THE IMAGES OF THE ONE HUNDRED or so protesters organised by Bob Spink and the Canvey Island Independent Party (CIIP) may soon re-emerge in the local press as Dave Blackwell’s party launches its attempt to keep control of Canvey Island Town Council in the run-up to May’s local elections.
The swingeing Government cuts, imposed upon Castle Point Borough Council, will provide the opposition leader with just the issue he needs to accuse the Conservative majority of disregarding islanders’ wishes. And, just as Spink alluded to the real CIIP’s objective of achieving Canvey’s separation from Castle Point in the accompanying David Bullock video, Blackwell and his party’s members will again represent public protest as support for that separatist policy.
While Castle Point’s Leader, Pam Challis, calls upon all council members to apply their minds to the financial crisis they find themselves in, Dave Blackwell will now be preparing to adopt his regular posture of sitting back and waiting as inevitable cuts to services are made and he can again mobilise vocal protests against the Borough’s majority.
This time, Blackwell is likely to turn his attention to mobilising the island’s youth – to whom Neville Watson was careful to be seen congratulating and offering his support in Tuesday’s Full Council meeting. Government cuts are likely to impact Canvey Island’s youth disproportionately to older resident services as members are forced to choose between maintaining residential care homes and services – or selling them off in favour of continuing to provide costly youth and inter-generational facilities.
Whichever way those decisions go – Blackwell will be sure to make political capital out of any decision (and the Echo will, no doubt, publish his spin with full photographic coverage).
As the management of Canvey Island Town Council shows, public finance and obtaining value for money are not subjects that the CIIP can claim to understand. And that means, at this critical time, that the Borough is left without a moderating or restraining voice from a competent opposition.
Of course, the CIIIP will say that they have no influence in Castle Point Council’s decision making process: because ‘all decisions are taken by Cabinet.’ But the fact is that they have no influence because they do not take part in the Democratic process. Rather than engage in political debate and address the fact that their party, in its present form, can never hope to win a majority, CIIP tactics are to offer no solutions; but to simply snipe from their self-imposed, high fences, which surround their High Street clubhouse.
These are crucial times in the island’s – and the Nation’s – history. As the recent student fees protests show, there is now an increasing generational gap that is set to divide the country. The UK, under the previous Labour Government, has lurched to the political right in an effort to save its populace from a huge influx of immigrants and roll back the laissez faire state that encouraged people to dismiss all personal responsibility for their actions.
The older generation is attempting to re-establish its traditional moral values, while the younger generation sees these changes as a direct attack on their personal freedoms and the belief that the State owes them a living.
It is a powder-keg that the Coalition Government must carefully manage if Britons are to retain their dignity in the New Year - and it is a situation in which Castle Point’s majority needs to be on its guard when identifying local expenditure cuts.
One way out of the situation would be to sell-off community assets and plug the Council’s revenue gap with the proceeds. But that will not solve the problem. It is not just the case that Council needs to find a replacement for 30 per cent of its next two year’s revenue; because the level of government funding will not simply ‘pop back up’ the year after.
Throughout the country, Councils will be required to implement the cuts – and then retain the reduced level of expenditure ‘forever’ after.
It is not simply a question of making cuts over the next two years – it is about completely restructuring local government services for the foreseeable future.
Blind protests; political point-scoring; and persistent opposition (all trademarks of Blackwell and his CIIP) will do nothing to help solve our problems.
The lack of a credible opposition in the Borough, at such a time of crisis, is unlikely to sit easily with residents. Normally, opposition parties make friends with their power-wielding colleagues in order to influence decisions and ensure that a degree of compromise can be achieved. But Blackwell has implacably set his face against such attempts in the past – and he is unlikely to change his tactics now. If his party is to stand any chance of retaining the Town Council: it cannot be seen to agree with, or make any concessions to, the ruling Tory group.
So, once again, the island seems set for a string of local protests in the New Year as it becomes clearer where those Government cuts are set to fall. And, if Dave Blackwell holds to his previous form: it will not matter one jot where those cuts are to take place.
Any decision made by Castle Point’s Cabinet is likely to be fuelled into a local protest by the CIIP – and David Bullock’s camera batteries will be emitting a hungry red glow as he recharges them, every night, to continue documenting the island’s history…
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