businesses would fare better under the Conservatives even though they had been elected as Labour councillors?) that they (Bell and Sharma) must keep so as not to rock the re-election boat.So it is all about socialist caring Labour cutting services (disabled, health, social) to those who need them (the residents and the poorer residents at that), and to providing services (car park) to those who do not need them (Southall shopkeepers) but who know that having the car park will help grow their businesses and hence encourage their support financial and otherwise to Vivendra Sharma. A trick that would be worthy of the Conservatives which makes you wonder if there are any socialists left in Ealing or Southall Labour?

Phil Mamy ● 5348d

"Why has this happened in Ealing"It hasn't just happened in Ealing, don't be so bloody parochial.  I came on here hoping to find some kind of facts about (for instance) where the looters came from and particularly where they went to, instead I find people gibbering about a bloody car park.

Thomas Barry ● 5354d

Police spend is Revenue and a car park is Capital spend. So unless Capital can be changed to Revenue, there is no extra money unless the government makes a special grant - which it most certainly should.Where Bell is utterly ignorant is that he cannot attend to the recent lessons of history. Under the previous Central government Tory administration and during a recession the rate of crime in the UK went up at a faster rate than at any previous time.The annual temperature tests seeking opinion from Ealing  residents each and every time tell us that Crime is the most important issue of all.But Oh no, Bell still cuts PCSOs or the security budget by 25%. When challenged he simply bows his head, wrings his hands, and says he never came into local government expecting such a severe financial crisis.Ealing needs a competent and robust leader. Mr Bell should resign in place of a doer rather than a hand wringer. How about a Twitter campaign?

George Knox ● 5355d

Secondary causes of lack of control may be identified but the real cause is in the heart of those who rebel against all law, man's or God's. It has a short name. Sin. It is a universal affliction.

Graham Weeks ● 5355d

I would think they were in Peckham, Croydon, Tottenham, Woolwich.......

F Stone ● 5355d

Where WERE the police last night?

John King ● 5355d

The absence of the police and fire brigade at the fires and destruction on Bond Street ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plU1_GxW66Y ) is frightening. Perhaps Ealing's Labour types need to rethink their police cuts too.I have to admit I would prefer to see some more police around rather than a new car park!

Jane Case ● 5355d